Trouble??

[jcones8907]

I just installed a fresh copy of windows on my computer and once it is all booted up it works fine...BUT...When I first turn it on the classice "ASUS AI" screen comes up and holds longer than it did before and the the next screen that recognizes my disc drives pops up, before my screen would always auto-adjust but now it does nothing. Then the XP black loading screen pops up as normal but then my screen goes blank for at least 3-4 minutes before it changes to the Windows welcome screen and then it holds their for another 2-3 then finally after it all loads up the computer works as good as ever.

What is most likely the problem, and how do I fix it??

I had this problem before, that is why I did a fresh install...Because the windows was new I decided it would be easier to do a fresh install than to try to fix it...It did not resolve the problem!!!


THANKS


This is what my boot file says

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


don't know if that is helpful or not

[rjfvillarosa]

You say you had the problem before and so did a reinstall, did you zero fill the harddrive before reinstalling Windows?

[jcones8907]

not sure what that means so I guess not.

[rjfvillarosa]

To zero fill a harddrive means to wipe it completely clean by writting zero's to the entire drive, putting it back to a factory like new condition.
Can you give me a little more information about the previous installation of Windows? did you use it on the internet? did you have antivirus and malware scanners involved?
Do you know how to run diagnostic tests on the harddrive and memory?
It may be worth having a read of this thread and consider doing an out of case minimum hardware build.
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

[jcones8907]

I was using the free version of ashampoo firewall so yes it was on the internet and no malware scanners were used.


maybe I should just just zero the hard drive and just re in stall again.\


One other thing that I remember being odd was when I was installing windows where it shows the partions and lets you partition your hard drive it listed my current hard drive but then listed "unknown drive" below the hard drive I had been using. don't know if that means anything or not.

[rjfvillarosa]

What make and model is the harddrive and where did you get it from?

[jcones8907]

I bough the HDD from New Egg


the model number is
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

this is the link to it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144701

[rjfvillarosa]

You can download diagnostic tools to test and zero fill your drive from here: http://support.wdc.com/download/
You can make a bootable CD or floppy.

[jcones8907]

which one of those downloads is a zero fill utility

[jcones8907]

would you reccomend doing a zero fill and reinstalling windows

[glc]

The Data Lifeguard Diagnostics has a zero fill. If you want a truly fresh start, I'd recommend it. Wouldn't hurt to run the diagnostics first just to make sure the drive is healthy.

[jcones8907]

it will not let me write zeros because it is my system drive..do I need a second harddrive to do it??...Also when I finally do it do I want a full erase or a quick erase..also when I install xp do I want to to a quick format or the full one.

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by jcones8907 it will not let me write zeros because it is my system drive..

Are you running the diagnostics from within Windows?

Originally Posted by jcones8907 do I need a second harddrive to do it??

No

Originally Posted by jcones8907 ...Also when I finally do it do I want a full erase or a quick erase..also when I install xp do I want to to a quick format or the full one.

Full erase and format in both cases.

[glc]

You have to download the *DOS* diagnostics and make the bootdisk.

[jcones8907]

will my computer boot from a usb floppy drive or should I just make a CD

[rjfvillarosa]

Make the CD and then change the boot order so as to boot from CD first.

[glc]

It should boot from a USB floppy. However, you can get the ISO and burn a CD if you have CD burning software that's capable of making a CD from an ISO image. The builtin XP burning engine can't.

[jcones8907]

FINALLY I DID IT!!!

wrote zeros then re-instaled XP all is great