Long delay booting pre OS loading

[joe miller]

When attempted start-up..
my system delays booting by approx 2mins. The delay
occurs just after DMI pool data and just before the OS
(XPsp1) begings to load i.e. before boot options like
safe mode etc appear. The problem seems to have arisen
spontaneously on a system that seemed problem-free
previously. There are no obvious hardware difficulties or
problems that I can detect beyond this. The disc itself
checks out and shows no errors under chkdsk or hard disk
diagnostics
Reinstalling (repair mode) didnt help.
I have checked boot.ini and the xp start up files (as far
as feel able to) The
hard drive light is on during this time (as if it is
scanning or looking for something - similar to running
bootcfg utility.
The fault does not occur on another hard drive. So I am
thinking it must be corrupt or problemmatic boot-loader
processes?
Dont think its sp1 related as it worked fine till recently
I am completely stumped!
The system is a via kt400 chipset (ga-vax) with 640ram
2600+AMD

[R. C. White]

Hi, Joe.

If the delay is before WinXP even begins to load, then the problem must be
in your hardware and BIOS settings, rather than in Windows. Perhaps your
computer is looking for a device or drive that you've removed and taking a
long time to realize that it's not here anymore. My computer takes a long
time before starting to load Windows because it first has to load my SCSI
BIOS, then find my SCSI HD, then load the Highpoint RAID BIOS, then the 2 of
a possible 4 IDE HDs attached to that controller - and then it can finally
start to load Windows. Did you perhaps forget to tell it to NOT boot from
CD-ROM? Maybe it's looking for a bootable CD in that drive?

Or, as you may fear, your HD might have problems and the system has to
re-try some failing sectors several times to get a good read of your Windows
files. :>(

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"joe miller" > wrote in message
...
> When attempted start-up..
> my system delays booting by approx 2mins. The delay
> occurs just after DMI pool data and just before the OS
> (XPsp1) begings to load i.e. before boot options like
> safe mode etc appear. The problem seems to have arisen
> spontaneously on a system that seemed problem-free
> previously. There are no obvious hardware difficulties or
> problems that I can detect beyond this. The disc itself
> checks out and shows no errors under chkdsk or hard disk
> diagnostics
> Reinstalling (repair mode) didnt help.
> I have checked boot.ini and the xp start up files (as far
> as feel able to) The
> hard drive light is on during this time (as if it is
> scanning or looking for something - similar to running
> bootcfg utility.
> The fault does not occur on another hard drive. So I am
> thinking it must be corrupt or problemmatic boot-loader
> processes?
> Dont think its sp1 related as it worked fine till recently
> I am completely stumped!
> The system is a via kt400 chipset (ga-vax) with 640ram
> 2600+AMD

[Paul Woodsford]

Try a Microsoft program called Bootvis.
Start Bootvis-Tools-Optimise

Bootvis can either be found via a Google Search or here ( its on 31 of the
lines )

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

--
Paul Woodsford
Remove ****NOSPAMPLEASE**** to Reply
"R. C. White" > wrote in message
...
> Hi, Joe.
>
> If the delay is before WinXP even begins to load, then the problem must be
> in your hardware and BIOS settings, rather than in Windows. Perhaps your
> computer is looking for a device or drive that you've removed and taking a
> long time to realize that it's not here anymore. My computer takes a long
> time before starting to load Windows because it first has to load my SCSI
> BIOS, then find my SCSI HD, then load the Highpoint RAID BIOS, then the 2
of
> a possible 4 IDE HDs attached to that controller - and then it can finally
> start to load Windows. Did you perhaps forget to tell it to NOT boot from
> CD-ROM? Maybe it's looking for a bootable CD in that drive?
>
> Or, as you may fear, your HD might have problems and the system has to
> re-try some failing sectors several times to get a good read of your
Windows
> files. :>(
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
>
> "joe miller" > wrote in message
> ...
> > When attempted start-up..
> > my system delays booting by approx 2mins. The delay
> > occurs just after DMI pool data and just before the OS
> > (XPsp1) begings to load i.e. before boot options like
> > safe mode etc appear. The problem seems to have arisen
> > spontaneously on a system that seemed problem-free
> > previously. There are no obvious hardware difficulties or
> > problems that I can detect beyond this. The disc itself
> > checks out and shows no errors under chkdsk or hard disk
> > diagnostics
> > Reinstalling (repair mode) didnt help.
> > I have checked boot.ini and the xp start up files (as far
> > as feel able to) The
> > hard drive light is on during this time (as if it is
> > scanning or looking for something - similar to running
> > bootcfg utility.
> > The fault does not occur on another hard drive. So I am
> > thinking it must be corrupt or problemmatic boot-loader
> > processes?
> > Dont think its sp1 related as it worked fine till recently
> > I am completely stumped!
> > The system is a via kt400 chipset (ga-vax) with 640ram
> > 2600+AMD
>
>