xp bootup

[Al]

At startup I get a message that lasts 45 seconds before
it finishes booting up. How can I get rid of this message?

 

[TangoX]

At startup I get a message that lasts 45 seconds before
it finishes booting up. How can I get rid of this message?

please detail requests... what message?

 

[Al]

-----Original Message-----
message?

please detail requests... what message?

The message is:

Press ESC to change boot order
Press F2 to enter setup
Press F12 to boot from LAN

It lasts about 45 seconds before it finishes bootup.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Al.

Thanks for the additional info. I've never used a Compaq, so I hope someone
will jump in with some details here.

I tried changing the boot
loader timeout (time Windows will wait for a selection)
but it has not booted to windows yet, so there is no
change.

Not surprising. As I said, your boot process has not got to this point yet.
It's hanging up before it ever starts loading Windows. This message is
coming from your computer's BIOS, not from Windows.

I'm only guessing here since, as I said, I know nothing of Compaq. But I
think you should press Esc and see what your present boot order is. Your
computer may have instructions to boot from floppy or CD, and it's trying to
find a bootable disk in that drive. It finally gives up on that and moves
on to the second device in the boot order, which would be your hard drive.
It finds a bootable partition there and can begin the boot process. If you
change the boot order to HD first, your delay should disappear.

I hope some Compaq user out there will confirm or correct this. ;^}

RC

 

[Al]

Hi RC,

Compaq tech support says disconnecting the CMOS battery
for 15 minutes might fix the problem but they do not
recommend opening the case. They gave me phone numbers of
Compaq technicions to talk to so I will follow up on that.