When I start my computer, it runs unusually slow and when it finally reaches the "Starting up Windows" screen, it just stops working. The blue progress bar doesn't budge, and the little blue bar that scrolls across the bottom of the screen goes pixel by pixel.

I'm not sure what happened before it occured, I was away from home when it happened. I tried running a system recovery and such, but it runs very slowly during this process and then eventually just stops also.

I'm not too fond of the thought of formatting, but if it'll help, then I'll give it a shot. I would like to try other options first though.

Thank you in advance.

Can you boot to Safe Mode? If you can does it still respond slowly or not at all? Boot to the Boot Menu (F8) and use Last Known Good Configuration.

try starting in 'safe mode', (tap f8 a few times just as windows is starting) if computer starts ok in safe mode then run your antivirus scanner and whatever spyware appz you have to check for infection.

also, click start, run, msconfig, and click on the startup tab. untick everything in this box except your antivirus and firewall. click apply.

after doing this, restart your computer as normal and see if any improvement

good luck

Actually, no, if I try to boot to safe mode, it throws the list of drivers and such it loads, and then it stops and hangs afterwards. The "Last good configuration" option doesn't work, there doesn't seem to be any typical means of getting into it.

Any info that might be relevant/important?

Have you tried to boot with only the bare minimum external hardware attached to your computer? Boot up with only your mouse, keyboard, and monitor connected and see if you can boot to Windows.(normal or safe mode)

The last known good also works by pressing the spacebar when the screen - "Press spacebar NOW to invoke Hardware Profile/Last Known Good menu" appears on your computer.

When you see the last known good menu on your computer...Select L to load the Last Known Good Configuration.

Did you install anything on your computer recently(hardware or software) that may have caused this problem?

What exactly do you mean here ? -

I tried to run the system recovery disk, letting it "repair" the current installation, but it doesn't go through. It goes EXTREMELY slow and then stops at some point through the process. I also tried to do a chkdsk, but that had no effect.

I have been using bare hardware...I think. I do have a couple RAM sticks, a slave drive...should I try it without the slave, with one ram stick, etc? I may even give it a shot without my mouse...though I don't understand how that would make a difference.

I wouldn't go with anything less than what I recommended(mouse, keyboard, monitor). I just wanted to see if there wasn't any external hardware that caused this issue.(external hard disk, printer, scanner, etc) I wasn't talking about the internal hardware. (memory, drives, etc)

Although, we really can't rule out that this is caused by a hardware(internal) problem...

What is the make and model of your computer?

It's a dell of some sort, anything other than that I'm not 100% sure...I do know system specs and such, and I COULD find out the info if I knew where to look, if it'd be on the case, etc. I recieved it as a gift, used, so I don't have original paperwork from dell, and I'm not sure where I'd locate that information.

One good thing about a Dell is it comes with a hardware diagnostic CD. The CD will let you know if you have a hardware issue, or not. Or, you can download the utility from their website. To do this, you will need to know the model of your Dell. Normally, the make/model is listed somewhere on the case of the computer. You can probably type in the service tag on their support site, and your system information should come up. You can also start the hardware diagnostic utility with a function key on some systems.(f12 etc) Again, you will need to know the model.

The main reason that I wanted the make/model is to see if there were any support articles related to the system recovery disk that you mentioned.

In an odd sort of turn of events, I opened the computer and reconnected the HDs...

For some reason, my slave drive (A Maxtor) started making odd beeping/screeching noises. The reason I got THIS computer is because my old one started making this noise, and I thought it was a problem with THAT computer. The maxtor drive is he only piece of equipment the two have shared.

I decided to pull the maxtor out, and for the hell of it I rummaged up my old computer's primary drive. It's currently booted to the windows 98 login screen...I'm going to see if I can figure out a configuration with this hard drive, but we'll see.

Any past dealings with maxtor hard drives? It's a series of 3 continuous, slightly differently pitched screeches, repeated once. So 6 beeps. I've found no relative documentation on my own...

Update:

Optiplex GX150 BIOS Revision A09 is what it displays on startup. I also get "Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A09" on a later display (could not find --- hard disk drive, see below)

If I go into setup and then exit and it restarts the computer, it hangs and then gives me an error that it can't find the "secondary hard disk drive 0" (Where my CD drive should be)...It has trouble locating my "primary hard disk drive 1" (Where my slave drive was), but now it doesn't give me the problem, seeing as I've removed it.

The HD with 98 on it was running EXTREMELY slow. Is it possible for a computer to suddenly lose processing power like that? What might that indicate?

Can I just summarize what you are saying here. You pulled the slave drive out of the Dell and placed it in your old computer. In the old computer, the drive is making a lot of noise. Correct?

You also mentioned beeps...?? Are you getting a series of beeps through the internal computers speaker? If so, these are called BIOS beep codes. They will indicate an error condition on your computer. You can normally find the meanings of the beep codes in the computers manual, or on various sites on the net.

Or, are this beeps coming from the hard disk. Any strange noises like you described would indicate that the drive is failing. You can confirm by running a diagnostic utility from Maxtor. It is also on their website.



Check your connections again and confirm that your setup matches your current config. You just have your slave removed, right?



Could be many reasons for this...lets stick with your original problem before we get into all this...

This is where I think we stand now...and you will have to clear up a few of the items mentioned above to confirm...

Your original problem... the reason you were getting the issue was due to the defective slave drive in your computer.
You tried to run the system recovery disk and it failed. This failure was also a result of the defective slave drive.
To get that computer back up again, we need to resolve your setup issue and the system recovery should work.

EDIT: Here's some of the links that I mentioned in my posts above.

Dell Diagnostic Utility

Dell Optiplex 150 manuals

My hard drive may be defective, how can I test it?

BIOS Beep Codes

What I did, is take the slave drive I had FROM my previous computer, and it has been in my newer one. It started making these noises, and I thought it might be BIOS beep codes. I removed the slave (maxtor) though, and it stopped. But my computer (the dell) is still running slow and will not boot.

Now:

I moved my primary HDD from my dell into another computer I have, and it boots, quite quickly, until I get a BSOD that states the error as:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xEB81B84C,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000) INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

So...this seems to be the error I need to get past now. I'm actually currently searching for solutions, but I haven't decided which to use, if any.

You're going to have a hard time getting the primary disk from your Dell computer to work in ANY other computer as a primary. 2000 or XP does not like being placed in a computer that does not have the same hardware configuration. You could do this sometimes with older OSes(98/ME).

Okay...

So, I have another computer, I have it set up with 98 as the primary (I can boot up, get to desktop, etc etc), but I can't access my dell's HDD as the slave.

Any tips on what I might've forgotten...and when I do get access to it, is there a way to edit it so I can use THAT as the primary?

Did you set the second drive as slave? If so have you tried the CS (Cable Select) setting instead. Some hard drive have a ONE setting or MASTER setting. Meaning You may have to reset the Primary drive to a different setting to allow it to see the second drive.
Finally if your Windows NT/2000/XP computer has a partition formatted to NTFS instead of FAT32 Windows 98 will not recognize the file system. NT/W2k/XP would handle FAT32 fine, just not the other way around.

You might be able to access the drive with this utility. I have only used it once and it worked for me, so use at your own risk.

http://www.diskinternals.com/products/ntfs-reader/

Your cd drive would not be a hard disk and the "0" designation should be the primary drive in any case.

How do you have the primary drive in the Dell connected now?
Is it connected to the end of an IDE ribbon cable (not the middle connection), and is the cd connected to the end of a different Ribbon cable?