slow boot

[Bryan]

Server is a ML370G2 RAID 5 array with 4 36.4 GB drives. OS is 2K Advanced
Server.

A technician rebooted the server because of slow system performance. The
system failed to boot, displaying a message that NTLDR could not be found.
I booted to the 2K Setup CD to go into the recovery console. There was a
delay of about 40 minutes for the recovery console to prompt for
administrator password. I restored the NTLDR from the CD and restarted.
Again, the boot seemed to hang, so I ran a chkdsk from the recovery console.
After fixing several errors the chkdsk completed. I discovered that one of
the phsyical disks in the array was failing. The drive was replaced and the
array controller rebuilt the volume.

After replacing the drive, we still have a bootup problem. POST completes
and the server hangs right at the beginning of the boot. The screen is
blank. After about 20 minutes we see the boot startup screen.

Once the system completes the boot, performance is normal.

Tonight, I am going to do a "fixmbr" from the recovery console. I am a
little nervous about the warning message, but a KB article states that as
long as the system is virus free, a fixmbr can be done sucessfully.

Am I on the right track fixing the mbr?

 

[Dave Patrick]

Why are you going to fixmbr? The file system may now be damaged (especially
if the failed disk was kicked back online). What Event Viewer errors are
generated?

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Server is a ML370G2 RAID 5 array with 4 36.4 GB drives. OS is 2K
Advanced
| Server.
|
| A technician rebooted the server because of slow system performance. The
| system failed to boot, displaying a message that NTLDR could not be found.
| I booted to the 2K Setup CD to go into the recovery console. There was a
| delay of about 40 minutes for the recovery console to prompt for
| administrator password. I restored the NTLDR from the CD and restarted.
| Again, the boot seemed to hang, so I ran a chkdsk from the recovery
console.
| After fixing several errors the chkdsk completed. I discovered that one
of
| the phsyical disks in the array was failing. The drive was replaced and
the
| array controller rebuilt the volume.
|
| After replacing the drive, we still have a bootup problem. POST completes
| and the server hangs right at the beginning of the boot. The screen is
| blank. After about 20 minutes we see the boot startup screen.
|
| Once the system completes the boot, performance is normal.
|
| Tonight, I am going to do a "fixmbr" from the recovery console. I am a
| little nervous about the warning message, but a KB article states that as
| long as the system is virus free, a fixmbr can be done sucessfully.
|
| Am I on the right track fixing the mbr?
|
|

 

[RPJK support]

Thanks for the reply.

No event errors are generated. Disk checks show that the file system is in
good shape. The only symptom is the boot takes 20 minutes. This is before
the boot menu is displayed and before the "Windows 2000 is starting up" is
displayed. It just hangs at a blank screen for 20 minutes.

 

[Bryan]

Previous post was done by Bryan. I was at a different computer and forgot
the name was different.

 

[Bryan]

I just did the fixmbr and it did not help the problem. Just to clarify,
after POST, BIOS starts the boot. It goes through the boot order and states
"Attempting to boot from CD-ROM", then the screen displays "Attempting to
boot from drive c:" This is part of the normal boot process. Then it hangs
for 20 minutes. After the delay, "Starting Windows" is displayed with the
normal scroll bar. Everything is normal after that. The part of the boot
process that has the 20 minute delay, normally takes a fraction of a second.

Bryan

 

[Dave Patrick]

If the event logs are empty then the *.evt files may be corrupt. It is
sounding more like some hardware failure. Possibly the drive controller or
mobo or maybe even RAM

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I just did the fixmbr and it did not help the problem. Just to clarify,
| after POST, BIOS starts the boot. It goes through the boot order and
states
| "Attempting to boot from CD-ROM", then the screen displays "Attempting to
| boot from drive c:" This is part of the normal boot process. Then it
hangs
| for 20 minutes. After the delay, "Starting Windows" is displayed with the
| normal scroll bar. Everything is normal after that. The part of the boot
| process that has the 20 minute delay, normally takes a fraction of a
second.
|
| Bryan

 

[Hank Arnold]

Do you have a UPS and software installed to shut down the server? I can't
remember off hand which one (others may chip in), but one version of the
software "expired" and caused massive delays to boot times.

If you do have this software installed, try googling for problems related to
boot times...

 

[Dave Patrick]

That'd be these ones.

http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=7202

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555386/


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Do you have a UPS and software installed to shut down the server? I can't
| remember off hand which one (others may chip in), but one version of the
| software "expired" and caused massive delays to boot times.
|
| If you do have this software installed, try googling for problems related
to
| boot times...
|
| --
| Regards,
| Hank Arnold

 

[Bryan]

The event logs are not empty. There are just the normal informational
messages. For example, there are several entries that appear when windows
starts, such as the "event log service is started." Those are informational
messages, are normal, and are not very relevant to a boot problem. There
are a few warning errors (the red circle with the white X) however, they are
related to other services. They might be relevant if for example there were
a disk controller error. There is a DNS error, for example. DNS services
are not loaded until the last step of the boot process, so I doubt this is
relevant.

I initially thought this was hardware related, and did find that a drive had
failed. However, we have since replaced the drive and now we can find no
evidence of a hardware problem. I have talked to HP about this extensively,
we have ran their diagnostic software. There is absolutely no indication
of a hardware problem. Also, and here is a big clue: The server runs
without any problems (except for a DNS error) once it has booted. If we had
a motherboard or memory problem, one would think that it would reveal itself
while the OS is fully loaded. not only during boot.

Anyway, it might help to review how the boot process works in NT and later
versions of windows:
1. BIOS is directed to a mass storage device and loads the MBR
2. MBR is directed to NTLDR.
3. Boot.ini
4. NTDETECT
5. NTBOOTDD.SYS
6. NTOSKRNL.EXE
7. HAL.DLL
8. Winlogin.exe
9. LSASS.EXE

The event log is not cable of recording errors anytime before step 6, and
this problem is occuring. before step 4. I know this because if NTDETECT
was loading, something would appear on the screen.

Also, note that the same problem occurs when loading the recovery console
off the CD. The recovery console, as you may know, has to find a valid
windows installation. The recovery console loads, and while it is searching
for a valid installation, we have the 20 minute delay, then it loads and
works with no problem. One might be thinking, this clearly looks like a
controller or drive failure; however, keep in mind that the server runs fine
with no problems after it boots. So the question is what is the recovery
console looking for, does it just have to find NTOSKRNL, or does it examine
the MBR? The login is the first think displayed in the recovery console
after the 20 minutes delay, so is it loading the SAM? If the SAM was
corrupt, you would think we would have other problems logging in.

If the event logs are empty then the *.evt files may be corrupt. It is
sounding more like some hardware failure. Possibly the drive controller or
mobo or maybe even RAM

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I just did the fixmbr and it did not help the problem. Just to clarify,
| after POST, BIOS starts the boot. It goes through the boot order and
states
| "Attempting to boot from CD-ROM", then the screen displays "Attempting
to
| boot from drive c:" This is part of the normal boot process. Then it
hangs
| for 20 minutes. After the delay, "Starting Windows" is displayed with
the
| normal scroll bar. Everything is normal after that. The part of the
boot
| process that has the 20 minute delay, normally takes a fraction of a
second.
|
| Bryan