Vista is hanging for 15 minutes then loads up - causes?

[joydivision]

Got a client who's Vista PC takes an age to boot up. It will load up as usual but, will get to a black screen with a white cursor (mouse) but then nothing happens [no HD etc] for about 15 to 40 minutes then loads up as normal.

I noticed the temperature on the CPU was 90c (Celeron Yonah I think) I have removed about 1inches of dust from the heatsink and its now down to 45c.

Once it boots its perfect and is as fast as you would expect from a Celeron but is it possible the CPU is damaged in a strange way from the overheating?

There is nothing in the error logs.

[rusty.nells]

Have you tried booting with minimum hardware? Have you inspected the hardware? How long does it take to POST? Have you tried a live CD?

[joydivision]

OK some history, this computer is jinxed and I told my client that.

First got a call two years ago when this computer was just two months old. It wasn't booting and came up with none system disk error. The hard drive had failed. I took the hard drive off to recovery specialists who recovered the data.

Got a replacement hard drive but discovered the IDE channels on the motherboard had blown. Swapped it for a SATA one and disabled onboard IDE and it has been fine since apart from this new issue.

I've tested the hard drive and the RAM with MEMtest86 and it all came back fine.

It POSTs pretty much instantly and there is no viruses on it.

It is a very very basic machine so there is no hardware other than the processor, RAM, motherboard, PSU (good) and drives. The video chip is internal etc.

[joydivision]

Will do that :) thanks

As for specs the computer is not here, I can't remember the processor but its a single core Yonah Celeron, I think it runs around 1.8Ghz from memory. It has 2GB OF RAM, 80GB HD, VIA chipset I think. I fitted an FSP power supply about a year ago because the other one was too unstable.

[14049752]

Vista can actually (sometimes) diagnose problems like this for you.

If you use the "performance information and tools" you can run a report that will suggest things to speed the system up, including start- up time (system health report) and you can manually go in to the reliability and performance monitor to see problems, failures and information about the system

[Methical]

Is Safe Mode any quicker ?

[rusty.nells]

If it POSTs normally, have you enabled and checked the bootlog?

[joydivision]

it was 90c, its 45c now it was a lot of dust ion the heatsink causing it. Will do the other suggestions thanks.

[steve42000]

I have had this issues twice the first time there were bad drivers loading at start-up and the second time it was a failing hard drive have you enabled boot logging and checked the Log files?

[joydivision]

Update. Last time I was round I cleaned out the hibernation and other tempory files, I asked my customer today and he said its a lot better and can live with it. I am not convinced, I've not seen the computer since making this thread.

He is a bit of a tight wod though.

I've checked the HD and RAM countless times they are fine. Will enable boot logging. It sounds stupid even though I use Vista myself I don't know that much about it because its so reliable. Most my clients use XP and I know how to repair it inside out.

I am going to buy a book on Vista so I can learn how to diagnose its faults easier. I am very good at removing viruses on vista, I am very good hardware but I just need to learn how to use vista's diagnostics better.

Windows 7 next too :( All my time is spent on researching viruses and new trends etc so basic operating systems seem to get left behind :(.

Itg does sound like a dodgy driver is looking quite likely.