boot seems to pause after grub

after the option to view the grub menu counts down, and is skipped, the boot process goes to the next screen of "Starting up ..." and just sits there. For a very long time.

(As a side note, I did not have this problem with gutsy, only hardy. When I saw the computer just sit at that screen, I figured that hardy just didnt work, since its an older machine. So, I left it at that screen, went and burned a gutsy disk at a different computer, and by the time I got back, it had booted!)

Eventually, it goes on to the normal boot process, and gets through it, slowly, but orders of magnitude faster than that first screen. Each step takes only a second or 2, rather than like 5 minutes for the first screen.

Any advice/help?

PS - Here is a paste from dmesg

[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[ 0.000000] Linux version 2.6.24-19-generic (buildd@terranova) (gcc version 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)) #1 SMP Wed Aug 20 22:56:21 UTC 2008 (Ubuntu 2.6.24-19.41-generic)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000000e6c00 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000040fd800 (usable)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000040fd800 - 00000000040ff800 (ACPI data)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000040ff800 - 00000000040ffc00 (ACPI NVS)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000040ffc00 - 0000000010000000 (usable)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000fff80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] 0MB HIGHMEM available.
[ 0.000000] 256MB LOWMEM available.
[ 0.000000] Entering add_active_range(0, 0, 65536) 0 entries of 256 used
[ 0.000000] Zone PFN ranges:
[ 0.000000] DMA 0 -> 4096
[ 0.000000] Normal 4096 -> 65536
[ 0.000000] HighMem 65536 -> 65536
[ 0.000000] Movable zone start PFN for each node
[ 0.000000] early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
[ 0.000000] 0: 0 -> 65536
[ 0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 65536
[ 0.000000] DMA zone: 32 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] DMA zone: 0 pages reserved
[ 0.000000] DMA zone: 4064 pages, LIFO batch:0
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 480 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 60960 pages, LIFO batch:15
[ 0.000000] HighMem zone: 0 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] Movable zone: 0 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] DMI 2.1 present.
[ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDP signature @ 0xC00F6B80 checksum 0
[ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDP 000F6B80, 0014 (r0 PTLTD )
[ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDT 040FDB3C, 0028 (r1 PTLTD RSDT 0 PTL 1000000)
[ 0.000000] ACPI: FACP 040FF78C, 0074 (r1 DELL KUBLAI 19990409 PTL F4240)
[ 0.000000] ACPI: DSDT 040FDB64, 1C28 (r1 Intel S2440BX 0 MSFT 1000004)
[ 0.000000] ACPI: FACS 040FFBC0, 0040
[ 0.000000] ACPI: BIOS age (1999) fails cutoff (2000), acpi=force is required to enable ACPI
[ 0.000000] ACPI: Disabling ACPI support
[ 0.000000] Allocating PCI resources starting at 20000000 (gap: 10000000:eff80000)
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 000000000009f000 - 00000000000a0000
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000000a0000 - 00000000000e7000
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000000e7000 - 0000000000100000
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000040fd000 - 00000000040fe000
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000040fe000 - 00000000040ff000
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000040ff000 - 0000000004100000
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000040ff000 - 0000000004100000
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 65024
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: root=UUID=10652e6f-d1dd-4293-964a-26f56d25444a ro quiet splash
[ 0.000000] Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- you can enable it with "lapic"
[ 0.000000] mapped APIC to ffffb000 (0120c000)
[ 0.000000] Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
[ 0.000000] Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
[ 0.000000] Initializing CPU#0
[ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 1024 (order: 10, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Detected 498.879 MHz processor.
[ 605.188453] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
[ 605.188471] console [tty0] enabled
[ 605.189214] Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
[ 605.189825] Inode-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[ 605.228995] Memory: 247940k/262144k available (2177k kernel code, 13644k reserved, 1006k data, 368k init, 0k highmem)
[ 605.229029] virtual kernel memory layout:
[ 605.229034] fixmap : 0xfff4b000 - 0xfffff000 ( 720 kB)
[ 605.229040] pkmap : 0xff800000 - 0xffc00000 (4096 kB)
[ 605.229046] vmalloc : 0xd0800000 - 0xff7fe000 ( 751 MB)
[ 605.229051] lowmem : 0xc0000000 - 0xd0000000 ( 256 MB)
[ 605.229057] .init : 0xc0421000 - 0xc047d000 ( 368 kB)
[ 605.229062] .data : 0xc03204c4 - 0xc041bdc4 (1006 kB)
[ 605.229068] .text : 0xc0100000 - 0xc03204c4 (2177 kB)
[ 605.229081] Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
[ 605.229205] SLUB: Genslabs=11, HWalign=32, Order=0-1, MinObjects=4, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[ 605.309225] Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 998.94 BogoMIPS (lpj=1997889)
[ 605.309327] Security Framework initialized
[ 605.309357] SELinux: Disabled at boot.
[ 605.309413] AppArmor: AppArmor initialized
[ 605.309431] Failure registering capabilities with primary security module.
[ 605.309467] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
[ 605.309908] Initializing cgroup subsys ns
[ 605.309925] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct
[ 605.309959] CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
[ 605.310001] CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
[ 605.310011] CPU: L2 cache: 512K
[ 605.310023] CPU: After all inits, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000040 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
[ 605.310064] Compat vDSO mapped to ffffe000.
