40 sec. pause after drivers load

[281 cu. in.]

SETUP: Windows 2000 Professional SP4, IE6. External 56K Corporate Courier
modem. Many programs. This problem was present before any updates and
installs to the system.

my boot.ini has /sos switch for the operating system, to display extended
info

As my computer boots up, after all drivers are loaded (/sos switch) it shows
a graphical screen with message "Windows 2000 Professional ... 1 system
processor, 1024 MB memory, etc". Right after it shows it it pauses for
about 40 seconds, no hard drive activity, nothing output on screen. After
this delay, available drives are shown (/sos switch), modem flashes the
lights (initializes, or responds to COM request), lights on keyboard flash
(initializes), in other words boot up process continues as it should.

I used to have a CDRW as a second master on first IDE card, however it went
bad and I got rid of it, and this started to happen. I got rid of it before
I reinstalled the whole OS (erase disk, partitions, the whole 9 yards).

What's up with this? What causing this? Is this normal? How to fix this?
Please help.


Alex

P.S. If you don't have /sos switch in boot.ini, you would see only dots
displayed as drivers load, in such a case a 40 sec. delay would occur when
the dots get to the middle of the screen.

 

[Frank Reichenbacher]

SETUP: Windows 2000 Professional SP4, IE6. External 56K Corporate Courier
modem. Many programs. This problem was present before any updates and
installs to the system.

my boot.ini has /sos switch for the operating system, to display extended
info

As my computer boots up, after all drivers are loaded (/sos switch) it shows
a graphical screen with message "Windows 2000 Professional ... 1 system
processor, 1024 MB memory, etc". Right after it shows it it pauses for
about 40 seconds, no hard drive activity, nothing output on screen. After
this delay, available drives are shown (/sos switch), modem flashes the
lights (initializes, or responds to COM request), lights on keyboard flash
(initializes), in other words boot up process continues as it should.

I used to have a CDRW as a second master on first IDE card, however it went
bad and I got rid of it, and this started to happen. I got rid of it before
I reinstalled the whole OS (erase disk, partitions, the whole 9 yards).

What's up with this? What causing this? Is this normal? How to fix this?
Please help.

Does the Secondary IDE in the BIOS show "None"? Is the CD Drive set as the
first boot device in BIOS?

Frank

 

[Wolf Kirchmeir]

That's the way IDE tests for master and slave devices. You could try jumpering
the master drive to cable select, but I'm just guessing.

Best way is to have one drive master and the other slave. "Slave" does not
mean that it's controlled from or in any way connected to the "master." It's
just the way BIOS looks at the drives. The master should be at the end of the
cable. AFAIK, _both_ drives must be set to cable select for that to work.



--
Best Wishes,
Wolf Kirchmeir, Blind River ON
"Not that brains are everything --
you'll also need a skull to put them in." (Nancy Franklin, 1997)
<just one w and plain ca for correct address>

 

[281 cu. in.]

Does the Secondary IDE in the BIOS show "None"? Is the CD Drive set as the

first boot device in BIOS?

Secondary IDE in BIOS shows None.

My IDE Setup:

Biostar M7VIB on board ATA100 controller:

Primary Master -- MAXTOR 6.4 GB 5400 RPM Hard drive. SET AS MASTER
Primary Slave -- 52x CD drive. SET AS SLAVE
Secondary Master -- none
Secondary Slave -- Zip250. SET AS SLAVE


Siig ATA133 PCI card:

Primary Master -- Wester Digital 60 GB 7200 RPM Hard drive. SET AS SINGLE
Primary Slave --
Secondary Master -- none
Secondary Slave -- none


I used to have on ATA100 secondary slave a CDRW, it was set as MASTER.
However, it went bad, and I got rid of it and reinstalled Windows. Windows
desided to give me this 40 sec. deley from the very start. I even
reinstalled it two more times, nothing. I am still getting this 40 sec.
deley. What's up?


Alex

 

[281 cu. in.]

That's the way IDE tests for master and slave devices. You could try
jumpering

the master drive to cable select, but I'm just guessing.

I'll try anything. Right now all my drives are set manually for MASTER or
SLAVE, I don't use cable select, but I could. What difference could that
make?


Alex

 

[281 cu. in.]

Best way is to have one drive master and the other slave. "Slave" does not

mean that it's controlled from or in any way connected to the "master." It's
just the way BIOS looks at the drives. The master should be at the end of the
cable. AFAIK, _both_ drives must be set to cable select for that to work.

There is two types of cable, 128 pin and 80 pin I think. One for up to
ATA66 and the other for ATA100 and above. I have the other for ATA100 and
above, for all my drives. For the first type of cable doesn't matter where
you put master and slave, but it is costomary to put master in the middle
and slave at the end. For the second type (ATA100+ what I have) you put
master at the end. I know this stuff and everything is set as it should.

IN FACT

Before I got rid of my CDRW drive everything was booting really fast. That
is after my drivers loaded, drives were listed and that's it, I was in my
CTRL + ALT + DEL screen in no time, no 40 sec. deley. See my previous reply
to Frank Reichenbacker, I listed my setup for two ATA adapter, onboard and
PCI.


Alex

 

[Frank]

281 cu. in. wrote:
|| Does the Secondary IDE in the BIOS show "None"? Is the CD Drive set
|| as the first boot device in BIOS?
||
|
| Secondary IDE in BIOS shows None.
|
| My IDE Setup:
|
| Biostar M7VIB on board ATA100 controller:
|
| Primary Master -- MAXTOR 6.4 GB 5400 RPM Hard drive. SET AS MASTER
| Primary Slave -- 52x CD drive. SET AS SLAVE
| Secondary Master -- none
| Secondary Slave -- Zip250. SET AS SLAVE
|
|
| Siig ATA133 PCI card:
|
| Primary Master -- Wester Digital 60 GB 7200 RPM Hard drive. SET AS
| SINGLE Primary Slave --
| Secondary Master -- none
| Secondary Slave -- none
|
|
| I used to have on ATA100 secondary slave a CDRW, it was set as MASTER.
| However, it went bad, and I got rid of it and reinstalled Windows.
| Windows desided to give me this 40 sec. deley from the very start. I
| even reinstalled it two more times, nothing. I am still getting this
| 40 sec. deley. What's up?
|
|
| Alex

Windows is hunting for something. Try this. Go into control panel
add and remove hardware -- show hidden devices remove any drive
that is not there.

 

[Geoffw]

are the drives described in the bios ? or is the bios set to
auto find the drives, this could cause the delay

Geoff

 

[281 cu. in.]

You have things a bit confused. Master drives should go at the End of

the cable. If there is ONLY ONE drive it should be set as MASTER(or
SINGLE for one manufacturer). IDE cables come in 2 flavors, 40 conductor
and 80 conductor. My guess is that the operating system is seeing the
SLAVE and hunting for the expected MASTER and finally timing out and
that is your 40 sec.

It could be this. Since it was fine when I had there a MASTER cdrw. Now I
have there only ZIP and as a SLAVE. I'll swap it to master position and see
what happens. I did not do this from the very beggining because I thought
I'd get me another cdrw, but it turned out to be deleyed for a while.

Thanx,



Alex