Very Slow Startup

Same Problem but...

Giles, I am having the same problem. Here is my tale of woe...

I decided to reformat my hard drive. After 5 years I accumulated a ton of Cr*p on it and the performance as of late was horrible. I reinstalled XP home edition on my Dell PIII 500. Now, when I start up the computer it takes FOREVER to boot up. The splash screen starts and then the system checs the ram (I have 384 mb) but instead of the ram counting up really fast like it used to do, now it counts very very slow. When I go to the BIOS setup it is also very very slow (think about 10 seconds between recognizing one keystroke action). In all it takes about 10 minutes to boot.

I updated the bios to the latest available through Dell Phoenix A11. Once the computer has gone through the boot process it is back to a very fast computer (well fast for a 500mhz).

I do have a second hard drive on the computer which, after reading all hte posts, may be a problem. But, I haven't taken it out or anything like that. When I reinstalled the system software I ran the Western Digital utilities disk again and it then recognized the partition and hard drive as it was before the reinstall. Since this computer came with win 98 I don't have a utility disk from Dell to reinstall everything.

What could possibly be wrong? Bios is up to date, computer runs great once it is past boot, but, this boot process stinks big time.

Help.

Guy

 

Follow-up

I just unplugged the second hard drive and rebooted to see what would happen and the boot is the same, slow boot.

Any ideas?

Guy

 

Hi GuyGadois.

That's a good one. Among the things I would check are; be absolutely sure the jumpers on the hdds are correct and they probably have to be changed depending on whether you have one or two drives installed. Initially sounds like one isn't right. Check the CPU settings in the bios. The X factor could be off or one of the other settings. Be sure the Quick POST is enabled, that would slow down the memory check, although that doesn't sound like the problem. You can disable "Indexing Service" in the admin, services section. Keeps the system from indexing your hard drive slowing down the system. I don't think that is it either. At that point XP isn't running so bios settings and hdd is still the prime suspect.

When you go into the bios XP isn't even in play and neither are the hdds. I would suspect bios settings re the CPU and memory settings. You might note all the settings and then load the defaults. It seems something is causing the CPU to run slow or the keyboard isn't working right, etc. Unplug the mouse for bios access, it isn't needed (just to be sure it isn't the mouse). Be sure the battery is good. Flashing the bios won't help. It worked before ok so it sounds like a bios setting has changed.

Don't forget to let us know how you made out.

Edit add: You can't just unplug the second hdd. You have to check and see what the primary hdd should be jumpered when it is the only one on that IDE port. Each manufacturer is usually different so check and be sure. Same for the 2nd hdd when both are up and running, check for jumper settings in that particular configuration for each drive.

Still sounds like bios settings tho.

giles

 

To follow on from what giles is saying...this may be a test:
Disconnect both HDDs and startup with a boot floppy in the the floppy drive and in case it trys to boot from the CD, put a Windows CD in that. If you get a normal POST, then the problem is with one of the HDDs.

Could check your BIOS configuration screen that the HDD settings agree with those reported by the Western Digital utility (are both drives WDs? If not run the others utilities).

Matt