A query re a legacy BIOS

I have been working on a fiends desktop - HP Compaq Presario SR5540AN all day as he said it had got to running very slow,after cleaning out a half kilo of dust and crud from everywhere especially the stock CPU cooling fins which I originally thought was letting the CPU get too hot (AMD Athlon II 5400).

I have replaced the RAM sticks (increasing the RAM) replacing the stock cooling fan because the bearing was really rough done sfc, chkdsk /f /r MBAM and SAS scans tried to to run Seatools for Windows but it did not recognise the 320GB Seatool drive so I cloned it to another spinner which the Seatools did recognise and done just about everything I can think of, Now the clone reacted in exactly the same way. Checking the drives I can only find the main C" partition there is no 100MB MBR partition. All drivers seem to be in place too.

In the BIOS there is a Plug and Play YES/NO set to yes and I don't know if setting it to NO will make any difference.

Personally I think the original drive has gone up the swanee without a paddle.

Now I don't have his install OEM disk with me or I would try a repair install any ideas please because I am chasing my tail here. So any ideas welcome.

Hi,
Which section of the bios is that listed in ?
I don't believe I have it on my legacy bios from 2009.
I can check though.
Nope.

Its a Phoenix Award BIOS and is in the Advanced section and it warns that any changes may cause the system to malfunction..

What I cannot work out is where has the 100MB system partition gone too. The machine boots albeit slowly and I just cannot work that out because I thought that was the boot partition that is needed as it has appeared on any machine I have elver seen. .

Edit I ma just wondering if I can use an ISO to do a system repair too?? as I have the code via Magic Jelly bean because I installed 7 for him in the first place and so pretty sure that would be right.??

You don't need that system partition of 100 mb.

You do need the boot files it would typically contain.

If the machine boots, that tells you that the boot files are on C, which is fine. I never use the 100 mb partition.

I vaguely recall a plug and play section in a bios from many years ago, but can't recall the setting. That machine is circa 8 years old, so it's an antique by todays standard with an equally antique chipset.

What are your expectations on hardware that old?

Was it supposedly a speed demon and is now slow? I'd have very low expectations.

What exactly is the current problem?

Does it pass a RAM test and a standard HD test from the drive manufacturer?

No major fragmentation on the drive? Plenty of drive space?

Nothing jumps out at you when looking at hardware data with something like HWinfo--fan speeds, voltages, drive temps, cpu temps, etc.

Hi,
Yea I've got that bios on my laptop but still no plug and play entry
Optimize defaults shouldn't hurt anything
100mb system reserved really isn't needed
You can make the ssd.. the first boot device might help.

Check his msconfig for starting normally and too many items on startup list.
I believe the default is 30 seconds for timing make it 5 seconds or 3 on boot.

The default (what) is 30 sec.
I don't understand the statement below.

Code:

I believe the default is 30 seconds for timing make it 5 seconds or 3 on boot.

But if by chance your are referring to System Configure, Boot, Time Out I wouldn't change that with old hardware. 30 sec is default.

Older hardware need a little extra time to load all the needed drivers ect. and shaking hands with Windows 7. Just my opinion.

I would recommend working on the Startup and Non Microsoft Services in msconfig.

Ok thanks Mike and Jack I I am trying a little experiment in a minute a clean install onto a spare 500GB spinner because I think the old 320GB drive has has it. I didn't know there didn't have to be a 100MB partition to be honest as I have always seems to be one on machines.

The msconfig I have set to nothing bar the OS and this machine was never super fats but now is super slow.

John here is a tutorial by whs to read.
This can be done. I don't do it just because I have no need to.

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

Thanks Jack will give this a go too - am just curious as to what the clean install come sup with first. I just wish I had my spare SSD's with me right now and see if thy made any difference by cloning the old drive - which worked but no partition and just as slow.

Thanks ignatzatsonic I could get onto the link but yes it is an old machine an has operated reasonably well over the last three years and after my overhaul yesterday I thought it would get better so I am just left with trying one last spinner drive as I don't have my spare SSD;s her with me.

I did think the matched pair of RAM sticks and damn good clean plus some would speed it up but apparently not the only thing I haven't done is re compound the AMD Athlon 64 5400 or replace the PSU. The last component is down on the 3v rail which I think controls the RAM but the drop is really not that significant being just under the 1.8v the sticks need.