Strange Startup Problem

[Morse]

I recently installed sp2 and things worked great for several days. So
I'm not sure if the problem I'm having is with SP2 or something that
just cropped up.
Yesterday, several hours into a session, I did a cold restart and when
it came back up, Windows XP Pro started hanging(unresponsive)for about
3-5 minutes at startup just after the desktop displays. The only thing
you could do was move the mouse pointer around. As a matter of fact,
for about the first minute, when you move the pointer down to the task
bar, it turns into an hourglass. Then after a minute or so, the
hourglass turns back to a pointer. Then I move the pointer back up to
the desktop and it is a pointer for about 20 seconds, and then it
turns to an hourglass. Move the pointer back down to the task bar and
it stays a pointer. Finally after about 2 minutes of the hourglass on
the desktop, it will start working with no problems at all until I do
another restart.
I tried a restore back to the previous day, but that did not fix the
problem.
I regularly check my system for spy ware and virus. No sign of
anything like that.
Anyone else suffering from the same thing?

 

[Guest]

Please try these:

Clean Temporary Internet Files, Cookies and other temporary files:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/optimizewindowstempfiles.htm

Check for errors and defragment hard drive:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/optimizewindowsharddrive.htm

Clean Windows Startup and hidden Startup:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/optimizewindowsstartup.htm

Spyware/Virus Removal and Prevention:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/windowsxpsolutions.htm
(Links to online virus scans on the same page)

Check Event Viewer (Start - > Settings -> Control Panel - > Administrative
Tools - > Event Viewer) for possible errors.

Good Luck!
---
How to successfully install Windows XP Service Pack 2:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/winxpsp2install.htm

How to optimize Windows XP, 2000, ME
for the best performance (Step-by-step Visual Guide):
http://www.fixyourwindows.com

 

[Morse]

Please try these:

Clean Temporary Internet Files, Cookies and other temporary files:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/optimizewindowstempfiles.htm

Check for errors and defragment hard drive:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/optimizewindowsharddrive.htm

Clean Windows Startup and hidden Startup:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/optimizewindowsstartup.htm

Spyware/Virus Removal and Prevention:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/windowsxpsolutions.htm
(Links to online virus scans on the same page)

Check Event Viewer (Start - > Settings -> Control Panel - > Administrative
Tools - > Event Viewer) for possible errors.

Good Luck!
---
How to successfully install Windows XP Service Pack 2:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/winxpsp2install.htm

How to optimize Windows XP, 2000, ME
for the best performance (Step-by-step Visual Guide):
http://www.fixyourwindows.com

As a follow up, I did do a check of the event log and found some atapi
timeout entries under the system section.

"The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout
period."

Here is the really strange thing that I discovered though...
If no disk is in the CD rom drive, it takes forever for the thing to
startup to a responsive state and I get the errors. If I throw a CD
in the drive, it comes up just fine and no more timeout errors in the
log.

I have no idea why, unless there is something going strange with the
haedware on that drive. I guess I have a work around for now.