Extremly slow boot time

[Mike]

Hi

I have a problem with a machine that I hope someone can help with.

A client called earlier this week to say that her machine would not boot. When I called in to see the machine it was going through the boot process but after an hour it had still not fully started.
At this point I did a hard shut down and brought the machine into work to fix what I thought would be a simple problem.

The machine has an Abit AW8 mainboard, according to Abit's site this board takes an Intel LGA 775 955x Pentium 4 processor, which I assume is the one that is installed.
Memory is Corsair Value Select (2 x 512 Mb).
It is also running Raid 1.

So far I've powered the machine with a new power supply with the mirrored drive disconnected and the optical drive disconnected as well.
I've connected both drives to another machine and ran anti virus scans on the drives and there are no virus' or malware on them.
I've checked the memory with MemTest 86+ and it does not have any errors.
The machine is still as it was.
The only other thing I can think of that could be causing this slow boot time would be a faulty mainboard, does anyone think this is so, or am I missing something obvious.

When I suggested a reinstall of Windows she was dead set against this until all other options were exhausted.

I do not know a great deal about Raid but I assume that if I do a clean install on her main drive I can restore to a previous state from the mirrored drive, not asking that question here and will read up on Raid before going there.

Sorry for using the web interface as opposed to a newsreader but I'm using a Linux machine and haven't set up a newsreader yet.

Hope someone can throw some light on what might be going on here.

Mike

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

One notes that you've made no reference whatsoever to an anti-virus
application in your post.

See...

Help! My computer is slow!
http://miekiemoes.blogspot.com/2008/02/help-my-computer-is-slow.html

Troubleshooting checklist for a slow computer
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic44694.html

What to do if your Computer is running slowly
http://www.malwareremoval.com/tutorials/runningslowly.php


Mike wrote:
> Hi
>
> I have a problem with a machine that I hope someone can help with.
>
> A client called earlier this week to say that her machine would not boot.
> When I called in to see the machine it was going through the boot process
> but after an hour it had still not fully started.
> At this point I did a hard shut down and brought the machine into work to
> fix what I thought would be a simple problem.
>
> The machine has an Abit AW8 mainboard, according to Abit's site this board
> takes an Intel LGA 775 955x Pentium 4 processor, which I assume is the one
> that is installed.
> Memory is Corsair Value Select (2 x 512 Mb).
> It is also running Raid 1.
>
> So far I've powered the machine with a new power supply with the mirrored
> drive disconnected and the optical drive disconnected as well.
> I've connected both drives to another machine and ran anti virus scans on
> the drives and there are no virus' or malware on them.
> I've checked the memory with MemTest 86+ and it does not have any errors.
> The machine is still as it was.
> The only other thing I can think of that could be causing this slow boot
> time would be a faulty mainboard, does anyone think this is so, or am I
> missing something obvious.
>
> When I suggested a reinstall of Windows she was dead set against this
> until
> all other options were exhausted.
>
> I do not know a great deal about Raid but I assume that if I do a clean
> install on her main drive I can restore to a previous state from the
> mirrored drive, not asking that question here and will read up on Raid
> before going there.
>
> Sorry for using the web interface as opposed to a newsreader but I'm using
> a Linux machine and haven't set up a newsreader yet.
>
> Hope someone can throw some light on what might be going on here.
>
> Mike

 

[Unknown]

