PC almost at standstill

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Pinnell
  • Start date Start date
T

Terry Pinnell

This follows on from my post describing a boot up failure, as the subject
heading of that is now misleading.

The consistent state now is that my Athlon XP 1800 PC takes about half an
hour to boot! And then every operation is similarly glacial. For example,
after double clicking My Computer it takes about 10 minutes for it to be
displayed. So even the simplest checks have become almost impossible. I
cannot even take screenshots to post here and have resorted to a camera.

Directly after powering up I see this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-64MB.jpg
That '64.0 MB' puzzles me. Is it unrelated to the total RAM, which is 1 GB
as shown here later in the boot-up process?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/ShedPC-BootProblem-1.jpg

FWIW here is the RAM itself which I removed and replaced:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-RAM.jpg

Here is a BIOS screen that appeared because I got fed up waiting 15
minutes for the PC to close itself down.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-BIOS-2.jpg
Can someone explain that entry about OS/2 Onboard Memory please? Anything
else significant about the info displayed?

When I continued from there to my get to my XP desktop eventually I wanted
to check that my reversing the weird change of drive letter I described
earlier (from its original D to J) had been implemented. So some 15 mins
later I had this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-Puzzle-1.jpg
As you see, D is present but has no info!

I gave up on trying to get back to Disk Mgmt tonight. Will try in the
morning.

I did also manage to get DiskKeeper open (no photo) which did not show D
at all as one of its volumes.

Task Manager showed this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-TM-1.jpg
I don't understand why Winlogon is taking a third of CPU resource about an
hour after starting the bootup and maybe 30 mins after the desktop was
assembled.

In short, I'm now dead in the water and getting desperate! Any suggestions
would be warmly welcomed please.
 
Terry said:
This follows on from my post describing a boot up failure, as the subject
heading of that is now misleading.

The consistent state now is that my Athlon XP 1800 PC takes about half an
hour to boot! And then every operation is similarly glacial. For example,
after double clicking My Computer it takes about 10 minutes for it to be
displayed. So even the simplest checks have become almost impossible. I
cannot even take screenshots to post here and have resorted to a camera.

Directly after powering up I see this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-64MB.jpg
That '64.0 MB' puzzles me. Is it unrelated to the total RAM, which is 1 GB
as shown here later in the boot-up process?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/ShedPC-BootProblem-1.jpg

FWIW here is the RAM itself which I removed and replaced:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-RAM.jpg

Here is a BIOS screen that appeared because I got fed up waiting 15
minutes for the PC to close itself down.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-BIOS-2.jpg
Can someone explain that entry about OS/2 Onboard Memory please? Anything
else significant about the info displayed?

When I continued from there to my get to my XP desktop eventually I wanted
to check that my reversing the weird change of drive letter I described
earlier (from its original D to J) had been implemented. So some 15 mins
later I had this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-Puzzle-1.jpg
As you see, D is present but has no info!

I gave up on trying to get back to Disk Mgmt tonight. Will try in the
morning.

I did also manage to get DiskKeeper open (no photo) which did not show D
at all as one of its volumes.

Task Manager showed this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-TM-1.jpg
I don't understand why Winlogon is taking a third of CPU resource about an
hour after starting the bootup and maybe 30 mins after the desktop was
assembled.

In short, I'm now dead in the water and getting desperate! Any suggestions
would be warmly welcomed please.
Click to expand...

First priority now, is the backup. Everything else can wait.

And, no more rebooting. Obviously.

Plug in an external USB hard drive, and do your backup.
That way, you don't have to shut down the computer.

If you don't have any backup software, install this. See
the green icon, bottom of left column, for the download.
Don't even stop to make the rescue CD. Just back up
everything your Maxtors are threatening. Macrium Reflect
uses VSS, and can copy C: without rebooting (like Ghost would
do). You can prepare the (Linux based) recovery CD on another
machine.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Once you have the backup made, then your possibilities
are endless.

Good luck,
Paul
 
This follows on from my post describing a boot up failure, as the subject
heading of that is now misleading.

