Using XP, have done Ad-Aware, Spybot and have new Norton 360 ... everything checks out ok. I start the computer, it comes up with the normal screen asking if I want to go to the boot menu, etc. Then it goes to a blank screen for about 8 minutes. Then, perfectly normally, it starts up and everything runs fine and shuts down normally. The computer is obviously "doing something" between the first screen and the opening of windows. It happens on every startup, so not an intermittant. I'd like to figure out what it is doing during this time so I can address the problem. Any ideas where to start on this one?
Prob Solved ....
Wed, 2009-03-11 15:26 by JDLinn
Finally figured out what was going on. I have a USB External (MAXTOR) drive. It had "fried" and I didn't know it because I only use it for backup. When I pulled out the USB and tried to restart, all went smoothly. So this is an "indicator" that you might have a bad drive ... somehow the system is searching for it, cannot find it, and gives up, then goes forward ignoring that drive. When you go to "My Computer" ... the "K" drive (for me) wasn't showing. So there's the answer.
I called the manufacturer, I was 4 days past the warranty date ... so the thing is trashed and goes in the trash. Also, it will be a cold day in hell before I buy anything else from them ... got it at Staples. I've gone to Carbonite as my backup as I've learned I can't trust an external drive.
So thank you for all the help ... it was a mystery. Now solved.
Thanks for reporting back
Wed, 2009-03-11 17:07 by admin
It's always good to know what happened.
In my experience hard disks of all kinds from all manufacturers die like flies. (To quantify, I guess some 20% to 30% of all hard disks I had running.)
I try to buy only hard disks with a long manufacturer's warranty, like 3 years. You could check whether the hard disk in the little box has such a manufacturer's warranty and, if you're lucky, send it back to get a new one.
By the way, the general problem solving advice you get when you click on the Start button here in the top button row tells you to disconnect external devices before retesting.
Questions
Mon, 2009-03-02 08:00 by admin
You're lucky that your computer at least runs fine after those 8 minutes. (:-) Some people are not so lucky.
The normal screen asking if you want to go to the boot menu is not normal. Seems to be a specialty of this particular computer, possibly an unusual BIOS setting. Normally a booting Windows computer shows the Windows boot menu for 30 seconds, then boots straight into Windows, even if you do nothing. Some questions:
1. Not sure I described it
Mon, 2009-03-02 16:09 by JDLinn
1. Not sure I described it quite right. When you first turn on the computer, you get the quick windows screen that, in the upper right hand corner says F2 to setup menu, etc. That screen, comes up normally and it lasts for the normal 4-5 seconds so you could pick one of those things. At this point, everything is absolutely normal. But then instead of a slight pause and the colorful WINDOWS screen coming up with the blue pearls... the screen goes blank ... and this is what lasts for 8 minutes. Then, without me touching it, the "blue pearl" screen comes up 8 minutes later... and everything runs perfectly. I also note that the shutdown is working without extenuated time (except when there's a windows update or something). So all is normal except for this problem.
2. This is a home computer (not a laptop) Dell. It connects to my home wireless network ... but ONLY after it is all booted up. Again all this seems perfectly normal.
3. I have updated Spybot, installation was smooth (I've used spybot for a long time) and this was done AFTER the problem started. Norton 360 version 2 has been put in, but this problem appeared sometime after that installation ... but note, not "immediately" after. This is why I reinstalled SpyBot and Ad-AWARE, thinking something might have slipped past my firewall. Those come up with the normal tracking cookies, etc, but nothing major. I've also run the Uniblue Registry Booster ... which has helped me in the past, and other than some small things, it has found nothing major.
4. The computer has a WiFi connection. Again, after all is booted the little programs in the tray start coming in and it connects perfectly with a "very good" signal strength ... no delays at all in this process .... I've had this for 6 months and do not believe networking is part of the problem or I would have seen this much earlier.
5. ... I just tried disconnecting my "usb antenna" for the wifi and restarrting. Same problem, except now the WiFi isn't there ... this is as ist should be. If I disconnect it, it shouldn't be there. But when I reconnected it, and restarted, the problem remained. I don't see any connection between the "home network" and this problem. (See 4 above).
