Help with a slow to boot PC?

[sheeny (Al)]

My desktop PC has problem. A few weeks ago it started getting slow during boot up. It detects the CPU and displays details on the screen, then takes a long time before it proceeds. It was taking a few minutes to get past this stage.

This morning however I switched the PC on as I had half an hour before I had to leave for work... I wnent and cleaned my teeth and came back and waited about 10 minutes with no further progress... I rebooted it, but ran out of time before I had to go to work.

Any ideas what the problem could be, what to check and the best way to rectify?

Thanks,

Al.

PS. My PC BIOS details are (if they are relevant):
AWARD MEDALLION BIOS v6.0
ASUS P4S800 ACPI BIOS Revision 1006

[vindictive666 (John)]

Originally Posted by sheeny

My desktop PC has problem. A few weeks ago it started getting slow during boot up. It detects the CPU and displays details on the screen, then takes a long time before it proceeds. It was taking a few minutes to get past this stage.

This morning however I switched the PC on as I had half an hour before I had to leave for work... I wnent and cleaned my teeth and came back and waited about 10 minutes with no further progress... I rebooted it, but ran out of time before I had to go to work.

Any ideas what the problem could be, what to check and the best way to rectify?

Thanks,

Al.

PS. My PC BIOS details are (if they are relevant):
AWARD MEDALLION BIOS v6.0
ASUS P4S800 ACPI BIOS Revision 1006

what OS Are you running ? (operating System)

[snowyskiesau]

What is actually on the screen at the point where it appears to stop?

[sheeny (Al)]

Windows XP Pro operating system.

It's just the standard BIOS boot up screen - it detects the CPU and displays that info then takes a long time to make the next step.

Talking to another guy at work he has suggested checking memory, but failing that he thinks it could be the HDD.

I'll have another look at it tonight when I get home.

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

PS. It goes slow before it gets to the Windows start up screen.

Al.

[vindictive666 (John)]

press F8 Whilst rebooting and try from the menu

last known working startup boot

[sheeny (Al)]

OK just home from work.

The BIOS setup screen was up when I got home. It had a warning message in red on the RHS basically stating that on the last boot the machine had problems due to an incorrect CPU speed.

The speed in BIOS matches what it's supposed to be for my CPU (2800 MHz).

I think the BIOS page was only up because I pressed F2 while it was booting up this morning.

At least it's a lead...

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Hmmm all seems OK in Device Manager...

Al.

[Garyh]

Hi Sheeny,
I would try resetting (clearing the cmos settings) by the jumper on your mainboard then load bios defaults. I would also pull out the memory sticks and give them a clean with some metho or something similar then reseat them..
If that fails you might have a hardware problem..then you might have to get a tech to look at it...

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks Gary. I've been told by others to do that with the memory sticks. I'll give it a whirl...

Thanks,

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

I shut it down and removed the memory sticks and re: fitted them (gave the contacts a bit of a wipe though I couldn't see anything on them). While I had the beast apart I also gave it a bit of a "hose out" with the compressed air, and I decided to remove my CR-RW drive since it's been playing up and so I don't use it. I have a DVD-RW as well.

I put it all back together, covers on and the whole bit... I didn't get a chance the read the screen that it's been hanging at ... but... it wouldn't find my DVD-RW.

After I pulled it apart again and rummaged around puzzled for a while, I found that the bus cable had disconnected from the motherboard as I fiddled with the memory cards. It's not a very secure connection! But all is well and the world is a good and wholesome place again for the time being.

Al.

[lost_in_space]

If it's still slow and you suspect the hard disk, bring up a command shell in XP (Start > Run, then type cmd and OK it). At the command prompt type "chkdsk /R" without the quotes and press enter. Follow the prompts to restart your system. Before Windows starts again it will check the file system for corruption and physically inspect the disk for bad or damaged sectors etc and repair any damage if it can. It may take a couple of hours or more to complete depending on what it finds.

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks LIS. Some good info there if someone else refers to it later.

Mine is zipping along like it used to, so I think I've nailed the problem.

Thanks again.

Al.