Dell Computer really slow during Bios Diags

[StressedTechie]

This is really wierd
I have an old Dell XPS T600r machine, its pretty old but I am trying to get it ready for a friend.

Anyway on bootup it startsup fine and then it does the keyboard and mouse check and finds them fine.

Then many minutes later it finds the
fixed disk0 WDC WD204Ba-(PM)
and
ATAPI CD_ROM:AOPEN DCRW
ATAPT CD-ROM:Samsung DVDRM

It just takes about 5 minutes to get past this stage.
I have checked inside the box I wondered if the HDD was set to Slave or something silly like that but it isnt.

Any ideas how to speed this up. Apparently the machine used to have a second drive and the one thats still in it was the slave. It used to boot quickly with 2 drives in.

Any help or advise greatfully recieved

 

[rvnguy]

StressedTechie,

Check your BIOS for the BIOS being run from RAM.

Some call it "Shadow RAM others ?? If BIOS is run from the PROM it is sloow!!

Could have been inadvertantly set.
Post back with what you find.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[cdogg]

First make sure the hard drive is set as Master on the Primary IDE Channel, and connected to the END connector. If there is no slave device, then the middle connector on the IDE cable should be empty.

If that doesn't do it, try disconnecting the CD-ROM drives from the Secondary IDE to see if bootup times improve.

Hopefully, it's not the hard drive itself...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[StressedTechie]

Hi RVNGUY
I have checked my bios and there is nothing along those lines present in there!

 

[ceh4702]

This is a hardware error.

Check CABLES, JUMPERS, DRIVES.

They may both be present and just conflict.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[StressedTechie]

Thanks everyone

I seem to have fixed it. I removed all the cables and started from scratch. I alaos removed the jumper as there is only one drive.

Seems to work okay now. Do you need the jumper connected it seems not but am interested to know!!

 

[cdogg]

Removing the jumper causes MOST drives to act as master.

If things are fine, I wouldn't worry too much about it, except it would be nice to leave the jumper in, just in case you need to make this drive the slave in the future.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884