Very slow to boot-up

[pensham]

Hi



What would be the reason for a slow startup...as it restarts and you've got the Windows XP logo on the black screen with a blue thinking bar moving across in blocks which goes at a normal speed then slows completely down and takes 5-10 minutes to get back up to speed then move onto the blue windows start-up screen and everything is fine from there? Have I made any sense???

System:
Microsoft Windows XP – Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 2
Computer:
AMD Athlon™ 63 X2 Dual
Core Processor 4800+
2.51 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

Have scanned with Panda Security & Spyware Doctor but restart is still really slow. Plus my DVD drive has disappeared. It no longer shows in My computer or device manager. Could this be linked?



Can anyone help?

 

[SweatyOmnivore]

Have you recently installed any new hardware or software?

To try and get your CD DVD Drive back

Click Start and then click Run

When the Run window opens type "regedit"

Then Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

Then Expand SYSTEM and then CurrentControlSet

Expand Control and then expand Class

Under Class look for {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Then in the right pane look for UpperFilters and Delete it.

Note you may also see UpperFilters.Bak but dont delerte that.

Do the same for the LowerFilters aswell but if you see LowerFilters.Bak Dont delete it.

Exit the registry and re-boot. Hopefully you should have your DVD Drive visible again.

As for the slow Boot-Up have you Defragmented your hard drive recently?

 

[pensham]

Thanx SweatyOmnivore

Have tried upper-filters already and that hasn't worked. My nephew did install Noteburner. Have to admit have only noticed this week that the drive isn't working when I went to burn a dvd. Put the dvd in, you can hear it spinning and the green light comes on then nothing from the computer!

I defrag the computer last week.

 

[Seth]

The slowness in the XP splash screen is likely due to errors on the hard drive, or the hard drive itself may be failing.

I would back up any important data and then run hard drive error correction:

1. Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check.
2. Click Properties, and then click Tools.
3. Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed,
4. Use one of the following procedures:

• To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start.

• To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, and then click Start.

• To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.

Note: If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?

Click Yes to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.

 

[pensham]

Thank you Seth! I did each of the error checking categories and then switched off my computer for 5 minutes. Powered it back up and it booted up super quick AND the missing dvd drive has returned!!!

Thank you!

 

[Wolfeymole]

That's good to hear Pensham, well done.

 

[Seth]

You're most welcome.

I'd run that error correction about every three months.

 

[Dalo Harkin]

Also make sure that you dont have unnecessary programs running at startup - open a command window - cmd.exe and then type msconfig - there are some tabs at the top, choose the Startup one and see if there is anything running in there that you no longer need/use - if you struggle - post the page on here and we will help

 

[pensham]

Gone back to being slow again on boot-up

I left the computer on over night (normally do this) and this morning only the start bar was showing on the screen the reest was blank and I could not get into start shut down. So pressed reset and the whole taking over 5 minutes to boot before login happened again. And the DVD-RAM drive has disappeared too.

Any ideas?

 

[Dalo Harkin]

Sounds like the HDD is really struggling or dying - or something is - chances are it would be the HDD - how old is it?

 

[pensham]

Nearly a year old. Had the computer built for me.

 

[Wolfeymole]

If you can, back up any data you have on that drive before it snuffs it completely Pensham.

 

[pensham]

Doing that right now

 

[RandyL]

I think Dalo is correct too. It has all the signs of the Drive failing. Although rare I've seen drives give out in less then a year.

Seth suggested regular checking of the drive too so he may suspect the same.

Either way this is a good time to make sure you have all your data backed up.

 

[Dalo Harkin]

I know its extra expense - but I cannot urge people enough at the very least to have 2 drives or more - you can install the OS on one and then any data,photos or videos, programs they WANT to save copy them over to the other drive -
RAID in mirrored mode is also a good idea if the board supports it - I would recommend this more in XP as the setup process is a pain with SATA drives - Vista reinstall only takes like 30 minutes

 

[pensham]

I run 2 hard drives (1 acts as a back-up) and 2 external drives - one for just for music and the other to back-up data/photos etc.

So I'm not so gutted with the drive failing just a tad annoyed its happened after just a years use! Its a Western Digital WD2500KS 250GB 7200RPM SATAII/300 16MB Cache hard drive

 

[Dalo Harkin]

Most HDD's come with a 3 or 5 year guarantee from the manufacturer and most of the time you dont need a receipt as they have the 'made on day' serial etc.
you are better off visiting their website and getting a RTM number

 

[Seth]

Seth suggested regular checking of the drive too so he may suspect the same.

Indeed I did.

Since the hard drive error correction temporarily fixed the problem, that indicates a failing hard drive.

Are you sure whoever built you the computer used a brand new drive?