Black Screen before XP Starts

[ostrich2]

Hey guys,

I bought a new computer less than a year ago,
but now there's a 15 second black screen in between my HP start up screen and the XP loading screen:

The black screen at first seems like its going to type something, there's one of these "_" at the upper left corner, then it just goes into another black screen without the " _"

I've scanned for viruses, malware, and spyware, via microsoft security essentials, ad-aware, and spy-bot.

 

[accolite]

Under device manager.

Check each device to see it is running properly, click on each device then right click on the sub component/ icon, then properties. You should see Device status and there it will tell you if it is working properly.

Yes, windows update.

 

[Pyree]

In bios, disable optical drive and network as a boot option and put HDD in priority one.