Hello When a PC is reaches the stage when it is supposed to start displaying the XP loading screen, mine doesn't. Instead the screen goes black for a minute and then displays small grey bars spaced out equally straight across the bottom of my screen. It seems to be a progress bar because very slowly it starts to fill up from left to right. However, after reaching about half way, it then moves on to the loading personal settings screen. I think I know what it is doing because when I boot into Safe Mode, it takes the same time except it displays the boot and system files that are being loaded instead. I know this is normal, however, instead of seeing them whiz down the screen, mine currently takes about 3 seconds for each one to be displayed! Does anyone know what the problem is and what should I do to find and sort the problem? Thanks for your attention and any advice you can give me.
Those little bars sound like something you get in windows 2000 just before you get the windows 2000 loading screen. I know people like to change that loading screen so maybe try reloading the original xp loading screen. I dont know how they do change it but im sure there are plenty of ways. Heres my first google search... How can I change the Windows XP or Windows 2000 boot screen?
Thanks very much for that, it looks a little daunting but I might give it a go. One thing though, do you think that it could be the reason why it takes so long to boot up? I'm debating whether to reinstall XP over the existing files but don't know how suicidal that is.
I only just noticed you said you have a slow boot. Its in the title too! Loosing the boot progress screen certainly wont slow the boot, there must be something else going on. I personally would run all my spyware and antivirus programs, do a defrag etc. When did it first start going wrong? Have you added any new programs or hardware to your system which would te in with when the problem first came about? I did try reinstalling XP over an old installation once... a few years ago now too. I cant remember how it turned out. I think you keep programs and documents and probably the registry. I dont think it remembers personal settings but there is a wizard somewhere in windows for that.
In total, I have 3 things that have gone wrong although they have happened at different times to each other: Firstly, every time I switch on, I have to press F1 to continue because my BIOS states that it has had to load Fail-Safe settings. However, nothing seemed to have been changed and everything seems as it should be. This just happened all of a sudden - didn't slow the start up (apart from having to press F1!). Secondly, about 2 months later, my PC crashed for no reason, I couldn't get into Windows at all (it failed at the loading screen - the one that won't display now) so I installed XP on my spare hard drive to access my files (didn't backup!). However, for some reason, I can now actually boot into my original Windows but only with this "grey bars and slow boot" problem. Finally, recently, "Found New Hardware Wizard" has decided that I have an infrared device installed which I haven't! I haven't installed any new hardware and no major programs unless you count games. I'll do some scans and defrag to see what happens. In the meantime, thanks again.
Having a mysterious IrDA may cause a slow boot. What PC is it? Or if it is not a pre-built system (ie Dell, HP etc) what motherboard do you have? Its possible to get the make and model of the motherboard using PCWizard. Its a free program which provides extensives info on components in your system. PC Wizard
Nice program! My motherboard is the Abit AN8 Ultra: AN8 Ultra Overview - ABIT USA I did try to look for the IrDA in the BIOS or rather to see if anything was enabled when it shouldn't. However, I couldn't find anything that looked as if it was something to do with infrared.
Also run [link=http://www.memtest.org]Memory Test[/link] to check ur memory errors. Then go to ur device manager(RightClick MyComputer > Manage > Device Manager) and see if there is anything in yellow traingle... Then check in your even viewer(RightClick MyComputer > Manage > Event) System and Applications event and see if there are errors or not...
