"skippi" <> wrote in message
news:_7rnd.68296$SW3.34083@fed1read01...
> I just built a Windows 2000 system around a K7S5A Pro (Version 5) using
the
> e030811s.rom (BIOS). Every so often almost immediately upon boot up I get
a
> "boot device failure" error. I then hit ctrl-alt-del and it (usually) goes
> on to boot normally. I have thoroughly checked out the Western Digital
hard
> drive (Norton Disk Doctor, etc.) and have found no problems with it. (The
> only other "symptom" is that when the system does boot into Windows 2000
it
> takes several minutes (2-3) for it to reach the desktop. It sort of
"hangs"
> for a couple of minutes at the Windows 2000 splash screen and the status
bar
> stays at the half-way mark for quite some time. Once into windows
everything
> runs perfectly.)
>
> Is this a motherboard problem or a hard drive problem? If it's the mb is
> there a BIOS setting or update or tweak I need to check out? If the hard
> drive is "marginal" I suppose I can wait until it fails, but I would like
to
> track down and isolate the problem.
>
> NOTE: Here are some things that are *not* the problem. It is not a virus
or
> spyware or adware or too many programs loading at Windows startup. I have
> already checked for these issues. The system is clean. The install of
> Windows 2000 is new and all patches and updates have been done.
>
>>> Is this a motherboard problem or a hard drive problem? <<<
It can be a combination of both.
K7S5A has a BIOS drive recognition problem. It doesn't happen very often and
after playing with it, it goes away without you knowing what you may have
done to fix it when it could have just been time alone that fixed it like
the lost CMOS problem. There isn't a fix, it just comes and goes, not
limited to hard drives or only WD.
However, WD is the most notorious of brands for not being recognized by any
motherboard. This became particularly apparent when the nForce 2 boards
first came out. Those boards had an obvious BIOS problem, but every forum
you looked on had a bunch of complaints about WD drives not being
recognized.
The fix that always worked was to (perform surgery) cut the first two wires
of your ribbon cable. WD is aware and has a special cable they'll send you
for free if only you can convince them that every fix they recommend doesn't
work, and you'll really have to beg for it. They work hard at keeping it
private that their drives have this problem. It's most common (and maybe
exclusive) to the 8MB cache drives.
When windows starts up quite slowly it's often caused by your network
settings... or lack of them, i.e., no IP numbers.
To determine what is causing your slow boot time, download a free app called
BLA (bootlog analyzer). This will show you things that startup and quit that
you never heard of and the time each item takes. I think if NDIS..something
is one of the long times indicated, it's your network. Only look at the
Delays, you will see "Failed" in places which is because something is only
useful for a second or so, and Failed usually means the same as Ended or
Quit.
There are various numbers that work to put into your DNS/IP that don't
affect anything. I use these which stop my Win98 from taking an extra 30
seconds to start up without affecting anything else . . .
192.168.255.0 for IP Address
255.255.255.0 for Subnet Mask
In your Network settings, click on your NIC to highlight it then click on
Properties, then the IP Address tab and choose to specify an IP Address.
When I do a clean install this is one of the first things I change because
the time delay can drive you batty since you'll be installing so many things
and having to reboot after.
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