XP Boot time issue.

You guys should know me by now, lol.
I have the BIOSTAR P4M900M4 mo/bo, and a new problem every day. LOL
Anyhow, you know when you turn on a computer, you get the startup bios screen? Between that and the Microsoft windows XP logo screen there's a HUGE Pause before anything loads, any ideas what could be causing this and how to go about fixin it? It's getting really annoying and the GF nags me about it constantly and says I bought another junk computer. lol.

 

Are you running Spybot Search and Destroy?

If so it is slowing it down, it happened to me also last month. I had to remove it, even with the updates.

 

yeah i had it, just removed it and restarted; no change. I noticed the problem after i first got the board and installed XP, the huge pause has always been there..

 

I'm sorry to hear that I don't have any more ideas right now. Something is slowing down the start up as if it is missing s file. Make sure that you have all updates and check the drivers. Sorry I could not be more help.

 

Ive installed all the drivers from the disc that came with the board, I don't know what else it could possibly be. I even tried downloading and installing the latest drivers from biostars website; and after - tried the biostar driver utility but it seems very faulty, it says my video and audio drivers are bad, but as i said i tried the drivers from the disc and from the site.

 

Download and install CCLeaner

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Run it.

This should really help startuo times and just general computing.

You should really be running this regularly, say once a week!

Burrell

 

How long ago did you install XP?

And how long is this Pause?

What are the boot options on your BIOStar?
Does one of the function keys lead to a bootmedia (HDD<, CD, NETWORK ETC)?

 

Yeah i use ccleaner just about every day, that's not fixin the problem, it's something else..

 

uhh 3 weeks to a month maybe, it seems like 40 seconds up to a full min. It was the first OS i put on the board; as it was new..

 

Just to be clear are you talking about the time between when the BIOS screen goes black and then the XP logo screen as XP starts loading? Or from the time the BIOS screen comes on until the XP screen as Xp starts loading?

I have that board but I put Win 7 on it. Can't be more than a sec or 2 before Win7 logo screen comes up.

On my Biostar TA790GX-128M I now have a good 15+ seconds with the BIOS screen up but I think a bad USB controller is causing it. I was using a USB to IDE adapter to transfer some files off a hard drive and I think the adapter chip died (stopped in the middle of transfer, now any drive connected to it doesn't register in Windows) and took out that front panel port on the mobo. Probably took out whatever fuse powered that connector. BIOS screen shows initializing USB controllers for a good 15+ sec before it scans the HDD and DVD drive then goes to loading Win 7.

Another note on the P4M900-M4: I have 4Gb ram in it. Win 7 shows only 2.5Gb (plus the 256mb for the onboard video) available. I read somewhere online this VIA chipset is the limiter on that. And in the graphics properties it says I can have 512mb available but the mobo's BIOS only has settings up to 256mb.

Win 7 says:

Total available graphics memory-- 512mb
Dedicated memory- 256mb
System Video memory- 10mb
Shared System memory 256mb

Not sure how it's getting those numbers. Can't be using 512mb- the graphics rating for Aero is 1. I got a 2 on the old Dell Optilpex 270 with a 128Mb AGP card in it.

Sam

 

I also read on another site about having to set IDE hard drive jumper to cable select with this board. I'd have to open mine up and check if I did that or not.

Sam

 

Ok the first screen i see which is the bios screen and the second screen i see which is the windows XP screen; there is where the Delay is. Those aren't my screens btw just used them as an example.


I doubt i'll be using windows 7 then if it only shows 2 1/2 GB of ram out of 4; id rather stick with XP and have it use 3 1/2 GB. But that's not the issue at hand here.

Keep in mind this board is only a couple weeks old, I bought it new from newegg, there should be nothing on it Burned out.

How do i find out if i have a bad controller, that's software/driver related isn't it? Cause like i said, this is a new board there shouldn't be any faulty hardware already!!

Any more thoughts or ideas on how to find out whats going on with the delay and how to fix it would be great cause like i said, it's really annoying me, I even contacted biostar but they won't even bother to reply.

 

anyone else wanna have a go at figurin this out??

