The 8 hr boot

First I must say that the info and knowledge in this forum is incredible!! I am new to the toughbook. I have always wanted one and was able to get a CF-28SRJGZKM from my little brother for this reason "the 8hr boot". First off it took a week to install the OS-winxp, then finally got all the drivers installed, which I got from modly's site (thanks). Everything works great even the touchscreen, installed an internal wireless card (still have to get the paddle antennas) and it even works good with no antennas if I am within 2feet of my router.But...... everytime I reboot it takes 6 to 8 hrs. for the process????? With the wealth of information here I have tried these solutions so far, remove extra ram...no help, with or without dvd/cd pack...no help, reset bios to default...no help. I love this machine its fast for a PIII and everything works, the touchscreen is a very cool feature and fun to play with but this boot problem is very frustrating. Any ideas?

 

i gues you are using windows. start it up and
click start
go to run.
then type in msconfig
choose start up
disable all and see if there is any improvments.
let us know what is your results

 

where exactly is your boot so slow? in the Bios-part or in the xp-bootup?
In the BIOS should Boot from LAN be disabled and ur harddisk should be on the first position.
In the boot.ini on ur root-partition u should make an entry /SOS and /BOOTLOG in the row multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect .
While the next boot is growing up, u can read where a problem could be and otherwise there is a log created in ur windows-directory. Look for "failure".

And probably u use an now not nessecary network-login and ur Laptop is waiting for a server or service or so.

 

Thanks Don, I did try that also and it made no difference. I should have also described the boot process, bios posts very quick then I get the black screen with what looks like a flashing cursor in dos mode for an hour or so then a completely black screen for several hrs then when the windows splash screen finally comes up it continues just as fast as any of the other 4 computers I have.

P.S. The more I read here, the more I realize how little tech knowledge I really have.......some of you guys are uber smart!!

 

If I read that correctly it sounds like you did a fresh install right?

If so then you gotta bad hard drive 10000% positive man!!! (especially if you have that blinking underscore in the black screen)

I've seen lots of hard drives not necessarily crash (or this might have actually crashed but toughbooks are so insulated that you won't be able to hear the drive clicking), but just slow down to the point of no return in my days working on hundreds of thousands of laptops.

Replace the drive and reload - I'll betcha it will solve your problem.

 

JB, I have also tried that.......this is the third hard drive I have used but to no avail. One of the hard drives that I tried had a fresh install of xp from another machine and the same thing happened until the windows screen then all is well. With all three drives the same thing.... quick bios post, loooooooooong wait then quick os boot and no problems.

 

can you go in your bios and do a default steeing. also make sure you dont have a flash drive or some other kind of memory card in there, i had my external and my whitebook took 5 minutes to move from the bios menu.

 

Don, I have set default bios and no extras at all not even the cd drive pack or extra ram.....always the same thing. Will check back in the morning to see all the interesting ideas.

 

Is there a battery installed? Try taking it out and just run it of AC and see if things speed up. I have seen defective batteries cause the system to bog down significantly. The hard drive is also a possibility if you bought a lot of AS IS drives then it is possible that they all have the same problem get a brand new drive to be sure.

 

To add to this --> You typically wouldn't want to take a drive with a pre-loaded OS (XP for example) and then put it in the Toughbook (or any computer for that matter)... it simply doesn't work like this... and usually it would just BSOD (Blue screen)

 

Fresh load of xp needed
You have to clean up your software

Even with the standard load with no optional chipset or video drivers you should boot in 1 1/2 minutes
My favourite Samsung drive in the mk-3 will boot in 30seconds

Sounds like a bad driver
I haven't seen that since w2000 or me

If you want to check if I am correct just hit F8 when booting and start up in safe mode
If it boots quickly ,you have to reload the o/s


Alex

 

A few possibilities:

Bad connection on hard drive, no DMA.

Very low memory or memory fault causing the BIOS check to disable some.
Right-click 'my computer', go to properties and see what CPU speed & memory are reported.

Also check what the Virtual memory settings are?

Duff network driver of some sort.
Go to device manager, to each network device turn & disable them.

These are the only things I can think of at the moment that would still allow it to finish booting.

Robert.

 

Before you do anything try pulling the CD drive out and reboot .If this gives you now boot in a couple of minutes then the CD drive is slave and not master.

 

I agree on this comment: There are a lot of posibilities on bad connection, first maybe a broken cable ribbon, bad pin or bad solder on the part of Mbo. or maybe on the hd connector to the harddrive, Corroded terminals and etc.



ohlip

 

Wildman... First of all welcome to the nut house!

Second of all... Sheesh... We DO have some smart people here. A lot of good advice to check and see.

Can you look in the BIOS and post here what your current BIOS version is? (out of curiosity) You may also want to check the voltage of the BIOS battery to see if it is good. But the others have given such good advice you should follow it before proceeding with anything else.

Did you load XP on the laptop or did you install it on another and transfer? As others have said.. The Toughbook doesn't like that.

You'll get this hammered out quickly!

 

Thanks everyone! I have tried all the things you have said (except reload os because it takes days with the restarting during install) bios is ver.12 no error messages in logs..still the same thing. I did notice that during the hours it takes to boot the hdd light stays lit the whole time with no flashing except during bios post and windows splash screen forward. I think I'm down to either the hdd connection (in the caddy or caddy to mb connector) or the motherboard. The only thing that bothers me about the whole thing is that once windows begins to start the machine works flawlessly and there are no error messages that I can find during boot. I will find another hdd caddy and try that next I guess. I'll post those results when its done until then I'll keep her on.

 

I just had a thought.....I've read here something about master and cable select settings, I don't remember if it was for the hdd or cd drive. If the hdd is not set right would that cause it or does the hdd caddy take care of that?

 

That comment is in regards to the optical drive caddy setting
If you have removed the optical drive caddy and still have problems that is not the issue here


Alex

 

The only mention of that is for the CD Drive as far as I recall. I was thinking the same as you as to the HD cable/caddy cable. It could be bad which would explain the same results on 3 known good HD's. I'm with you though as to why you would be fine AFTER the six week delay in booting up. Unless there is a pin(s) on that cable that delay the read capability on startup, but then the laptop uses different pin(s) during operation? I don't know much about that respect, but it sure seems plausible. Using another caddy/cable setup will rule that out so do try that and let us know.

 

Thanks for all the help guys! I think I found the problem.... apparently a previous owner pushed the hdd connector too far and it went all the way into the caddy where the protruding screw cut an ever so small section out of the cable, small burnt spot on the cable right there. Its amazing that the thing even boots at all! Guess I'll head over to the BST and hunt for a cable for a MK3.

Thanks again

hate to see the ebay deal thread go but at least now I get to drool over all the toughbook stuff there.

 

There are a few cable ribbon a while ago which is I think is a replica for 25buck each. I don't know if it still there. HK base seller.


ohlip

 

Hello all tuffcrazies!! Got my new hdd cable from heartland and now its a 2 min. boot, whoo hoo!!!! The only thing is that the new cable does not have the connection for the hd heater but I don't plan on using it in sub freezing temps (I live in atlanta). The next thing i'll mod is an internal verizon wireless setup maybe in the hidden slot...... any ideas as to an antenna setup?

 

I don't know if you will be able to fit the Verizon card in the internal slot... If you can... There are scads of threads about antenna design and location spots...

 

2 options

replace hdd(could be its failing)

reinstal windows(could be a software issue

 

coolazn... Did you even read far enough to see that he fixed the issue?