[welchs101]

Hi,

My parents have a computer which started taking a LONG time to boot up. I dont know if it started "all of a sudden" or has been happening for some time.

Problem description:
1) When i restart computer i see the "bios" bootup screen as normal but then i get a "blank" black screen with the cursor blinking in the upper right. This blank screen continues for about "5 to 6" min. Thats a long time. Once the computer boots up it seems to run fine.

What i have done which does not seem to have had any effect:
1) Ran spy bot search and destroy
2) Ran cccleaner
3) Defragged hard disk

None of the above had "any" affect.

I started to wonder if my hard drive is failing. If anyone could help i would appreciate it. I dont want to replace Hard drive unless necessary but i am not sure what the problem is. Again, computer works once it does finally boot up but it should not take that long.

Dave

 

[raptor_pa]

Use msconfig to see what programs may be loading at start up. It could be the HD, but if it was, in most cases you should see some slow downs and errors after it is up and running.

 

[welchs101]

Hi,

I forgot to add this but i already did the MSCONFIG and reviewed the startup information. Nothing unusual being loaded. In fact, i "un-checked" several items but still NO EFFECT at all.

My fear is that its the hard drive and if i wait to long trying to figure it out that something may happen to the hard drive.

 

[raptor_pa]

Download MHDD from www.hddguru.com and check the drive for slow sectors.

 

[welchs101]

Thanks. I will try this out. What exactly does this software do?

I will let you know what i find out.

 

[raptor_pa]

It will scan the drive and report the accesss time for each sector, at the end it will show you the total sectors for various time ranges. Too many slow or unreadable sectors will indicate a problem

 

[welchs101]

thanks.......i will give it a try.

Thanks!

 

[welchs101]

I ran western digitals diagnostic tool and it PASSED. So i guess the drive is ok.

I read on line that what i should do to try and figure out the blinking cursor with black screen is
1) remove all hardware except hard drive and see if problem still exists
2) reseat video card and memory and see if problem still exits

anyone have any other ideas?