XP SO Slow on re-install

James123_2

I’ve just re-installed XP on a Dell Dimension 3000. However, the start-up time for XP now takes an age – about 12 minutes!
The machine seems to boot, then the screen goes totally blank. This is then eventually followed (10 minutes later) by the white progress bar you get at the bottom of the screen when you’ve shut windows down incorrectly. XP then loads after a few minutes. There are no other programs to slow things down & I’ve installed the relevant drivers from the original Dell discs.
Any help or ideas welcomed. I’m used to computers getting gunged up with start-up items and performing slowly, but this is something else!
Thanks in anticipation.

closed

Has it been connected to the net, and if so through a router, or with windows firewall on?

Are all the drivers shown as working in device manager?

James123_2

Hi ...
It's connected via a wired connection. Windows Firewall is definitely on. I haven't checked the device manager. Will see how to do this and have a go tomorrow.
Thanks for this!

closed

Start, Run, devmgmt.msc

Look for yellow question marks



Did you format the disk before installing, what was the reason for reinstallation? Did it have a restore partition?

Is it sp2?

James123_2

Reason for reinstall was that the computer suddenly stopped working - tried to load then gave a blue screen with the following ....
"the session manager initialisation system process has been terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0X0000034" I couldn't even get this to work in safe mode. I eventually formatted & reinstalled with the supplied Dell disc.
You're up late btw!! I'm on another computer at the moment, so will have a go with your suggestions tomorrow!
Thanks again!
PS ... Yes, SP2 was installed, but it was originally SP3.

banger9365

it could be a hdd failing ,if it's going very low or a bad cable

alared

Have you got a printer connected?

If you have only just reinstalled XP and have nothing of importance on the PC so far,you can return a Dell back to factory sttings without using a recovery disk.

fox2319

Have you got any USB drives attached or a CD in the drive? It could be that your boot order is set to look at these first and it's looking through the entire disk before continuing. If so, you'll need to change the boot order in BIOS (the press F2 when booting up option)

Jeff

James123_2

THANKS ...
Have tried all of above, but still no-go. It works 101% when it finally boots-up. It uses the old ide? hard drive, not SATA, so not sure whether I can find alternative if it's this that's at fault. This has me stumped!
Thanks again for all the A1 replies - much appreciated.

Laz123

Did you load all the drivers in the correct order otherwise there can be probs?

James123_2

I don't think there was an order for the drivers - although I'm probably wrong. I just stuck in the resource CD and downloaded those I was told were needed, starting with the network driver. Hmmmmmmmmmmm
Thanks for this!
Have tried changing boot order, as previous post suggested, but this made no difference. It is set to boot from hard drive & sounds as if it's loading ... just takes 12 minutes +