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The change was made in the BIOS, turning off/not installed setting for a primary slave, but the bootup time is still slow. I think I give up. The PC runs okay and perhaps its best left alone.

Perhaps the nondestructive Windows repair installation might be tried next. Thanks again for those who responded.

Diane

Thanks to both RG & dg1261.

The cable positions wren’t changed. As a matter of fact, when we opened the PC a second time we put in a new cable and attached the drive at the end, not in the middle.

As to the BIOS, dg, you may be right about that. We got into the BIOS and poked around. I don’t remember what the settings were, but we did clear CMOS. That still didn’t solve it, but I’ll get into the BIOS this am and see what we find. Thanks again.

D.

We repaired the MBR, but it made no difference. I checked the page file and it’s okay. I will have to google on how to check for prefetch because I don’t know what it is or what it does. It still takes a minute and half or so for the PC to bootup–annoying, but not devastating.

We are going to get the manual out on the motherboard….and take a look at the settings/switches there. The hangup is the beginning of POST and finding the bootup drive. The Bootup process just hangs after it shows how much memory the PC has. Then the PC finds the bootup drive, it moves right along and very quickly and the rest of bootup time is negligible.

D.

My thanks to you both for your reply.

The drive was a WD Caviar, 320 GB EIDE. I have the box it came in. The model was WD3200JBRTL. I asked if there was anything on the disk and my husband said he didn’t think so….The drive was formatted when we installed Windows 7 and I didn’t look before he removed it. I can’t verify what was on the disk now because the satellite TV system formatted the disk in question

Would system files that disks have on them cause the problem with the MBR? I’ve never had to try to repair one. I will Check the Page File and Prefetch, that I know how to do. I am not sure how to “navigate to repair, then choose “start up repair”.

The computer was a custom built that’s had it’s innards upgraded several times. I do know that it has an Asrock dual core VSTA motherboard and an nvidia 8600GT video card. The “C” drive is a WD EIDE but a smaller one probably about 100GB. There are two opticals a CD writer and a LiteOn DVD writer but those weren’t touched. Thanks again. I’ll work on your suggestions and let you know how I do.

Diane

PS. The jumpers have been checked and it’s set as the master. And, there was no automatic backup program running.

Presumably my last post in this thread…all is still well.

No glitches on POST, no stop errors or minidumps. Hopefully PC will keep up the decent performance. No evidence that I can see of anything failing and I hope it stays that way.

D.

FurMark was one stress test I had read about..scary tho’. I can my stuff going up in smoke.:) I think it would be more fun to load up a graphics intensive game and see what happens. I’ll have to pick one…there are many of them in this house. Thanks for the list of diag tools.

My hub has a computer that is much less complicated than mine. Maybe I can talk him into the Razer and I take back my wireless Logitech. Let’s hope for the best!

Diane

This is the deal….I booted up this morning and there were no issues. I haven’t yet added my Razer mouse and keyboard, both of which are backlit, but can’t believe a couple of LED’s would push the system over the edge.

Don’t know if there’s any other place to go other than I thought about stress testing my video card. Also, I did read of more than few folks with problems with the latest Nvidia certified driver, 301.42. But now I just don’t know what the problem is/was. Maybe something is still on the edge of failing, but today I’m up and running. For now, I will leave well enough alone. Thanks for all the input I rec’d here.

Diane

Away for a few days and now have the time to do the final diag on my bootup issues. I created a restore point and installed WHQL 296.10 the Nvidia driver I used for several months before my lockup issues. I rebooted the PC after the install. I did a custom install w/o the 3D stuff which has caused some folks w/o 3D capability, problems.

During the reboot, when the desktop appeared it took a bit for my desktop icons to appear, but everybody showed up. I rebooted again with no issues. Tomorrow morning will be the test because that’s when the bootup freezing always show up. Will be back tomorrow AM. Happy 4th to those who celebrate the holiday!

Diane

My thanks for hanging in there with me thru the troubleshooting!

That’s the plan…do the image before potential trouble spots. After the image, then video and then the Razer hardware.

Diane

I think so….4th morning in a row with no glitches on AM bootup. I can only conclude if the PC keeps running like this…software/driver issue was the cause and a lesson learned about not using WU for hardware driver updates.

If all goes well, one more post after I do the system image, update the video driver and do my Razer hardware.

The PC was opened up, hardware and memory was reseated– soundcard; video card was removed and fan was cleaned of dust; CPU & V8 cooler were okay; all fans appeared to be running full speed with no variations. Checked for “bulging” components.

PC is 60% restored with regard to software; still using generic KB & mouse; as soon as software is all complete, then I’ll do a system image before updating the video driver to something better than the Msoft vanilla one and do my Razer KB & mouse; so far no anomalies on POST or otherwise. Doing a bit at a time so if there is an issue, I’ll know where it starts.

D

Thanks for your note….I have been pretty watchful of what’s going on as I fine tune the system. And, I have thought about the possibility of the PC still having probs. After all, my 3 yr parts/labor warranty is just about over. :rolleyes:

I haven’t yet updated the video driver from the one Windows installed. My Asus P6T Deluxe V2 does not have onboard video.

Devices will be reseated tomorrow along with a thorough cleaning and checking the speed of the fans as was previously recommended. I’ll do the video then and see what happens. Thanks again.

Diane

What would be more helpful would be a DBK…:)

Anyhow, added soundcard drivers, MBAM and the .Net Framework updates I rec’d notice for this morning. Let the PC cool down for awhile, and then rebooted.

No issues so far, but HDD a mess- am defragging.

Unless I have more issues will post back in a few more days with presumably a final conclusion. Thanks again to the fine members of this forum.

I logged on to my PC this morning which was when I experienced the freezeups….with the generic keyboard and mouse, Windows vanilla video driver, no sound, AVAST and all Windows updates incl SP1. It was the first successful bootup in a while. I would guess the reason why my system image did not work was probably because of the hardware updates that I had done thru Windows for the mouse, KB, videocard and onboard network card. Lesson well learned….if PC keeps running like this.

I was able to get online and get FFox installed and clicking on a website didn’t crash me yet. I checked EV and the startup looks very clean. I’ll get sound card drivers installed next and move a bit cautiously as I add my stuff back in. Thanks to all who offered their help. Hopefully, hardware failure won’t be/isn’t an issue.