White progress bar at startup?

Question

Yesterday for the first time ever I saw a white progress bar at the bottom of a black screen during startup, just before the Windows splash screen with the blue scrolling. Here are the changes that I made to my computer (Dell Dimension 8400, XP Home SP2) that day (in order that they were made): 1. Installed an update for Adobe flash player (security update, got it from the adobe updater notification) 2. Installed Dell Security Center 2 (I had been avoiding it for months but got an icon for the updater in my notification area/system tray and it could not be canceled, only paused, so I assumed it was a mandatory Dell update). I believe there was a required restart which was normal because at this point I did not see the white bar or anything out of the ordinary despite watching the whole time. 3. Uninstalled Dell Security Center 2 (it was slowing my system down and kept prompting Norton to give malicious script warnings) 4. Did a system restore to the point before the Dell Security Center 2 installation to get rid of any leftover registry changes. 5. As the computer was restarting after the system restore, the white progress indication on black screen appeared. It kept appearing for every restart or shut down/start up from then on. It only lasts for about 2-3 seconds but the time between the end of the Windows splash screen (with blue scrolling) until the blue 'Welcome' page is longer by about 20 seconds or so and just shows a black screen with nothing else. I have read that this is normal on some systems, but I have never seen it before on mine so that would mean something is slowing it down during startup? Is there any way to find the source of this change? Does it mean my harddrive is dying? On a slightly unrelated note, if the harddrive should need to be replaced, is it possible to get another HD with the Dell partition that stores the factory settings for Dell factory restore (Ctrl + F11)? Many thanks, all info is appreciated!

PETER345 · Answer

The progress bar shows the progress during POST and is not affected by changes to Windows. It is normal on Dells. If it only takes a couple of seconds then I wouldn't worry about it. Otherwise, you can check the diagnostic lights (I think you have A-B-C-D on the back) and look in the service manual to see what it is doing.

I don't believe Dell ships HDs with the PC restore partition. You can buy cloning software and save a copy of your current HD and restore it to a new HD. (PC restore is a specialized version of Norton cloning software).

Peter

PETER345 · Answer

I'm not sure why it would change. Normally, you see that screen while it says 'Press F2 ... F12'. But I don't know how all Dells work either. Peter

AnotherUser249 · Answer

Thanks for the info Peter :) One more question: since this is standard on Dells, is there any reason why it has not shown up before? (I have had this system since August 2004.)

mombodog · Answer

Normally you never see that white scroll on boot with modern hard drives and processors over 1.5 ghz, it happens to fast to be displayed, if you never saw it before, something has changed.   When you get to the desktop go to device manager and expand IDE ATA./ATAPI right click on Primary ide channel and select properties, go to Advanced Settings Tab, what mode is Device 0 in  DMA? Mode?   Check System properties General Tab  to see what mhz the processor is showing. Is it correct?

PETER345 · Answer

I see it on my 9200s. Peter

mombodog · Answer

I have not seen it in years on any of my user PC's, Dim 8400, DIM5150, Home brew Athlon XP1800   I do not see it on my old 500mhz Presario laptop when I fire it up for old times sake.   I don't see it on my Viewsonic Viewpad with a 800mhz celeron, just fired it up.   Do I think it is a big deal, no.   A heavily fragmented drive can cause this issue also.       These are the files I believe are loading during the white bar NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and NTOSKRNL.EXE or BOOTSECT.DOS. BOOT.INI file

PETER345 · Answer

I don't see how a heavily fragmented drive would have anything to do with it. The POST couldn't possibly care what is on the HD.

If you can't see the progress bar, how do you press F2 and F12? Once the bar is gone, so go those options (except if you have the Intel RAID BIOS installed which gives you some more time).

My D9200, I6400, D4550 all do it (the progress bar). However, if the monitor powers up slowly enough you can miss it (along with the opportunity to press F2/F12). When I first powered up the 4550, by the time the monitor initialized, it was gone. Warm boot and it was there plain as day.

