My computer is hella slow at bootup. it takes like 3mins or more just ta boot up my computer. and it run slower than before. what could be the problem? i just built it and it was running pretty fast until i took out an extra hard drive. now even when i stick the extra harddrive back in it still runns slow.

It might be still looking for the drive you had in there before. Try resetting your Bios on your board and then you'll have to change your settings back in your BIOS. This is most of the time a jumper on your board. Refer to your manual on how to do this. HTH, pdn

http://rogier.xszone.nl/windows/wintricks.html http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=32 A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is not so below is how to turn it on. • Defragment boot files The boot defragment option is usually enabled by default, but it may be disabled, or not properly enabled. If it's not working, XP may boot dog-slow. # Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction # Select Enable from the list on the right. # Right on it and select Modify. # Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable. # Reboot your computer. ==================================== Boot XP faster http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin/performance/index.cgi?answer=1036284053&id=1036282433 1. Open notepad.exe, type "del c:\windows\prefetch\ntosboot-*.* /q" (without the quotes) & save as "ntosboot.bat" in c:\ 2. From the Start menu, select "Run..." & type "gpedit.msc". 3. Double click "Windows Settings" under "Computer Configuration" and double click again on "Shutdown" in the right window. 4. In the new window, click "add", "Browse", locate your "ntosboot.bat" file & click "Open". 5. Click "OK", "Apply" & "OK" once again to exit. 6. From the Start menu, select "Run..." & type "devmgmt.msc". 7. Double click on "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" 8. Right click on "Primary IDE Channel" and select "Properties". 9. Select the "Advanced Settings" tab then on the device 0 or 1 that doesn't have 'device type' greyed out select 'none' instead of 'autodetect' & click "OK". 10. Right click on "Secondary IDE channel", select "Properties" and repeat step 9. 11. Reboot your computer. ===================================== Resources for Troubleshooting Startup Problems in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308041 ====================================== http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm#Network%20DDE Enable Quick post in BIOS setup , as long as you have a have a lot of memory . The normal memory test , is tested three times & that alone may take 60 to 90 seconds. ================================== Enabling DMA in XP . http://www.blackmaxpc.com/Guides/DMA.htm http://www.xtremepccentral.com/foru...9/2002/05/1/885 http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/tech/storage/IDE-DMA.asp http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7625 http://www.optorite.com/manual/English/manual/dma.htm Problems enabling DMA in XP . http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6645 http://www.compguysinc.com/techweb/hardware/dma66.shtml ---------------------- Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's how: Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to right-click on "My Computer", select the Hardware tab, and select Device Manager. Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE Channel". Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO. Set it to "DMA if available". Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have devices attached to it. Reboot ================================== http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin/performance/index.cgi?answer=1036284156&id=1036282433 If the computer persists on having only PIO after reboot even though the hard drive is a flashing super-duper ATA133 and transfer mode set to “DMA if available”, then you have to do the following: Remove the primary device in the device manager and reboot! Voilà, now the harddrive should be running in DMA mode. Repeat on the secondary IDE channel if necessary.