Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
There is a very very very long story to this, so I'll cut straight to the problem. Everything related to that story seems to be working fine now except for the fact that the computer takes 10 minutes to boot.
So here's the problem:
The computer has always taken about 10 minutes to boot. Before we came across the problem which I am about to describe to you, the computer would power up when the power button was pressed, then the DVD ROM drive would attempt to do something repeatedly for about ten minutes, then eventually stop, after which, the keyboard lights would flash to indicate power to it, the monitor would come on, the BIOS post screens would appear, then it'd freeze halfway through the post screens. Then we'd have to reboot and it'd boot fne as it normally should.
That's how it used to boot. Not anymore.
I never agreed with my mum that the original DVD ROM drive was the problem, but she bought a new DVD RW anyway, convinced that it was the cause of the 10-minute boot issue. It's a Lite-On somethingorother.
Anyway, after installing the drive, the computer takes a little bit longer, perhaps one extra minute, to boot. After successfully booting, the drive does not appear in the BIOS. Jumper is set to Cable Select. After quitting the BIOS after checking it, a post screen appeared saying "ATAPI not supported for this device" or something like that. Then once in Windows, the icon for the D: drive does not appear. It never has, not even on the old DVD ROM drive. Not even in Device Manager, nor My Computer, for either drives.
Any ideas?
Immitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement.
Don't use cable select.
Make sure you have the hard drive on the primary IDE and jumper set to Master.
Put the DVD drive on the secondary cable, also set as Master.
0 
Which connector on the cable is master? The one at the end or the one in the middle?
Immitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement.
0
It is a jumper on the drive that needs to be set to master/slave. Does this PC have one or two IDE cables? Each cable should have three connectors. One plugged into motherboard, and two for IDE devices.
I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.
0
@ Col
The way you and your mom went at this issue seem esoteric to say the least.
99% of very long boot delays are caused by errant hardware. I would have thought you'd try to isolate the culprit before spending money to replace a component - that may not fix the problem.
If you disconnect all optical drives, does the system boot up faster like it normally should?
0
If you have never tidied the registry, download easycleaner and run.
If there are bad entries, removing them may speed up booting etc.
This is most useful utility with a number of facilities.
Good Luck -Keep us posted.
0
I don't think the regiostry is the problem. Windows boots in a reasonably normal time. The part which takes about ten minutes is originally starting the computer. First it spends about 10 minutes doing something with the DVD RW, then after about ten minutes of that it will power up the keyboard, then the monitor a few seconds later, then spend ages displaying the BIOS post screens. Then it will hang and need restarting, after which is just boots normally, but without CD ROM support.
Immitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement.
0
@ jboy:
That link says that the Master connector on an IDE cable is the one at the end.
On my mum's computer, the DVD RW is connected to the connector at the end and the hard drive is connected to the one in the middle, yet the BIOs identifies them as:
Primary Master: Hard disk
Primary Slave: Not detectedThat seems odd...
Immitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement.
0
Not sure what mobo you have... mine is an asus and it has 3 connectors: PRI_EIDE, SEC_EIDE, (both in red) and a blue one: PRI_IDE. The HDD's plug into the PRI_EIDE (red) and the dvd plugs into PRI_IDE (blue).
If the cables are reversed, then BOIS takes a LOOOOOOONG time to scan for ide drives.
It sounds like your bios is looking at the dvd-rw and trying/failing to label it as a HDD
0
Well, following the advice of Grok Lobster and jboy, the problem now seems to be solved, and the computer boots much faster, if not perfectly. I don't know if the computer needs to warm up before it can boot properly, but I would have thought so.
Now, once it manages to successfully boot, it is very quick, but there is still an issue that if it has been switched off for a long time, it still won't boot straight away. It'll do it's ten-minute thing with the DVD RW, hang, restart then boot fine like it did before. But if it's still warm (ie. just been turned off, then on again) then it'll boot fine.
Immitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement.
0
*would NOT have thought so
Mistake in that last post. :(
Immitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement.
0
Go to the hard drive manufacturer's website and download their utility to check the drive. The warm up issue sounds like it may be going bad. Also, there is sometimes a BIOS setting for hard drive delay - try changing that.
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
