Windows 7 boot up stalls at "starting windows" screen

Have you tried going into safe mode and deleting the video card driver? Then reboot back into normal mode and let it use the 2D driver installed to come up.

tried it, boot up is still stalling at the splash screen

One thing I have seen cause this problem on Win 7 is disabling or drastically reducing the size of the paging file. Make sure that hasn't happened and reset it back to the Windows recommended amount to test if it has happened. Windows usually suggests making the paging file the same size as the amount of installed system RAM.

Edit: If you do need to create a paging file, make sure you do not use a solid state drive to house the file if you have any installed in your computer. Paging files will severely reduce the life of the SSD due to excessive writes.

my page is currently 8036 mb as I have 8gigs installed so this isn't the cause of the stall at the splash screen

go to msconfig, search for services and start up that might hinder the boot (bloatware)...

there are a lot and I don't know which ones i can/should disable

Err... It hard to teach..

since u don't know what it is don't touch the services...

There a third parties apps than give description / help identifies the bloatware, but since i'm not using one, cannot give recommendation..

or u could try and error, disable one in start up see if any apps failed if it fine disable another one, google also helps...

(if some apps failed u can enable it again at worst it can be enabled via safe mode)

I've noticed that while at the "starting windows" screen, there is no hard drive activity as indicated by the HDD led. Could this be the issue for the stall?

If there a hardware faulty ussualy there a side effect like BSOD, apps hang/exit , sudden / random freeze..

but u may wanna check for loose cables connection..

nope don't have any of those issues

It's good thing. Well it makes me think it software issue not hardware...

the only way i can think of is disable unnecessary start up/service...

Had the same problem. After much trial and error, bios settings changes, etc. I figured out what worked for me.

I had a USB printer with media card reader plugged into a usb3 port. Plugging it into a usb2 port instead, and I no longer have the long delay on "starting windows".