Randy wrote:
>The first time I tried to use the computer, it took about 7 minutes just 
>to boot up>>

Any computer which takes that long to boot is in imminent danger of 
complete failure to boot. That will mean a reformat of the hard drive and 
loss of all data.

First, I think it would be prudent to protect yourself from any blame if 
things go horribly wrong. I'd email the boss (presumably you can't just 
give the machine back to him if he's in another city) and place on record 
that the machine takes 7 minutes to boot, and that you've been 
independently been advised by this panel that it is in imminent danger of 
total failure. And that you'll do your best to correct it and save data if 
at all possible, but that it is not your responsibility if that does not 
prove to be possible. Obviously, something was deleted or disabled that 
shouldn't have been.  Feel free to quote this email if you want.

I certainly wouldn't try to use System Restore on a machine which is that 
bad. It might work, but System Restore can be very flaky, and if it fails 
in midstream, then you could be left with an unbootable computer. Maybe try 
it as a last resort if all else fails. Cleanup software won't help either 
and you are right----it could easily make matters worse.

The most likely cause of slow boot is a driver or software conflict in 
trying to load startups. You can reduce this to a minimum by going to Start 
menu/Run, and type msconfig.

Open the Startup tab and untick everything. Msconfig is failsafe because it 
does not display vital system files, and will not let you disable anything 
vital. Let it reboot and see if it's any better. If not, then it's probably 
a failure deeper down in the system files. Drivers are usually the culprits.

Msconfig also has under the "general" tab a button for diagnostic startup. 
This is similar or the same as Safe mode. If you select that mode and the 
computer boots without undue delays, than you know that it's one or more of 
the startups that's causing the problem. Often it's a combination of 2 or 3 
startups getting themselves into a tangle by not playing well together.

Can you boot into Safe Mode and save your files that way?

You could download the free Microsoft boot utility Bootvis and follow its 
instructions. That will analyse the boot process and show you where holdups 
are occurring. It also has a "boot optimisation" button which sometimes 
works. It requires the Task Scheduler Service to be enabled.
You can get into Services via Msconfig.

My guess is that your boss has deleted something belonging to one or more 
startup programs. Startup can't find it, so starts chasing itself round in 
circles looking for something that isn't there, hence the boot delay.

Ideally you should remove the hard drive from the laptop and hook it up to 
a good desktop computer (you'll need a special converter cradle to hooka 
laptop drive up into a desktop. They aren't expensive). Once you've 
achieved that, and your desktop can see the 2nd hard drive, it's then it's 
a simple matter of drag and drop to copy the files from one to the other 
(always right drag, or you may end up with nothing more than a bunch of 
shortcuts!). If it's an older IDE hard drive, you may have to set its 
jumper to the slave position. Removing the jumper bar usually achieves that 
in most cases. With the newer SATA drives that's not necessary.

Once you've saved all the data, then you can replace that hard drive back 
into the laptop and run the restore disk which would have come with the HP 
laptop to bring it back to new. Of course, that will also remove any 
programs which may also be vital to your usage, so you will need those 
original setup files or disks in order to reinstall these.

Don't forget to save vital emails and contact addresses---often overlooked.

There's also a faint possibility that if the HP is more than 3 years old, 
RAM night be failing. The timing could be just coincidence. That's pretty 
unlikely though.

Good luck Randy---I admire your sense of responsibility, and I hope things 
resolve themselves properly. Let us know what happens.

Don Penlington


 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

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