15-20 min start up time

[dazzer2005]

Can anyone help, im have a VGC-RA304 running a Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz
Its approx 5yrs old and had no problems until a few weeks ago when the system started to take an age to start up, it would come up with the vaio logo, then the intel logo then it would all go quite and the hard disk light goes off and this last about 1o mins before it starts up again, when the desktop finally comes up it can take another 10 mins before everything is loaded and can be used.
I have run anti-virus etc and all comes up clean, i have also done a factory reset so there is no files etc on the computer but this has made no differance. I have spoken to sony-vaio by email and they said load the diagnostic tool when starting up by pressing F10 but this dose nothing what so ever!
Any help will be greatly appreciated

Darren

[scottvaio]

Hi darren,did you press f10 repatedly when the vaio logo appears??

[Blencogo]

Hi Darren,

This is usually a Virus or alternatively a corrupt file preventing a driver or service from loading - which makes the system get into a loop.

If you have run a full Virus and Spyware scan the next step is to try to find what is causing an error when it tries to load.

Have a look in Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer

Check in the System Tab for errors encountered when loading the Services and Drivers. Depending on what it is you can either disable it or reinstall a new file.

You can also go to Start -> Run and type in MSCONFIG
Go to the STARTUP Tab and see what is running automatically when you boot. If you want to list here what is running someone will let you know if anything needs disabling.

Have you tried a disc and registry cleaner? Your Registry may be pointing to a file that is corrupt or missing. There are good free programs like CCleaner or you can download one of the very good utility programs which has a 30 day trial like Tune-Up Utilities or you can buy what is my personal favorite System Mechanic 9

[dazzer2005]

Yep tried pressing F10 lots and lots of times!!!
The event view is coming up with:
the driver detected a controller error on \device\harddisk1\D
the driver detected a controller error on \device\harddisk2\D
the driver detected a controller error on \device\harddisk3\D
the driver detected a controller error on \device\harddisk4\D

Had a look online and it says there is a faulty cable and needs replacing, but if that was the case, why dose everything work once its finally loaded up?

[Blencogo]

Hi Darren,

I don't know the answer so Google is probably your best bet unless someone else can help.

The only observation I would make is that harddisk0 is usually your SATA hard drive and that is not mentioned so it is probably OK.

harddisk1, 2, 3 & 4 are probably your DVD/CD-ROM drives, Floppy Disc drive, your PCMIA/Flashmedia Card slots or a connected USB storage device.

It could be a faulty IDE controller or a faulty cable.

It is worth checking the connections from the motherboard to the panel which includes the Compact Flash/SD/xD slots and also to your optical drives and Floppy Drives. Opening the side of your Vaio is quite easy to check the motherboard connections but removing the top section is more difficult. You need to press the two catches at the back and slide the entire top box forward.

You have tried disconnecting ALL USB devices to see if they are causing the problem?

Sorry that is all I can think of.