The consistent state now is that my Athlon XP 1800 PC takes about half an
hour to boot! And then every operation is similarly glacial. For example,
after double clicking My Computer it takes about 10 minutes for it to be
displayed. So even the simplest checks have become almost impossible. I
cannot even take screenshots to post here and have resorted to a camera.

Directly after powering up I see this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-64MB.jpg
That '64.0 MB' puzzles me. Is it unrelated to the total RAM, which is 1 GB
as shown here later in the boot-up process?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/ShedPC-BootProblem-1.jpg

FWIW here is the RAM itself which I removed and replaced:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-RAM.jpg

Here is a BIOS screen that appeared because I got fed up waiting 15
minutes for the PC to close itself down.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-BIOS-2.jpg
Can someone explain that entry about OS/2 Onboard Memory please? Anything
else significant about the info displayed?

When I continued from there to my get to my XP desktop eventually I wanted
to check that my reversing the weird change of drive letter I described
earlier (from its original D to J) had been implemented. So some 15 mins
later I had this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-Puzzle-1.jpg
As you see, D is present but has no info!

I gave up on trying to get back to Disk Mgmt tonight. Will try in the
morning.

I did also manage to get DiskKeeper open (no photo) which did not show D
at all as one of its volumes.

Task Manager showed this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-TM-1.jpg
I don't understand why Winlogon is taking a third of CPU resource about an
hour after starting the bootup and maybe 30 mins after the desktop was
assembled.

In short, I'm now dead in the water and getting desperate! Any suggestions
would be warmly welcomed please.
Click to expand...
The first item is telling about the ram used for video.
The fourth item tells you that you have a problem with the
multiplier for the cpu. Check what its speed is supposed to
be and divide that by 133 to determine the correct multiplier.
 
Pen said:
The first item is telling about the ram used for video.
The fourth item tells you that you have a problem with the
multiplier for the cpu. Check what its speed is supposed to
be and divide that by 133 to determine the correct multiplier.
Click to expand...

Athlon XP 1800
133MHz 13x ==> 1533MHz
Looks OK to me.

******** Start - Table of multiplier info *********
Family Core P.R. Pkg CPU Cache Mult Core Tmax Power
Freq Clk Volts

XP Model 10 2200 (3200+) OPGA 200 512 11x 1.65V 85oC 60.4W
Barton 2100 (3000+) OPGA 200 512 10.5x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W

XP Model 10 2167 (3000+) OPGA 166 512 13x 1.65V 85oC 58.4W
Barton 2083 (2800+) OPGA 166 512 12.5x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W
1917 (2600+) OPGA 166 512 11.5x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W
1833 (2500+) OPGA 166 512 11x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W

XP Model 8 2167 (2700+) OPGA 166 256 13x 1.65V 85oC 62.0W
Thoroughbred 2083 (2600+) OPGA 166 256 12.5x 1.65V 85oC 62.0W

XP Model 8 2133 (2600+) OPGA 133 256 16x 1.65V 85oC 62.0W
Thoroughbred 2000 (2400+) OPGA 133 256 15x 1.65V 85oC 62.0W
CPU ID 0681 1800 (2200+) OPGA 133 256 13.5x 1.60V 85oC 57.0W
1733 (2100+) OPGA 133 256 13x 1.60V 90oC 56.3W
1667 (2000+) OPGA 133 256 12.5x 1.60V 90oC 55.7W
1533 (1800+) OPGA 133 256 11.5x 1.60V 90oC 55.7W <---
1467 (1700+) OPGA 133 256 11x 1.60V 90oC 55.7W

XP Model 8 1800 (2200+) OPGA 133 256 13.5x 1.65V 85oC 61.7W
Thoroughbred 1733 (2100+) OPGA 133 256 13x 1.60V 90oC 56.4W
CPU ID 0680 1667 (2000+) OPGA 133 256 12.5x 1.65V 90oC 54.7W
1667 (2000+) OPGA 133 256 12.5x 1.60V 90oC 54.7W
1600 (1900+) OPGA 133 256 12x 1.50V 90oC 47.7W
1533 (1800+) OPGA 133 256 11.5x 1.50V 90oC 46.3W <---
1467 (1700+) OPGA 133 256 11x 1.50V 90oC 44.9W

