Computer booting problem

[RCAinTN]

I need help with a booting problem.

I have a K8V SE deluxe, Athlon 3700, 1 gig RAM, WD 80gig HD, Lacie 200gig external HD.

The problem is I think the computer is booting to slow. When I first power the PC on the "ASUS K8V SE screen" stays up for 50 seconds before I hear a very small click in the computer (I think it's the HD) then its another 30 seconds or so before I get the Windows XP screen and its almost 2 minutes before everything loads and is ready to go.

There's nothing on this computer except XP Pro, Protools, Acrobat reader, and my burning software. I have turned off RAID in the bios so it isn't seaching for an array anymore. Once the computer is up there isn't any problems.

Is this a normal boot time or is there something I need to change.

Thanks so much for your help!

[Greg B]

Seems like in the BIOS there are some settings to quicken the boot. I'd turn off the Asus splash screen if you haven't already so you can se what's going on. Isn't there a "quick-boot" option in the BIOS to turn off (usually) unnecessary system checks? And even some timing options for letting the RAID time out, if it's on, but you say it's already disabled. Maybe SATA too?

[JMS40]

If your drive is clicking, image it immediately and replace it.

[RCAinTN]

Thanks for replying!

I turned the ASUS splash screen off and quick boot was already enabled which is faster. Here is what I get when I boot.

USB controller enabled
RAM comes up 1024
USB device - keyboard
Auto Detecting Pri Master
Auto Detecting Sec Master
Probably 30 sec until both my HD and DVD drive are detected
Then 00 USB mass storage

All of the above takes approx. 1 minute

I get a black screen with a " _ " at the top for 40 sec.

Then XP loads for 20-25 seconds.


Also the HD click is very small, like it is just powering on or the system is accessing it. At this point I don't think I have a problem with the HD about to fail.

[Joe Evans]

That does seem like an abnormally long amount of time for booting up a machine of that speed. Just an idea, maybe you can specify the hard drives in the BIOS instead of having it automatically trying to find them. That could be causing a bit of a delay, but I don't think that is the main culprit here. Good luck.

[countach74]

Sounds like your computer is having a hard time auto detecting the drive. Could very well be a failing drive. If I were you, I'd backup the drive right away just to be safe.

[RCAinTN]

The only drive in the boot sequence is my one HD. I guess the next thing to do is recheck all the cables or I may move it to another slot on the MB.

Anyone else with other suggestions?

Thanks!

[JMS40]

The only drive in the boot sequence is my one HD.

And that's the drive I suspect...
Believe it or not, auto-detecting failing drives can cause slow bootup. A simple way to trouble shoot this problem would be to image your system drive and restore it to a fresh drive. Then boot and see what happens.
Hard drives are cheap and, in my experience, if there's even a chance a drive is failing, you should rule that out before trying anything else.

[Sir Bergersworth]

I would definitly back up ASAP, as said before.
Here is another thing.
Try removing your USB mass storage device that you mentioned. My machine always takes a very long time to boot while trying to detect a USB mass storage device.
just a thought.

[RCAinTN]

Thanks for all the help everybody. I just ordered a copy of Ghost 9.0 so I should have that early next week. While thats on the way I may just try a new WD SATA drive from another computer I am building.