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

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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.

the main reason i am using the carputer is as a 'in car multimedia' enchantment. i cannot see the point in forking out thousands on a flip out DVD/Navi system that also has only a 7" screen and limited to the functions to which it comes with when for 1/4 of the price i can have a computer that does it all + more! Plus with the aid of a 8" 16:9 VGA screen, the quality is going to be sharper/better than any non vga screen.

here is a couple of pics of what i have done.. all the centre console has been redesigned by myself , relocating the Headunit location and incorporating the screen..

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and the Pc unit ...
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Haha I can see you when you are playing Need For Speed while actually driving and try to take that 90 degree turn @ 120 mph... all your hard, custom work will go down the toilet.
 
I've never used a car pc, but as for laptops, I know that they drop the processor speed when there is not enough power, slowing it down dramatically. ( I have a 1ghz Thinkpad, and I know that when its on battery, it drops down to about 300-400mhz, according to bios and windows xp system info)

Again, it seems like you know that there is enough power to the system, but that is what I am coming back to if it works fine when plugged in inside but not in the car, (the variable seems to be power source...) maybe try getting one of those inside plug to car plug adapters and seeing if it just isn't getting enough electricity.

One thing to try is to leave it in the car and run an extension cord to the car, see if its just the car or is really a power issue.

just thoughts on things i would try....
 
thanx for the advice mate. but, the computer is currently running off my 240v AC power supply , plug socket in my garage at mo.. not got round to setting up the car power supply wiring.. so i know its not power related issue. Also, i have removed the pc from my car and set it back up in my house and still get the same issue.

i have been fiddling with the computer, found a few wrong BIOS settings to which i put right, and i installed bootvis, seems to have improved things a little.. the fastest i have got it to boot now from power on is 2min 33 sec O_O altho i just turned it on this morning it took a good 5-6min!

the main problem is once its passed the bios screen and is about to load the 'Pre Xp logo' progress bar.. once the XP logo boot screen has loaded, it seems to run moderately ok from there..

Personally i think the HDD has a fault. If i get a new HDD, is there any way i can copy the boot sector over to the new HDD so i dont have to re-install XP again?!
 
Ok.. now the problem has progressed and i am getting error messages..

now, after the XP logo booting screen, there is a blank screen pause, then the blue 'Windows is starting up' screen loads -And then i get plagued with error messages..

the majority saying 'Windows - Delay write failed' then the message : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file 'C:' the data has been lost. this error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try save the file elsewhere.

i also got the message:

Iscss.exe - System Error. : An I/O operation initiated by the registry failed unrecoverably. The registry could not read in, write out or flush one of the files that contain the Systems image of the Reg.

the computer will then reboot. I tried Safe mode, restore config etc etc, but to no avail.

I am assuming my hard disk has died?
 
The main problem is that you're trying to run WindowsXP Home on a stripped down computer in a car. If this was my project, I'd put together a pc/104 stack and load a different OS (even Windows XP Embedded would be much better). Since you seem willing to put in the time to make this project look professional, you should consider using professional parts, like an Intel ECX single board computer. It's made for this type of thing.
 
Yea, i would agree, hard drive seems like its about to die.

you said earlier, "sometimes you can hear the hard drive Clicking, " You mentioned you thought the arm was going past limit, probably bouncing between the plates.

I would suggest a new hard drive. Even if its not dead yet, it sounds like it might be going soon. The more you run it the quicker it will die, so probably don't run it too much. I would get a new hd, should be able to find a decently cheap one, I don't know if you need the 60Gbs for a car pc.

If you have the correct tools you can image the data over and it will work without having to reinstall xp, however, this assumes that the data is still good and it doesn't die before or while copying.
 
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