XP slow boot help.

Countcussy · 12 Jan 2009 at 13:40

I have once again been asked to "clean up" someone else`s PC, and bring windows up to date, as they are still on dial up.

Dell P4 system with 512gb ram.

System takes over 5 minutes to boot. Once its in, its not bad, speed wise, and I am working on that. Its a bit clogged up etc, but at least there is not 42 viruses like last time I did this PC. :eek:

Its the boot time thats got me stumped. With it being a Dell, there is not a lot in the way of hardware. HD was full of errors which have now sorted, but its very noisy and I suspect could be on its way out. Will run a check this evening. Have checked the transfer/DMA settings and everything looks fine. No probs in device manager either. Msconfig startup tab has very little in it.

If HD proves OK, Can you give me any pointers of where to start looking as regards the boot?

Also, when I do a restart, I get a grey bar that fills with black lines before the windows logo and the scrolling coloured bar. Is this something to do with hibernation? Not seen that for ages and can`t remember what it is.

gillywibble · 12 Jan 2009 at 13:51

Bios upgrade?

linktoinsanity · 12 Jan 2009 at 16:13

Countcussy said:
Also, when I do a restart, I get a grey bar that fills with black lines before the windows logo and the scrolling coloured bar. Is this something to do with hibernation? Not seen that for ages and can`t remember what it is.

It's part of windows xp's boot sequence. I think it's to do with hard disk controller initialization and it only comes up on my P4 when you have a seperate IDE controller card connected through the PCI slot. Most modern PCs are "too fast" to come up with this.

As far as to why it's booting slow, try typing msconfig into the Run box and removing startup items and services that aren't needed. Also check for viruses and spyware, the usual really. Hope this helps a little...

SteveS · 12 Jan 2009 at 16:20

try microsoft's bootvis.

TheVoice · 12 Jan 2009 at 16:21

Try running Disk Cleanup and then a defrag too, might help. If it's been running the same XP install for many years though, the most effective thing is going to be a clean install.

Ratbag · 12 Jan 2009 at 18:27

Contrary to popular belief the prefetch system in XP actually causes boot time performance degradation over time. I guarantee that by running Prefetch cache control, flushing the cache and enabling it for the Boot Files only will dramatically improve boot times.

Countcussy · 12 Jan 2009 at 19:00

Thanks for your help guys.

Just got home and downloaded the WD diagnostics. The drive is a WD600BB 60gig ATA.

Ran the quick test and the drive immediately failed the SMART status, so my gut feeling looks like it was correct.

But, would I get that error if the drive was not SMART compatible? Its a pretty old drive. How long has the SMART system been commonplace on drives? Or has it always been there?

Thanks again.

TheVoice · 12 Jan 2009 at 23:03

I would think that that HDD is SMART capable. If it weren't, I imagine the WD utility simply wouldn't give SMART data.

May want to try another disk test just to be sure, but all the signals are pointing towards a HDD failure.

Amnesia · 12 Jan 2009 at 23:07

run crapcleaner on it...just to clear some of the crap in there....also use the registry cleaner thats built in.

it should help a little

Countcussy · 15 Jan 2009 at 10:15

Further tests indicate the hard drive is on its very, very last legs.

Thanks for the help.

Btw, If any mods are reading, I seem unable to reply to the Windows 7 beta thread. Error, page not found.