Please help, new system, suddenly strange issues.

[Endeffect]

Hey all.

**edit note: Only prob now is the WIN XP black loading screen takes 1 minute and 10 seconds and the progress bar goes across over 40 times**

I have a brand new system I built for myself. It has run perfectly the past week and a half. Suddenly the entire system would freeze and the harddrive LED would stay lit. A few seconds later, it would go back to normal. It is suddenly also taking an extremely long time for Windows XP to load me to the user login window when booting up. I have changed nothing, installed nothing, so I'm baffled. I'm thinking.. bad HD? But I just don't know. It's not similar to other HD hardware issues I've had previously. The system freeze is not occuring often, but it has done it a few times now. I have a monitor on all CPU/MB temps, and everything is normal. The system:

Win XP Pro
2.6c CPU
P4P800 mb
512mb pc3200 crucial RAM
Western Digital 120gb 8mb cache HD
GeForceFX 5600 256mb

Ideas or questions would be appreciated.

 

[Endeffect]

Bump..

I should also add the main problem now is just the extradinary time Windows XP spends at the loading screen before the user login at boot up. Where it used to take a few seconds, it takes over a minute now. Something is DEFINITELY wrong. What do you suggest is the problem? I don't understand why this randomly began occurring. All tips/suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[mechBgon]

Done a virus scan with the latest virus definitions yet? Also, you might want to download ZoneAlarm and install it if you're not sure how strong your network setup is against intrusion.

Also look in Event Viewer to see if there are any problems being reported that could explain the behavior, maybe. Good luck!

 

[Endeffect]

I actually did a full virus scan with Norton Antiviris (definitions 8/19) this morning, and it found nothing. I still get the sudden extremely long Windows load screen. I'm going to setup my router tonight to use it as a firewall though, that's a good idea. But it seems strange that the loading screen before the user login for XP would suddenly take sooo long on a machine that is so fast, whereas before it was extremely quick.

Additionally, and this isn't related to the issue above, but is baffling me, is sometimes I notice there is a file on my deskstop simply named '~'. This occurred from time to time on my old computer as well. I noticed it usually occurs after using Outlook Express. The file size is around 178k. Obviously I first thought this was a virus, but as I've stated, I have the most recent Norton definitions and check regularly, and have used the worm blaster tool, etc. My workmate says he also gets this file on his desktop sometimes and has no idea why it appears there. I figure it must be a temporary file for something, but it never goes away. Any clues anyone? Thanks in advance!!

 

[Regs]

Do you have any odd tasks runing under your task manager? (ctrl alt del) task manager --> processes.

Ones that use up a lot of memory or cpu usage would be a clue in. Also try Adware 6.0 from www.download.com .

 

[Endeffect]

Additionally, and this isn't related to the issue above, but is baffling me, is sometimes I notice there is a file on my deskstop simply named '~'. This occurred from time to time on my old computer as well. I noticed it usually occurs after using Outlook Express. The file size is around 178k. Obviously I first thought this was a virus, but as I've stated, I have the most recent Norton definitions and check regularly, and have used the worm blaster tool, etc. My workmate says he also gets this file on his desktop sometimes and has no idea why it appears there. I figure it must be a temporary file for something, but it never goes away. Any clues anyone? Thanks in advance!!

Interestingly enough, I jsut did some research on the '~' file appearing, and have discovered it is actually a bug with a recent patch to Outlook Express. Apparently when something new is added to the address book, it makes up a backup copy and places the "~" file on the desktop. Nothing harmful and can be deleted. Annoying though.

I have run Ad Aware 6 several times, but I will run it again tonight in reference to the long Windows loading screen issues, however I'm not so confident that will resolve it. Would a poor internet connect (Roadrunner has had some connectivity issues in the past 48 hours) have anything to do with a longer Windows XP load screen (screen prior to user login)? Hmm.

 

[Endeffect]

bump..

OK -- Ad Aware 6 has been run again, and all spyware removed. Windows XP loading screen (before user login) is still EXTREMELY long. I just counted, and it's 59 seconds. It used to take about 10 seconds.

Any ideas? No viruses, no spywhere, this is a VERY fast brand new machine, only Norton Antivirus running and ICQ which are definitely not the culprit. I'm considering just re-installing Windows and sees if that does anything. Methinks some file has become corrupted or something. The HDD is not hitting hard when its loading, just a soft LED light and no noise from the HDD. The keyboard and mouse light (optical) flash several times while at the loading screen as well.

Totally baffled.

 

[Jojo7]

Hard drive is acting slow? When xp is booting, does the "progress bar" go across the screen more than about 5-10 times? If so, do the following:

Download WD's hard drive diagnostic. I think its called 'Data Lifeguard'.
The program should create you a bootable floppy.
Run through the through scan. Nothing on your hard drive will be deleted or anything.

Lemme know what you find.

