HTC Droid Eris :: Red Triangle / Exclamation Point Show Rooting Attempt?

Sometimes when I reboot my phone, I first see the 3 androids on skateboards and then it goes to a pic of phone with the red exclamation point in a triangle (same as the failed recovery error). I can pull my battery but that does not help. My phone is useless for at least 30-45 minutes. I have pulled my battery up to 20 consecutive times to fix with no avail.

The variables: This is a refurb phone with 2.1 pre-installed. I have tried to root my phone with the whole timing trick, pull card, insert card. This was done a week or two ago. I do not have that file on my card, nor was my rooting successful. I am thinking that my problem is due to the refurb. My dialer lag is way worse than my previous phone. I can make one phone call every hour or so and I can forget calling someone right back if I missed their call. Does the red triangle/exclamation point show an attempt at rooting?