Massive Boot delay between POST and XP logo

[electronbee]

WHen I mean boot delay I mean like 10 minuntes. The comp will just sit there after the POST screen (no errors) and take FOREVER. Now, if I boto up and right after POST I reset the comp via the front switch and I reboot it boots up WITHOUT the delay. Any one have any idears?

My system:

MSI K8N nForce4 Platinum SLI
Athlon64 3000+
2GB DDR
250GB WD HDD
Plextor DVD burner
ATI X700 256MB

Periph's:
WACOM Tablet (USB)
EPSON 2200 (FireWire)
HP 4-in-1 (USB)
CF Card Reader (USB)
USB SGI KB
USB FDD
PS/2 trackball
USB Root Hub

Thanks

eb

 

[mechBgon]

If your WD happens to be ATA/100 as opposed to SATA, and it is the only drive on its cable, then remove the jumper cap from its Master/Slave/CS header and leave it off.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Mech's suggestion may do the trick. Another thing to try is jumper the drive as CS not as Master. Most modern mobos prefer CS.

The fact that there is delay if you reset after POST tells me the problem happens during initialization which is either a BIOS or hardware issue.

Some other things to look for:

- Check the boot order in BIOS. Make sure the boot order is Floppy -> CD-Rom - HDD0 (or SATA if you have a SATA drive). If there's any devices listed in the boot order before your drive that don't exist, BIOS will sit there for several minutes trying to get a response from it before it times out. For instance, if you have a SATA drive but BIOS is configured to boot from an IDE drive first, it will try to boot from all four possible IDE devices before booting from the SATA and that might explain your problem.

- Another possibility is that you have BIOS configured to boot from the Network card.

- Did this system always do this or did this happen recently? Can you remember if you changed anything?

- Could be that the CMOS settings just got corrupted. You could try resetting your CMOS.

Hope this helps...

 

[GeekDrew]

You could also try unplugging all of your USB/Firewire devices, except for your keyboard, and see what happens. I've got a USB external hard drive that causes that exact thing to happen.