Member Avatar for GricX

Hello everybody... I need help, I have asked my tech support and they doesn't seem to have a solution... :eek: I've bought a PC with an AMD 64 bits processor and a serial ATA hard disk, Windows XP SP1 installed. The problem is that most of the times it takes like a minute to start windows, and recently it has happened that sometimes it stays slow for a while, even for running other programs. I reset windows once or twice and just then ,while the start up is still slow, at least the rest of the programs run normal. I have heard it could be a problem with the motherboard, the serial ATA driver or the hard disk... but I don't know.

Already checked virus and spyware, it's clean. I've also unchecked the unnecesary programs with msconfig. It worked, but the next day I turned the PC on the problem was back... slow again... :(

So, is there a way to know if the hard disk has any problem or failure? Would it be a good idea to reinstall Windows XP (SP1)? I have re-installed Windows XP before on pentium and AMD, but I don't have experience with 64 bits or serial ATA drives (this would be my first). Please any help will be more than welcome! :!:

The PC is:
AMD Athlon 64 +3000 socket 754
Motherboard MSI K8T800 Neo-V with s-ATA support
Memory: 2 Specteck 512Kb bus 400
Video GeForce MX4000 128Kb
HD Seagate 120Gb. 7200rpm serial ATA
LG DVD supermulti rewriter
D-Link 10/100 ethernet card
Windows XP Professional SP1

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Zachery

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A focused troubleshooting checklist and quick fixes to isolate intermittent slow boots and sluggish behavior on a new system. Suggestions tie into points raised by (thermal checks) and by (keep OS/drivers current), and add concrete tests and commands you can run before reformatting or assuming motherboard/drive failure.

Start with easy, non-destructive checks: look in Event Viewer for disk, NTFS or driver timeouts; enable boot logging (msconfig -> Boot log) and inspect ntbtlog.txt for drivers that take ages to load; boot to Safe Mode — if the system is responsive there the problem is likely a driver or service. Use Autoruns (Sysinternals) to temporarily disable non-Microsoft startup items to see if a third-party driver/service is the cause.

Disk and filesystem checks (run these from an elevated command prompt):

chkdsk C: /F /R
sfc /scannow

Use vendor disk diagnostics and SMART readers to test the drive surface and attributes — short and long tests will catch imminent drive failure. Recommended tools: SeaTools for manufacturer tests and smartmontools/CrystalDiskInfo for SMART data. If SMART shows rising reallocated sectors or long pending sectors, treat the drive as suspect and back up immediately.

Hardware and firmware steps: reseat and swap SATA cables and ports; test with another known-good cable or port; update motherboard chipset drivers and BIOS; check Windows’ controller driver (IDE/SATA controller) and ensure DMA is enabled. For intermittent hangs, run Memtest86+ from USB to rule out RAM errors and monitor CPU/motherboard temperatures with SpeedFan or HWMonitor — thermal throttling or a failing fan can produce sudden slowness.

Useful links and downloads: SeaTools (Seagate SeaTools), smartmontools (smartmontools), MemTest86+ (MemTest86+), Microsoft Support (support.microsoft.com). If the system is under warranty, collect logs (Event Viewer, chkdsk results, SMART report) before contacting support.

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Member Avatar for Cain

AMDs are most suceptable to overheating.. if dust is present or a cooling fan fails you
will see a drastic performance decrease very quickly.

I would crack the case and inspect these items to ensure serviceability first.

Member Avatar for GricX

Hey, thanks for replying. I send the machine back to tech support and it turned out it was the hard drive. They put it in another PC and there was the same problem. It has a warranty so they changed it and now it works fine.

Member Avatar for Zachery

I highly suggest upgrading to SP2 as SP1 won't take full advantage of the AMD64 chip :)

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