Slow To Load Windows
I am attempting to Load a fresh copy of Windows on a Dell Dimension 2400 machine. The installation process is extreamly slow and has taken hours to get to even the 50% mark. I also get an error when I boot the machine that states the following " Primary drive 1 not found strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility" . I have changed the ram in the machine with a new stick and tried 2 other new hard drives in the machine all with the same results. SLOW TO INSTALL! I have also tried a different windows CD which installed fine on another computer.
Sounds like you have a bad hard drive, how old it your machine?
Did you try a different cable for the HDD? Could be the BUS on the board.....
ASKER
Have tried the Hard drive that came in the machine plus two new hard drives also have changed the IDE cable to a new cable.
Check your memory by running memtest86, availible on many linux ISOs. Here is an ISO of it: http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.3.iso.zip
Just burn that to a CD then boot from it. Let the check go through and tell us if it gives any errors. Also tell us what speeds you are getting from your memory and caches. (Its at the top left)
Just burn that to a CD then boot from it. Let the check go through and tell us if it gives any errors. Also tell us what speeds you are getting from your memory and caches. (Its at the top left)
ASKER
Memtest seems to run very slow as well Speeds are as follows. Been running now for 40 minutes and only passes 1% so far.
L1 Cache: 8k 38 MB/s
L2 Cache: 512k 37 MB/s
Memory: 766M
L1 Cache: 8k 38 MB/s
L2 Cache: 512k 37 MB/s
Memory: 766M
Oh wow your L1 cache is SUPER slow. That suggests there is a major problem with either your motherboard or CPU. See if you can get a known good CPU to swap.
ASKER
bayesianmind,
I Will try a CPU swap and let you know.
I Will try a CPU swap and let you know.
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