A64 3500 2GB Ram - 25 minutes to boot - NO JOKE!

Anchundan · 29 Apr 2006 at 12:58

I really hope someone can shed some light on this one - it's been doing my head in for a whole day.

I have just taken my desktop computer out with me to China, where I'm living now. It's an Athlon 64 3500 CPU, 2GB RAM, Asus A8N-SLI SE motherboard, NVidia 7800GT 256MB, one SATA 160 GB HDD, one 80GB IDE HDD I use for backing up stuff, and one 60GB IDE HDD. I had a Logitech Cordless desktop pro, but only took the mouse with me to save weight (still works with a PS2 keyboard plugged in). I have a wifi card too, and floppy and DVD writer.

All this worked for many months in UK, with the standard cordless keyboard, and also if I unplugged that, it also worked with a normal PS2 keyboard.

Before I came out to China, I stayed at my parents for a week, and used their USB BT Broadband modem, also with no problems.

Then, I dismantled the PC, wrapped all the light components in bubble-wrap and put into my suitcase, and all the heavy stuff went into an old laptop bag.

I've arrived in China (which is on 220 volts), and re-assembled my computer. I bought a standard logitech PS2 keyboard, and a Viewsonic VX922 LCD monitor, from the local shop. I powered it up, and all seems fine in BIOS (although it had lost the time and date - probably as it was disconnected for a few days).

I have two versions of Windows XP installed, one on the SATA drive, which is completely cut down, except for graphics drivers, and BF2. The other is a full version of Windows XP, with MS Office, and anything I'd fancied installing.

However, both now take about 25 minutes to load into Windows, regardless of whether in safe mode or not. I have no idea why. The only difference to my machine is the new viewsonic VX922, (which is on DVI, where my old system was on VGA), and the locally bought logitech keyboard, which seems to be a US layout keyboard. And the voltage is 220V as opposed to 240V (the power supply handles 110v - 250v).

It seems absolutely bizzarre, and I don't know what to remove, or whether to try a fresh install of windows.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - trying different settings and waiting 25 minutes for a reboot is no joke!!

Anchundan · 29 Apr 2006 at 13:20

getting into BIOS and up to the point where you see the Windows logo, it's as quick as it used to be. But as soon as Windows starts loading - it takes for ever. all the way to displaying the icons on the desktop. Even then it isn't fully loaded, and still takes another ten minutes or so before you can do anything. but everything you try to do is 100 times slower.

I just tried to open explorer, and it took about 8 minutes to open.

I'm fairly sure I rebuild it exactly as before. The only thing I might have done is put the 60GB drive as IDE Master, - it might have been IDE Secondary, but I forgot to make a note of it before I left. It still boots in the same way though (i.e. to the boot menu).

There wasn't a driver with the keyboard, although I have changed the keyboard layout in windows. Also, I've installed the driver for the LCD screen, but that hasn't done anything. The temperatures seem fine, and the voltages seen in BIOS are
VCORE : 1.50v,
3.3v : 3.36v
5v : 5.08v
12v : 11.90v

I was wondering if it's anything to do with me now using DVI instead of VGA. But I can't imagine this.

I think I will do a fresh install on my full system partition, as it's got loads of junk on it anyway. I'm just amazed that it takes this long on both the full system, and the bare minimum system I have setup on my 2 drives.

Anchundan · 29 Apr 2006 at 13:21

Nix said:
Tried playing around with the mobo battery?

not tried that - but the motherboard is fairly new. I'll give it a go tho!

Anchundan · 29 Apr 2006 at 13:39

battery seems fine - no change there.

I also removed the wifi card, and its still taking ages.

I'll try connecting with the VGA adapter instead of the DVI, to see if that makes a difference, and I'll re-check again that I re-built it correctly, before taking the format route.

I'm using an ancient laptop to write this - it's the first time it's felt quick!

