It's slow before the splash screen.

It shows a Dell logo then goes black for 3-5 minutes... shows a blinking cursor for about 30 seconds on a blue screen.

It used to boot up lickety-split in less then a minute- and now takes 5+ minutes. Nothing has been installed or done. This is a computer that runs a cnc in the factory and that's all it does. ever. nothing ever changes on it.

Best guess:

It's a CMOS issue. The boot process is looking for something that is no longer present (like a CD-ROM drive or floppy). It's waiting for it to timeout.

How comfortable are you in poking around the boot (CMOS) menu?

There's probably more gravity out in the factory with all those giant machines around.

Meh... sounds scary! :D

It's going to go like this - see this guy from a disney-ish message board I visit online told me your guy is wrong and that I should do this to your big expensive machine that runs the factory.

I can probably do it with support - but is this something I want on my head if something goes horribly wrong?

I appreicate the advice - but I think I'll let them take care of it unless they decide they want my help - which could happen any time now - but then again - perhaps not.

And let's face it -I'm in a comfy air conditioned office and the weather outside the factory is over 100 degrees - which means inside it's probably 110 or more.

Thanks though. :cool: