Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Reposted For 'keasbey08': I have a question about start Up

by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Aug 29, 2005 8:08AM PDT

I've reposted this question because Andrew placed in the "Tips" thread which isn't the best place for it. Placing it as a new question should get better responses. (I'll delete the other post in the "Tips" thread.)
_______________

I have a question about startup

HI, sorry this isn't a tip, but I recently upgraded my old FAT32 Maxtor 16GB HD to a Seagate 120 GB HD using XP Pro and NTFS. Now whenever I startup my computer there is a set of gray bars that seems to be checking something, and it slows down my startup time immmensly. Does anyone know what this is and if you do how to turn it off?
Thanks in advanced
-Andrew

Posted by: keasbey08 (see profile) - 08/29/2005 2:28 PM
____________

Hope this helps.

Grif

Discussion is locked

10 Posts
- Collapse + Expand Details
- Collapse -
Andrew, When Do You See The Bars?
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Aug 29, 2005 9:36AM PDT

Is the screen still black or has Windows started already?

In the meantime, here are some suggestions:

First, if this is your first Windows XP machine, it takes a LOT longer for it to load at start up. You'll see the XP screen with the "green" flashing lights scrolling across the screen, then it has to load all the programs.

In order to speed up your start up and shut down, you need to shut down unnecessary start up programs and services that run in XP. Follow the steps in the link below:

For Windows 2000/XP, ignore the first couple of sentences about checking "resources" in the link below but follow the rest of the procedures including the "Services" links at the bottom.

How To Shut Down Unnecessary Start Up Programs

Then clean out the junk files on the machine:

How To Clean Unwanted Files From The Hard Drive

After following all the procedures above, run Error Checking/Chkdsk and Defrag to optimize the hard drive:

How To Run 'Error Checking/Chkdsk' On Win2000/XP


Hope this helps.

Grif

- Collapse -
Hi
by keasbey24 Aug 30, 2005 2:37AM PDT

Thanks for moving this, but I see the bars after the check of the ram and hard drive, but before I see the windows boot screen. Yes the window is completely black with a line of small bars that a grey bar rolls across.
Thanks again
-Andrew

- Collapse -
Andrew, Progress Bars...Are You Running the Embedded??
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Aug 30, 2005 4:06AM PDT

..version of XP? That's a slightly different version of XP for developers...I've never seen it but it's supposed to have grey bars instead of blue and green as in XP PRO or HOME. Some of those boot progress bars can be changed in the boot.ini using the link below:

Available switch options for the Windows XP and the Windows Server 2003 Boot.ini files

As to the 'grey" bars you've described, I only have that on our Windows 2000 machines and works much the same. They are progress bars for the loading of various Windows 2000 programs, drivers and such.

Hope long does it take for your computer to boot?

The best fix for slow loading machines is to stop some of the unnecessary start up programs and services. The link below might help with that:

For Windows 2000/XP, ignore the first couple of sentences about checking "resources" in the link below but follow the rest of the procedures including the "Services" links at the bottom.

How To Shut Down Unnecessary Start Up Programs

After following all the procedures above, run Error Checking/Chkdsk and Defrag to optimize the hard drive:

How To Run 'Error Checking/Chkdsk' On Win2000/XP

Hope this helps.

Grif

- Collapse -
Might want to tyr learning how to
by Ray Harinec Aug 30, 2005 4:10AM PDT
- Collapse -
On my XP Pro
by Earth9111 Aug 29, 2005 11:32PM PDT

I have white bars going across bottom of screen but, it goes across quickly. Its probably scanning for errors on hard drive.

- Collapse -
My system is slower so...
by keasbey24 Aug 30, 2005 9:29AM PDT

Yeah, that's the same thing I have, but I have no idea what to do to stop it. Also Grif, I have a normal version of XP Pro, I'm sure its not any sort of embedded version.

- Collapse -
Also..
by keasbey24 Aug 30, 2005 9:40AM PDT

I have a slower computer, it's a dell dimension XPS R450 (new circa 199Cool with a 450 Mhz processor, 256 MB of RAM and a 120 GB seagate baracuda processor. The bar on the bottom loads quite slowly, taking two or three minutes to finish.

- Collapse -
Andrew, A Couple Of Minutes Isn't That Bad...
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Aug 31, 2005 2:20AM PDT

...especially with the slow processor. We've got XP Pros at the office with faster processors, 256 mb of RAM and smaller hard drives which can take from 60-90 seconds to start up.

With that little RAM, I suggest installing more to achieve faster response times. On XP, 256 is bare minimum and you need to get to 512 mb or more.

Hope this helps.

Grif

- Collapse -
Andrew, And Did You Try??
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Aug 30, 2005 9:41AM PDT

...the steps I suggested in my post above?

And once again...how long does it take for your XP PRO to boot up?

Grif

- Collapse -
Load times
by keasbey24 Sep 15, 2005 9:20AM PDT

Yes, the load times have improved. Thanks for all your help. It's about 2-3 minutes cold, on a reboot its about 30 seconds.
-Andrew

Back to Computer Newbies forum

CNET Forums

Operating Systems
Software
Electronics & Gadgets
Hardware
Tablets & Mobile Devices
General Help
Brand Forums
Roadshow Autos
Off Topic

Other Forums

Forum Info