M1400 boot problems

[old.yorkie]

Please excuse some simple questions from a new tablet user! I have acquired an M1400 and it does everything I want (mainly e-books) when up and running. The problem is that is takes up to 12 minutes for XP to load and the whole thing to be ready for use. Try to do anything in those 12 minutes and nothing happens for a long time...

Is this normal? Is it an XP problem? How do I re-install XP (in simple language please). I have the original disks etc.

I do look forward to using it, as I have heart problems and sometimes have to spend long periods resting. To have a couple of dozen e-books to pass the time would be great!

[admin]

12 minutes is NOT normal. I think you would be wise to reimage the hard drive using the recovery disks provided you haven't loaded a lot of data on the tablet. It is as easy as plugging in a USB CDRW or DVD and putting the disks in. Since the unit is older, it probably just needs everything cleaned out.

You should also considering taking it to 2Gb RAM which is cheap and easy. Also will save on battery because your tablet won't have to access the hard drive so often.

[old.yorkie]

Thanks for the advice - I'll take it and reformat the hard disk. I'll also add more memory - as you say, it is quite cheap. With memory sticks etc, I don't think I need to replace the hard disk with a bigger unit.

[dave_p_1]

Having previously owned an m1300, you have some kind of problem.

One thing to try is booting in safe mode and seeing how long that takes. If safe mode works well it is probably a problem with the software that's being loaded along with XP. It could be malware or it could be a bad or misconfigured driver (like a driver that's looking for equipment that is no longer installed).

Once you get the XP load working well, here are a few hints to speed up the initial boot. Go into your boot menu and make sure that the hard disk is the first boot option (after you reinstall your software - you can always switch it when you do need to boot from the optical drive). Also check that you are doing a fast memory check - with modern computers the slow check is rarely needed.

[admin]

I agree with dave and should have said that the most common problem we see among people c/o "slow computer" is malware, viruses, etc.

[old.yorkie]

Having previously owned an m1300, you have some kind of problem.

One thing to try is booting in safe mode and seeing how long that takes. If safe mode works well it is probably a problem with the software that's being loaded along with XP. It could be malware or it could be a bad or misconfigured driver (like a driver that's looking for equipment that is no longer installed).

Once you get the XP load working well, here are a few hints to speed up the initial boot. Go into your boot menu and make sure that the hard disk is the first boot option (after you reinstall your software - you can always switch it when you do need to boot from the optical drive). Also check that you are doing a fast memory check - with modern computers the slow check is rarely needed.

Thanks for the guidance - sorry I didn't reply earlier as I have beeb undergoing medical treatment. Now I feel much better and ready to tackle the tablet!

[old.yorkie]

I feel much better and ready to tackle the tablet![/quote]

And yes, it does tart up (and shut down) perfectly in safe mode. Clearly the problem lies in another area. However, when I plug in a DVD/CD via USB, and set the bios to CD start-up, the system ignores this and starts up via the hard disk - and still takes about 12 minutes. Also, how do I check the list of start-up items? Sorry for my ignorance - I am a Mac person with other computers - this tablet is purely for reading on during my long awake hours...

Any ideas?

[Nazish]

Hello,
I have tried to boot from USB Hard Drive, failed, then USB CD Drive, failed and finally USB Flash Drive but no luck. After setting up BIOS boot sequence it still boot from system hard drive...
Any Advice?

[nottooloud]

Do you have a keyboard hooked up? What do you do when it gives you the "Press any key to bot from the CD" prompt?