Help? P4P800 Really slow bootup - a lot of HDD activity before WinXP is usable...

Hi all,

I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time after bootup
which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad, and I
get my desktop quite quickly, however, the HDD activity light is going like
crazy, and I can hear my HDD working overtime for a while before I can
actually use WinXP. I have checked all the usual suspects like
Spy/Ad/wares, or virus and I perform regular mantenances such as disk
defrags on my HDDs. The most noticable jump in time to wait came when I
switched my system HDD to a secondary VIA RAID controller (which isn't being
used as a RAID) - to use my Intel ICH5 controller to control my ATAPI
optical drives (which my VIA controller doesn't support). This was
unfortunately the only way I can get all 3 of my optical drives running at
the same time. I checked that the VIA controller is transferring in UDMA5.
Once everything is running, everything seems fine - just the bootup time.

I am still on WinXP SP1a and my system specs a

Intel P4 2.4Ghz HT enabled
Asus P4P800 Deluxe (w/2x 512Mb dual channel =1Gb)
Intel IDE:
Primary: Sony DVD-RW (DRU-530A) -master
Secondary: LiteOn CD-RW -master
Secondary: Pioneer DVD-A05 -slave
VIA IDE:
Primary: WD 120Gb (System) -master
Primary: WD 120Gb -slave
Secondary: Quantum 6.4Gb -master
SCSI:
IBM 4Gb HDD
Iomega ZIP removeable
SyQuest 200Mb removeable
ATI Radeon 9000
ATI TV-Wonder

p.s. I heard something a while back that the VIA controller might be the
cause?
Thanks,
Wm

indexing is enabled? office fast find installed?

"William Cheng" wrote in message
. ..
Hi all,

I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time
after bootup
which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad,
and I
get my desktop quite quickly, however, the HDD activity light is
going like
crazy, and I can hear my HDD working overtime for a while before I
can
actually use WinXP. I have checked all the usual suspects like
Spy/Ad/wares, or virus and I perform regular mantenances such as
disk
defrags on my HDDs. The most noticable jump in time to wait came
when I
switched my system HDD to a secondary VIA RAID controller (which
isn't being
used as a RAID) - to use my Intel ICH5 controller to control my
ATAPI
optical drives (which my VIA controller doesn't support). This was
unfortunately the only way I can get all 3 of my optical drives
running at
the same time. I checked that the VIA controller is transferring in
UDMA5.
Once everything is running, everything seems fine - just the bootup
time.

I am still on WinXP SP1a and my system specs a

Intel P4 2.4Ghz HT enabled
Asus P4P800 Deluxe (w/2x 512Mb dual channel =1Gb)
Intel IDE:
Primary: Sony DVD-RW (DRU-530A) -master
Secondary: LiteOn CD-RW -master
Secondary: Pioneer DVD-A05 -slave
VIA IDE:
Primary: WD 120Gb (System) -master
Primary: WD 120Gb -slave
Secondary: Quantum 6.4Gb -master
SCSI:
IBM 4Gb HDD
Iomega ZIP removeable
SyQuest 200Mb removeable
ATI Radeon 9000
ATI TV-Wonder

p.s. I heard something a while back that the VIA controller might
be the
cause?
Thanks,
Wm

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 13:40:36 -0500 The moonlight laughed on the
blade's edge when "William Cheng"
wrote :

Hi all,

I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time after bootup
which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad, and I
get my desktop quite quickly, however, the HDD activity light is going like
crazy, and I can hear my HDD working overtime for a while before I can
actually use WinXP. I have checked all the usual suspects like
Spy/Ad/wares, or virus and I perform regular mantenances such as disk
defrags on my HDDs. The most noticable jump in time to wait came when I
switched my system HDD to a secondary VIA RAID controller (which isn't being
used as a RAID) - to use my Intel ICH5 controller to control my ATAPI
optical drives (which my VIA controller doesn't support). This was
unfortunately the only way I can get all 3 of my optical drives running at
the same time. I checked that the VIA controller is transferring in UDMA5.
Once everything is running, everything seems fine - just the bootup time.

