Printer plugged in = slooooow boot time. Wow?

[Jayce]

AMD Athlon 3000+ s939 1.8ghz
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
2gb Corsair
Nvidia 6600 256mb PCIE
Lexmark x6500 all in one fax series

It's my mom's computer. Today she calls me... omgosh the computer won't boot... I go over and find an SD card plugged into the card reader which is onboard to the printer. Maybe that's it? Unplug it, reboot. Nahh, still hangs... It hangs at the motherboard splash screen for a long time, but eventually boots. If I unplug the printer and reboot, bam... splash screen is up for all but 3-4 seconds.

How in the world could this be?

OS = XP Pro SP3

 

[eyeCpc]

Windows is having fun trying to properly detect the printer attached. Is that the x6570 model? Lexmark X6570 -- Lexmark United States

You may want to try it on a different usb port to see the port it's plugged into now is where the problem is. Otherwise you would be looking at a possible problem with the printer itself.

 

[Jayce]

I think it is, to be honest. I just know it's a 6500 series. I'm pretty sure that may be it, though.

The thing is, it started randomly. My mom said the only thing she changed was the fact she put the SD card in. Besides that, everything else is normal.

 

[CrazeD]

Windows is having fun trying to properly detect the printer attached.

He said it hangs on the BIOS screen, so that has nothing to do with Windows.

Perhaps something was messed up with the boot order and when you used the SD card, it got all funky and thought it was a boot device. I don't even know if that's possible, but it's worth checking the boot order anyway.

 

[Jayce]

Even still, it did it with the SD card out of the printer. If the printer is hooked up via USB upon booting, the boot screen hangs. If the printer is not hooked up via USB, the splash screen lasts all but 3-4 seconds. The SD card was out of the picture at this point, however it was my initial thought process too.

Note - this printer is a wifi printer. The only reason my mom hooks it up via USB is so the card reader works. But she may be getting a 3.5" card reader to mount in her system, but STILL... I don't see how the printer would even play a key role here...

edit - I just checked the boot order. CD/HDD/USB CD is the order. Nothing USB related besides the CD drive after the hard drive. I have no clue what it can be. In other news, once I boot to XP, whether the printer is plugged in or not I CANNOT get into printers and faxes to save my life. Why is it the simple things in Windows are often the hardest?

 

[eyeCpc]

Even still, it did it with the SD card out of the printer. If the printer is hooked up via USB upon booting, the boot screen hangs. If the printer is not hooked up via USB, the splash screen lasts all but 3-4 seconds. The SD card was out of the picture at this point, however it was my initial thought process too.

Note - this printer is a wifi printer. The only reason my mom hooks it up via USB is so the card reader works. But she may be getting a 3.5" card reader to mount in her system, but STILL... I don't see how the printer would even play a key role here...

edit - I just checked the boot order. CD/HDD/USB CD is the order. Nothing USB related besides the CD drive after the hard drive. I have no clue what it can be. In other news, once I boot to XP, whether the printer is plugged in or not I CANNOT get into printers and faxes to save my life. Why is it the simple things in Windows are often the hardest?

Checking the boot order for a change there was pointless unless you had a flash drive, external usb drive offsetting the boot order as seen when adding one on or replugging one in. Even disabling the sata controllers to see them re-enablied afterwards will offset the default boot device while a printer or other types of usb devices won't.

The fact that you are unable to get into the Control Panel>Printers+Faxes section is a concern however since that points right a Windows related problem. Sounds like Windows is seeing some form of corruption or some system files were lost somehow for that to be seen.

 

[Jayce]

So wouldn't that signify two problems? Because Windows isn't even in the picture at the mobo splash screen when it hangs...

My mom did say she was getting some sort of memory error. Maybe I should redo it. It runs kinda crappy anyway.

 

[carnageX]

If there was a memory error, try running Memtest86+.

 

[eyeCpc]

So wouldn't that signify two problems? Because Windows isn't even in the picture at the mobo splash screen when it hangs...

My mom did say she was getting some sort of memory error. Maybe I should redo it. It runs kinda crappy anyway.

That's right at the end of the post tests likely where you can't those complete as long as the logo splash screen is enabled in the bios to see just where Windows starts to load and perform it's own hardware detection process. If the printer was seeing it's own problem then the usb bus would be getting pulled down somewhat.

If there was a memory error, try running Memtest86+.

It certainly wouldn't hurt since a memory problem of some type can't be ruled out. The lack of access seen in the control panel seems to point at a Windows problem as well.

 

[networkgeek]

can you go into bios and disable boot by usb?

there should be an option to boot with usb devices. try that and see if it helps any