Slow boot up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Erwin
  • Start date Start date
E

Erwin

Recently my laptop started booting up incredibly slow (about 10-15
minutes). It originally took maybe 1 minute to boot up.

THE SYSTEM:
HP ZE 5000 laptop, 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive,Windows XP Pro.

THE PROBLEM:
When I turn on the PC it displays the HP symbol and then a black
screen and then it hangs there for 10-15 minutes and depending on
configuration it can hang for hours. After this initial hanging it
works fine. Also, the Recovery CDs (which happen to be XP HOME) will
not install on my laptop.

DETAILS:
I've tried reinstalling Windows several times and I've contacted HP
support (which in retrospect was a waste of my time). I have
reinstalled Windows XP Pro and the only problem that I have is that it
takes several minutes on the reboots. After installation I can fix the
reboot problem by installing the drivers from the Recovery CD for this
laptop (which is for XP Home). After installing the drivers the laptop
seems to boot up fine. BTW, after several reinstallations, I've
discovered that no one single driver seems to fix the problem every
time. If I install SP1 or SP2 the boot up time increases to either
10-15 minutes or several hours. Recently I decided to give up on the
Service packs and I turned off automatic updates and I tried to use a
configuration that worked. After about a week the laptop stated to
have the problem again.


My guess is that it's a hardware issue. Even though I've run the
diagnostics program on the recovery CD but it did not discover any
hardware issues.

Any suggestions?
 
The problem is back :( I tried bootvis to no avail. The boot up starts
hanging on a black screen for several hours after display the HP
monochrome screen. It doesn't start running normal until it gets to the
blue screen. Bootvis worked for a week. I'm running win XP pro SP2.
I've previously tried reinstalling the OS several times and the problem
comes back after awhile.

Any suggestions?
 
Hi Erwin,

Without being familiar with your previous post/thread:

Resources for Troubleshooting Startup Problems in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308041&Product=winxp

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=815411
http://www.labmice.net/WindowsXP/TroubleshootingXP/startup.htm

Windows XP Crashed? Here's Help
http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/03_mar/tutorials/cw_boot_toot.htm

Bootup Problems

How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP
How to Use Clean Boot Troubleshooting for Windows XP
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_conflicts.htm

--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
 
Thanks for the info Kelly,

Those were great links, but it didn't help me.
The laptop runs incredibly slow until it gets past the monochrome
screens. Once it gets a color screen it runs normal.

I tried modifying the boot.ini through MSCONFIG and each message took
forever to pop up. No error messages though. After several hours it
booted into safe mode.

I did leave out something with the original message. The original 40GB
hard drive had crashed. I replaced it with a 80GB Hitachi hard drive.
The BIOS will let me change the Type (auto, user, etc.), cylinders,
heads, sectors, Multi-Sector Transfers, LBA Mode, 32 bit i/o, transfer
mode and ultra dma mode. Right now I have the Type set to Auto.
 
Kelly thanks for the great links.

Unfortunately none of them seemed to help. I noticed that when I
changed the boot.ini in MSCONFIG that each message took a long time
before displaying. No error messages though.

I just noticed that I failed to add that the problems occurred after
installing a new hard drive. The old 40GB harddrive crashed. I bought a
Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 (HTS548080M9AT00) 80GB drive as a replacement.
The BIOS is set for "AUTO" and HP support told me that this drive
should work with the ZE5000. The settings in BIOS that I can change are
Type (Auto, User, etc.), Cylinders, heads, sectors, Muli-sector
Transfers, LBA mode control, 32 bit I/O, Transfer mode and ultra dma
mode. Hitachi only gives settings for Cylinder, heads, and sectors.
 
Problem could be the operating mode of the IDE controller.
XP uses Mode Step down when errors occur on a drive. You
should open Device Manager, IDE/ATAP controllers, Primary
,Advanced and see what UDMA mode the drive is running at.
If it says PIO, then it's stepped back to the lowest operating
value. A new drive should be at UDMA Mode 4 or 5.
BIOS will properly AUTO detect the drive as long as it's using
LBA (Logical Block Addressing).
 
Kelly thanks for the great links.

Unfortunately none of them seemed to help. I noticed that when I
changed the boot.ini in MSCONFIG that each message took a long time
before displaying. No error messages though.

I just noticed that I failed to add that the problems occurred after
installing a new hard drive. The old 40GB harddrive crashed. I bought a
Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 (HTS548080M9AT00) 80GB drive as a replacement.
The BIOS is set for "AUTO" and HP support told me that this drive
should work with the ZE5000. The settings in BIOS that I can change are
Type (Auto, User, etc.), Cylinders, heads, sectors, Muli-sector
Transfers, LBA mode control, 32 bit I/O, Transfer mode and ultra dma
mode. Hitachi only gives settings for Cylinder, heads, and sectors.
 
Kelly thanks for the great links.

Unfortunately none of them seemed to help. I noticed that when I
changed the boot.ini in MSCONFIG that each message took a long time
before displaying. No error messages though.

I just noticed that I failed to add that the problems occurred after
installing a new hard drive. The old 40GB harddrive crashed. I bought a
Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 (HTS548080M9AT00) 80GB drive as a replacement.
The BIOS is set for "AUTO" and HP support told me that this drive
should work with the ZE5000. The settings in BIOS that I can change are
Type (Auto, User, etc.), Cylinders, heads, sectors, Muli-sector
Transfers, LBA mode control, 32 bit I/O, Transfer mode and ultra dma
mode. Hitachi only gives settings for Cylinder, heads, and sectors.
R. McCarty,

UDMA is at 6. Thanks.
 
Kelly thanks for the great links.

Unfortunately none of them seemed to help. I noticed that when I
changed the boot.ini in MSCONFIG that each message took a long time
before displaying. No error messages though.

I just noticed that I failed to add that the problems occurred after
installing a new hard drive. The old 40GB harddrive crashed. I bought a
Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 (HTS548080M9AT00) 80GB drive as a replacement.
The BIOS is set for "AUTO" and HP support told me that this drive
should work with the ZE5000. The settings in BIOS that I can change are
Type (Auto, User, etc.), Cylinders, heads, sectors, Muli-sector
Transfers, LBA mode control, 32 bit I/O, Transfer mode and ultra dma
mode. Hitachi only gives settings for Cylinder, heads, and sectors.
R. McCarty,

UDMA is at 6. Thanks.
 
I'm sorry about the multiple responses. I didn't see them post for a
few hours so I posted again.
 
I believe that I figured it out. My new hard drive is a 5600 RPM drive
while the old one that crashed was 4200 RPM. My laptop runs pretty hot
when using the 5600 RPM and the heat is too much for the hard drive
and/or laptop. I went and picked up a 4200 RPM drive and all of my
booting problems were gone. Even the Recovery CD worked.

So my solution will be to trade my 80GB 5600 RPM drive for an 80GB 4200
RPM drive.

Thanks for the help.
 

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