XP Model 6 1733 (2100+) OPGA 133 256 13x 1.75V 90oC 64.3W
Palomino 1667 (2000+) OPGA 133 256 12.5x 1.75V 90oC 62.5W
1600 (1900+) OPGA 133 256 12x 1.75V 90oC 60.7W
1533 (1800+) OPGA 133 256 11.5x 1.75V 90oC 59.2W <---
1467 (1700+) OPGA 133 256 11x 1.75V 90oC 57.4W
1400 (1600+) OPGA 133 256 10.5x 1.75V 90oC 56.3W
1333 (1500+) OPGA 133 256 10x 1.75V 90oC 53.8W

******** End - Table of multiplier info *********

Paul
 
Terry Pinnell said:
This follows on from my post describing a boot up failure, as the subject
heading of that is now misleading.

The consistent state now is that my Athlon XP 1800 PC takes about half an
hour to boot! And then every operation is similarly glacial. For example,
after double clicking My Computer it takes about 10 minutes for it to be
displayed. So even the simplest checks have become almost impossible. I
cannot even take screenshots to post here and have resorted to a camera.

Directly after powering up I see this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-64MB.jpg
That '64.0 MB' puzzles me. Is it unrelated to the total RAM, which is 1 GB
as shown here later in the boot-up process?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/ShedPC-BootProblem-1.jpg

FWIW here is the RAM itself which I removed and replaced:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-RAM.jpg

Here is a BIOS screen that appeared because I got fed up waiting 15
minutes for the PC to close itself down.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-BIOS-2.jpg
Can someone explain that entry about OS/2 Onboard Memory please? Anything
else significant about the info displayed?

When I continued from there to my get to my XP desktop eventually I wanted
to check that my reversing the weird change of drive letter I described
earlier (from its original D to J) had been implemented. So some 15 mins
later I had this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-Puzzle-1.jpg
As you see, D is present but has no info!

I gave up on trying to get back to Disk Mgmt tonight. Will try in the
morning.

I did also manage to get DiskKeeper open (no photo) which did not show D
at all as one of its volumes.

Task Manager showed this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-TM-1.jpg
I don't understand why Winlogon is taking a third of CPU resource about an
hour after starting the bootup and maybe 30 mins after the desktop was
assembled.

In short, I'm now dead in the water and getting desperate! Any suggestions
would be warmly welcomed please.
Click to expand...

Hello Terry Pinnell

The 64mb refers to the memory on your Nvidia graphics card, which is
seperate to your system RAM, so you probably swapped out your RAM for
nothing.
OS2 setting is fine, unless you're running OS2 !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2

After casting my eye through this thread, including Paul's excellent advice
regarding a prompt back-up,
....this appeared to be the most important issue. i.e. as a XP1800 based PC
is very old, in many ways, when it starts going tits-up, it's very important
to get all important, (to you), data backed out onto external media, (you
didn't mention if data loss was a concern).

When I tackle such older "IBM PC compatible" hardware, (if data loss is a
concern), I first pull the hard disk/s and pop them into an external hd
docking station, and back out all data directories, and sweep for all common
user created filetypes etc. and back them out as well.

So, you shouldn't really be trying to problem solve this PC until it's
backed up.

It sounds a little as though your hardware needs a thorough "going over,"
and preferably, your data restored to a much newer and robust system.

regards, Richard
 
Terry said:
This follows on from my post describing a boot up failure, as the
subject heading of that is now misleading.

The consistent state now is that my Athlon XP 1800 PC takes about
half an hour to boot! And then every operation is similarly glacial.
Click to expand...

Things I might try.

1. Run the disk manufacturers disk check program on every drive.

2. Run Memtest+ overnight. Add more memory if the motherboard allows.

3. Check that the drives each are running in the proper DMA mode.

4. I've seen Anti-spyware programs drastically slow down PCs. Remove/disable any
anti-spyware programs and all but one anti-virus programs. If that doesn't do
it, try running consecutively, at least one or two other carefully chosen such
programs and do full scans on all drives. Then remove extra such programs. You
don't want duplication here on any continuous basis.
 
Paul said:
First priority now, is the backup. Everything else can wait.

