It does get on your nerves when you wish your PC would start right away, but it seems to be taking an eternity to start. Well, here we have a tweak to make it start in seconds, so that waiting time is over! Just follow the steps below and you will notice a drastic change in the speed with which your computer boots.
Start by clicking on the "Start" menu followed by clicking on "Run"
In the "Run" window that opens, type "regedit" and click on "OK"
In the "Run" window that opens, type "regedit" and click on "OK"
The "Registry Editor" window would open. There, navigate to:
My Computer\HKEY_LOACAL_MECHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex
In the right pane of the window, search for ""Startup Delay" key.
When you double click on "Startup Delay", a popup window, titled "Edit DWORD Value" would show up. There in the "Base" section, click on "Decimal". You would see the default figure for "Value Data" comes as "480000". Change this figure to "40000" and click on "OK"
Close the Registry Editor, reboot your PC, and there you are, your computer boots in just few seconds.
October 6, 2009 at 12:40 PM
When I boot up the pc stops with the message "a" drive error press [del] to continue.How can I stop this? Al
October 6, 2009 at 3:28 PM
You need to disable floppy drive.
There are two ways to it. You can choose any of these:
Disabling through the BIOS:
Restart your Computer - press "Del" to enter into BIOS and press enter on "Standard CMOS Features" to go to "CMOS Setup" click on "FloppyDrive A" and make it "Disabled". Once done with, "Save" your Changes in the BIOS.
Second is,
Disabling in Device Manager:
Right Click on "My Computer" go to "Properties", Click on "Hardware", select "Device Manager" and click on it and Expand "Floppy Disk Drives" and Select "Floppy Disk Drive" and Right click on it and click on "Disable".
Hope it helps!
October 8, 2009 at 4:30 AM
My pc will only run approx.2 minutes then shuts down however if I move the bios jumper it will run forever but only in bios window.All was ok then I opend the case cleaned dust,reset ram,chipset and cpu and put new dynex silver thermal compound between cpu and heatsink.So far I have replaced the coolmax 400w power supply with a coolmax 600w supply... systemax venture hu2 xp pro 4gb ram 3.2gb pentium d dual core cpu socket775 intel d945gpm mother board.Please help I am diabled and love this desktop pc.
October 8, 2009 at 1:31 PM
@ butcher999999
Do get the PSU that you replaced recently, checked once again. A similar scenario took place with someone else too and it turned out that the PSU they purchased was faulty. Once they installed a new one, everything was back to normal.
Secondly, Check the power switch. I know this may sound silly but it might work. It did for a colleague of mine! He removed the connector from the front panel on/off switch and used a temporary switch and the computer booted perfectly..no shutting down after that!
Do this:
Don't use the on/off switch on the front of your computer (disable that). Instead, use a different on/off switch that you can connect to the motherboard and see if that switch works (try using the reset switch, connected to the motherboard in the on/off switch position)
To confirm whether you have a bad switch do this: Unplug your computer power. Remove the on/off connector on the motherboard and take a HDD jumper and put it accross the pins that the on/off connector once occupied, effectively shorting the pins together. Then close up and power up your machine. If it runs, you have a bad switch.
I am sure we'll be able to work it out :) Just try the above said and update us. If this doesn't work out, we'll try something else.. step by step :)
October 9, 2009 at 12:45 AM
OK I tried the other(400w)psu same result then I disabled the front panel on/off switch and used the restart switch only...it ran about 10 minutes then shut down.Upon rebooting I got 4 beeps(hi/low/hi/low)and a message that it shut down due to a thermal event (overheating).My thoughts are maybe I should reset the cpu again and replace the thermal compound again(is there any differance in how the compound is applied in a dual core cpu?)I also have a new cpu fan that I have hesitated installing because I would need to take out the motherboard to install it.Also should anything be done with the chipset heatsink? I relly appreciate your help on this matter.
October 9, 2009 at 12:05 PM
@ butcher999999
Well, shutting down due to thermal event (overheating) just has one solution to it. You would need to replace the motherboard. We have resolved this issue over and over again and this was the only thing that worked (This problem is because of the power which is supplied to the CPU fan). The heatsink is not in place and so is not effective.
But before that, check these:
* Clean the air flow paths (they might be occluded due to dust)
* Try reseating the CPU fan connection on the motherboard
* Check the CPU fan bracket. The fan maybe working but if the bracket is broken, the heat from the CPU is not transferred to the heatsink.
One of these just might settle things.
Reg. how a thermal compound is applied in a dual core CPU, what we do generally is apply a small dab in the centre of the CPU and the heatsink spreads it on contact. However for dual core CPU's this would NOT work, because two single-core dies are stacked on top of each other to make a dual-core CPU and when we put a small dab in the center a lot of CPU die is not covered by thermal paste. So make a line of thermal compound starting about 5mm in from the top and ending about 5mm from the bottom, at a 90 degree angle to the text on the CPU.
October 13, 2009 at 8:55 AM
OK It's all working again,seems it was two things.First I had put the thermal compound on too heavy and as if my dual core was single core.And secondly the heatsink/fan where it mounts inside the motherboard was loose.Thank you for all your help and keep the site going it's a good one.....until we speak again,Al
October 13, 2009 at 11:12 AM
@ butcher999999
Glad to know that its working fine now :) Thanks for keeping us updated throughout.
March 11, 2010 at 12:45 AM
i had installed ubantoo in windows
and later unstalled it through add/remove programs utility
But still it show choose
1 windows xp
2 ubantoo
and counter of 30 sec is started
How to get rid of this?
March 11, 2010 at 12:10 PM
@Vai_chidrewar:
Ubuntu will not get uninstalled by just going to add remove programs. You will have to manually edit the boot.ini file in windows. Take care you just remove the WUBI related line or the boot into windows can be messed with.
you can read this guide here and follow step by step:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide#Ho...nstall%20Wubi?
Even though you have uninstalled the reason you are still getting 2 options to choose is because you still have the WUBI-related install in the boot.ini file.
What we suggest is back up all your files, before you edit the boot.ini file, after which boot into windows, look for boot.ini file and manually delete JUST the WUBI-related lines, as mentioned in the wubiguide.
As an easier alternative you can try this intially, before going ahead with the above given steps. It just might solve your problem. Insert your Windows OS disk and select "Repair Previous Installation" which also does an "update" or "clean" of the boot.ini file automatically.
Hope it helps!