I recently installed an AMD Athlon 62 x2 dual-core and installed xp.  I realized I wanted to do things over quickly so reformatted and installed XP again.  However, now it takes XP so much longer to load for some reason.  

What should the cpu multiplier be set to in bios?  I think its on auto and I'm not sure if its where it should be. I'm just trying to rule out why XP is loading so slow right after I just installed it on a new system when it ran fine right before I reformatted.

assuming your hardware is not failing, did you install all the updates?  Sometimes we forget that we had to install patches along the way and use the old install disk w/o any of the patches.  (i'm thinking of the dual core optimization.)
 
I'm not sure about the multiplier question.  Auto sounds like it would work if your current bios supports your processor

Make sure you install the cool'n'quiet(and set the power scheme to minimal power management) driver and the AMD dual core optimizer/patch.....

On my older 3200+ system with the cool'n'quiet driver off it ran at 1000mhz for some reason....

It seems to be taking its time loading XP right from the get-go, even before patches.  Actually, it takes a while as I was installing XP.  Right after formatting the HD, the XP disk reboots and when it starts the installation it goes to the XP startup screen and it takes a lot longer than it should.

 
The cool'n'quiet driver?  Really?  OK, I may have done that the first time and not this time which is why its slow.
 
Where can I get the AMD dual core optimizer/patch???

Dual Core optimizer - Fixes some problems with software that does not work well with multi core systems....Some software can slow a computer down allot when its not made to work well with multi core....
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/co [...] /Setup.exe
 
Cool'n'Quiet Driver - Allows the CPU to clock up and down for power savings
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/co [...] /setup.zip
 
AMD's download page
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processor [...] 06,00.html
 
Fingers crossed. My laptop does not slow down without the drivers, but my desktop did.
 
If you have a Audigy sound card(or any creative) please say so, there is more info on creative(at least Audigy 2zs) cards + multi core + slower explorer
 
Keeps us updated......

Thanks nuke.  I will.  Currently installing a bunch of drivers again....

I'm a bonehead.  I think the problem was that I mistakenly set the jumper of my only cd-rom (ide) to a slave drive.  For some reason that really slowed down everything else given that there was no master IDE.  
 
At least, I think that was the problem because as soon as I set the jumper to master, the loading time went down dramatically.  
 
Still looking into it.  Preparing to format AGAIN and start from scratch.

the jumper should not do anything. maybe slow down the post.....
 
Grab cpu-z and make sure the cpu is running the right speed. If its shows 1000(or 800mhz) it may be speed step, just make the computer work and see if it changes....
 
CPU-Z
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 
 
I'm assuming you reinstalled the chipset driver, vga driver, network controller driver, and all the other hardware drivers your computer needs to function properly.  
 

You can also help improve you boot times by eliminating unnecessary devices from the startup i.e. floppy drive: if you don't have one.  Also make sure that fast boot is enabled.  This is all done in your bios.

Thanks guys.  I think you are right, nuke.  It was most likely the lack of a few installed drivers.  That's usually the case anyway.  
 
But I'm going to try some of the tools you listed to see if my cpu is running right, etc.