And, no more rebooting. Obviously.

Plug in an external USB hard drive, and do your backup.
That way, you don't have to shut down the computer.

If you don't have any backup software, install this. See
the green icon, bottom of left column, for the download.
Don't even stop to make the rescue CD. Just back up
everything your Maxtors are threatening. Macrium Reflect
uses VSS, and can copy C: without rebooting (like Ghost would
do). You can prepare the (Linux based) recovery CD on another
machine.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Once you have the backup made, then your possibilities
are endless.

Good luck,
Paul
Click to expand...

I already have most of the data from this old PC D on my main PC, so b/u
isn't a major concern. My major priority is to get the PC running again,
at normal speed.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK
 
Paul said:
Athlon XP 1800
133MHz 13x ==> 1533MHz
Looks OK to me.

******** Start - Table of multiplier info *********
Family Core P.R. Pkg CPU Cache Mult Core Tmax Power
Freq Clk Volts

XP Model 10 2200 (3200+) OPGA 200 512 11x 1.65V 85oC 60.4W
Barton 2100 (3000+) OPGA 200 512 10.5x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W

XP Model 10 2167 (3000+) OPGA 166 512 13x 1.65V 85oC 58.4W
Barton 2083 (2800+) OPGA 166 512 12.5x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W
1917 (2600+) OPGA 166 512 11.5x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W
1833 (2500+) OPGA 166 512 11x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W

XP Model 8 2167 (2700+) OPGA 166 256 13x 1.65V 85oC 62.0W
Thoroughbred 2083 (2600+) OPGA 166 256 12.5x 1.65V 85oC 62.0W

XP Model 8 2133 (2600+) OPGA 133 256 16x 1.65V 85oC 62.0W
Thoroughbred 2000 (2400+) OPGA 133 256 15x 1.65V 85oC 62.0W
CPU ID 0681 1800 (2200+) OPGA 133 256 13.5x 1.60V 85oC 57.0W
1733 (2100+) OPGA 133 256 13x 1.60V 90oC 56.3W
1667 (2000+) OPGA 133 256 12.5x 1.60V 90oC 55.7W
1533 (1800+) OPGA 133 256 11.5x 1.60V 90oC 55.7W <---
1467 (1700+) OPGA 133 256 11x 1.60V 90oC 55.7W

XP Model 8 1800 (2200+) OPGA 133 256 13.5x 1.65V 85oC 61.7W
Thoroughbred 1733 (2100+) OPGA 133 256 13x 1.60V 90oC 56.4W
CPU ID 0680 1667 (2000+) OPGA 133 256 12.5x 1.65V 90oC 54.7W
1667 (2000+) OPGA 133 256 12.5x 1.60V 90oC 54.7W
1600 (1900+) OPGA 133 256 12x 1.50V 90oC 47.7W
1533 (1800+) OPGA 133 256 11.5x 1.50V 90oC 46.3W <---
1467 (1700+) OPGA 133 256 11x 1.50V 90oC 44.9W

XP Model 6 1733 (2100+) OPGA 133 256 13x 1.75V 90oC 64.3W
Palomino 1667 (2000+) OPGA 133 256 12.5x 1.75V 90oC 62.5W
1600 (1900+) OPGA 133 256 12x 1.75V 90oC 60.7W
1533 (1800+) OPGA 133 256 11.5x 1.75V 90oC 59.2W <---
1467 (1700+) OPGA 133 256 11x 1.75V 90oC 57.4W
1400 (1600+) OPGA 133 256 10.5x 1.75V 90oC 56.3W
1333 (1500+) OPGA 133 256 10x 1.75V 90oC 53.8W

******** End - Table of multiplier info *********

Paul
Click to expand...

Yes, I think there's no problem there.
 
RJK said:
Hello Terry Pinnell

The 64mb refers to the memory on your Nvidia graphics card, which is
seperate to your system RAM, so you probably swapped out your RAM for
nothing.
OS2 setting is fine, unless you're running OS2 !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2

After casting my eye through this thread, including Paul's excellent advice
regarding a prompt back-up,
...this appeared to be the most important issue. i.e. as a XP1800 based PC
is very old, in many ways, when it starts going tits-up, it's very important
to get all important, (to you), data backed out onto external media, (you
didn't mention if data loss was a concern).