Anchundan · 30 Apr 2006 at 13:11

well - I've formatted one HDD, and removed the other HHD's from my system. I'm trying a fresh install of Windows XP, and it's taking absolutely ages to install. it is estimating now, that I have 17 minutes remaining, but each minute seems to take about ten minutes.

I couldn't see any LBA errors this morning. And a full scandisk showed no errors at all.

I'm really hoping it's something like chipset drivers. But I won't be able to tell until they're installed once (if ever) Windows XP finishes installing.

I really hope it's not a faulty motherboard, because they don't sell anything remotely modern out here in China.

Anchundan · 30 Apr 2006 at 17:14

rafster said:
x-ray scanner at air port causing a problem on a component?

God, I hope not! I know the hand-luggage x-ray machines are safe to laptops, but my motherboard, memory, CPU and graphics card (and all the cables) went through in my hold luggage - I have no idea how safe those are for PC components.

I've finished the windows install, and installed the chipset drivers, and still no change. I guess the cheapest test from now will be to change the IDE cable I'm using. Although I have exactly the same problem when booting to just the SATA drive, so I horribly suspect there's something wrong with my motherboard.

They don't even have Athlon 64's out here!! OcUK - do you deliver abroad??!!!

Anchundan · 1 May 2006 at 07:37

I have formatted and re-installed windows. I only have one hard disk drive connected, and have now tried 2 IDE cables.

I have my Leadtek 7800GT connected to one slot of the PCI-Express slots
I have disconnected my other drives, including DVD and Floppy drive

I have loaded the chipset drivers from the Asus CD-Rom, and the drivers for the 7800GT graphics card, and the Viewsonic VX922 monitor.

From the time I switch the computer on, the time schedule appears like this (in minutes and seconds) :

00:34 Windows XP logo appears
01:09 logo disappears, screen goes black
01:48 mouse cursor appears - screen is still black
02:10 "Windows is starting up..." appears, screen is now light blue
02:39 "Welcome" appears, screen is still light blue
03:54 desktop appears, although windows is still loading
05:58 Windows explorer finally opens, after trying to open it at 03:54
06:30 First system tray icon appears
07:22 "Your computer might be at risk..." message appears from the windows security alerts in system tray

After this, the mouse responds to clicks, but everything takes many times longer than normal. Looking at task manager, CPU usage is 100% and remains at 100%. All CPU resources being used by TaskMgr. Memory usage is negligible.

Running DXDiag, it recognises the processor correctly (AMD Athlon 64 3500) and the memory (2048MB). Pagefile 115MB used, 3825MB available.

DX version is 9.0c - I'm running Windows XP SP2
It recognises the graphics card, Winfast PX7800GT, Leadtech GeForce 7800GT 256MB memory, 1280x1024 16bit 60hz
It recognises the monitor as well.
It runs and passes the DXDiag graphics tests, but extremely slowly and jerkily - it really seems to be pushing the CPU to the limit.

It takes 20 seconds to shut down the PC.

I've downloaded the latest BIOS from the Asus website, and will try flashing the motherboard, but apart from that, I'm not sure whether to try to buy a new motherboard to test it, or a new CPU. I've only seen AMD Sempron's here, and I don't think they're socket 939.

Anchundan · 1 May 2006 at 09:13

Wow - I am now the happiest person in China - It's back to normal speed again!!!

The BIOS version the motherboard was using was 0103 - the original one which came with the CD. I had re-installed the chipset drivers, but not the BIOS.

I've just managed to download the latest BIOS drivers from the ASUS website using my ancient laptop, and have just flashed the motherboard.

Results :- 53 seconds from switching on to a fully-working very fast Windows XP!!!!

So, somehow that BIOS had managed to corrupt itself? Maybe going through the XRay at the airport, or maybe just because the PC was without power for a few days, I don't know.

Now to slowly put the rest of the components back in!!!

Thanks to everyone for your help in diagnosing my problems!