XP Pro Slow Load

I assume by now you are running SP3, and it needs at least 1Gb of memory, preferrably more. I find 2Gb to be the norm for SP3 to work well.

But on top of that, you never mentioned temporary files. Go to Internet Explorer -> Tools -> Internet Options -> General -> Settings. Make sure your cache is no larger than 50Mb. Then delete temporary files (not cookies or history). Look in your Docs and Settings -> User folder -> Local Settings -> Temp (check my pointers carefully, but Temp is there). Delete (probably reams) of obvious temp files. Now run Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup. Do not compress files, and do not delete any Office files used for later upgrades. Otherwise delete most other things.

After all these deletions run Disk Defrag again.

Now, in Windows Explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View. Turn off the option to search for network folders and printers. Open a Command Prompt and type NET USE. See if any persistent folders shares are open and delete any unused shares.

Start there and let us know. .. .Thinkpads_User

Is a full operating system re-installation out of the question?

You could spend hours trying to troubleshoot the exact cause of the slowness, but I've always found it a better option to move off important data to USB, format the hard drive and start again.

Well u must admit it ....when it was fresh it was running like a flash now it is pretty much  a donkey.
Well 2 advices
1. Download and run BootVis.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/BootVis.shtml
and also read this guide
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/guides/2003/05/sgp-tweaks.ars
2. Well the bootvis should do some work but it doesn't give a very clear idea of what is going on and why.So i would recommend  this boot log analyzer
http://www.greatis.com/utilities/bootlogxp/
Look for unwanted services and "mysterious" little programs that eating time.
Also better to export the result to .csv to study them on excel.
After all these if you are not still satisfied then it is time to format.
I am also a victim of slow loading and i am talking on a quad core machine with 4 gig so u are not alone.

Most of these silly little tools you download to help make your computer faster slow it down as well & are not needed.
As I said before run "msconfig" & remove startup programs & services.
Otherwise if it is still to slow you may want to look at new hardware. This computer is 6 years old maybe you are use to using a faster computer from work or somewhere so now you notice how slow it really is.


For you information & as a good example

This is about the bootvis & from the microsoft site.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/fastboot/default.mspx

About Bootvis.exe
Bootvis.exe is a performance tracing and visualization tool that Microsoft designed to help PC system designers and software developers identify performance issues for boot/resume timing while developing new PC products or supporting software.

Please note that Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users.

what i would do is this :
-install REVO uninstaller, and use it to uninstall all those scanners first you don't need now, and all other old , unneeded software    http://www.revouninstaller.com/
-check the disk space, you should have 15% free space for a comfortable running OS (if not, free up space)
-test your disk, it can have errors on it  - pick the one you need from the ubcd : http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
http://www.revouninstaller.com/

and i did not see you ran a chkdsk, so , after the disk diag comes back ok, run it also
***run the long disk test !

didnt u try to update bios of your six year old pc ?

if u could ,then try to update bios to latest, new bios firmware have lots of hardware interfacing and functionality improvement.

go to hp website and search according to ur pc model number and download latest possible bios flashable code...

Sorry for the delay. Lots of good ideas here and I'll try anything/everything and report back soonest.

Thanks!

I've disabled almost everyhing using MSconfig
Downloaded Revouninstaller and uninstalled MalwareBytes and a couple java updates. I've already uninstalled everything I could.
The Primary IDE channel is currently PIO with Auto Detection (Device 0). Device 1 current transfer Ultra DMA Mode 2. There are 2 hard drives. a small 10G and a 100G. The 100G is Disk 0
Ran Chkdisk /f on a reboot
Latest Bios is installed (2003)
Every driver update i could find on manufacturer website is installed (HP Pesario). There are no updates or drivers more recent than 2005 versions.
Remote Desktop session is actually pretty responsive, just the initial boot is still slow.
Getting a little better the more stuff we do....

i would not upgrade a system that is not running well, but do a fresh install instead
it takes time, but so does "solving the problem" also, and you're sure to have the best you can !

Did you uninstall the Primary Ide channel as ZamirParkar suggested and restart?
Download speedfan from here:
http://www.almico.com/speedfan439.exe
And post what temperatures it shows. It could be that your old computer is a little bit dusty.

Unistalled Primary IDE channel.
Now the found new hardare wizard pops up and cannot find any drivers.
WD driver and a IBM driver and the IDE channel driver. All cannot be found.
Driver detective says it will install them if I pay $30
Having a hard time finding the drivers, even from HP..
Everything still works, just that there is no driver on the Primay channel and yellow exclamation point on the drives themselves.

