That typically is a hardware problem not a windows problem (in my experience). During that screen its searching and loading all the devices on the computer.

Solution:
Unplug each devise inside of the computer one at a time and I guarantee you that after pulling a pci card.. or a stick of ram or a etc... that I will not freeze at the startup screen.

When you find the problem.. then the question is... Is the last of connectivity in the motherboard or the card... One time when I've had this happen before.. when I found the problem I switched pci slots and the prooblem was fixed. Thus not a bad pci card... but a bad pci slot...