Re: Dimension 8300 Very Slow Cold Boot

I agree with Tom.
The error on the drive is real.
all the SFC procedure did was restore some corrupted files. there are bad spots on your hard drive that you will surely stumble into again.
It's a ticking tomb bomb!
get a new drive that has a 3 or 5 year warranty.
dell will only send you a refurb maxtor. sell the one they give you on ebay.

Marjorie Cunningham wrote:
I thought I would tell you how I have solved the problem, or at least it appears to have been solved. I finally talked to Dell Chat and after explaining all of the steps I'd taken, the tech suggested I reinstall Windows XP, plus run a Diagnostic Test on the hard drive (F12 key on Dell screen at bootup). I decided to do the diagnostic test first. (BTW, it took over five hours, just a warning!) It came up with FAIL on the Read Test (all other tests passed) because of two errors: Error Code 0F00:0244 Msg. Blocks 5843157-8 Unconnectable data error or media is write protected. I immediately Googled this error and found every comment indicated that the hard disk was dying when you received this message. Whoa! This computer is only two years old and I would be devastated!

I went back to Dell Chat, described the error, and the tech assured me that this message does NOT mean the hard disk is dying. To resolve my slow startup, he said I would have to reinstall Windows XP and gave directions. I decided to check the Microsoft database and it said that before reinstalling to repair XP, you should go Start, Run and type sfc /scannow (space between "c" and "/") and click OK. When I did this, it asked for the XP disk and apparently repaired some .DLLs.

This seems to have worked because I am now booting up within one minute! If this solution doesn't prove to be permanent, I will reinstall Windows XP, but I thought y'all would like to know that so far it seems to have solved the slow boot.

Thanks for all the suggestions, believe me, I used them all!

Marjie

"Marjorie Cunningham" <Marjorie@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:7mQcf.3418$jN6.375@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have a two-year old Dimension 8300, P2.8, 1 GB RAM, 120G hard drive with 91 GB free space. I turn off my computer each night and turn it on in the morning. For the last month or so, the computer has a very slow cold boot time in the morning, from 10 to 20 minutes from the time I turn on the power button to get to my Desktop, but it seems to boot properly during the day if I turn it off and on again. Once it starts, the computer works normally, seems just as speedy as always, no grinding noises or evidence that the hard disk is failing.

I have done a Disk Cleanup and Defrag, used Ad-Aware and SpyBot, emptied all the temp files, checked the Startup files for any anomalies (none that I can see), downloaded new drivers for my sound and video cards, and have checked the Event Viewer for errors (always one saying "hpdj service could not be started," a reference, I assume, to my HP printers). I use a cable modem with anti-virus and a firewall that are automatically updated, no viruses. I have downloaded and installed all of Microsoft's updates. Yesterday I installed Dell's Dell Support program and it finds no errors. I have searched the Internet until I am blue in the face and am not finding a solution.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to what can be causing this? Can anyone offer any help?

Thank you very much.

Marjie




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