It was a bit dusty. Blew it out when I removed the DVD burner to put in another system temporarily.

Yeah, I do use a much faster PC myself. Core i7 12G Ram, Win7 Ultimate 64-bit. It screams. But we are making progress on the old Compaq... It is actually usable for now.
There are too many old programs that the wife still has use for that are not available any more and scared to lose access to some old files. Waiting on some other install CD's to re-install a couple other programs. This is why a total format/install is out of the question at this point. All the data files are safely backed up in two different locations.

May be search for the originally installed drivers from the HP website?
What exactly is the model?

lrmoore the drivers are automatically installed by windows. but incase if u r not able to find the drivers for the primary IDE then use the windows CD. Because as you commented that it was PIO mode that is your main concern. that is the reason y your PC is slow in booting. and you are right are uninstall and restart of the PC the "Found new hardware wizard will open up" . at that time use the recommended settings and keep a windows OS cd in the drive let it detect by itself. incase it does not detect then i ask you to proceed with manual install-> dont search. i will manually instal -> next you will see a list of drivers select primary device if that is not present then select standard IDE/ESDI Hard disk controller. If this also doesnot work then can you give me the hard disk s/n i will forward you the drivers.

can you also paste the image of your device manager.

OK, here is device manager.
No luck re-installing the IDE channel driver or the disk drivers
Have XP/SP3 distro CD in the drive and still cannot find drivers
ran SFC/Scannow and no difference.
renamed pciide.sys, rebooted, and the same file came back with same date and everything.
The system works, and is even much more usable now, but I'm stuck with the yellow marks in the device manager...

BTW,
Compaq Presario 6450NX Desktop PC

here the drivers :  http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=240121

I found that site long time ago. There are no system level drivers
I'm in deep do-do now. I downloaded and installed a "primary ide driver" that said was compaq compatible. The system accepted the driver and appeared to be happy until a reboot.
Now the system just won't boot. I get to the DOS screen to make a boot selection "safe mode, last known good, normally", etc
No matter what I select - of course I started with last known good - it almost immediately reboots.
Safe mode shows agp440.sys as the last thing loaded then goes right to reboot.
Repair install over top of existing windows didn't help. I get errors during the install what it can't find some files that it needs. In the copy files from box, I can browse to C:\i386 and I can see the file it is looking for, but it just acts like it is not there. In the "Look in" dropdown list, all the drives except for C: have a red question mark..

Fresh install on the spare drive works. Shows Intel IDE/ATA driver and DMA 5 for the primary IDE, so I believe that is where I need to get to. All my files are still available on the drive, so I know I have not lost anything, but I really do need to get to at least two programs and create new backup files...

I'm open to any/all new ideas...

i think you have a bad board; normally you must not load an ide driver; windows have them in-built.
or your cd is bad?

the board is fine. A clean install of XP in another drive/partition works just fine and I can access all drives.

then you mustb look for problems on the disk side, : bad disk, cable, or connector; try swapping them

your " C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys " is corrupted. you need to repair this file by using the windows cd.

how to repair follow this link (XP REPAIR INSTALL OPTION TO BE FOLLOWED)

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

i agree with lrmoore: clean install could solve your problem

well yellow ! mark indicates your hal.dll to kernel response disturbance .

UPDATE
WOOHOO! Back in business...
There was an imbedded link in the link that ZamirParker posted above that led me to eventual success.
Repair install of XP using CD did not work.
Basically, here's what I did:
Install another instance of XP on another drive - E:. This let me access all files on the C: drive
From the "new" XP instance,
Copied some restore files - default, system, security, sam, software - from a restore directory to \system32\config
This let me boot to a point just before I started this process. Partial success.
NIC driver, IDE driver, and several others came up with issues
Re-installed NIC driver to get back on network
Copied complete i386 directory from XP/SP3 install CD to C:\i386
Updated hardware drivers using E:\windows\inf and C:\i386 to find and install all files
Updated Video driver from Intel website
I'm 99% back in business. Only things that don't work at this point are the CD/DVD drives and USB drives. I'll keep working on this and should be 100% soon..

Bottom line - the PIO transfer mode of the IDE primary channel is now DMA 5 and looks like this was the original problem with the slow load.
What really screwed me up was installing the wrong drivers for the primary IDE channel
It was a software problem all along

if the problem for your usb drive install the chipset again and for CD/DVD there is a workaround in the registry i need to look at it as it has been a long time i worked for that. But glad that you are back in business. can you post the exact issue with usb and cd/dvd drive now.

I don't have any way to accept a comment?
PIO mode was the key, just took a while to get there.
I want to split points, but no options to do so..

Object....

Object....