Xp taking forever to load.. Car Computer.. help!!

[ryanrs]

i have a car computer with the following specifications.. mini ITX VIA motherboard 800mhz cpu , 256mb ram (iirc -poss 512mb) 60gb hdd.

I have a slight problem with xp taking forever to boot.. I recently installed a fresh copy of XP home, installed the basics like MSN 7.5, AVG Free, QT, WMP11 etc etc, it booted nice, say 1 min tops to load.. i then take the computer from my house to my car and set it up..

Straight away, its loading slower... and it seems the more times i boot it over the past 2 weeks that its been in there, its got slower and slower!

Its once the bios screen has dissipeared, there is a good 1-2 minute pause before you get the white progress bar that appears at the bottom of the screen, Before you get the XP logo.. and sometimes after the XP logo has gone, there is another pause before the Logon screen apears..

I have also noticed that my USB wireless keyboard , mouse and touch screen work all work immediatly when the PC is turned on, but soon as it gets past the bios screen, they do not function, not until XP has loaded up.. Basically meaning that if i wanted the Boot options menu, i cant get it as the keyboard does'nt work! it almost seems that the USB ports get switched off while booting.

1 last thing.. My pci WIFI card, was working fine.. then stoped working -sourced the problem, the card was not in properly.. So, i put the card in correctly and the computer will not boot?! But... Remove the card, and it boots fine!!

Can anyone help!!

 

[KSoD]

Well first there is the power issue. A Car's battery only has a max load of a +12V rail. Not a 120V line like your house does. Even a direct connect to the battery will NOT supply your PC with as much power as your house line does.

I used a Dump Truck battery in my Dodge pickup and even that couldnt fully power my PC i tried to run. You need a converter box. Even then you still dont get all the power you need.

3rd why do you need MSN on your car PC? You should be concentrating on driving not having a IM convo. That causes car accidents and deaths.

The whole wifi thing could be cause by faulty drivers, bad hardware..who knows without the proper troubleshooting.

 

[ryanrs]

Well first there is the power issue. A Car's battery only has a max load of a +12V rail. Not a 120V line like your house does. Even a direct connect to the battery will NOT supply your PC with as much power as your house line does.

I used a Dump Truck battery in my Dodge pickup and even that couldnt fully power my PC i tried to run. You need a converter box. Even then you still dont get all the power you need.

3rd why do you need MSN on your car PC? You should be concentrating on driving not having a IM convo. That causes car accidents and deaths.

I asked for a solution to my problem, not a lecture on power supplies and road safety. MSN is on there for communicating with people while im parked up. And being a coach and truck driver for a profession, i would not be so stupid as to try having a conversation while driving. So therefore please keep comments like that to yourself.

As for power supply... MiniITX / Carpc's are based on laptops and designed to be low power consuming and therefore able to be used from a 12v DC supply. these use a DC-DC converter PSU which is surge/crank resistant and smart in terms of shutting down etc. My DC-DC Psu supplies 140W which is plenty capible. Also take into consideration a typical carpc will use laptop HDD's and general components etc, so therefore the required voltage will be low.

surely you dont think your desktop pc runs at 120V do you :S

Even a direct connect to the battery will NOT supply your PC with as much power as your house line does.

Wrong.. the current flow through an AC plug socket is far lower than that from a 12dc battery. this is for safety reasons. The Voltage is the force at which the current is pushed through its conductor. An AC plug will require a higher Voltage to compensate for the Lower current. Have you ever wondered why a 100w house bulb may have a 5A fuse, yet a 5w car bulb will use a 15A fuse?!

anyways , in this instance, my carpc's power supply is wired to the mains socket thru its laptop style power lead, so therefore there is no possibility in lack of power.

 

[KSoD]

Right so where do you live again so i know to keep my 5 month old daughter off the road when you drive. You only use it while parked my @$$.

Also did i say that desktops run at 120V? Where did you get that out of my statement? Did i say that they use all 120V? Did i say anytihng about them having capacitors that limit their flow to the 12v rails that they use? Along with the 5v, 3v and 1.5v rails that they also use?

You are nto dealing with a rookie here so dont you go making assumptions on what i know and dont know. I have made many laptops.desktops and have build a couple of PC's that run in cars jsut fine like a desktop PC. Have you?

You asked for help not me. I am offering advice and trying to give some Info that not everyone knows. That is all you had to say originally that you knew all this info and therefor i would have not posted it. Instead you go and give a lecture yourself. Guess what...i was also a Electrician that wired houses for over 2 years with the Electrical Union. Sorry i know how electricity works.

So sorry that you think you are the smartest person here. That is why you are here for help. :S

Now that is over i will say farewell and good luck...also try more RAM. XP has NEVER run good with only 256 RAM. Espically when trying to run MSN 7.5, AVG Free, QT, WMP11 etc etc. Those application alone will not hamper your system but combined with the XP system services they do.

 

[ryanrs]

Hahahahaha and in all your experience, you have truely become an A* keyboard warrior!

Right so where do you live again so i know to keep my 5 month old daughter off the road when you drive. You only use it while parked my @$$.

if you know so much, then surely you would know that maintaining a decent enough Wifi signal, good enough to keep a solid internet connection, while 'On the move' , is practically impossible, even with Wifi hopping software. This renders any internet functions Useless, unless parked up in a strong reception. Maybe you could get lucky when sitting in a city at a red light.. but that's about it! the only way to do this is thru GPRS, but i am not forking out another mobile phone contract just for that.

If you know carPcs work as good as laptops etc etc when set up correctly, then why tell me that you tried it and did not succeed?!

-btw, i live in the UK.. and over here, if you was to let a 5 month child play in the road , you would find social services knocking at your door in no time ;D

 

[jordo_99]

I'd suggest throwing in some more RAM. I think that probably has something to do with it. I don't know why it's freezing during start-up or the keyboard problems...but I really do think that it would help to have some more RAM...say 512mb-1gb if you can justify it.

good luck

 

[Raze664]

I think the "MSN" thing was more a disguise of what he really needs the internet for, though I maybe wrong.

But Yeah, dont Msn and Drive...bad combination.

 

[EricB]

I use to bypass the transformer in the power supply whenever I hook home stuff up in the car since most stuff is dc based past that point. it's fairly easy to make a switching power supply to any voltage at that point.

test your hdd ryanrs. maybe the shaking messed it up.

 

[ryanrs]

thanx for the input peeps

I think the "MSN" thing was more a disguise of what he really needs the internet for, though I maybe wrong.

hehe

test your hdd ryanrs. maybe the shaking messed it up.

Tbh, i have noticed occasionally, sometimes you can hear the hard drive Clicking, kind of like its trying to move the actuator arm past its limit.. The drive is not new, it came with the computer, its a 2.5" laptop 60gb jobbie. maybe this could be something to do with it ????

im not really convinced that it could be ram related, as the computer worked fine when it was wired up in my house.. its only since i took it up to me car in the garage to mount it, that it started playing up. -i have not drove the car with it fitted yet, as the car is a project and is still waiting for completion of the engine, so it has not been exposed to any major bumps/shocks etc..

 

[ohGrFreak]

What's wrong with the common laptop? And you can take it out of the car for the ultimate portability. Just in case you keep having problems with your carputer, you may just consider a laptop to take with you wherever you go.