Very Slow Boot: MSI 915G Combo:

[fragileninja]

Hi!

My PC's configuration is :
-MSI 915G Combo board
-Navtech Cabinet with 450W Power Supply
-P4 HT 2.8GHz
-2*256 DDR400 Kingstoon RAM
-Seagate Barracuda 160GB PATA HDD with 8MB Buffer
-Liteon 16x DVD Writer
-Compro TV Tuner
-Windows XP SP2 with all the updates installed

I am using onboard video and sound as of now...

HDD and DVD Writer are connected in IDE1 slot as Master and slave respectively.


The problem is that the boot up process is extremely slow... POST itself takes over a minute (with only system info on the screen) then another minute is gone before xp is started... Its not a software problem as far as i've been able to recognize
- If i remove the DVD writer, boot time instantaneously comes down to abt 20 seconds
- If i try to install DVD writer as IDE2 Master then the BIOS doesn't recognize it.. Further there is no power in the DVD writer then! Ditto with IDE3... Infact I always hav to connect the 2 as master and slave otherwise one of them doesn't get the power
- There is onboard RAID support in the mobo, and i've disabled the RAID controller as of now...
- I've updated my BIOS to the most recent version (AMI BIOS )

People tell me what to do? The boot time is terribly slow and further i fear that DVD writing is taking extra time bcoz both devices are connect on the same cable...

I read sumwhere that thr may be a problem with the power supply... I fear that this is true, bcoz my System gets heated very quickly!

Kindly help me solve the problem...

[fragileninja]

Still no reply guys....

Im waiting... Plz help me out!!!

[sidewinder]

try this one.....worked for me!
First clear the cmos using jumper or removing the battery.
nxt configure hdd as primary master and dvd as secondery master(if u have 2 ide interface)
boot windows
go to device manager ..open ide ata controller.Now in advanced settings disable settinggs written auto.DO NOT DISABLE ANY RECOGNISED DEVICE.Disable only the empty ide slots.
reboot.
it worked for me

[sidewinder]

sorry i replied without reading the full problem....
It seems ur dvd is preconfigured as slave.try installing it as 2nd slave or 3 rd slave.if u want to install it as master,refer to its manual for jumper settings

[fragileninja]

I have still not been able to get my comp working the right way. Now i've installed a 2nd Seagate 160GB HDD and I had to remove my DVD writer to do so... Both the HDs are installed as secondary master and slave now.

Please help me out... I'm absolutely clueless as to what to do. Heat is also having its toll on my PC. I've removed the side covers for ventilation

ps.
Have done with switching off my PC. Its been on for the 8th day now...

[anandk]

check out in the tutorials section 'how to reduce winxp startup/shutdown time?' perhaps it may help you.

[fragileninja]

Hey, my problem is a hardware one.... Windows XP runs blazing past once POST is over.... Problem is that stage itself takes about 4 mins or so!!!

[kiran_k]

did u check out the quick boot option in BIOS?
if not turn it on it wil reduce the boot time to 3 seconds.

[pradeep_chauhan]

Enable fast boot option in bios it speeds up post concederably.

[fragileninja]

Yeah... The quickboot is enabled

Plz do something.... Help me out sum1

[fragileninja]

Finally the problem is solved!!! Took me some dozen weeks to figure it out....

There r 3 IDE channels in 915G Combo. 2 of them are colored Yellow and 1 is colored Blue. The Yellow ones are controlled by the onboard RAID controller while the blue one is free. Since in the BIOS I'd disabled the RAID controller, the 2 yellow channels were not working and hence had to connect both devices to the blue one. Now, I've enabled the RAID controller and connected the HD to the yellow channel and DVD writer to the blue one. Bootup is blitzing fast now....

Still not ablt to figure out why the bootup was so slow when both devices were attached to the blue channel.....