Laptop takes 10 minutes to get to the Windows Boot Up Screen

[rheide]

System Info
ze5170 HP Laptop / Windows XP Home / 512MB RAM

The laptop I am working on recently had the harddrive start clicking (and from that point on the hard drive was unuseable). So we purchased a new Samsung Hard drive (MP0402H) and installed it with no problem.

I did not have the HP discs that came with the machine so I used an XP Home Upgrade disc (and a 2000 Pro disc to confirm that a previous version had been purchased) and used the Product Key from the bottom of the laptop so everything was legit. I'm only telling you all this so you know all the details.

During the install (right after XP has copied the needed files to the drive and it reboots), I noticed that it took a long time to start back up into the install. Anyway, I let it finish and everything went good.

The next time I rebooted it, the system sat at a Black screen with a blinking cursor for a few minutes, then the cursor goes away and we have an all black screen. The total time it is at these screens is about 10 minutes total. Then (what seems to be out of no where) the screen changes to black with white bars (looks like the screen when you come out of hibertation minus any text). The white bars slowly become one long white line (this takes about 2 more minutes) and then finally, the Windows XP logo comes on the screen and the system boots up quickly. This happens everytime you reboot the computer.

I have tried pulling out the memory, changing the boot sequence. I have removed the battery, left the cd in the drive, taken the cd out. Restored the bios defaults. (looked for a bios update but couldn't find one)..... Haven't been able to boot to SafeMode because I think I would have to be hitting F8 after the 10 minute delay. I could try if you guys think it would matter.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this problem?

Thanks, Randy

 

[patio]

Sounds like it could be a driver issue/issues...Since you didn't do the re-install with the HP cd's it's possible that XP does not have all the updated drivers for that machine. DLoad and install either Belarc or Everest Home. Both of these will give you plenty of info on the components in that machine then it's just a matter of tracking down and installing the correct drivers...
P.S. i would start with the video drivers first and work from there.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

patio.

 

[rheide]

Hi guys,
Its been awhile. The first set of cds HP sent did not work (it said wrong model).

Now that I have the second set, the reimaging process starts and gets to the point where it says:

Verifying Partition: \ _

and then it basically sits there endlessly (at least 3 hours before I went to try again).

We have tried 2 different hard drives with no luck.

HP thinks there is another hardware issue but in my experience, we don't typically see a hard drive go bad along with something else.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Randy

 

[crewroasted]

Same problem

Did yo ever find a fix for the 10 min boot issue? I have the same problem after installingthe same Samsung Hard Drive.

Charlie

 

[kaymastah]

Ineresting problem...

Could it be of any significance, that frequently one finds the original disk layout with a "special" factory set parttion for "special" needs, like system reinstallation, and/or additional BIOS stuff.

When you buy a new drive it surely will differ from the original in partition layout. I'd suggest contacting manufacturer.

good luck!

 

[wkozey]

Did yo ever find a fix for the 10 min boot issue? I have the same problem after installingthe same Samsung Hard Drive.

Charlie

Many hard drives manufactures ship the drives with the cable/select jumper in the on position this can be a problem if the cable or bios does not support cable select.If the jumper is on remove it to put the drive into master mode (no jumpers.
Is the drive setup correctly in the bios? If the drive is bigger than the original drive the bios may not support it correctly in that case you may have to set the cylinder limitation and use samsungs ontrack disk to set up the drive.