Very Slow Startup

Ok, I understand many things will cause a slow startup, but I have a strange situation. I have two computers. Both are running XP Home and are fast machines. I have no problem with the time it takes Windows XP to startup and finished on either machine. However. one machine when I turn the computer on or do a restart it goes through the initial startup and within a few second shows the screen windows starting and kicks right off. On the other hand the other machine startup and hangs for several minutes before moving on to the Windows Startup screen. Once at the Windows dtartup screen this machine acts just like the other one. Something is causing a major delay from bootup to the actual Windows startup. Any thoughts what may be hanging up on the slow machine? The other thing I have noticed between the two machine is that on the slow machine it takes forever to enter setup, but on the fast machine I can enter setup immediately after hitting the PF1 key.

 

At that stage, I'm guessing the delay is a hardware issue of some sort. Moving the thread from XP to Hardware.

 

Since Newt mentioned hardware I restarted my system and watched the bootup stage. Everything seems to goes alright until the system starts looking for the hard drive. Then I see the long delay until the screen finally shows the hard drive, CD/RW and CD ROM drives and then Windows starts up immediately. I had to delete the partitions and reformat the hard drive recently and reload the system from the Recovery CD's. I see the C partition in Disk management, but my HP recovery partition does not have a letter assigned. I seem to remember before I did this restore that the HP recovery partition had the letter D assignment. Could this be my hang. I would think so, but I didn't have this problem before.

 

I have run into this issue before... Hopefully this will help...

When I ran into this, it was caused by the Network Card...

IF you have a network interface as a card, and you aren't using it (ie don't have it connected to a network or a cablemodem, etc.) just remove it from the system or disable it.

IF the NIC is built into the motherboard (and again, you're not using it) Go into BIOS and disable it..

the reason is this: If the card exists and is enabled in the system, it actively searches for the network connection.. This can take quite some time before the computer decides "Hey, I'm not attached to a network" and finally continues booting the OS.. When I did this on a particular system, it completely removed that annoying delay...

I hope that helps !
-Don

 

Don, thanks for the suggestion. I had two NIC's in the computer at one time, but I removed the NIC Card. I checked my Device Manager and I didn't find any hardware with a problem. This problem really acts like my system is not finding something and like you said it finally gives up. Is there a way to trace the activity to see where the hang actually is?

 

I am still looking for a solution to the very, very, very long startup delay. Is there a way to view and change the time allowed to enter setup? As I said before, the system stops working and just waits on something for about 2 minutes before my hardware is shown on the screen. Once that happen windows starts right up with no problem.

 

Where's the delay?

This is a bios problem so you need to know at what point exactly does the delay occur, in other words what is the bios looking fot that takes so long? You mentioned previously that the HDDs aren't found expediciously. If that's still so, go into the bios and find them manually, and exit saving the results.

Of course, make sure that the hdd parameters found are correct, e.g. LBA.

If the delay is at some other point, please post back.

 

Sparrow, I agree that it appears to be a BIOS problem, but I don't see anything in BIOS Setup that is a problem. Here is what happens:

System starts find. It waits a few second then, displays CPU and other devices until it the mouse is started, then it stops. In about 60 second or longer the next thing I see is a flash on the screen of the Fixed Disk, and the opitical drives and then Windows starts. Since the next thing I see on the screen after the long delay is the Fixed Disk I assume finding the hard drive is the problem, but I can't find anything wrong with the setup.

 

Need bios update?

I assume you did the manual hdd check (find) in the bios and it was quick? No delay?

Suggest you check for a bios upgrade. Instructions should be in your manual or on the mfg. web site.

 

I would think that something has gone wrong with the reformat/restore and the BIOS is having trouble reading the drive's setup. You may need to reformat again. There should be instructions on the HP website in case you want to check the method (maybe caused by removing/changing the partitions). See if HP has any harddrive diagnostic utilities.
I would check if there was a BIOS upgrade for it (follow the instructions carefully).

Matt

 

Mattman, I suspect you are correct. Everything was great before the reformat and system recovery. I guess I will just put up with the slow start for now. Restoring my system is a major task that I don't enjoy doing unless it is absolutely necessary.

Thanks to you and Sparrow

 

I believe the bios will find a HDD whether formatted or not, since it must find the disk in order for you to format it. Formatting is irrelevant, but other parameters are not and it is even possible that one of the disks is in bad shape.

 

Found this:

From here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph07144&dlc=en&lang=en

Reformat was probably bad terminology, rather, starting again from scratch. I think that problems in the MBR may be the cause of the slowdown at startup, but I don't have much experience with HP's recovery/restore system.

Matt

 

I wonder.

That's an interesting thought. The mbr is originally written by the fdisk (or similar) program after the bios has detected the hardware disk, which includes it's onboard electronics (=controller?, ROM, and RAM) and then boots some OS containing fdisk etc.; I don't know whether a new disk which is unformatted contains an mbr. Do you? Anyone? I thought not, but...

I know that some disks come from the factory partitioned and formatted today, but they haven't always, and did those older disks have an mbr before being partitioned?

The BIOS just recognizes and initializes hardware, which often contains its own ROM addition to the BIOS. I didn't think an mbr (which is software, something written to the hardware) is necessary for the BIOS to recognize a HDD. Anyway the HDD is eventually recognized. So at present the mbr must be ok.

 

Contrary to popular opinion, I don't think your problem is BIOS related. If you didn't change anything re: BIOS settings and haven't changed anything re: hardware-wise, then BIOS settings aren't going to be a factor - other than PNP OS installed or not installed which will impact how hardware interrupts are handled.

This is more likely to be driver related. You can use a set of HP restore discs to rebuild your OS and all factory installed software even if you wiped out the HP utility partiton - the software on the discs will rebuild that partition before they restore your system. So whats a guy/gal to do?

Suggest you FDISK /MBR as others have suggested. Then FDISK and delete any and all existing partitions. Then run your recovery discs. (it should quick format on the fly) Then go to the HP website and install any driver updates, especially chipset and intel application accelerator, but update em' all. Then hit the windows update site and do all of your patches and updates. Get the picture? One other thing you migh want to do early in the game is remove your MacAfee AV software which will be probably be expired now anyways - think it was web based on this model #.

Good Luck.

 

I agree with bmartin's last post.

From
here

Quote edited for emphasis.

The problem occurs during POST, and computer functions normally after POST concludes.

 

Rockster2U, I am incline to agree with you on this one. I had used my recovery discs to restore my system once before with no problem whatsoever. But the last time I couldn't get the system recovery to work. So I had to fdisk. The recovery worked after that, but it didn't create the hidden recovery partition. I will give it another try later when I ***** up again, but for now I will just put up with the slow start.

 

Hi bmartin.

One of the causes of this problem is an hdd that is jumpered "master" when it is the only drive on an IDE port and the jumper should be neutral.

For example, a single Western Digital drive (on an IDE port alone) has to have the jumper removed or jumpered neutral. A Samsung (I think) has to be jumpered master when its by itself.

What happens is the system is looking for a second drive and there isn't one there so it just times out waiting for it to come up to speed (which it never does because it isn't there) which slows the boot process dramatically.

 

giles, you were right on target about my slow startup. When I was having problems with this system I removed the second drive, and didn't change the jumper back at that time, duh. It was several weeks before I got the system restored and by that time I forgot all about taking out the second drive. I correct the jumper and the system fired up like a rocket. My Computer life is good again, until I do something dumb again

Thanks to all for helping me with this silly problem. This is the reason Forums work. Someone usually hits the nail on the head. Good job.

 

Hi.

Glad to help. Things like that can just drive you nuts.