When I tackle such older "IBM PC compatible" hardware, (if data loss is a
concern), I first pull the hard disk/s and pop them into an external hd
docking station, and back out all data directories, and sweep for all common
user created filetypes etc. and back them out as well.

So, you shouldn't really be trying to problem solve this PC until it's
backed up.

It sounds a little as though your hardware needs a thorough "going over,"
and preferably, your data restored to a much newer and robust system.

regards, Richard
Click to expand...
Thanks Richard, appreciate that thorough reply.

Re backup, I thought I'd posted about that not being an issue but it seems
that my attempt at cross-posting didn't work. Have now duplicated it.

To summarise, I'm in reasonable shape to recover any important data loss
one way or another. But PROCESSING is virtually frozen, so just about all
operations suggested for diagnosis are impossible to apply!
 
Bob F said:
Things I might try.

1. Run the disk manufacturers disk check program on every drive.

2. Run Memtest+ overnight. Add more memory if the motherboard allows.

3. Check that the drives each are running in the proper DMA mode.

4. I've seen Anti-spyware programs drastically slow down PCs. Remove/disable any
anti-spyware programs and all but one anti-virus programs. If that doesn't do
it, try running consecutively, at least one or two other carefully chosen such
programs and do full scans on all drives. Then remove extra such programs. You
don't want duplication here on any continuous basis.
Click to expand...


Thanks Bob, I'll try to check out #3. Might take half an hour or so! I
can't see any chance of attempting #1 and #2 in the current state. And I'm
pretty sure #4 isn't the cause.

For the few days before this sudden problem I had been methodically
removing many unwanted programs in an attempt to free up more space on my
C drive. All was working normally. There was and is no internet
connection.
 
Terry said:
This follows on from my post describing a boot up failure, as the subject
heading of that is now misleading.

The consistent state now is that my Athlon XP 1800 PC takes about half an
hour to boot! And then every operation is similarly glacial. For example,
after double clicking My Computer it takes about 10 minutes for it to be
displayed. So even the simplest checks have become almost impossible. I
cannot even take screenshots to post here and have resorted to a camera.

Directly after powering up I see this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-64MB.jpg
That '64.0 MB' puzzles me. Is it unrelated to the total RAM, which is 1 GB
as shown here later in the boot-up process?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/ShedPC-BootProblem-1.jpg

FWIW here is the RAM itself which I removed and replaced:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-RAM.jpg

Here is a BIOS screen that appeared because I got fed up waiting 15
minutes for the PC to close itself down.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-BIOS-2.jpg
Can someone explain that entry about OS/2 Onboard Memory please? Anything
else significant about the info displayed?

When I continued from there to my get to my XP desktop eventually I wanted
to check that my reversing the weird change of drive letter I described
earlier (from its original D to J) had been implemented. So some 15 mins
later I had this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-Puzzle-1.jpg
As you see, D is present but has no info!

I gave up on trying to get back to Disk Mgmt tonight. Will try in the
morning.

I did also manage to get DiskKeeper open (no photo) which did not show D
at all as one of its volumes.

Task Manager showed this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-TM-1.jpg
I don't understand why Winlogon is taking a third of CPU resource about an
hour after starting the bootup and maybe 30 mins after the desktop was
assembled.

In short, I'm now dead in the water and getting desperate! Any suggestions
would be warmly welcomed please.
Click to expand...

Backup, etc.....

I had something like this. Its was one of the disks dying and I guessed
that the bios / disk controller was desperately trying to fix or resolve
it.

I'd pull all the hard disks, and the CD rom, and bung in a known good
disk and see what happens. If the PC gets quickly to the point it cant
find an OS (or boots if it has an OS), you can be sure the MB, RAM etc
are OK. Then go from there.
 
