another hang on boot thread

[peekaboo]

my pc hangs on the "asus" screen where it says "press del to enter setup" and stays there. a few manual restarts get it going but i think the problem is getting worse.
i did recently install another hard drive (ide) and installed another copy of xp pro to it but i'm pretty sure that i had this problem before that.
the hang occurs no matter which hard drive the pc is set (in the bios) to boot to. (i'm still waiting for instructions on how to specify without entering the bios).

anyway, i'd appreciate help in solving this.

the mobo is an asus a8ne and the hard drives are a seagate 7200.8 (sata) and a maxtor d740x-6l (ide).

[Cricket]

Try disconnecting the optical drives to see if the computer will boot up normally.

What are the rest of the system specs...power supply, video card, etc...

Cricket

[peekaboo]

i left the computer hanging for a long time and it booted.
now it seems to have gotten better (i'm not sure).
if i see that it hasn't gotten better i'll try disconnecting the optical drive.

my additional specs:
antec sonata 2
amd 3500 (venice)
2x512 corsair value select ram
evga 6600gt graphics card.
logitech g7 mouse without the logitech driver (also giving me grief with random double clicks instead of single).
nec dvd burner (nd3540a)
liteon floppy drive

[Mesaeus]

Try disconnecting the extra hard drive if it happens again. The "hanging at boot screen" you describe can happen when two devices on the same ide cable clash (for example both set as Master), this will give a long wait after which the boot will finally start. So check the jumpers or if those are ok try booting without the extra hard drive connected. Also check the System log for any errors.

[peekaboo]

i'm pretty sure that it's the external hard drive that's doing it.
i noticed that the computer rebooted fine for a while and then realized that the external hard drive was off.
it's an ide connected via usb. i didn't touch the jumper. should i set the jumper to cable select?

[glc]

IDE drives in external housings need to be jumpered to Cable Select or Single.