Stuttering on start up

I was sure that the hard drive on my Dell Inspiron 8100 was dying (still may be the problem) but during start up, the computer "stutters." That is, it moves forward through start up a little bit at time. In diagnostic and/or start up screen I have to wait a few minutes before it will accept a keystroke.

I am not sure the diagnostic tests went through completely... it stopped on the Serial test (which failed... something about sending 11999 baud when 5800 was expected. The only other failure were the first tests... system clocking. I could not figure out exactly what it was saying except that it failed.

Could this be the battery on the CMOS? I am working off my newer computer and I just want to see if I can fix my Dell.

FYI...it takes awhile, but Windows eventually starts (at least it is as I type this).