TMack said:
Ubuntu live CD is much less hassle and much more use - see my other post
in this thread. If it doesn't boot properly with Ubuntu live then he can
remove hardware progressively until it is down to CD drive, memory and
motherboard (plus graphics card if it isn't using onboard graphics). If
there is still a problem at this stage it would probably be easiest to
scrap the superannuated pile of junk and replace it. The cost of
replacement would be negligible - I have just thrown away a barebones setup
with a higher spec than this one because it wasn't worth trying to sell it.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but booting is no longer the problem.
 
TMack said:
Ubuntu live CD is much less hassle
Click to expand...

No it is not.
and much more use - see my other post
in this thread. If it doesn't boot properly with Ubuntu live then he can
remove hardware progressively until it is down to CD drive, memory and
motherboard (plus graphics card if it isn't using onboard graphics). If
there is still a problem at this stage it would probably be easiest to
scrap the superannuated pile of junk and replace it.
Click to expand...

See. All that, including the sourcing and burning of a disk, learning
Linux if you dont already know how to use it, or ...... just bung in a
spare ****ing hard drive.

Oh, the hassle.
The cost of
replacement would be negligible - I have just thrown away a barebones setup
with a higher spec than this one because it wasn't worth trying to sell it.
Click to expand...

I really wish Linux fanboi bores would just **** off and die. Do you
guys realise how off putting you are to normal people? Im sure more
people would use Linux if you lot just shut up. Im surprised you people
don't email the UN and tell them that installing Linus will bring peace
to Syria, and feed the bloody third world.

And yes, I've do use linux, and for years before, Unix. A groove version
called Dynix too. I know what its worth is, and more importantly, is not.
 
Terry said:
This follows on from my post describing a boot up failure, as the subject
heading of that is now misleading.

The consistent state now is that my Athlon XP 1800 PC takes about half an
hour to boot! And then every operation is similarly glacial. For example,
after double clicking My Computer it takes about 10 minutes for it to be
displayed. So even the simplest checks have become almost impossible. I
cannot even take screenshots to post here and have resorted to a camera.

Directly after powering up I see this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-64MB.jpg
That '64.0 MB' puzzles me. Is it unrelated to the total RAM, which is 1 GB
as shown here later in the boot-up process?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/ShedPC-BootProblem-1.jpg

FWIW here is the RAM itself which I removed and replaced:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-RAM.jpg

Here is a BIOS screen that appeared because I got fed up waiting 15
minutes for the PC to close itself down.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-BIOS-2.jpg
Can someone explain that entry about OS/2 Onboard Memory please? Anything
else significant about the info displayed?

When I continued from there to my get to my XP desktop eventually I wanted
to check that my reversing the weird change of drive letter I described
earlier (from its original D to J) had been implemented. So some 15 mins
later I had this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-Puzzle-1.jpg
As you see, D is present but has no info!

I gave up on trying to get back to Disk Mgmt tonight. Will try in the
morning.

I did also manage to get DiskKeeper open (no photo) which did not show D
at all as one of its volumes.

Task Manager showed this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/AthlonXP1800-TM-1.jpg
I don't understand why Winlogon is taking a third of CPU resource about an
hour after starting the bootup and maybe 30 mins after the desktop was
assembled.

In short, I'm now dead in the water and getting desperate! Any suggestions
would be warmly welcomed please.
Click to expand...

one thing you never showed was the temp of the cpu.
What happens if you boot into safe mode?
 
Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.
 
After serious thinking Terry Pinnell wrote :
Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.
Click to expand...

Considering the amount of time you already seem to have wasted on it,
and the fact that you say you have backups, I would just format the
thing and reinstall Windows.
 
Terry said:
Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.
Click to expand...

Simple.

Disconnect the optical drive cable, with the two optical drives on it.
All optical drives should disappear, all *three* of them in Device Manager.
There is a problem there, but I cannot figure out exactly what. And I
think the detection of three devices, where two exist, is *the* problem.
The OS is "pinging" the hardware status of the phantom optical drive,
and that's chewing up cycles.

While you might be running some virtual CDROM software, and mounting
an ISO as an optical drive, somehow I doubt that. You'd probably remember
doing that.

Once the optical drive cable, with two optical drives is removed, you
can try removing or deleting the phantom item in Device Manager.

*******

That would leave the two Maxtor hard drives on the other IDE cable.