--Jojo

 

[Endeffect]

Originally posted by: Jojo7
Hard drive is acting slow? When xp is booting, does the "progress bar" go across the screen more than about 5-10 times? If so, do the following:

Download WD's hard drive diagnostic. I think its called 'Data Lifeguard'.
The program should create you a bootable floppy.
Run through the through scan. Nothing on your hard drive will be deleted or anything.

Lemme know what you find.

--Jojo

The progress bar goes across the screen MUCH more than 10 times. I will search for a floppy tomorrow @ work and run this diagnostic program. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll be writing back when I find the results.

 

[dmw16]

I had a somewhat similar problem back when I was using Win2k(now using WinXP). The load bar that would come up before the login box would appear took forever. Sometimes 2 minutes or more. It turns out it was a network issue. Apparently, upon each reboot Win2k would go searching for network info. I guess domain, IP, DNS and all that crap. Might wanna look into your network settings. What are you using to connect to the net? I was using comcast cable at the time.
-doug

 

[Slammy1]

There seems to be a known issue with the Asus MoBos and HD performance loss with WD drives. I've seen (and started) threads on it for both the P4C and P4P800. You can try disabling the Gigabyte Lan and see if performance improves, and if you have the deluxe board try disabling the IDE RAID. I've contacted Asus and WD about it, and to paraphrase they both told me to f*** off. What BIOS are you running? Also, a good resource is the P4P800 user's guide on ABX. Good luck! I noticed an issue not long after I got the board, in a way it's good to see so many others discovering the joys of Asus (I'm NOT crazy!!).

 

[Endeffect]

Thanks for the input everyone. Here's an update to this insanely FRUSTRATING situation:

#1 - Did the thorough diagnostic of the harddrive with Western Digitals "Data Life" tools, one with the floppy that took about 45 minutes and found no errors, and a full diagonstic using another Western Digital diagnostic tool that took 9 hours. No errors found on that one either.

#2 - I have disabled the onboard LAN controller, and it made absolutely no difference.

#3 - I have placed my only PCI card (Soundbaster Live) in every PCI slot to see if there was some conflit with that (although considering this problem just appeared after 2 weeks of using the PC, that seemed strange).

#4 - I have tried both a selective startup and a diagnostic startup using the msconfig utility, and it made no difference.

The XP loading screen shows approximately 42 (42!!!!) progress bars, and takes about 1 minute and 10 seconds to load up. This is driving me mad, and is completely unacceptable. It was loading with about 4-5 bars before, in about 5 seconds previously. My old, very below specs of this machine computer would also load in about 4-5 bars.

I have the normal P4P800, not the deluxe, so raid stuff doesn't pertain to me.

Hearing that there is a possible performance problem between WD/ASUS motherboards is not pleasing. I mean, I honestly expected slightly better HD performance during normal usage than I'm getting, but it wasn't something to make me get too bothered about -- whereas waiting well over a minute during the black Windows XP boot screen IS. But you'd think that this would be a greater known issue considering how popular both WD drives and ASUS boards are.

I would GREATLY appreciate any further comments/suggestions on this matter. I've tried everything short of reinstalling Windows, which is what I will probably do soon.. although I get the sneaking suspicion it won't change anything.

Agh.

Edit: I'm using BIOS version 08.00.09

 

[Twista]

do you hae the hdd and cd rom jumpers set right? That usally causes that.\





peace dawg!

 

[TheGrandHooHa]

If all else fails, you could try RMA'ing the ASUS board (or your hard drive). If there is a known conflict, as is the case here, you may be able to exchange it for another brand (possibly the ABIT IS-7?) depending on where you bought the board.

In regards to jumpers/cables: try setting the jumpers to master and slave (i.e., not using cable select). Also, I've read some rare reports of putting the 'master' drive at the end of a cable, and the 'slave' drive in the middle, increasing performance. It's a shot in the dark, but if you have nothing better to do one day, you could try that.

I'd still recommend trying to RMA that board. Or hard drive. Your choice.

 

[een]

This might be off topic, but can't you borrow someone's hard drive (maybe from your old comp), install xp, and put it in your current comp. If that works fine, then it's the hd, otherwise...

 

[Endeffect]

I actually had my old hard drive (which was a failing ibm deskstar 60gxp) hooked up to this machine when I first built it, along with the new WD. I had it as a primiary slave device so I could back everything up. The WD has always been the primiary master device. I started wondering last night if this problem arose when I removed the old harddrive from the machine. It seems around the same time.. Hmm.. So, I opened the case and I changed it so that the IDE cable was no longer plugged in to the harddrive with the very last "plug", but the plug in the middle of the IDE cable (the one that was plugged into my old HD) just incase somehow.. err, there was some "confusion" going on in the comp, and.. well, it's still not entirely as fast loading up, but it went from about a 1 minute + XP load screen to about a 12 second load screen.. wow. Strange, huh?