sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories Windows XP Boot-up Problem

Bear with me as I attempt to explain this problem...

Windows XP running on an older Compaq. The PC is not state-of-the-art but has been running very stably. As of yesterday, during boot-up two noticeable problems are occuring.
(1) VERY slow
(2) As it is VERY slowly booting, the Compaq splash screen fades from bright to very dull. It finally moves on to the Windows screen and again there is the fading.

After the Windows screen slowly loads with the progress bar creeping along, the PC will finally load normally and there is no significant lag in any processes.

When attempting to start in safe mode, the boot-up halts (I did not take notice of which process it hung on) and never loads.

Any ideas of where to start trouble-shooting this? I saw this issue in a few places on my google search, but never with a resolution. I'm "intermediately" versed on computer maintenance and repair, but not an expert by any means. Any assistance is appreciated.

Stacey

I'd start by blowing out the dirt & dust with compressed air and then verifying that all heatsinks are seated and fans are spinning. Don't spin the fans too hard with the compressed air though - you can burn up the bearings doing that. And if you're using an air compressor instead of a can, turn the psi down to about 80lbs and try not to pry off any surface mount components with the air nozzle. =)

Then I'd try booting with a diagnostics CD such as Hiren's to try to determine if the problem is hardware or software.

The two most likely problems are either that the hard drive is beginning to fail (it will continue to slow down until it does nothing but click so the time to back up any critical data is NOW [well, last week really..]) or that XP picked up a mean virus/trojan - and there are a few going around right now.

The Compaq boot screen moving slowly makes me lean towards a hardware problem and the hard drive seems the most likely culprit because it's one of the few components that can fail slowly, rather than all at once. Overheating could be a contributing factor, which is why I suggest starting with a visual inspection of the interior of the computer.

HTH

I'll break it open tonight and use canned air. I did run Ad-Aware and SpyBot which found no viruses, and have AVG running. I was fearing hardware problems myself.

I'll check around here and see if anyone in IT has a diagnostic CD.

Thank you for your suggestions.

No problem..

If your IT people don't have a CD you can use, you can always download Hiren's from their site or from a bittorrent site . I use it more than any other tech tools boot CD.

I found it, but in looking for documentation on its use found lots of, "We can't tell you that" answers.

that sounds like a trojan/virus problem

I've run three virus scan programs on it and have come up clean.

it's pretty easy to use... just boot off of it and select whichever tool you want to use.

it'd have to be a pretty tricky trojan to slow down the BIOS boot screen, wouldn't it?

Try to boot up using a Win98 boot floopy and run disk check. Sounds like fan/overheating problem but could be processor going bad. Hiren's is your best bet if the boot disk doesn't work.

If this is a PC, not a laptop, grab a hard drive with a bare bones image of XP on it and see if it boots up alright. that will tell if the hardware is ok mostly.

Thank you all for your replies. I wanted to get into this last night, but wasn't able to get access to the PC (yes, it's a pc). I have a copy of Hiren's and the rudiments of running the checks. I'll pull the PC apart, blow it out and test it this weekend at the latest.

I'm sure I don't have a Windows 98 boot floppy...