The thing that was D: and changed to J:, and you changed it back
to D: again, is "raw". That means you've lost the file system
on it. It could be, there is some damage near the beginning
of the file system. The header of the file system likely no
longer says it is NTFS.

Since it is a logical inside an extended, now you're going to
need to figure out where it starts. Probably two sectors
past where the Extended is located.

With a Linux LiveCD and hexdump, you would normally see
something like this. In this example, you work out a potential
sector offset (do the math to locate where D: starts), and then
when you display the data, the word "NTFS" should show up. That's
how you know you've located it. You can use PTEDIT32 in Windows,
to dump the MBR and get the offset. PTEDIT32 should show the
Extended, and the D: might be a couple sectors past that.

(You can run this first, and capture MBR information... I sometimes
prefer this to using "sudo fdisk /dev/sda" type commands in Linux.)

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

(Then boot into Linux, and actually track down the beginning of D: .
This is what I use as a disk editor, of sorts. This is the command
I used, to locate a partition on a 3TB hard drive.)

sudo hexdump -C -s 0x20000140000 -n 512 /dev/sdc

20000140000 eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 |.R.NTFS .....|
20000140010 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 08 00 00 |........?.......|

The program "TestDisk" could scan and locate these things,
but it'll likely run into the same problem, of not seeing
a file system on the old D:. And CHKDSK is not going to
want to run on D:, because at the moment it is raw, and
CHKDSK won't know it needs to run CHKNTFS. There is a way
to tell CHKDSK to run when no drive letter is evident, but
that still doesn't solve the problem of CHKDSK figuring out
which version of tool to run (FAT or NTFS).

(Tool used to repair an MBR. In this case, you may be able
to view files once the tool has scanned the disk. It may
be able to see the file system, but no guarantees. There is
no point repairing the MBR, because it's not the thing that
is broken. So the only reason to run this first tool, is
to see if the files can be listed on the partition or not.)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

(This is an example of a file scavenger, for cases where
perhaps the MFT (master file table) is gone. Scavenging
if there was no backup...)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

I don't know how to "hand repair" a file system. I'd be probing
the head of the file system, just to see if the sectors
are readable there or not. It could be, the system will
freeze when you hit the bad spot in the disk.

*******

You can run a tool like this, to try to recover the data on D:
You'll need some more disk space, to put the recovered files.
This is a free tool someone wrote, and when I offered this to
one user, they got their files back. I haven't tested it here.
This tool, the source code, was eventually sold to some other
developer, and the originating web site removed. But archive.org
still has a copy.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070101070056/http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/driverescue19d.html

driverescue19d.zip 1,007,764 bytes
MD5SUM = 63b7e1e8b1701593d5f52c7927d01558

*******

So now it's a data recover effort on the former D:. Or,
restoring D: from backups and blowing away the file system
on D: using the restoration.

Most of what I've suggested above, is for idle curiosity.
The "driverescue" stands the best odds of getting anything
you don't have backed up from the old D:. But, you'll need
to connect an external USB hard drive, as a place to
put the data, as you've run out of spots on the IDE cables.
The TestDisk and Photorec, are likely poor substitutes
for "driverescue", since driverescue will be attempting
to use an MFT if one can be located. Photorec can't handle
fragmentation for example, and as far as I know, fragmented
files will show up as damaged files if recovered that way.
I have tested Photorec, by copying a file, then erasing
it, and the unfragmented test file was successfully recovered
by scanning for it.

There are any number of $39.95 commercial programs for
data recovery that you could try. Some, they offer
a trial version, that will display the file names as
proof of recoverability. Then you pay the $39.95, and with
the license key in hand, you can complete the recovery
operation.

Paul
 
I had something like this. Its was one of the disks dying and I
guessed that the bios / disk controller was desperately trying to fix
or resolve it.
Click to expand...

That's what I was going to suggest.
I'd pull all the hard disks, and the CD rom, and bung in a known good
disk and see what happens. If the PC gets quickly to the point it
cant find an OS (or boots if it has an OS), you can be sure the MB,
RAM etc are OK. Then go from there.
Click to expand...
Or pull all the drives and try connecting each one in turn.
 
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