4+ hour boot

[32oz]

I'm having trouble with WinXP (SP2) taking 4 to 6 hours to boot, hanging at a black screen with a flashing cursor (after post and before any of the screens with the WinXP logo) for the first few hours then it'll switch to a black screen with a white dashed bar at bottom. This started with the first reboot in setup and every reboot since. Once I get into windows I've had no issues as long as I don't reboot. In fact windows runs great, no slow downs or errors of any kind.

I've tried installing windows on two different hard drives (IDE) , with two different copies of WinXP (SP1 & SP2), checked every connection inside the case several times, disassembled to bare minimum hardware and checked and rechecked the BIOS, and the system still hangs in the exact same spot.

Anyone have any idea what maybe causing this and/or have a solution to it?

thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums As a first guess: are you using a Western Digital hard drive that has a 40-pin Parallel ATA interface? If so, and if it is on a data cable by itself, then

1) shut the computer off

2) remove the jumper cap from the jumper pins :camera: and leave it off. This sets the drive to the special Single Master setting.

3) start up the computer and see if that helped or not.


If that's not the issue, can you post a spec list for the computer (in case it could be hardware-related) and tell us if it ever worked right before, with any OS, or what the full situation is

 

[32oz]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Welcome to the Forums As a first guess: are you using a Western Digital hard drive that has a 40-pin Parallel ATA interface? If so, and if it is on a data cable by itself, then

1) shut the computer off

2) remove the jumper cap from the jumper pins :camera: and leave it off. This sets the drive to the special Single Master setting.

3) start up the computer and see if that helped or not.


If that's not the issue, can you post a spec list for the computer (in case it could be hardware-related) and tell us if it ever worked right before, with any OS, or what the full situation is

No, I'm not using a Western Digital HD (full specs are in my signature)...
This is an entirely new system (home built) thus the first time an OS install has been attempted on the system. Memtest is on its fifth pass without a single error. As I said, once into Windows the system runs great, it?s just getting there that?s the issue. I can download and install drivers/updated, use the cd rom, download and watch videos and ext without a hitch. But the second I reboot the system stalls for 4+ hours?

 

[gerwen]

You could try Microsoft BootVis. It may show you what is being loaded that stalls for so long.

 

[merk]

This stall occurs before you can even select to boot into safe mode correct?

Did the stall occur when you booted off the xp install cd? You said with the first reboot... so i assume that means it booted off the cd correctly.

If so, and if you feel like taking the time, i'd suggest trying to download any version of linux, install it and see if that also hangs on boot. If it does, then you can pretty much assume its a hardware problem and nothing to do with windows.

My impression is it is hardware, since it sounds like the problem occurs before windows even really starts loading, unless my first question above is incorrect.

I assume you've checked the bios settings? Disabled any memory tests or anything like that? Any bios updates available for your board? What about updated chipset drivers?

 

[32oz]

Originally posted by: merk
This stall occurs before you can even select to boot into safe mode correct?

correct!

Did the stall occur when you booted off the xp install cd? You said with the first reboot... so i assume that means it booted off the cd correctly.

correct, it boots off the win install cd just fine.

I assume you've checked the bios settings? Disabled any memory tests or anything like that? Any bios updates available for your board? What about updated chipset drivers?

BIOS and chipset drivers are up to date and setting are correct with mem tests disabled.

I figure that it is in fact hardware and have narrowed it down to memory (passes memtest98 with just one error w/ 6 passes), video card, CPU, HD (not likely since I've tried 2 different HDs) or MB. Although one would think if it were the mem, video card, CPU, or MB that Windows wouldn't run at all or with many errors.

 

[merk]

I had a memory problem a while back - cant remember that the symptoms were - however i think i used something other then memtest to find it. I believe there's a tool somewhere on MS's site for testing memory. i think i used that, and that found an error when memtest did not. And after replacing the memory, my problems went away. So you might want to try searching the MS KB articles for memory test and see if that tells you anything more informative.