There is another progress bar when returning from hibernation.

Peter

PETER345 · Answer

Are you sure it is not returning from hibernation? How wide is the progress bar? The hibernation bar spans the screen. The POST bar is short. The Windows bar is short. Peter

mombodog · Answer

'I haven't changed any settings for the DMA mode; it must have been set to mode 2 by Dell so I figured that must be best.'   You don't have to change it, windows can do it automatically if it sees to many consecutive read/write failures.   To reset the DMA mode, right click on the primary IDE channel and select 'unistall', then OK, restart the PC, windows will reinstall the driver and reset the dma mode.   Then run a chkdsk on the drive, then defrag the drive.

AnotherUser249 · Answer

I found this screenshot online, mine looks exactly like it: http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/7759/100120062316br.jpg

It is definitely not from hibernation; I occasionally use Stand-by, but haven't in over a month, just regular shutdowns or restarts.

I haven't changed any settings for the DMA mode; it must have been set to mode 2 by Dell so I figured that must be best.

My computer does not seem any slower than it was before. The only difference now is that the Windows splash with blue scroll is up for a shorter time followed by a blank black screen which stays in place for about 20 seconds before going in to the blue XP welcome screen. Before it went from Windows splash to "welcome" or "windows is loading" in a second or two.

Message Edited by AnotherUser249 on 01-26-2008 01:48 PM

mombodog · Answer

'I don't see how a heavily fragmented drive would have anything to do with it. The POST couldn't possibly care what is on the HD.'   The white bar that the Op is referrng to is not part of the Post process, but the very beginning of the bootstrap process for XP.   Here is a screenshot of what I think the OP is referring to, although it is W2k, Xp still uses this process, although you cannot see it happening on most PC's   Message Edited by mombodog on 01-26-2008 12:35 PM

AnotherUser249 · Answer

Hi Mombodog, thanks for your reply.

Under Device 0 it says "Ultra DMA Mode 2" (same for Device 1 as well by the way).

My processor is
Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz
2.99GHz, 512MB of RAM

Peter, you said "If you can't see the progress bar, how do you press F2 and F12? Once the bar is gone, so go those options (except if you have the Intel RAID BIOS installed which gives you some more time)."

Here are the screens I normally see when I turn my comp on (or restart):

1. "DELL" (in blue) in the middle of the screen, under that in white "Dimension 8400 series" with a whitish progress bar (different from the one I start this thread about) and under that it says BIOS + something I didn't catch; in the top right corner there are I think 2 options: to press F8 and F12.

2. Black screen with a blue band across the very top; some white text is visible for only a second at the top under the blue band but goes away very quickly; it might say "loading" then whatever it is loading but it's all only a split second.

3. Next is the Windows splash screen with the blue scroll bar

4. Finally the blue screen with the XP logo saying Windows is loading/welcome and then my desktop

I have not seen the option to press F2 or F12 during the white progress bar that appeared as of late; the screen is completely black except for it.

Thanks for your help, I hope we'll be able to figure out what caused the change.

mombodog · Answer

'Under Device 0 it says 'Ultra DMA Mode 2' '   Most likely your problem, it should be DMA mode 5 if it is a ATA100 hard drive.   Does the system seem run slow once it is in windows?

AnotherUser249 · Answer

Hmm, what could be causes of read/write failures? Uninstalling the IDE channel will not cause the system to become unstable or anything like that, will it?

AnotherUser249 · Answer

Thanks so much for your help and information.

I'm off to reset the DMA mode, run checkdisk and defragment as you advised. I'll post back if the white bar has gone after that.

I have to admit I neglected defragmentation for a long time now. I was so immersed in scanning for viruses/malware and other security threats that I almost forgot about hardware maintenance.

(edited for type-o's)

Message Edited by AnotherUser249 on 01-26-2008 05:52 PM

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