Pc takes ages to start up.......really weird problem

Redisle

I was fixing my friends pc recently whose problem was that it was taking ages to start up ( this isnt his primary machine). So I went over assuming that he had a major spyware/virus problem and I said i would reinstall xp. So i switched it on, fans spin up, no beep, no bios screen, nothing.....for about 10 mins. Then it boots fine and comes into windows and everything.

I reinstalled windows for him anyway because someone who had fixed it for him before installed a pirate xp pro so I installed home with his own oem key.
Now it gets even stranger... If I restart now it boots fine... It only takes ages from a 'cold' start.:rolleyes: . Now I sound like im talking bout a car....

So does anyone know why this is? Its not too important to him to get this fixed....its a p4 1.5, 256mb ram and he has a new pc but its bugging me all the same... I think there is a good chance that its the psu but im not sure.... Any ideas anyone??

Ruu_Old

When you reinstalled, did you format it or just replace the installation that was already there?

irlrobins

Have checked that all cables are secure, reseated RAM, video card etc.

Redisle

Ruu wrote:

When you reinstalled, did you format it or just replace the installation that was already there?

Ya I wiped the existing partition and formatted the whole drive ntfs. tbh I dont think its a windows problem because it doesent even get as far as the bios screen

Redisle

irlrobins wrote:

Have checked that all cables are secure, reseated RAM, video card etc.

No i didnt think of that actually. Id say the memory is okay though because i ran memtest for about 45 mins with no errors. Id say it could be the psu because i though i heard some wierd noises from it but im not sure. Next day im there ill try reseating everything and check the cables anyway..

irlrobins

ab_cork wrote:

Ya I wiped the existing partition and formatted the whole drive ntfs. tbh I dont think its a windows problem because it doesent even get as far as the bios screen

yea no it doesn't appear to be. Sounds like a physical problem.

Redisle

so can anyone tell me what the problem is?

arseagon

Have you checked the BIOS. there's usually an option to enable Quick boot. Some PC's can take an age if this isn't enabled. it might still take ages on a cold boot but maybe only half the time.

Ruu_Old

Try setting the BIOS to the default values and see if theres any change.

PogMoThoin

Clear cmos?

DonkeyRhubarb

This happened to me.

The HD eventually gave up and I lost everything.

Try with a different HD and if this fixes it, voila.

Exact same problem I had.

Back up your stuff while you can!!!

Voila:p

DublinWriter

Reset the BIOS as suggested, and it may be looking for a boot image from the network.

More likely as one poster said it's a dodgy HD trying to spin-up and about to go RIP.

Redisle

Okay, thanks for all of your help, will try resetting the bios, if not i guess it must be the hard drive...