[RESOLVED] random slow start up

[stewart borland]

As title, usually all is well and I get a reasonably speedy start up, but occasionally I get a 'painfully' slow one. It doesn't look like it's doing anything but any taskbar clicks give no response, the start button doesn't do anything either.
Sometimes I have to just switch off and start again and it'll be fine, sometimes if I wait it eventually gets going.

Any thoughts?

(7 Ultimate)

[jdc2000]

It might be time to run the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic tools. Those symptoms can occur when the system is having trouble reading from the hard drive.

[stewart borland]

Will they be on a disc that came with all the Dell stuff when it was delivered or on the hard drive? Is there a windows equivalent?
(Mind you having wiped the drive for a clean install it might be gone!)

[SuperSparks]

Download UBCD and burn it to CD, it has all the memory testing and disk diagnostic utilities on it plus many more besides. Run the disk utility for your brand of hard drive (or Seatools if you aren't sure). All you have to do is to boot up with the disc in the drive, select the utility that you want to use, and it will run.

Ultimate Boot CD

[stewart borland]

Thanks SS

I chickened out of the Samsung ones, the warning about losing all your data was enough for me, so I ran your suggestion on Seagate.
First thing it said was 'drive has been overtemp 121' so I only ran the short one. When I reloaded it and tried to do the other drive the number had gone up to 150... I'm guessing that's not good, so I disconnected everything, moved the box to a better ventilated area and set it all back together. Left it off last night and am obviously running it now and will do test later again.

Any thoughts, Oh, also hoovered off a little dust on the grills but not much as I do that now and again.

[SuperSparks]

It might well be time to invest in some extra case fans, as long as you have room to fit them.

[Steve R Jones]

occasionally I get a 'painfully' slow one

Do you have different USB devices attached when this slow thing happens?

[stewart borland]

Do you have different USB devices attached when this slow thing happens?

No, only ever the same connections are in.

Did the test again this morning and no mention of 'overtemp'

I'll keep fingers crossed and mark this resolved.

Many thanks once again.