Start Up Problem

[deshaies]

Okay so im having a problem with my Hp desktop, i recently changed IDE cable to an old one i found laying around so i could aslo try hooking an old hard drive in link with the one currently in there. when i did so it wasnt booting up properly, so i reversed everything i did replacing just the original cable and the hardrive. Fired it up and it gets past the first screen where you can get into the CMOS set up and such but takes a good 45 mins to even get to the screen saying windows xp loading , but once it gets there it runs perfectly fine. Did maybe i hit something on the inside or is it somethign that could be lose? any suggestions cause im plain out of ideas what it could be??

 

[raybay]

IDE cables shrink away from their connectors as they age. They also sometimes become hard and brittle so any movement to install or uninstall can break connections on some of the 80 wires in the cable... or on some of the 40 connectors.
The wires do not break, but the connectors pull apart or break apart.
Whenever you are going to be moving drives around, it is wise to have a couple of new EIDE cables in the rucksack for the times when everything goes to heck.