PC extremely slow at boot-up

[gd_nimrod]

Here's my PC:
Asus A7v8x
AMD 2500
512 DDR@400mhz
20GB quantum fireball <----4yr old HDD, oldest item in this pc
40GB WDC
GeForce4
LG 4x2x32 CD-RW
Mistumi 54x32x54 CD-RW

The problem is it seems MUCH slower at loading applications (such as IE, winamp) and starting up then my previous PIII 666 computer.

Let me explain a bit...

Games on this new pc work great, fast and lagless just how they should be...however it takes 5 minutes to start windows up! During that time it seems like the pc and HD aren't doing anything....just stuck at the windows loading screen with that blue bar. Right when i open the pc on a cold-boot it shows the main asus screen, then the screen with the drives that are installed, then for like a minute its at a black screen with a white bar at the bottom of it, slowly loading. When that finally does load, it gets to the windows xp loading page, which takes about 2 minutes to load.

Ive tried installing another version of windows xp, and the same thing happens!

The only funny thing i noticed is that if i would restart my pc after it being on for a few hours, it takes a minute to do boot. I guess because the hardware's already nice and warm so its not cold-booting. But if im not wrong, a cold boot on this machine should NOT take so long.

All drivers are updated, any suggestions?

 

[bluto]

I hope some XP'rs will respond.I have W ME,
Cold boot 10 seconds.
I'll try but XP is a whole new ballgame.I hope you didn't actually buy 2 XP packages.
Ctrl,Alt,Del " how many do you get ? I have 2 thats right two.

 

[Lord Kalthorn]

I don't think its an XP Problem; I think it is the RAM for the startup. You need better RAM than 400Mhz for a AMD2500. Startup is very hard on RAM.

 

[gd_nimrod]

I don't think its an XP Problem; I think it is the RAM for the startup. You need better RAM than 400Mhz for a AMD2500. Startup is very hard on RAM.

You're telling me 512mb of PC3200 RAM is not enough?

 

[Lord Kalthorn]

You said DDR400.

If its 3200 then I don't know what to say, it should be working, how old is the Computer?

 

[Compaq]

dont want to cause offence but saying 400 mhz ram is not good enough is just rubbish.

my daughters computer has xp on it and its a shop bought machine with
a 1300mhz celeron 20 gb hd and sdram at 133mhz it boots very quick
and no hang ups.

infact i have had xp pro running on a 166mhz pentium with 128mb of edo ram the real old stuff and that ran it ok if a little slowly......so im sorry if hes having problems then its something else.

 

[bluto]

You're telling me 512mb of PC3200 RAM is not enough?

It's just fine.The ram has to match the MBD.Lets go from there.
You might have too much set to happen at startup "i think" .
How much hd space is left.I'd say at least 1/2 gb for XP.

 

[GeforcebOY1]

Its sounds like you harddrive is getting to old . Had that same problem on are first computer about 7 years ago it was 5years old when we had that problem i would change it.

 

[Lord Kalthorn]

infact i have had xp pro running on a 166mhz pentium with 128mb of edo ram the real old stuff and that ran it ok if a little slowly......so im sorry if hes having problems then its something else.

Wow, well, XP shouldn't run on that at all! Although its enough RAM.

DDR400 may not be enough, I was just saying really, it is not seriously that fast.

 

[Compaq]

your right it shouldnt run on a 166mhz but it was i bought the computer

a compaq deskpro (still have it) from a second hand market with windows xp pro pre installed.

admitedly it was an illegal copy cause i couldnt get updates i havent tried installing xp on anything so slow myself i was gobsmacked that it ran.

i did read somewhere that you disable the system checks in windows? to force it to install on any machine.

any ways i wasnt having a go at anyone just a bit of personal experience im a bit of a self confessed fan of xp.