Hello there, i recently built a new machine here are the specs Mobo: Gigabyte - GA-P35C-DS3R CPU: 3.0 E6850 dual core RAM: PC2-8600 2 gig GPU: NVIDIA 8800GTS 640mb Hard drive: Maxtor 200gig 7200rpm and maxtor 300gig 7200rpm Software installed Windows XP Pro SP2 ZoneAlarm 7 Pro AVG Free AVG Antirootkit AVG AntiSpyware Spybot Search and Destroy Lavasoft Adaware RegScrubXP Raxco Perfect Disk HI-Jak-This (scanned and reviewed myself-nothing suspicous) and others but i dont think they would cause this problem ALL LATEST UPDATES FROM MICROSOFT UPDATE MSCONFIG i have removed EVERYTHING that is not neccessary, i only have 5 things that are checked in it now. DEFRAG I Perform defrag on both Hard Drives weekly using Raxco Perfect Disk but they are in perfect condition i have scanned for spyware, nothing found, done absolutley everything i can think of and i cant seem to find a solution. Problem is this, my computer hangs on the welcome screen for a while when i load it up, then the system tray icons (zonealarm, avg, razor mouse, sound controller) takes a while to load, by a while i mean windows desktop will be visable and the start bar too, but the processor will be buzzing away and one, icon will appear then another then another, its not quick enough. my friend who has a p4 processor has more or less the same software as me and his pc will load instantly i dont get it. could it be ZoneAlarm? ps task manager does not sure anything hogging my resources. i have run cpu-z and it shows a 1:1 ratio for my cpu and memory im confused. Any help would be brillient Thanks,

Make sure your HDrive is running in DMA mode. I don't use Zone Alarm so I can't speak to it. edit) Upon review I don't see any mention of installing MBoard chipset drivers.

ZA can delay startup yes. Tt Lanfire MSI K8N Diamond X2 4600+@225x12=2.7ghz 1:1 1GB PC3200/4400 OCZ Powerstream 520w 7900GTO WDCaviar 160gb sata x2

ZA isn't the only AV that slows down XP bootup time. Other AV brands (& startup programs) does it too. Read the report below. http://www.thepcspy.com/read/what_r... i_Xp/VistaUser

i have installed all the latest drivers ,includng chipset drivers. how do i check if my drives are running in DMA mode? i guess im not going to be lazy and google this one. Thanks,

From Device Manager expand the IDE ATA/ ATAPI controllers> right click the first listing and choose properties> depending on what type of interface your drives use you will see different screens now but should be able to figure it how from there. Repeat for additional channels. You need to have 80 wire cable installed to gain maximum thruput.

Ok i done this and it seems that DMA is not available on my system? image below http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/... can you explain why this could be and how i can resolve/enable this please?