Ara's advise was just what I was typing up. msconfig is the best.
I've got XP Professional running on a PIII 448 mhz with 128 RAM and it doesn't take nearly that long to start up. Then again, it's a Toshiba Tecra.
I also have it running on a Dell PII with 512 ram for the kids' PC and it takes less than 2 minutes to be fully up and running from a full shut down.
The HPs I've worked with have extraneous start up stuff. Upon reformatting and reinstalling XP from scratch, that seems to clear whatever HP puts on them.

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