Is it just one stick of memory or two? if two, try moving them to different slots or maybe running with just one stick. If you have another stick of memory, try that. Its also possible its something faulty on the mobo itself. Might want to try contacting whoever you bought the parts from and see if they can offer any help. I've purchased from mwave.com in the past and when i had problems, they offered some help and eventually replaced a mobo that we decided was faulty.

 

[jim1976]

It seems like a problem that is realised with some PATA HDDs and optical drives and the Jmicron controller or even the Intel IDE controller..

I myself can't use (with a similar problem like yours) my PATA 40gb WD so I removed it. Also both my optical drives work in PIO mode no matter what I tried or whether I had put them in Jmicron or Intel controller..

Or it is just the ASUx boards that don't work well with these controllers and some PATA devices.. The sure thing is that I 'll never have ASUS as my top of the line choice for sure.. Too many issues with their latest boards..

 

[gerwen]

My question is: How did you even discover that it takes four hours to boot? You must have a metric ton of patience. If it was me, i'd have assumed it wasn't booting after a minute or two.

I'm starting to wonder about a hard drive i replaced a few years back in relation to what jim1976 said.

 

[32oz]

Originally posted by: gerwen
My question is: How did you even discover that it takes four hours to boot? You must have a metric ton of patience. If it was me, i'd have assumed it wasn't booting after a minute or two.

At first like you or anyone with an ounce of sense, I just figured it wasn't booting and kept messing around with connections, and reinstalling windows over and over, after awhile I said screw it and left it to run when I went to bed. When I woke the second part of the windows install process was up.

 

[32oz]

Well looks like I'm gonna have to start RMAing some of this hardware. Any suggestions where I should start?

 

[Alone]

Have you tried clearing the CMOS or updating your BIOS? I find it odd how this happens before Windows even starts to boot. I couldn't imagine it having anything to do with your RAM...

During all this, are your fans acting oddly? Do the lights on your keyboard flash? Anything happen at all?

 

[Shawn]

I'm gonna have to go with a bad hard drive.

 

[Alone]

Originally posted by: Shawn
I'm gonna have to go with a bad hard drive.

That's one of the few things that makes sense if he can boot from install/Live CD's.

 

[merk]

he said he tried different hard drives and had the same problem. so i dont think its the hard drive.

memory or mobo....i'm going with mobo. if it were memory just think it would either fail to boot completely, or there would be other problems besides the incredibly slow boot time.

 

[silverpig]

Check the hard drive jumpers, and try a different connection port for the hard drive. If that mobo has two separate controllers for the hard drives (most come with one integrated into the southbridge and one extra one from silicon image or whatever), then try to use the other controller. Maybe disable the unused on in the bios.

 

[32oz]

Originally posted by: Alone
Have you tried clearing the CMOS or updating your BIOS?

yes, I've done both...

During all this, are your fans acting oddly? Do the lights on your keyboard flash? Anything happen at all?

No everything seems fine, I can even alt ctrl delete to reboot the system.

 

[32oz]

I just wanted to thank everyone here (and several other forums) for your help, I FINALLY got it to boot correctly.

The problem was that the primary IDE port on the MB had a pin that was bent out the back of the port. I bent it back into place, but it still wouldn't boot from that port. I believe this was a manufacture mishap since I'm pretty sure it was like that when I got the MB. As well the cables I got with the MB and the new hard drive seem to be bad. I used an old cable I had laying around in the secondary port and the system booted within seconds, but the new cables wouldn't.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: 32oz
I just wanted to thank everyone here (and several other forums) for your help, I FINALLY got it to boot correctly.

The problem was that the primary IDE port on the MB had a pin that was bent out the back of the port. I bent it back into place, but it still wouldn't boot from that port. I believe this was a manufacture mishap since I'm pretty sure it was like that when I got the MB. As well the cables I got with the MB and the new hard drive seem to be bad. I used an old cable I had laying around in the secondary port and the system booted within seconds, but the new cables wouldn't.

Man, crappy problem to have. Kudo's on discovering that and good luck getting it RMA'd!

 

[SickNic]

Sometimes, when I boot with my ipod or external hard drive plugged in, the boot takes an unbelievable long. It's probably not your problem, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.