Quote from osorico:
Here's a tip to help understand what is actually loading during startup.
NOTE: this procedure assumes Windows XP
1) During bootup press F5. This will bring up a boot options menu. Select "Enable Boot Logging" and continue the boot.
2) When boot completes, look for the NTBTLOG.TXT file in the Windows directory. This log contains all the drivers attempting to be loaded during boot.
3) Rename the NTBTLOG.TXT file to something else.
4) Now reboot again, enabling boot logging, but this time boot into safe mode.
The difference between the 2 files, the one you renamed and the new ntbtlog.txt file from the safe mode boot, provides a major running start at determining what may be bogging down your boot process.
fwiw; after many years with AVG-Free, I have converted to the paid version of NOD32. Relatively recent, but no problems whatsoever. It's extremely lightweight and the protection is significantly better, IMO. And the company is located in San Diego CA, with phones, email, and live people. Ever try to contact Grisoft?
Osorico