Windows XP Professional standby freezing 'preparing to standby' 1

[Macaroni7]

Windows XP Professional freezes on standby 'preparing to standby', task bar lags upon booting, and system restore works sometime, and sometimes it doesn't. Whenever I physically remove the modem, the task bar slides to the left responsively like it is suppose to; likewise, the standby feature works correctly. Presumptively, the system restore would work all of the time.

 

[micker377]

How old is the modem? I've seen old modems and old sound cards do this. What happens is they won't "release" their "hook" on the system, hence no standby. Try a new modem ("Win XP approved&quot.

 

[Macaroni7]

Upon acknowledging micker377 responding to the issue my Windows XP pro freezing in standby, and lagging in booting, I searched further, and found the unsigned device drivers as instructed in 308514 How To: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP, and using the System Configuration Utility I repeatedly turned drivers on, and off. Unbelievably, micker377 was on point the unsigned drivers did not "release" their "hook" on the system.
Forcing the unsigned drivers to "release" their "hook" has fixed my problem!

 

[Macaroni7]

Occasionally, the Windows XP will not dial up, message states, "[o]nly analog telephone line"; however, if I turn the computer off, more than likely it will dial up. Agere modem, not signed. Occasionally, will not boot up, at which time the amibiosw states pri master not installed. After I am able to get the American Megatrend [Amibios] to change to pri master "ser", I am able to boot. I have spoke to technical support, and was advised my amibios was the latest. When I start the computer, after it does boot the hard drive makes a noise as if to shift into gear. It is fairly new 60GB. I believe the problem is all related. Is there any way to tweak the amibios, or the hard drive?