I am still on WinXP SP1a and my system specs a

Intel P4 2.4Ghz HT enabled
Asus P4P800 Deluxe (w/2x 512Mb dual channel =1Gb)
Intel IDE:
Primary: Sony DVD-RW (DRU-530A) -master
Secondary: LiteOn CD-RW -master
Secondary: Pioneer DVD-A05 -slave
VIA IDE:
Primary: WD 120Gb (System) -master
Primary: WD 120Gb -slave
Secondary: Quantum 6.4Gb -master
SCSI:
IBM 4Gb HDD
Iomega ZIP removeable
SyQuest 200Mb removeable
ATI Radeon 9000
ATI TV-Wonder

p.s. I heard something a while back that the VIA controller might be the
cause?
Thanks,
Wm


Disable file indexing on the drives(Useless option) and also clean out
your Prefetch Folder in the windows folder.
Tips and tricks on here,
http://www25.brinkster.com/chirisoft/speedxp.htm
SpeedXP,
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx
TweakUI for XP.
Disable unneeded services,
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm
Disable hibernation unless you really want it also.

Loads more on here,
http://www.winxpfix.com/
http://www.tipsdr.com/

HTH





--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
remove obvious to reply
email
Free original songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time after bootup
which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad......snip

XP does a trick that gets many people. It shows the desktop long
before the system is done booting up. This is almost certainly what
you are describing. Sure a clean install starts faster since less
things are loading.

Thanks,

I will try to weed down some of my startup items and run the speedXP - as
well as turn off indexing (how do I turn off indexing?)

Thanks,
Wm

"Shep©" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 13:40:36 -0500 The moonlight laughed on the
blade's edge when "William Cheng"
wrote :

Hi all,

I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time after
bootup
which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad, and I
get my desktop quite quickly, however, the HDD activity light is going
like
crazy, and I can hear my HDD working overtime for a while before I can
actually use WinXP. I have checked all the usual suspects like
Spy/Ad/wares, or virus and I perform regular mantenances such as disk
defrags on my HDDs. The most noticable jump in time to wait came when I
switched my system HDD to a secondary VIA RAID controller (which isn't
being
used as a RAID) - to use my Intel ICH5 controller to control my ATAPI
optical drives (which my VIA controller doesn't support). This was
unfortunately the only way I can get all 3 of my optical drives running
at
the same time. I checked that the VIA controller is transferring in
UDMA5.
Once everything is running, everything seems fine - just the bootup time.

I am still on WinXP SP1a and my system specs a

Intel P4 2.4Ghz HT enabled
Asus P4P800 Deluxe (w/2x 512Mb dual channel =1Gb)
Intel IDE:
Primary: Sony DVD-RW (DRU-530A) -master
Secondary: LiteOn CD-RW -master
Secondary: Pioneer DVD-A05 -slave
VIA IDE:
Primary: WD 120Gb (System) -master
Primary: WD 120Gb -slave
Secondary: Quantum 6.4Gb -master
SCSI:
IBM 4Gb HDD
Iomega ZIP removeable
SyQuest 200Mb removeable
ATI Radeon 9000
ATI TV-Wonder

p.s. I heard something a while back that the VIA controller might be the
cause?
Thanks,
Wm


Disable file indexing on the drives(Useless option) and also clean out
your Prefetch Folder in the windows folder.
Tips and tricks on here,
http://www25.brinkster.com/chirisoft/speedxp.htm
SpeedXP,
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx
TweakUI for XP.
Disable unneeded services,
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm
Disable hibernation unless you really want it also.

Loads more on here,
http://www.winxpfix.com/
http://www.tipsdr.com/

HTH





--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
remove obvious to reply
email
Free original songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:35:17 -0500 The moonlight laughed on the
blade's edge when "William Cheng"
wrote :

Thanks,

I will try to weed down some of my startup items and run the speedXP - as
well as turn off indexing (how do I turn off indexing?)

