Really SLOW startup - M17x Win7-64bit

Guys, this is killing me. I hate paying so much money for something that doesn't work properly. I started having serious slow down issues about two months ago. Since then I've reformatted and done all the typical fixes/checks. My system is pretty damn clean right now and for whatever reason it takes 10-15min. to go from user login to functional desktop. During that period, the desktop will sometimes run extremely slowly. Once that period is over, it runs as if nothing is wrong.

FYI: M17x-R1, Q9000, 1 GTX 260m, Win7 64bit, 4gb RAM, 1TB Raid 0

Some quick notes:
-AlienFX controller used to crash every time i started up. I've disabled it.
-I used to get bluetooth stack service errors
-Before I reformatted, startup AND shut down could each take hours
-I was running Avast Anti-Virus, PC Tools Firewall, and Spybot TeaTimer. It seemed like some of those were causing the problem, so I disabled/uninstalled them and my computer would work fine for one or two restarts, then be back to its old ways. PC Tools Firewall would hang at the Initializing phase for a while causing M17x to be slow. Once it finished after about 20 min, the computer would be back to normal
-All my drivers are up to date
-I've never had the DPC latency issue
-My mem usage when I'm not doing anything stays around 37-40%
-Recently tried to OC using Moo's noob guide. Upped the FSB on the CPU from 267 to 277 and ran a stress test which caused a severe slow down. Then tried to bump it back down to 267 and the screen just started flickering solid colors.

It's driving me absolutely insane. I can't wait 20 minutes for my computer to load up every time I want to use it. Any ideas? Help would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE:
-It was recommended I check my SMART data. Using Active Hard Disk Monitor, it is reported that SMART is not supported on my HDD.
-I just received an error that said "External Component has thrown an exception." After receiving that error, the slow down has stopped. I've gotten this error multiple times before with the same result.

 

Dying hard drive Possibly?

 

That's what I was thinking...I hope not. Is there any way to check for that? From what I hear, chkdsk isn't exactly as straightforward with RAID 0 as it is with a single drive.

The first time I experienced these slow downs was after I had watched a movie via HDMI hooked up to my TV. I had moved the M17x from my desk to a spot near my TV and then back to my desk. Is it possible something went wrong in the transition? The computer was working fine up until I moved it away from my TV back to my desk. Then all of a sudden it all went t!ts up.

 

have you tried checking the S.M.A.R.T status of your HDD ?
Use http://www.disk-monitor.com/download.html or any other tool that can show smart data.

 

I'll do that and report back. To be honest, i don't know what smart data is.

 

Sorry for the double post...I installed the software and it says the my drives don't support SMART data. Under Computer/Disks, it says "STRIPE 931.52G SMART Not Supported"

 

I have like 60-80 second start ups on mine, too.

 

I just received an error that ended my latest startup slow downs:
"External component has thrown an exception."

I've gotten this multiple times before but whenever I search google about it, it seems to be a programming error.

 

Its not reading it most likely due to the nvidia storage driver being installed. Can you remove that and then rerun the test? The Nvidia storage driver blocks SMART info.

 

Would that be the NVIDIA STRIPE 931.52G driver I see under Disk Drives in my Device Manager? The worst part of this is that any time I do something to fix my computer that requires a restart, it'll be another 20+ minutes before I can start using it again. It takes forever doing it this way

 

If you go to programs and features and go to Nvidia double click it and only remove the storage driver.

Have you downloaded hddtune?
http://www.hdtune.com/

It has an error checker and will check the hdd sector by sector.. you shouldnt have to reboot on this one.. I really think a hdd is going bad or your got botched software if raid is booting that slow.. How does safe mode boot? fast? It could be software/driver related.. You could disable all startup items and see if that improves..

 

Safe mode is kind of slow also. Not as slow as normal startup up, but it certainly takes a couple minutes. Sometimes it hangs while loading disk.sys

I've read that it's not a good idea to run chkdisk or scandisk on RAID arrays. Is it alright to run the error checker from HDTune or Active@ Hard Disk Monitor?

EDIT: Am I removing the SMU driver or Storage Management Software?

 

Well its not gonna fix it. It will just report out on errors then.. Well it seems like you have hardware or some software failure there... I have never run it on raid so I cant comment there.. You still need to see if there are bad sectors/hd failing before its to late and all is gone..

 

That error is a program call error and generally indicates a driver failure of some kind. Unless you can recall what might have been installed or updated immediately prior to onset of the problem, your best bet is probably to restore to the last known good installation before using it with the TV.

 

I've tried that and it would work for a day, then go back to slow startups, regardless of whether or not I install anything. I don't have much installed on this computer since I recently reformatted. The two most prevalent errors I've gotten were problems with AlienFX and Bluetooth.

 

I'm in the middle of running the Error Scan from the Hard Disk Utility and already on the fourth block, it found a damaged block. Should the disk be completely free of damage or is it OK for some? I'm assuming even one block is not good.

 

It should be free.. Damaged blocks are not good

 

Well, if that's the case, then it has to be hardware based. Sounds like you guys are on the most logical trail. Best of luck. Nothing more frustrating than a drag @ss computer.

 

So it turns out I definitely have some bad sectors. Spoke to Alienware tech support after running the error check with HD Tune and he directed me to run Diagnostics from the boot menu. The following error code came up:

Code:

Error code 0142
MSG: Error code 2000-0142
MSG: Hard Drive 3 - Self test unsuccessful Status: 79

Alienware will be replacing my HDD's as per my warranty. My question now is how can I wipe those drives clean for security reasons? I know that they most likely won't start rummaging through my files, but to be safe, I'd like to completely wipe the HDD. I've read that DBAN is a good method but does not work well on failing drives. Any suggestions?

 

Try this
CMRR - Secure Erase

 

Dead hard drive might be the answer. ALSO make sure you enter into MSCONFIG and disable those non-essential boot ups. usually when I just have yahoo messenger on start up it takes an additional 4-5 minutes.

 

Indeed. After some error checking and diagnostics, the HDD has been determined to be faulty. Alienware tech rep is coming by later today to replace both drives. For those interested, you can find the error codes I received on the second page.

 

UPDATE: The rep came and replaced my HDD just now. When attempting to install Windows 7, it does not find the HDDs and asks for the drivers to be installed. Any idea where I can get these? Would this be the nVidia chipset driver off of Dell's website (Ver. 2.05, A00)? If so, should I be extracting the files before I can access them for install?

EDIT: Figured it out. I had to set up the RAID array first. It was already set up through the BIOS, but then I had to press F10 at startup for RAID configuration.

 

seriously, raid 0 is not trust worthy. I had raid 0 on my w90 and m17x. both proved to be very bad decisions. lost data and hic ups. the performance game isn't big enough. IMO i would rather use one HD to run windows and the other one for storage. Windows will run smoother in the long run.