Windows Boot Time

[Kained]

Ok i have a pc that first of all when you boot the machine doesnt actually get into windows it gets to the point where it should load the windows xp logo and progress bar but then remains at a blank screen just after posting, then you force shutdwn the pc then it will work fine ? any ideas i thought maybe bad hdd sector any other suggestions?

Secondly the same pc will let the taskbar go over 10 times before booting into windows, any ideas on speeding this up

i have speeded the pc up with removing startup tems etc , changing the prefetcher to only on boot, getting rid of unread mail warning little tweaks etc but to really no avail, so any other suggestions would be great

So any helpful suggestions(not including format buy a new hdd lol )

[Ric_]

It sounds a little bit stuffed... is this a newly built machine?

If the machine has a borderline amount of RAM 256MB-512MB then it's worth putting more in anyway... also the existing RAM may be a bit knackered which is causing the boot problems.

If you download Ultimate Boot CD (see http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ ) there are some tools on there for testing memory - I think that the one I use most is called Windows MemTest or something.

[Kained]

The machine has 2 gig memory(ocz) in it so that is certainly enough although i shall try the memory test thing as it is lifetime guarenteed, any other suggestions?

The machine itself is about 18months old and is a amd 64bit 3500 chip with an msi mobo pcie gcard 256mb x800 radeon so its not a bad pc, and runs everything great once its in windows.

[Ric_]

Yuo may have collected some dodgy malware on your travels... always worth checking for.

[Kained]

See that was one of my thoughts adware spyware malware all the nasties but it comes up a clean, its a mystery

[PeterW]

Put a test hard drive on it and clean install windows, this will let you narrow it down to either a bad windows or a hardware issue.

[Kained]

A little update, i did a memory test and this resulted in memory being fine, going to do a disk test next see what that comes up with but have also suggested that he gets a sataII drive and use that as his main with a fresh install that should resolve most issues.

[Geoff]

You could also try BootVis and see if you can track down the problem that way.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664

[Kained]

I tried running bootvis once i got an eventual download for it, as the microsoft link on longer works, the problem is when the machine starts it gets to the windows logo(where the progress bar goes) and then blanks,

then you force power off and the machine will boot ( will prompt start menu for safe mode etc) but will then resume windows booting so bootvis doesnt work as it monitors the boot and then the crash stops the monitoring and often causes boot vis to crash.

Any ideas what could be causing this ?

[Geoff]

disable hyperthreading.

[Gatt]

Ive got a similar problem as kained with some new Acer Aspire T650 PCs

Pent D, 250GB SataII, 1GB DDRII

PC 1 was used to create my base image and then captured the image via WDS

PC2 - deployed image created from PC1 and now when PC2 boots it hangs before it displays the XP Logo (then launch Mini-Setup)

Have disabled Hyperthreading to no effect
No amount of power-offs/Reboots help

The HDD light is on constantly and is static

PC1 is fine - straight after capture i rebooted. ran mini setup and its working ok - not redeployed to that PC so that the build was intact

[Geoff]

Also check if DEP is enabled. If it is, try running without it.

[Gatt]

Ok just found the problem...

Loaded WDS and hit Shift+F10 and ran diskpart on the drive

the bloody partition is hidden!!

Q: how do i unhide said partition?

[Geoff]

The same tool you hid it with.

[Gatt]

Wasn't me - was the OEM (aka Acer)
Had to re-create the partition using diskpart - that seems to have unhidden it - will see what happens when i redeploy