Windows XP slow boot
 

I have XP SP2. Recently it began taking a long time to finally get into Windows. It will post in the BIOS, etc...but stay at the black screen after that point for a long time. If I power down and back on I get the options to start Windows since it didn't shutdown properly. It then boots just fine.

Any ideas? I've run bootvis in the past, but can't think of anything recently that would have caused this. I keep a close eye on my startup apps to make sure as little as possible is starting up.

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

Does the event viewer show any problems? I've had my boot time increase by a lot b/c the system was trying to communicate with the router but was having problems (so basically it was waiting to timeout before continuing). I can't remember the exact error but it was like it was trying to renew the DHCP settings but couldn't. My issue showed up in the event viewer.

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

Any external drives or devices connected?

This is sort of like what happens to my system when I have my external USB hard drive connected at boot.

Disconnect all external devices and give it a try.

If that isnt it, id do a good thorough scan of your hard drive(s) and a defrag.

Flakey drives can cause this too. Any kind of drive. If you cant figure it out with the things above, unplug all your drives except your hard drive and try a boot. If it STILL does it, check the drive to make sure it isnt making any noise (strange clicks, beeps etc.).

Other than that, I dont know.

Maybe try uninstalling and reinstalling your IDE drivers?

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

Check your event viewer, and yes, make sure you don't have any USB devices connected. I've had this happen because of my iPod being plugged in.

Oh, and are you overclocking anything at all?

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

Thanks for the ideas guys. I'd already checked the Event Viewer logs and nothing out of the ordinary there. I have had a digital camera docking station attached with (via USB) with the camera usually docked but that's always been that way...ah...just thought of something. I just recently started using the USB hub capability of my Dell 2405 FPW...maybe that's the root of the problem. Thanks again guys.

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

its propobly problem with NCQ stuff, etc.
I don't know what kind of HDD you got there, but try this :

i hope this help :
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/1439/hdd27dk.th.jpg

if not, try also this :
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/2153/hdd18fb.th.jpg

greetings,

Peacemaker.

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

Mine is greyed out, so I guess my HDD doesn't support it. Or does it only show up in RAID? I only ask, because I have a single drive.

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

its working with single drive, but ussually it got some problems... yes, your WDC doesn't support NCQ, but i don't think it has any performance changes.

greetings,

Peacemaker.

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

Okay, thanks.

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

Same here, that option was ghosted for mine as well. Thanks for the info though! :cool:

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

I'm actually having a similar problem too...

The only thing I can recall that I've done (other than installing a game, but I see no reason why that would damage boot times seeing as it's on a secondary drive) is I recently ran de the home network wizard.

Is there anyway I can disable whatever I did?

Re: Windows XP slow boot
 

This recently happened to my system also. Solved my prob by going back to a former restore point. Probably caused by some apps I had installed.