Slow booting...

[Agent40]

I am in the process of learning and building a computer, but I am currently having a problem with my current computer.

Here's my set-up:
Dell Dimension 4100
Pentium 3 Coppermine 866 mhz
384 megs RAM
Dell mobo
32 meg TNT2 Riva
Standard Dell keyboard
Microsoft USB optical mouse
17" Dell monitor
Western Digital 20 GB HDD (Master)
Maxtor 160 GB HDD (Slave)

This is what I was attempting. The 160 GB HDD is rather new and I was using it for backup. I decided to install Fedora Core 3 on one of the HDD and WinXP Pro on the other (currently had WinXP on the 20 GB so decided to tryout FC3 on the 160). After I was able to install FC3 on the second HDD and played around with it for awhile, I decided that I wanted to have FC3 on the 20 GB (and change it to Slave) and WinXP on the 160 GB (and change it to master). I changed the HDDs and adjusted their position on the IDE cable and set the jumpers...also did some much needed dusting with dust off. I tried to just use the Windows set-up to format the 160 GB but could not. So I just used Killdisk to format both HDDs. And have installed WinXP on the 160 GB again and back up and running.

Here is my problem...

Before I did this my computer booted no problem. Under 15 seconds and I could do whatever I wanted. Now it sticks on the Dell logo at boot for anywhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. What could be causing this?

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

Try going into your BIOS and see if you can't find anything labeled "Reset ESCD".. That will reset the systems "Extended System Configuration Data". Also, does your system recognize the entire hdd when you are in Windows? If not, check for a BIOS update on the Dell site.

 

[ghostknight3]

ok well heres a noob question. my comp has the same slow startup. so umm.... how do i get into my bios?? lol i know a newb question but im not all that computer savvy

 

[Pavlyk]

ok well heres a noob question. my comp has the same slow startup. so umm.... how do i get into my bios?? lol i know a newb question but im not all that computer savvy

Press the 'delete' button

 

[ohGrFreak]

Press the delete button... ...upon startup.

 

[ghostknight3]

thanks.

 

[Agent40]

Woohoo! New problem. Got home (computer was running fine cept for slow startup)...so I turned on the computer and saw the boot screen for about 2 minutes and then "Invalid Boot Diskete in Drive A". Now the computer won't recognize any of my hardrives. Gives me an excuse to break out the better laptop though.

Oh, and, yes Windows did recognize the whole HDD before.

 

[TheMajor]

Check your cables and make sure all IDE channels are set to "Auto detect" or "Auto" in ur standard CMOS config.

 

[Agent40]

Cables are good. Set to auto.

Heres an update though...I turned off "Quick Booting" in the BIOS and now it boots to Windows, although entirely too slow. It took 3 mins to count to 384 megs of RAM.

Gonna flash the BIOS and try some other things to get it working.

 

[TheMajor]

flashing the BIOS should fix it, though I would try a reset/clear first.