Unclear. Does it boot at all? Can you boot in safe mode?
"Mike" <user@msgroups.net/> wrote in message
news:eugBhVURLHA.796@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hi
>
> I have a problem with a machine that I hope someone can help with.
>
> A client called earlier this week to say that her machine would not boot.
> When I called in to see the machine it was going through the boot process
> but after an hour it had still not fully started.
> At this point I did a hard shut down and brought the machine into work to
> fix what I thought would be a simple problem.
>
> The machine has an Abit AW8 mainboard, according to Abit's site this board
> takes an Intel LGA 775 955x Pentium 4 processor, which I assume is the one
> that is installed.
> Memory is Corsair Value Select (2 x 512 Mb).
> It is also running Raid 1.
>
> So far I've powered the machine with a new power supply with the mirrored
> drive disconnected and the optical drive disconnected as well.
> I've connected both drives to another machine and ran anti virus scans on
> the drives and there are no virus' or malware on them.
> I've checked the memory with MemTest 86+ and it does not have any errors.
> The machine is still as it was.
> The only other thing I can think of that could be causing this slow boot
> time would be a faulty mainboard, does anyone think this is so, or am I
> missing something obvious.
>
> When I suggested a reinstall of Windows she was dead set against this
> until all other options were exhausted.
>
> I do not know a great deal about Raid but I assume that if I do a clean
> install on her main drive I can restore to a previous state from the
> mirrored drive, not asking that question here and will read up on Raid
> before going there.
>
> Sorry for using the web interface as opposed to a newsreader but I'm using
> a Linux machine and haven't set up a newsreader yet.
>
> Hope someone can throw some light on what might be going on here.
>
> Mike
>
>

 

[Daave]

Mike wrote:
> Hi
>
> I have a problem with a machine that I hope someone can help with.
>
> A client called earlier this week to say that her machine would not
> boot. When I called in to see the machine it was going through the
> boot process but after an hour it had still not fully started.
> At this point I did a hard shut down and brought the machine into
> work to fix what I thought would be a simple problem.
>
> The machine has an Abit AW8 mainboard, according to Abit's site this
> board takes an Intel LGA 775 955x Pentium 4 processor, which I assume
> is the one that is installed.

Never assume.

Although that particular CPU is most likely installed, it's not much
effort to verify this.

> Memory is Corsair Value Select (2 x 512 Mb).
> It is also running Raid 1.

Why?

Unless she uses this PC as a server or for "mission critical storage,
for instance for accounting systems," she might want to reconsider this.
Have her look at:

http://www.prepressure.com/library/technology/raid

> So far I've powered the machine with a new power supply with the
> mirrored drive disconnected and the optical drive disconnected as
> well.
> I've connected both drives to another machine and ran anti virus
> scans on the drives and there are no virus' or malware on them.
> I've checked the memory with MemTest 86+ and it does not have any
> errors.
> The machine is still as it was.
> The only other thing I can think of that could be causing this slow
> boot time would be a faulty mainboard, does anyone think this is so,
> or am I missing something obvious.

Is the boot time extremely long in Safe Mode, too? If you boot off a
live Linux CD, how long does that boot process take?

 

[HeyBub]

Mike wrote:
> Hi
>
> I have a problem with a machine that I hope someone can help with.
>
> A client called earlier this week to say that her machine would not
> boot. When I called in to see the machine it was going through the
> boot process but after an hour it had still not fully started.
> At this point I did a hard shut down and brought the machine into
> work to fix what I thought would be a simple problem.
>
> The machine has an Abit AW8 mainboard, according to Abit's site this
> board takes an Intel LGA 775 955x Pentium 4 processor, which I assume
> is the one that is installed.
> Memory is Corsair Value Select (2 x 512 Mb).
> It is also running Raid 1.
>
> So far I've powered the machine with a new power supply with the
> mirrored drive disconnected and the optical drive disconnected as
> well.
> I've connected both drives to another machine and ran anti virus
> scans on the drives and there are no virus' or malware on them.
> I've checked the memory with MemTest 86+ and it does not have any
> errors.
> The machine is still as it was.
> The only other thing I can think of that could be causing this slow
> boot time would be a faulty mainboard, does anyone think this is so,
> or am I missing something obvious.
>
> When I suggested a reinstall of Windows she was dead set against this
> until all other options were exhausted.
>
> I do not know a great deal about Raid but I assume that if I do a
> clean install on her main drive I can restore to a previous state
> from the mirrored drive, not asking that question here and will read
> up on Raid before going there.
>
> Sorry for using the web interface as opposed to a newsreader but I'm
> using a Linux machine and haven't set up a newsreader yet.
>
> Hope someone can throw some light on what might be going on here.
>

If it's a RAID 1 (are you sure?), the slave drive should be an exact copy [a
MIRROR], bit by bit, of the primary drive.

Try booting from the slave. If it boots okay, the problem lies with the
primary drive.