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Need HELP with older computer please

M

msny

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 5, 2001
Messages
2,197
I'm an exprerienced builder but am having some problems with an older box I sold to my sister. That means I'm now tech support for her :rolleyes:

The box is about 4 years old and I've rebuilt it a few times with upgrades for myself . It was my primary gaming machine, and I never OC'ed it. I stripped it down for her about a year ago. She uses to play Yahoo games and surf. It does not need to be a powerhouse just to work correctly.

Specs:
Athlon 1800 +
GeForce 3 Ultra 64 megs
Soyo Dragon + MB, VIA chipset
512k Crucial PC 2100
30 gig Maxtor on IDE1
Plextor CDRW
350/w PS
Windows XP Home, SP1

The main problem is in booting up. Over time it has gotton very slow. Takes at least 4 to 5 minutes on a cold boot. There seems to be a lot of a pauses and a long black screen after the windows XP logo comes up. When I had the machine it took about 40 secs tops and I had several drives in it and all kinds of other devices. After it settles down it still is a bit slow when going into contraol panel or loading software ect.

Things I have done to no avail:
* ran Ad-Aware
* ran Spybot
* checked for viruses
* updated all drivers
* clean reinstall of OS
* drives are set ok to DMA mode
* check MS knowledgebase
* BIOS was updated and set to conservative settings

Nothing seems to have helped. Any ideas of where I can start to troubleshoot this problem ?

Thanks for you ideas, appreciate your suggestions.
 
Did this happen all of a sudden, or did it get slower over time? Is the hard drive making any weird noises? Sounds to me like a hard drive problem since you have already tried a clean reinstall, and not much else can go wrong while booting while still being able to get past POST. Have any spare HDs lying around to test on?

EDIT: Can always try hard drive diagnostics programs from the manufacturer, but not sure how much that'll tell you, if anything at all.
 
It got slower over time. The windows XP clean install took 2 hours which is way to long.
Ya I do have an extra drive here I'll throw in and see what happens. I can also
run the disgnostic.

No weird sounds coming from the drive at all... Thanks for the replies.
 
You don't mention that you have "defragged" the Hard drive. Fragmentation will cause massive slow down after 4 years.
Click to expand...

I did a clean install that included reformatting the drive so there is nothing to defrag.
 
Astra said:
Are you sure? I would defrag after a clean install.
Click to expand...
that wouldnt do jack. defragging puts files that have been seperated over time contiguous to eachother so that a program can get to the data on the hard drive quicker. if you just formatted and installed windows, all the windows files are gonna be more or less contiguous becuase there hasnt been anything happening to seperate them

as far as your problem goes, the IDE ribbon cables can also go bad over time, but i havent ever heard of this slowing install time down to 2 hours :eek: , still, something that couldve happened.
 
lithium726 said:
that wouldnt do jack. defragging puts files that have been seperated over time contiguous to eachother so that a program can get to the data on the hard drive quicker. if you just formatted and installed windows, all the windows files are gonna be more or less contiguous becuase there hasnt been anything happening to seperate them
Click to expand...

I agree with you on Windows part.
Howevere when someone reinstalls their system, doesn't it mean installing Windows, then all drivers, then all programs? After that I think you have to defrag.
 
Astra said:
I agree with you on Windows part.
Howevere when someone reinstalls their system, doesn't it mean installing Windows, then all drivers, then all programs? After that I think you have to defrag.
Click to expand...

no, you dont. if you are only installing, windows in writing all the data contigously to each other. example windows xp goes on teh first 1.5gb, then the drivers are put next.. each program in order, ect. fragmentation occurs when you DELETE something. when you delete a program, you leave x amout of space open in the middle of a hard disk with other program files around it. when you install a new program or put a new, bigger file on it, it will take up the space taht the old thing left, and then it will go to the next place on the disk with free space. so lets say this. you install winxp, office then far cry. you decide you dont want office. you uninstall it, and this leaves about 700 mb free space. when you install doom3, it will take up that 700 mb and put the other ~gb it needs after the far cry data. when the system defrags, it will move all the doom3 files contiguous to eachotehr by moving far cry to a later part of the disk. understand?
 
scuze me... may a n00b provide an interesting possibility hear without getting mud-pies thrown at him?

i had a similar prob with an ancient p1 75mhz comp (mom's philosophies are 1. she is the only one who should have the $$ to be able to actually buy a comp and 2. they don't get obsolete till they die)... turns out the rom went belly-up.

it just got slower & slower on bootup till it went kaput... and off to the dump.
i'll never buy packard bell again.
 
starhawk said:
scuze me... may a n00b provide an interesting possibility hear without getting mud-pies thrown at him?

i had a similar prob with an ancient p1 75mhz comp (mom's philosophies are 1. she is the only one who should have the $$ to be able to actually buy a comp and 2. they don't get obsolete till they die)... turns out the rom went belly-up.

it just got slower & slower on bootup till it went kaput... and off to the dump.
i'll never buy packard bell again.
Click to expand...

i would think youd want MORE of them, if they die, you get to upgrade :p
 
that thing was crap. it was a packard bell legend 402cd... p1 75mhz, 8mb ram, 1gb or so hdd... circuit city upgraded the ram to 16mb and it acted like a mental patient on lsd for the rest of its lousy life... arrrrg what a peice of $#!* i've never bought circuit city since that day... and probably never will. unless they are giving away free comps.

btw... while i am taking this trip down memory lane, i had an old comp prob... anybody want to hear?
 
i have a 386 by some nobody named dramen professional systems... was a workhorse that... amd 25mhz 80386sx proc, looks to have been running @ 32mhz, 4mb ram, 80mb hard drive... those were the days.

but something happened, and i'm not sure what. i hadn't turned the comp on in like 2 years. when i did i heard a pooff noise, and something that looked like cigarette smoke blew out the psu fan. the smoke smelled like bakelite. nothing on the monitor, no clue as to whats wrong.

booted up fine after that... or not. won't recognize the hdd now. any help?

and no way i'm getting rid of that thing. i learned qbasic on it so i am rather attached.

if its any help:
1) i think it has an asus mobo but i'm not sure.
2) there is what looks like a busted capacitor on the mobo. it's roughly teardrop shaped, and charred to #@!!.
3) that blown cap appears to be the only physical damage to the comp anywhere.

anybody have a guess on what's wrong?
 
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