ok for some reason, my desktop started acting up earlier. Im on my laptop hence is why im online. For some reason, Windows XP boots up VERY slow, I mean literally almost 3-5 mins. It goes through its usual routine in the beginning and then after it check to boot from the floppy or CD ROM, it just sits at a blank screen for a few mins, then the XP Boot screen comes up. Afterwards, the computer works fine after it boots up. Here are the specs on my comp: 800 Mhz Athlon TBird 384 MB of memory (3 sticks of 128) 2 HD, a 20 gig and 30 gig ABit Mobo Running XP Pro for about a year. It came up fine within may be a 1 min and half at the most, but it takes forever now. Running out of ideas on what it may be.
turn your computer off right now!!! J/K have you installed any software/services lately? can you hear the sound of metal scraping metal in your machine (j/k2)
Dave, The first thing I would to is, once you are in Windows, click the start button and click run. Type in msconfig and hit OK. Then click the startup tab. Check out how many programs are checked. If you notice any programs that are checked, but that you dont use or need, un-check them. Alot of the time, you can have too many processes in startup which kind of bogs down your computer while its loading them. That is the 1st thing I would do. Hope it helps.
Codell's suggestion is the best way to go. If that however, does not work go into Windows and just use the system restore function on XP and take it back to a point a few days/weeks ago where it wasnt giving you problems and just restore it. Might be worth a try.
It it slow before or after you login? What I mean is where is it lagging really bad, in the boot up before you actually get into windows or after you have entered your password and you are waiting for the desktop to load? If it is before you actually login I would think that it is a hardware issue, after you login then I would say it is something in windows itself. Have you done any windows updates, driver updates or software installs? Also any hardware installs lately. I haven't used the system restore, let me know how that goes, if you try it. When did the problem start?
Ok, I tried the msconfig thing last night, I disabled all of the third party software i just dont give a damn about (real player update, quicktime taskbar, etc...) and just left the obiovous ones check (windows files, Norton, etc...). Still the same thing. Just tried to do the system restore from Tuesday, and still did the same thing. I did a search on Google on this issue and they mentioned that it could be the network card because I am on a network (have it networked with this laptop), so I disabled it, and still had the same issue. Anything else? Sonny: It goes through its usual stuff in the beginning, check memory, CD Roms, and my 2 hard drives. Then after it notices that I am not booting from my hard drives and my floppy, it starts up XP but has a blank screen for literally 2-3 mins before the XP boot screen comes up (not the logon screen). After it comes up, I can logon just fine and works perfectly from there. The only thing is that my father said that it has been freezeing alot lately. My first guess on that is the memory, but havent ruled out anything else. Thanks guys in advance.
That is exactly what I would say. Memory. Try taking out 2 of the three chips, just boot on one 128mb chip. If it still does it, replace it with one of the other chips. Try every chip. With the "freezing" problems, memory seems like the culprit. If this doesn't solve it I would think that the motherboard may have issues. Have you tried any BIOS updates?
Hmm, Ill try the memory thing. I havent update the BIOS of the motherboard since I have had it. Would that make any difference?
Try the memory test first. I was just throwing out ideas with the BIOS question. Sometimes it does help a lot to update the BIOS if you are having hardware issues.
