win xp quirks after fresh install

Hi - I just installed Win XP Pro on a freshly reformatted partition and am having a couple of unexpected problems:

1) it takes about half an hour to boot - the white-on-black horizontal progress bar (that appears at the bottom of the screen before the Windows music comes on) just creeps along;

2) when it's finally booted, my PC runs just fine, although of the familiar Windows icons - Recycling Bin, My Documents, My Computer and My Network Places - only the recycle bin is displayed on the desktop. When I open a window in Explorer, they're all there.

A couple of things to note:

1) This PC was built for me as a file server a couple of years ago and up until now I was running Win 2000 Server on it. I didn't need all the power and functionality of a server so I opted to change my OS to Win XP, which I did;

2) Before installing the new OS, I reconfigured my RAID card (Promise Tech Fastrack 2000) so that my two 80 gb hd's are in Span mode instead of Mirroring mode as they were previously. The reconfig went off without a hitch, although I have a lot of unpartitioned space; I bought Partition Magic some time ago and will use it to extend my existing D: drive, which is where I store all my data (C: is for the OS and software).

3) Win XP didn't recognize several of my hardware components during the install: the RAID card; my Ethernet adapter; VGA adapter; two printers and something called an SMBus. I used Device Manager and my original disks to solve each of these issues (the files for the RAID card had to be copied even before the install started). Now the Device Manager is clean - no yellow question marks.

I would expect the slow booting to be symptomatic of hardware conflicts, but I don't seem to have any. Could someone help me, please? I'm copying the summary configuration info from AIDA below - tried to attach the full report but it's too big (300k). Many thanks!

Martin

--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180
Computer Name MARTIN-0ZRNUSJW
User Name Martin
Logon Domain MARTIN-0ZRNUSJW

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4HT, 2400 MHz (3 x 800)
Motherboard Name Asus P4P800 (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 WiFi, 4 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale i865PE
System Memory 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Asus AMI (06/11/03)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter ASUS V9180 Magic (R2.00A) V44.71a (64 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
Monitor NEC MultiSync LCD1700V (2704368GA)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative EMU10K1 SB Live! Audio Processor

Storage:
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive HP photosmart 7900 USB Device
Disk Drive Iomega Iomega Peerless IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device
Disk Drive Promise 2+0 Span SCSI Disk Device
Optical Drive SONY CD-ROM CDU5211 (52x CD-ROM)
Optical Drive SONY CD-RW CRX300E (DVD:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD-ROM/CD-RW)

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 20002 MB (13224 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 125429 MB (61322 MB free)

Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Microsoft PS/2 Mouse

Network:
Primary IP Address 192.168.15.101
Primary MAC Address 00-0C-6E-7C-0E-74
Network Adapter 3Com Gigabit LOM (3C940) (192.168.15.101)

Peripherals:
Printer Brother HL-1440 series
Printer hp photosmart 7900 series
USB Device photosmart 7900 series (DOT4USB)
USB Device USB Composite Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage Device
USB Device USB Printing Support
USB Device USB Printing Support

 

I'm not sure which "white-on-black horizontal progress bar" you are referring to, the only progress bar I am aware of in XP is the one that scrolls while the OS is loading (green for Home, blue for Pro)

Also, its almost always neccessary to load the RAID drivers during windows setup from a floppy by pressing F6 at the beginning of setup when prompted, as this will properly incorporate the drivers in the windows setup.

have you installed the chipset drivers for your motherboard? Windows will often load default drivers for many components, meaning device manager won't show any issues, however its always Ideal to load the optimized chipset drivers from your motehrboard manufacturer (or chipset manufacturer in some cases)

Have you made sure all components are plugged in correctly and seated securely, and are relatively dust free? Problems here usually cause freezing or rebooting, i know, but juch a suggestion.

Just trying to rule out the simple steps before moving to other things

 

Thanks for the reply. The progress bar I'm talking about (a series of 1" white vertical lines) appears at the bottom of the screen every time Windows (2k server or XP) boots up, before the fancy logo appears. If the OS is working normally, it's only there for a couple of seconds.

I DID load the RAID drivers from the floppy during setup, and Windows Device Mgr seems to recognize my RAID setup correctly, i.e., 2+0 span.

I DID install the chipset from the CD that came with the motherboard, though not until after Win XP was installed.

I haven't opened the box or even jostled it, so I have no reason to suspect that any of the components aren't seated correctly.

What else?