Long Start time

  • Thread starter Thread starter TomD
  • Start date Start date
T

TomD

Running win2K on K7S5A mobo and AMD 1800+. Loading times
all of a sudden got so long that thought mobo faulty.
Once took 40 min to load, last time 10 min. Decided not
to switch off as not sure if it'll start again. Any ideas
what the problem is??? as a starter the folowing error
message has been returned once:

File\biosinfo.inf could not be loaded.

the error code is 4097

Thanks
 
Tom - run both a memory and a hard drive diagnostic on that machine.

Ram diagnostics can be found and downloaded on the web. Try looking for
utilities with names like ramtest and memtest. Some consumer utilkity
suites have them too.

Go to your drive manufacturer's website for a downloadable diagnostic
for that drive.

In both cases, it's best that the diagnostic be one that runs from an
independent (non-W2k) floppy boot. Such floppy-based bootable
diagnostics include some version of a basic DOS.

In the early stages of drive failure, built-in retry routines can take
an extremely long time - longer even than you describe. Especially if
every few dozen retries one is successful...then another retry sequence
 
Dan,

Thanks for ypur response. RAM is OK as tested in another
machine. Ditto for HDD i.e. installed as slave,
recognised and accessible. BIOS has been set up to
install from FDD in first instance if bootable media
installed. I can't understand why it won't boot from FDD
or take such time to recognise it is there.

Tom
 
Tom - if the drive has a bad spot in a place where
the active W2k is, that might not show up when that
W2k isn't active (the HDD mounted as a slave). (I'm
speculating.) The manufacturer's diagnostic ought
to find it, though...and you don't mention having
tried it.

Another tool you might consider is SpinRite from
www.grc.com, which now works on NTFS as well as
FAT partitions. The Level 4 and Level 5 options
may uncover a problem.

Question: does the machine boot from floppy with
the HDD removed? If it won't, have you done
anything at all lately with the floppy cabling?
Are all board/device jumpers correct, none loose
or fallen off? And can you try another floppy drive?
(I'm groping here.)
 
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