There used to be a way (100 versions ago :-) when you could watch the bootup process happening, so you could see what was happening. Is there still any backdoor to that kind of a process ... If I could SEE what is happening, then I'd know what to go after next. Just a thought. (And thank you for yours).
Boot sequence
Mon, 2009-03-02 16:39 by admin
Ah, now we are getting closer. First thing I notice is that you don't seem to see the Windows XP boot menu, probably because its display time is set too low. This (and some helpers mentioned below) is set in boot.ini and can be set in the System Properties, reachable by right-clicking My Computer or in Control Panel, System.
Find the system start settings and first increase the time for the operating system list to 30 seconds. Reboot and press an arrow key on your keyboard when the boot menu appears.
The interesting question here is whether the 8 minute delay happens before or after the Windows boot menu. If before, then the computer has a BIOS or hard disk problem. If after, it has a software problem.
Boot into safe mode to see the driver list.
You can also go to the same place in the System Properties again and click on the edit button to edit boot.ini. Be careful, because any serious mutilation of that file can render your computer totally unbootable.
Under the [operating systems] heading you will find at least one line showing your Windows installation. There you can append either or both of the following switches at the very end of the line:
/sosshows the driver list while booting./bootlogcreates a boot log file on your hard disk. Google for bootlog to find the details and good luck with the tests.Be very careful not to insert any additional line breaks or anything else in boot.ini. The only thing allowed is a space before the slash. If you make a mistake here, the problem will grow bigger.
So Far, I'm with you ....
Tue, 2009-03-03 02:00 by JDLinn
OK, finding some things I didn't know were there, so we are making some progress, at least I'm "on" the learning curve! Got to the Control Panel/System/System Properties/Advanced ... both are set on 30 seconds.
Here's what was in the "edit":
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
.......................
The "boot menu" ... The first screen I see has a big blue DELL and down below it in black and white Dimension 8300, up in the right hand corner it says something like F2=Setup and F12 =Boot menu, is that what you mean by the boot menu screen? If it is, then I'm seeing that OK and almost immediately. It last a few seconds. And this is the way things have always been on this computer. I'm not hitting the F2 or F12 to go to either option. And then that screen disappears .... then I get 8 minutes of blank screen ... then up comes the colorful WINDOWS screen with the blue pearls. ... and everything then runs perfectly from that point forward. So this is sounding like it is happening AFTER the boot menu ... indicating software?
I didn't try the /sos or /bootlog ... I'm going to study those a little before I try them. Just for fun, looking at my startup files, I ran MSCONFIG under the BOOT.INI tab, I noticed some boxes that can be checked ... among them are your /BOOTLOG and /SOS .... I'm wondering if I check BOOTLOG there if this will do what we might have done using the "edit" (above). But again, I think you are telling me that the problem might be indicating software and not a boot problem.
One thing I found under MSCONFIG/startup.ini ... there is an entry that is checked, but there is a blank space under COMMAND ... (all other entries, have something there). It does say ...
"HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
...Seems strange there is no "command" wording ... but not knowing what it was, and looking like it belongs to windows, I hesitate to uncheck it. If I see an anomoly as we go along (like this one) I'll let you know.
Getting closer
Tue, 2009-03-03 19:07 by admin
What you're seeing first is a BIOS screen. It is created by the computer's BIOS before the hard disk comes into the game. It is not the boot menu I mentioned.
The Windows boot menu normally follows a few seconds after the BIOS boot screen or messages. It is gray writing on a black background and offers a choice of operating systems if more than one is installed. It should stay on the screen for 30 seconds if this setting has not been changed.
The appearance of the boot menu proves that the hard disk is working at least to some extent, because the boot files and the boot menu come from the hard disk.
After the boot menu disappears, the waiting screen with the moving blue pearls appears and indicates that Windows is loading.
So the interesting question still is whether the Windows boot menu appears before or after the long waiting time. Perhaps it does appear after the waiting time and you usually miss it, because nobody likes to stare on a black screen for 8 minutes.
If the waiting time indeed occurs before the Windows boot menu, then you should check all related BIOS settings, for example the boot sequence, and you may want to find out whether the hard disk shows any activity before the long wait. If all this leads to nothing, the computer is defective and needs repair.