 

There has to be some device the BIOS is scanning. I mentioned I saw a post on another site about how the guy had to set his IDE hard drive jumper to Cable Select for his to boot. Now that may have just been his hard drive make. Plus there are a few versions of this board. Vr 5.x has 6 audio jacks on the back, vr 6.x only has 3. And there are 3 vr6: 6.0, 6.1, 6.2. Mine is a 6.2, BIOS dated1/12/2009.

I only have a IDE HD, an IDE DVD/RW , USB keyboard and a USB trackball connected to mine.


Sam

 

You've had XP installed for a few weeks and run ccleaner nearly every day?

Whatever for?

I don't see answers to my questions?
Additionally you have been very sparing with your system details. 40 seconds may not be too bad depending upon the hardware.

 

Yeah i have that, boot device priority is set to the hard drive.

 

I'm trying very hard to help here but getting rather frustrated.

I'm trying to find out if your board has either a network boot rom or a security rom to check through as part of the boot process. This would account for the pause

BIOSTAR implements either / both these on some boards.

You can normally access such features through the function keys.

 

Is the BIOS set for quick boot or does it run the memory test for a while on screen?

Sam

 

Quick boot. I'm gonna try setting the HD to cable select and see if that helps. I tried taking the drives off of auto detect but after that all i get is disk read error.

 

Yeah I'm pretty frustrated with it my self, as for the network boot rom or security rom, I'm not sure, I do not believe ive seen anything like that in the bios; though this bios is a bit more complex and confusing from what i'm use to.

 

The function keys on bios startup are,

Press F8 to enable system configuration.
Press F9 to select booting device after post.
Press Del to enter setup..

Ive also taken some pics of my Bios, not too clear but i hope you can make them out enough to help me and find what you're looking for.

http://img85.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=picture001hy.jpg

 

Hi, were you having the same issues before loading Karmic Koala via Wubi. If yes disregard my post.
I'm just saying, because you had issues with KK not showing up as an option to boot from 2 weeks ago.
Is KK now uninstalled from add/remove?
Cheers..

 

Same Hard drive yes, Not the same board; that issue was when i was still using my HP board, Then I got the biostar board from newegg , Put it in my case, hooked everything up, Formatted the HD(as you have to anyway) Installed the XP home OS, After it finished installing the system restarted as it's supposed to then BAM before i downloaded drivers, software or even seen the desktop for the first time; there was an annoying 35 - 60 sec delay.

I did although reinstall Wubi with this board then later removed HP's HD with out uninstalling wubi and now it's stuck in add remove and it wont let me uninstall it, http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7284/96586143.jpg

 

Keep in mind what i said above about having the delay problem before anything was installed, including wubi. BUT.. that is another issue id like to get resolved at some point.

 

I'm starting to see a common trend here.

Was the motherboard the only component you changed?

If so what were the boot times like before you changed?

What make, model and year is your hard drive? (Should say on the top)

 

In addition to collinsl questions and keeping the eye on the ball. The issue arrived with the new board. Period.
As per Wubi and your screenie your booting from E:\ {right? (Brighter minds may pick up something)}
Cheers..

 

No I changed the board, CPU and Ram. To test a theory I took out the new HD, Put in the HP HD and installed XP and the delay is gone, everythings working fine yet the other HD seems to be working fine as a slave drive. All is well I guess.

 

I always boot windows from drive C:, although I did install wubi on E: Drive which is probably why I couldn't remove the thing from add remove programs after the E: Drive was removed.

 

May I add, The not so bright minded one solved the problem. J/k Thanks for all your help

 

I'm dual booting KK over Win7RC. Never used Wubi - but was wondering how the heck it was on E: :-D

 

Probably because I didn't know what the heck i was doing, Ive never tried another OS before, I got curious. Can't even keep wubi stable on this thing because I don't know what I'm doing, I get errors after Installation and updates. I keep getting something like [ this ]
Maybe I'll post on the linux forum when i decide to install wubi again and get that error.

 

Glad we got it fixed for you.

Basic testing: Just run through everything until you have established what has changed and what hasn't.