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak1335.aspx




--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
remove obvious to reply
email
Free original songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

"William Cheng" wrote in message
. ..
Hi all,

I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time after
bootup
which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad, and I
get my desktop quite quickly, however, the HDD activity light is going
like
crazy, and I can hear my HDD working overtime for a while before I can
actually use WinXP. I have checked all the usual suspects like
Spy/Ad/wares, or virus and I perform regular mantenances such as disk
defrags on my HDDs. The most noticable jump in time to wait came when I
switched my system HDD to a secondary VIA RAID controller (which isn't
being
used as a RAID) - to use my Intel ICH5 controller to control my ATAPI
optical drives (which my VIA controller doesn't support). This was
unfortunately the only way I can get all 3 of my optical drives running at
the same time. I checked that the VIA controller is transferring in
UDMA5.
Once everything is running, everything seems fine - just the bootup time.

I am still on WinXP SP1a and my system specs a

Intel P4 2.4Ghz HT enabled
Asus P4P800 Deluxe (w/2x 512Mb dual channel =1Gb)
Intel IDE:
Primary: Sony DVD-RW (DRU-530A) -master
Secondary: LiteOn CD-RW -master
Secondary: Pioneer DVD-A05 -slave
VIA IDE:
Primary: WD 120Gb (System) -master
Primary: WD 120Gb -slave
Secondary: Quantum 6.4Gb -master
SCSI:
IBM 4Gb HDD
Iomega ZIP removeable
SyQuest 200Mb removeable
ATI Radeon 9000
ATI TV-Wonder

p.s. I heard something a while back that the VIA controller might be the
cause?

I suspect that setting your DVD-RW to primary master may be the problem.
The system wants to find that as the boot device. It's not happy having to
look elsewhere for the boot device.

Also, having SCSI devices in the machine will slow down your bootup. Do you
really need all that stuff in that box? Looks to me like you could easily
lose all the SCSI drives (obsolete) as well as that 6 Gig Quantum (also
obsolete). Pare that sucker down to the pair of WD 120s in a RAID
configuration, and no more than 2 DVD-RW drives and it should _fly_!

BTW, be very careful about the jumper settings on your drives. E.g.,
there's a huge difference between "master+slave" and "master".

Tom S

Thanks so much.

That's one down....

"Shep©" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:35:17 -0500 The moonlight laughed on the
blade's edge when "William Cheng"
wrote :

Thanks,

I will try to weed down some of my startup items and run the speedXP - as
well as turn off indexing (how do I turn off indexing?)

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak1335.aspx




--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
remove obvious to reply
email
Free original songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

"William Cheng" wrote in message
. ..
Hi all,

I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time after
bootup
which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad, and I
get my desktop quite quickly, however, the HDD activity light is going
like
crazy, and I can hear my HDD working overtime for a while before I can
actually use WinXP. I have checked all the usual suspects like
Spy/Ad/wares, or virus and I perform regular mantenances such as disk
defrags on my HDDs.

The most noticable jump in time to wait came when I
switched my system HDD to a secondary VIA RAID controller (which isn't
being
used as a RAID) - to use my Intel ICH5 controller to control my ATAPI
optical drives (which my VIA controller doesn't support).

This was unfortunately the only way I can get all 3 of my optical drives
running at
the same time. I checked that the VIA controller is transferring in
UDMA5.
Once everything is running, everything seems fine - just the bootup time.

I am still on WinXP SP1a and my system specs a

XP is hunting for things that you moved.

Oh, that makes sense, is there anyway to tell XP where everything is now
manually, instead of having it hunt everytime it loads up?


"Frank" wrote in message
. ..

"William Cheng" wrote in message
. ..
Hi all,

I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time after
bootup
which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad, and
I
get my desktop quite quickly, however, the HDD activity light is going
like
crazy, and I can hear my HDD working overtime for a while before I can
actually use WinXP. I have checked all the usual suspects like
Spy/Ad/wares, or virus and I perform regular mantenances such as disk
defrags on my HDDs.

The most noticable jump in time to wait came when I
switched my system HDD to a secondary VIA RAID controller (which isn't
being
used as a RAID) - to use my Intel ICH5 controller to control my ATAPI
optical drives (which my VIA controller doesn't support).

This was unfortunately the only way I can get all 3 of my optical drives
running at
the same time. I checked that the VIA controller is transferring in
UDMA5.
Once everything is running, everything seems fine - just the bootup
time.

I am still on WinXP SP1a and my system specs a

XP is hunting for things that you moved.