PC takes forever to boot.

I have a ABIT-an7 motherboard with 512DDR 400 memory and a 10gb HDD (yeah yeah yeah I know it's small)
My problem is that it takes ages to boot into windows loading.
it "stops" where the RAM info comes in the BIOS and then again after it has located all the drives.

I've checked the RAM with memtest for a night and it came clean, I also changed the HDD, loaded BIOS defaults settings, still same problem.

Any one know what could be the problem?:confused

 

Does it actually boot at all? or is it just slow?

Please download and install speccy from here and post the log file (make sure you remove your Windows Serial from the log prior to posting

Please also download and install HiJack This from here. Please then run a scan and post the log in your reply. This will allow us to assertain the spec of your PC and what programs are loading on startup that will slow things down. If it is hardware related we can recomend some upgrades that may help.

 

thanks for the reply, maybe I should have made a note of that I dont have a OS installed atm. The HDD I have now has been completly wiped, so there's no chance of anything dormenting on it.

 

No OS eh? I would think that the BIOS is looking for one and how would you know that it booted properly without getting any feedback in the first place?:confused

 

Indeed, Im not sure what you are trying to do? The only thing I can think is that you are trying to install windows and you are waiting for the windows is loading - install screen. Not sure what OS you are trying but if its XPyou wont get it to run on a 10GB HD

 

could you rephrase that please?

i'm just trying to install windows on it, but that's not the problem.
The problem is that it takes for ever to boot until it starts booting the windows

on the other HDD I was able to fully install windows xp, the windows it's self booted fine, it's the "BIOS" booting that's taking forever.
The time from you push the power button and until Windows loading screen comes is the trouble, after I get the windows loading screen it's booting fine into desktop.
(it stops on "detecting IDE drives..." then again after they have been detected, after that it's booting hirens boot cd for instance, fine. it's about 3-4 minutes total that takes me to get into "press anykey to boot from CD" )

P.S. Xp will run on a 10gb hdd but it's not recomended.

 

Sounds like a bad HD. Have you run any diagnostic on it? You can install windows on a 10GB disk but once you put any programs and files on, you wont have enough space for windows update or defrag to run. Personally I would bin the disk and get a larger capacity one.

 

no actually I havent tested the HDD, but I had the same symptons with the other HDD I had in it.
I'll run the HDD trough some test's tomorrow and make a follow up.
i'll be running some linux of it, so the size aint a problem really, since it wont be for a storage any way.

 

allright, I just finished testing the HDD and it found no errors on it.

 

thanks for the reply plodr
but my problem is not the OS loading, but the loading that hapens before the OS loading starts.
wich actually has nothing to do with the ram size.

 

It might be a dead cmos batery. If it is not retaining the settings then maybe it is having to "reset itself" from scratch everytime which is causing the hang. If im being brutally honest I kinda think you are flogging a dead horse. You wont be able to do much that is meaningful on any supported platform with a system of that spec because it will be very slow.

 

Try unplugging the CD/DVDROM (so just HD on the IDE cable), does it go any faster through POST? If same try unplugging the HD (so just CDROM on IDE) see if any change.

Are you sure you have your jumpers set correctly on the HD and CDROM according to their position on the IDE cable?