[ 605.310112] Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
[ 605.326091] SMP alternatives: switching to UP code
[ 605.331016] Freeing SMP alternatives: 11k freed
[ 605.331450] Early unpacking initramfs... done
[ 606.639975] CPU0: Intel Pentium III (Katmai) stepping 02
[ 606.640002] SMP motherboard not detected.
[ 606.640012] Local APIC not detected. Using dummy APIC emulation.
[ 606.640245] Brought up 1 CPUs
[ 606.640331] CPU0 attaching sched-domain:
[ 606.640342] domain 0: span 01
[ 606.640350] groups: 01
[ 606.641254] net_namespace: 64 bytes
[ 606.641279] Booting paravirtualized kernel on bare hardware
[ 606.643571] Time: 21:43:16 Date: 09/12/08
[ 606.643695] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[ 606.644976] EISA bus registered
[ 606.646222] PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd993, last bus=1
[ 606.646234] PCI: Using configuration type 1
[ 606.646259] Setting up standard PCI resources
[ 606.657378] ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
[ 606.657394] Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
[ 606.657583] pnp: PnP ACPI: disabled
[ 606.657597] PnPBIOS: Scanning system for PnP BIOS support...
[ 606.657651] PnPBIOS: Found PnP BIOS installation structure at 0xc00f6ba0
[ 606.657664] PnPBIOS: PnP BIOS version 1.0, entry 0xf0000:0x9ff4, dseg 0x400
[ 606.665378] PnPBIOS: 17 nodes reported by PnP BIOS; 17 recorded by driver
[ 606.666803] PCI: Probing PCI hardware
[ 606.666816] PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
[ 606.667353] * Found PM-Timer Bug on the chipset. Due to workarounds for a bug,
[ 606.667361] * this clock source is slow. Consider trying other clock sources
[ 606.667425] PCI quirk: region 8000-803f claimed by PIIX4 ACPI
[ 606.667437] PCI quirk: region 7000-700f claimed by PIIX4 SMB
[ 606.670982] PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX/ICH [8086/7110] at 0000:00:07.0
[ 606.688860] NET: Registered protocol family 8
[ 606.688871] NET: Registered protocol family 20
[ 606.689190] AppArmor: AppArmor Filesystem Enabled
[ 606.689399] system 00:00: ioport range 0x370-0x371 has been reserved
[ 606.689421] system 00:00: iomem range 0xfffc0000-0xffffffff could not be reserved
[ 606.689454] system 00:01: iomem range 0x0-0x9ffff could not be reserved
[ 606.689467] system 00:01: iomem range 0xe4000-0xfffff could not be reserved
[ 606.689479] system 00:01: iomem range 0x100000-0xfffffff could not be reserved
[ 606.689492] system 00:01: iomem range 0xfff80000-0xfffbffff could not be reserved
[ 606.689533] system 00:0a: ioport range 0x4d0-0x4d1 has been reserved
[ 606.689547] system 00:0a: ioport range 0x8000-0x803f has been reserved
[ 606.689559] system 00:0a: ioport range 0x7000-0x700f has been reserved
[ 606.689591] system 00:0b: iomem range 0xe0000-0xe3fff has been reserved
[ 606.689620] system 00:0c: iomem range 0xc9800-0xcbfff has been reserved
[ 606.691996] PCI: Failed to allocate mem resource #6:10000@fe000000 for 0000:01:00.0
[ 606.692009] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
[ 606.692016] IO window: disabled.
[ 606.692029] MEM window: f5000000-f5ffffff
[ 606.692039] PREFETCH window: fc000000-fdffffff
[ 606.692096] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[ 606.692823] Time: tsc clocksource has been installed.
[ 606.725188] IP route cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[ 606.726173] TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[ 606.726446] TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[ 606.726703] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 8192)
[ 606.726714] TCP reno registered
[ 606.737315] checking if image is initramfs... it is
[ 609.245664] Freeing initrd memory: 7250k freed
[ 609.248176] audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
[ 609.248227] audit(1221255798.024:1): initialized
[ 609.259680] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
[ 609.260183] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 609.261631] io scheduler noop registered
[ 609.261643] io scheduler anticipatory registered
[ 609.261651] io scheduler deadline registered
[ 609.261723] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
[ 609.261762] Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers.
[ 609.261842] Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0
[ 609.263028] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
[ 609.617419] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[ 609.812797] Real Time Clock Driver v1.12ac
[ 609.813215] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[ 609.813581] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[ 609.816636] 00:0e: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[ 609.821112] RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 65536K size 1024 blocksize
[ 609.821447] input: Macintosh mouse button emulation as /devices/virtual/input/input0
[ 609.821984] PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303,PNP0f13] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
[ 609.824757] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
[ 609.824779] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
[ 609.828464] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[ 609.829108] EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa.0
[ 609.829131] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 1
[ 609.829173] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 7
[ 609.829182] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 8
[ 609.829190] EISA: Detected 0 cards.
[ 609.829202] cpuidle: using governor ladder
[ 609.829210] cpuidle: using governor menu
[ 609.829892] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[ 609.830017] Using IPI No-Shortcut mode
[ 609.830135] registered taskstats version 1
[ 609.830440] Magic number: 8:831:752
[ 609.830455] hash matches device ttyS3
[ 609.830706] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found
[ 609.830714] EDD information not available.
[ 609.832187] Freeing unused kernel memory: 368k freed
[ 609.854812] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input1
[ 611.782332] fuse init (API version 7.9)
[ 611.924353] thermal: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_set_thermal_limit
[ 613.684975] SCSI subsystem initialized
