windows very very slow startup (1 Viewer)

[shortfuse]

Hi All
Hoping someone could give me an idea what the problem could be with an old computer I'm trying to revive.
It takes about 40 to 50 minutes to start up , once started it works fine ,press restart and it takes another 40 to 50 minutes.
I've reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows XP , increased the memory to 1 gig and it has an Athlon 2.4 CPU . Shut down is very fast-just a couple of seconds .
When you press start it goes through the usual self test beeps then the screen goes blank. After anout 10 minutes a bar shows on the botton of the screen and very slowly "fills in" over the next 30 minutes , then Windows finally starts

Thanks for reading this ( takes me longer to type this than the old computer takes to start )
regards sf

 

[GJH]

Initial thought is some problem with memory. Are all the DIMMs seated properly? Is it the correct type of memory for the motherboard (e.g. not PC133 when it should be PC100)?

Second thought - check what programs and other services are included in start-up and disable them unless needed.

Graham

 

[Maurice & Val]

Try resetting the bios to defaults. I had a similiar problem a while back on an old base pc and it turned out the bios was corrupt. Removed the on-board battery, waited a while and reset it. Worked fine after that.

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[Jim]

Disable stuff at start up, follow this tutorial and see if it makes a difference. TBH though I suspect you may have a hard disk on the way out.

 

[shortfuse]

Many thanks for the replies , the memory seems ok and is showing as i gig when checked and the start up is more or less empty as its a clean install .Wish I knew more about computers. I was wondering about the hard disc but it goes fine when it finally gets going. So I'm off to try the bios and try my luck there
thanks again
regards sf

 

[Dodgey]

Daft as it sounds, have you got an anti virus program installed?

We had Norton and it took our machine 20-30mins to get going, removed and went to avg free and it's now about 5 mins, modern software/old PC?

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[Jim]

At what stage does it appear to hang, would it be "Loading Personal Settings"

 

[wivvy's dad]

Not quite in the same vein, but I thought I'd share this with the good folk here.....

http://www.rapidrise.org//showthread.php?t=78714

This shows you how to speed up Vista and Win7 by utilising all of the cores in those multi-core processors we spend so much money on.
Did you know the default is to only use one core?
No? oh:

Neither did I. Follow the tips from the above link, and hey presto.

Even works with XP.........................:thumb::thumb::thumb:

 

[shortfuse]

Hi Again
There is nothing loaded apart from the basic windows XL .the machine will not be connected to the internet so anti virus not required I never got the chance to try the bios yet as we have visitors round to see about my sons upcoming wedding:Sad: the minute they leave I'll give it a try
regadrs again sf

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[scotjimland]

Hi Again
There is nothing loaded apart from the basic windows XL .the machine will not be connected to the internet so anti virus not required I never got the chance to try the bios yet as we have visitors round to see about my sons upcoming wedding:Sad: the minute they leave I'll give it a try
regadrs again sf

I had this issue with a fairly new Sony and it was a dying hard drive, it final failed and was replaced under warranty

 

[acting_strange]

Not quite in the same vein, but I thought I'd share this with the good folk here.....

http://www.rapidrise.org//showthread.php?t=78714

This shows you how to speed up Vista and Win7 by utilising all of the cores in those multi-core processors we spend so much money on.
Did you know the default is to only use one core?
No? oh:

Neither did I. Follow the tips from the above link, and hey presto.

Even works with XP.........................:thumb::thumb::thumb:

Oh dear it needs a log in......grrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[wivvy's dad]

Oh dear it needs a log in......grrrrrrrrrrrr

Sorry 'bout dat, but worth registering anyway.
It's a bit long-winded to try and explain the malarkey here, which I why I put up the link.

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