Fresh XP Install, boot takes 5 minutes?

I've recently reinstalled XP after it kept failing to boot due to a corrupted system file. I deleted the partition, then created a new one. XP installed fine but upon the first reboot it took over 5 minutes to boot up. It gets as far as the white bars across the bottom then slowly moves across and takes roughly 5 minutes. it then proceeds to the Windows logo screen and finishes booting up. Once it boots, everything runs just fine.

I'm wondering what could have possibly caused this since before the fresh install it booted up in about 45 seconds (well, before the boot failures anyway)

any ideas how to fix this?

 

I have seen as much as 18-23% fragmentation after a fresh install.
And that is before any security programs are installed.
Suggest installing a good third party defragger and running it.

 

ok... I've used Auslogic's Disk Defragger on it already and did the "optimze and defrag" option and it made no difference. any other defraggers you would suggest I try?

 

Try using WinPatrol to cut back on the programs that run on startup.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/WinPatrol_d3380.html

I just have my firewall and SpywareBlaster on startup.
Everything else starts as needed.

 

I'll take a look with that. but this computer isn't connected to the internet so it doesn't need a firewall. when I log in it only has 22 processes listed in task manager and less than 90MB of page file in use. virtually nothing is running.

 

Too many programs are so sure that your machine can't run without them that they automatically install themselves on the startup list.
You may have 15-20 trying to load at the same time.This requires them all to use some of the available RAM and some has to wait until some RAM gets freed up before they can proceed. There is a big slowdown.
Can be reduced by increasing the available RAM.

 

you're missing my point... the computer had more processes BEFORE I reinstalled XP and booted in about 45 seconds. the 22 processes I mention include all of the system processes as well. only 4 or 5 of them are related to the user. I'm pretty sure it's beyond fragmentation and things trying to start up. if that was the problem, it would take forever to log in, but logging in takes only a few seconds.

the problem is before windows even fully initializes because it hangs BEFORE I even see the windows logo screen. my guess is it has something to do with the fact that I deleted a partition and then recreated one. how I go about checking/fixing the issue there is what I'm looking to find out.

 

45 seconds vs. 4 minutes is pretty bad! What is it doing during that time? I would try to find some startup diagnostics tools; have a look at this one http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6131173.html and/or seach Google for diagnose windows startup.

P.S. sorry, I think the link I posted above is for Vista only.

 

Yeah, it's Vista only, but when I get a chance to spend some time googling something like it and try something out I'll let you know what I've found out.

 

It just might be that your HD is on the way out, or your cables are not firmly attached to the MB and/or the HD.

 

I have a hard time believing that since it was doing really well right before the new partition was made. I would think I would've noticed some slow downs or issues before, or perhaps shortly after, but at the same time seems a little far-fetched to me

 

Any yellow exclamation points in Device Manager? Check under system devices and make sure your particular chipset is listed . . .

Have you installed any available O.S. updates?

Depending on the chipset, you might need a driver that XP couldn't provide . . . I've had this occur on a few installs of XP - especially on newer boards of the last few years with VIA or SiS chipsets.

Even with Intel chipsets it might not hurt to get and run their chipset identifcation utility.

If all else fails, try and reinstall the operating system again

 

When I reinstalled XP I had it connected to the internet and installed every update available (checked multiple times, got all updates since 2002 - the recovery disk I had was dated 2002). It's up to date as of about a month ago.

There are no yellow exclamation points in device manager.

I used Bootvis to get a report on what's going on, though I'm not entirely sure what to make of the results. I included driver delay in its tracing so if anyone looks at it make sure you check that as well. Due to the size of the report (even in a zip folder) I can't upload it directly here. I've made it available for download on my dropbox here: http://db.tt/j3UKC4

I also used Piriform's Speccy to get a detailed report on what's in my system. I'm guessing that because the slow down is happening before it gets to Windows that I'm having either a driver or BIOS error of some kind. The Speccy report should give someone enough info to work with... I've attached it to this post.

I also just realized the recovery CD I found in my myriad of computer stuff actually goes to a Dell PC that I no longer own (trashed it a while ago) and this computer is an HP. I'm guessing I ended up with an incorrect driver but since there are no yellow marks in device manager I'm not sure how to spot the bad one. I've spent a bit more time looking to see if this desktop came with a recovery disc of its own but since I can't find it anywhere I'm guessing it didn't...

 

Have a look at this article http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5034622.html

 

Thanks! I thought Bootvis only gave info, not perform optimizations. I'll give the optimizations a try and see what happens.

 

The bootvis optimizations made no difference. I'm thinking the best thing to do at this point is going to be to reformat the hard drive again and start over to see what happens.

What is the best way to do this?

 

I think the "White Bar" you mention is where XP is loading the kernel into RAM, so I would suggest running Memtest86+ to disqualify any issues with your RAM. Link here: http://memtest.org

 

Hi pillowmaker911,

Windows is trying to connect to a network and finally gives up after around 5 min.

Go to the network card properties and enter in bogus tcpip address details.

example...

ip address, type in 10.0.0.10
subnet mask, type in 255.255.0.0
gateway, type in 10.0.0.1

Reboot

Techsent

 

It sounds like it may be something to do with the Windows XP install, like it didn't install correctly or something. Or it may be that you need to update your BIOS. :confused

 

For reasons not worth explaining I have to be away from the computer for a little over a week so when I can get to it again I'll try setting something for the network and see if that helps.

I don't think it's anything to do with the BIOS because I didn't touch it during install (Unless the recovery disc made changes to the BIOS?) or anything so I would think it would've given me a problem before, but maybe not...

If I still have problems after that I think I'm going to just reformat and start fresh and see what I get. I'm still open to suggestions about the best (or "proper") way to go about reformatting and installing. I have virtually no experience with this type of work so any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated!

 

So I went to turn it on today to try adding something for the network as suggested, and it booted up just fine. I have no idea what's changed, but it's doing just fine now. Thanks for everyone's time and suggestions!

 

Maybe, like some updates, it needed a restart to finalize an installation?

 

Well if that's the case it needed an odd amount of restarts because I had rebooted it plenty of times while trying other things... It is awfully strange, but I'm not really complaining