[ 613.892230] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 613.892326] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 613.912348] Linux Tulip driver version 1.1.15 (Feb 27, 2007)
[ 613.912518] PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:11.0 (0184 -> 0187)
[ 613.912539] PCI: setting IRQ 3 as level-triggered
[ 613.912550] PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 0000:00:11.0
[ 613.912575] PCI: Sharing IRQ 3 with 0000:00:0f.0
[ 613.998600] eth0: Lite-On PNIC-II rev 37 at Port 0x1800, 00:a0:cc:32:0c:2a, IRQ 3.
[ 614.031197] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 614.322522] USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v3.0
[ 614.322806] PCI: setting IRQ 9 as level-triggered
[ 614.322819] PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 0000:00:07.2
[ 614.322847] PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 0000:00:10.0
[ 614.322879] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: UHCI Host Controller
[ 614.323538] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[ 614.323598] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: irq 9, io base 0x00001020
[ 614.324195] usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 614.324310] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 614.324341] hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[ 614.360480] Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
[ 614.371919] libata version 3.00 loaded.
[ 614.387954] FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
[ 614.449120] ata_piix 0000:00:07.1: version 2.12
[ 614.452461] scsi0 : ata_piix
[ 614.455224] scsi1 : ata_piix
[ 614.455396] ata1: PATA max UDMA/33 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0x1000 irq 14
[ 614.455411] ata2: PATA max UDMA/33 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0x1008 irq 15
[ 614.619220] ata1.00: ATA-4: Maxtor 92048D8, NAN5271A, max UDMA/33
[ 614.619238] ata1.00: 40000464 sectors, multi 16: LBA
[ 614.636452] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
[ 614.666622] usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[ 614.844870] usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 614.947029] ata2.00: ATAPI: SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-148C, B100, max UDMA/33
[ 615.102898] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
[ 615.103378] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA Maxtor 92048D8 NAN5 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 615.104024] scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-148C B100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 616.269451] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[ 616.269785] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 40000464 512-byte hardware sectors (20480 MB)
[ 616.269859] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 616.269873] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 616.269991] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 616.270240] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 40000464 512-byte hardware sectors (20480 MB)
[ 616.270308] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 616.270321] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 616.270437] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 616.270458] sda: sda1 sda2 <<4>Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[ 616.316472] sda5 >
[ 616.316860] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[ 616.322368] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 1x/48x cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 616.322387] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[ 616.322591] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[ 616.358836] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 616.358932] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[ 616.415528] usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
[ 616.435778] input: Logitech USB Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:07.2/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/input/input2
[ 616.450195] input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:07.2-1
[ 616.483486] input: Logitech USB Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:07.2/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.1/input/input3
[ 616.506405] input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:07.2-1
[ 616.506474] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 616.506491] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
[ 617.183660] Attempting manual resume
[ 617.183676] swsusp: Resume From Partition 8:5
[ 617.183684] PM: Checking swsusp image.
[ 617.184343] PM: Resume from disk failed.
[ 617.306515] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
[ 617.306567] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
[ 638.071808] Linux agpgart interface v0.102
[ 638.148443] pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
[ 638.225493] shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
[ 638.304066] piix4_smbus 0000:00:07.3: Found 0000:00:07.3 device
[ 638.387651] agpgart: Detected an Intel 440BX Chipset.
[ 638.399923] agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf8000000
[ 638.548168] input: PC Speaker as /devices/platform/pcspkr/input/input4
[ 644.712439] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[ 645.147367] PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered
[ 645.147384] PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 0000:01:00.0
[ 645.150800] NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module 71.86.04 Mon Jan 21 11:22:18 PST 2008
[ 645.362482] parport_pc 00:11: activated
[ 645.362501] parport_pc 00:11: reported by Plug and Play BIOS
[ 645.365614] parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
[ 647.959478] PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:0f.0 (0104 -> 0105)
[ 647.959504] PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 0000:00:0f.0
[ 647.959535] PCI: Sharing IRQ 3 with 0000:00:11.0
[ 651.710987] loop: module loaded
[ 651.831721] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
[ 652.041636] Adding 738948k swap on /dev/sda5. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:738948k
[ 652.643369] EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal