GAH! My laptop is driving me batshit insane! Help, please!

[BreweryYardRat]

It's been taking something on the order of five attempts to boot up every time I shut it down or it goes into standby mode. Started when I tried to turn it on yesterday morning, has been continuing through to today.

To get it to finally boot, I've had to keep turning it on and off. On a failed attempt, it hums just like it normally does when it's turning on, both power lights come on, but the monitor stays black and Windows doesn't start. I'm using XP, personal edition.

It's not just me lacking patience, because I've hit the power button, left it alone for a minute or two, had it fail to boot and then when it finally does, it boots just as quick as it ever did. Which is...maybe 30 seconds from me hitting the button to the "welcome" screen appearing, tops, and then another 30 seconds to a minute to load.

Anyone more tech-savvy than I am have any ideas about what's causing the problem?

Edited for more detail, as requested.

[Spinzonner]

1. You would need to describe what happens in more detail

What you describe is what you're doing to get it to (finally) boot up, not how the behavior manifests itself.

Does the power come on or not.

Does it start to boot and quit ? If so, at what point in the boot sequence ?

[EST]

2. And, important, what OS are you running?

Do you get to the same point each time it fails to boot?

[Spinzonner]

3. I guess that was a bitch and run posting he made