Strange XP Booting Problem

[imported_Flamebird]

Hi all,
I've been having an odd problem with my new system.

When I first installed XP, it booted up fine. Then after a while, it would pause for an abnormally long time (30-45+ seconds) on the blank screen between the Windows XP Logo sequence (with the moving blue bar) and the blue logon screen. Eventually this pause became a complete lockup and I couldn't get into Windows without using Safe Mode.

After basic troubleshooting (checking BIOS settings, checking for bad drivers etc) I decided to format. Great, everythings fine now. Then slowly the pause during bootup gets longer and longer, and it won't boot at all. During the pause, my USB devices will go off and sometimes come back on.

Oddly enough, it works fine if I unplug my old Parallel ATA HDD and leave my Serial ATA drive connected. I find this odd because Windows *does* initially work fine with both drives installed, then after a day or so it won't boot with the PATA drive connected.

I've been using all the latest drivers for the nForce4 chipset, which should eliminate any SATA issues (although Windows installed fine without additional drivers), and using SP2.

I'm currently on my 3rd install. This time I used an XP CD with SP2 slipstreamed into it, to see if it made any difference. It's still booting OK but the pause seems to be getting longer. It doesn't seem to coincide with the installation of any particular software or driver.

Any ideas at all? Specs of the machine are in my sig. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[imported_Flamebird]

Well I did some more testing. Rather than try and explain myself, I'll just list what did and didn't work

Windows boots ok when:
- PATA drive disabled in BIOS but powered and connected to motherboard, all USB devices connected
- PATA drive connected, unpowered USB1.0 hub connected, other USB devices disconnected

Windows won't boot when:
- PATA drive enabled in BIOS and all USB devices connected (usually a powered USB2 hub, unpowered USB1.0 hub, VoIP handset)
- PATA drive enabled in BIOS + the VoIP handset and/or powered USB2 hub connected

Based on that evidence it looks like a power related issue, right? What puzzles me is that the setup with the SATA drive, the PATA drive and all the USB devices connected worked fine for over 24 hours! And the machine POSTs ok, its just half way through the Windows boot that it dies.

I'm considering buying a new high powered quality PSU, but as always I don't want to waste my money on something. Any ideas??

 

[imported_Flamebird]

Just another thing. If it is indeed a PSU-related issue, could it be because my current PSU has a 20-pin ATX connector, but the mobo has a 24-pin connector? I've connected the ATX12v connector so I didn't think it would be a problem

*puzzled*

Anyone?

 

[DaiShan]

Windows communicates with each USB device that you have connected when it boots. Try leaving all non essentials unplugged until you need them. (You can leave the printer attached if you have one, but cameras, ipods, scanners etc will all increase your boot time.) Additionally, the P-ATA drive *may* be going bad, how old is it? Try using the tools disk that came with it to run diagnostics.

 

[imported_Flamebird]

Thanks DaiShan,
I'll try testing the USB/Firewire peripherals one by one. I understand that they can increase boot time, but they shouldn't stop it altogether... :/

The PATA drive is about a year old. It has been functioning fine in my old machine since I bought it, and I just transferred it across to this new box. I have run some diagnostics and it does seem to be functioning normally.

 

[imported_Flamebird]

Interestingly enough all the USB devices work fine if connected AFTER windows boots.

I'll do some more testing.. I still can't figure it out.

 

[rocketPack]

I noticed an incredibly long boot time if I left my iPod connected when booting.
Also, make sure you disable any PATA or SATA channels in BIOS that are not being used. Leaving those to auto can lead windows to believe (for whatever reason) that something exists and it will attempt to search for it; especially if your drive is going bad this can be a waste of time.

Also, when you get into Windows, go to System Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, right click each one labeled like such:
xxxx IDE Channel
for example: Primary IDE Channel, Third IDE Channel, etc.
Select PROPERTIES, then the ADVANCED SETTINGS tab. Set the drop-down box next to "Device type" to "NONE" for any device that allows you (as there is no device connected there). Make sure "DMA if available" is select for _every_ device. This can help with boot times as well (same deal with the probing for something that isn't there). People have reported their boot times going from 2-3 minutes to 10-15 seconds after doing this. I noticed about a 1:20 difference in boot time.

If you can boot into windows with the PATA drive attached and read/write to it just fine, then I am a little confused... but if the system essentially will not let you access that drive, it is most likely a bad drive.
If possible, try running scandisk on it.

Also, make sure your page file is set to the correct drive/partition. I recommend setting your min/max values the same at 2x however much memory you have (1gb mem = 2048mb pagefile, 512mb mem = 1024mb pagefile, etc). This makes it so windows wont try to adjust the size of your pagefile, which is a waste of processing power to sit there and constantly modify the filesize. It also prevents fragmentation because the drive is not constantly trying to add data to the end of the file, the data now goes somewhere in the middle of the file. I don't know how much sense that makes to you but it does to me . There are a lot of people who argue over this but I've tried everything and found this to be the most effective and the one that makes the most sense. I know this isn't relevant but I just kinda started talking and couldn't stop... ANYWAY...

Also, have you updated your BIOS lately? Make sure you clear your CMOS and then select "Load Optimized Defaults" after every time you update your BIOS to prevent problems.

I hope I said something useful! Good luck,

-Scott

 

[imported_Flamebird]

Well Scott I took your advice and disabled all unused IDE channels in the BIOS, and also set the pagefile to 2048mb, and the problem seems to have disappeared!

It has been on and off, so I can't say for sure whether the problem is gone, but so far so good! Many thanks - I *really* appreciate the help.