Hang on XP startup

Cab00se

New Member
Hey everyone,
I have a weird problem that has been plaguing me for a few weeks now.
I built a new computer last fall and its been working great but sometimes for no apparent reason on the splash screen it hangs for a few minutes then starts up. Sometimes it goes right through and starts up completely in under 15 seconds. So I really don't know what the issue is and I've run all manner of defrags, disk checks and sweepers.

My specs are AMD x2 4400, 7900GT XFX, 2gb RAM, 320gb Seagate HDD, and an ASUS a8n32sli mobo. I am running AVG antivirus.

Any insights on what could be making it do this would be great.

Thanks
 
click start

then run
type control
then click ok or hit enter

click administrative tools
click event viewer
look through all the logs
 
What type of errors ? I would go to the manufacturers of your hard drives web site. They should have a free tool to diagnose what is wrong with your hard drive. It will either be a bootable floppy or an image to burn to a cd. You need to boot from one of these. First I would get all info you need off of the hd ASAP.
 
its a 320gb Seagate barracuda with 16mb cache.... and it gives me this error every time I've started up recently in the logs...
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation.

It's funny though cuz it will start eventually and sometimes it just starts immediately and once its on it works fine.

EDIT: Unless D is referring to my DVD drive?
 
First I would still bu any data you need. HDs seldom get better, usually just worst.
2nd I would DL a copy of SEATOOLS
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

You might want to set windows to delet your page file on exit ( shut down ). This involves the registry or i think there is a setting in the MMC.

Check your page file settings to make sure the setting is 1.5 times the ram in your system, or if youhave over a gig turn off your page file.

Then again this error might not have anything to do with the page file.
The diag tools also will only help if the hd knows there is something wrong. If the HD does not know, it will say the hd is ok.
 
It may be potentially possible that the paging file has become corrupted. As stated above, you may want to have Windows clean the paging file on exit and try rebooting after setting that option.

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

Read that article, Search it (CTRL+F) for the word "Clean", and start reading upwards from there, down. It appears to explain how to clean the paging file when Windows shuts down.
 
I would try the usual as well:
chkdsk
sfc /scannow

You have to be careful with chkdsk, that you do not have the fix errors automatically set. If your HD is corrupted , which is not the case here, any write to the hd you can loose your data.
 
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