XP Slow to load to welcome screen

[ocar23]

Since a suspected virus attack, I have a problem related to Windows loading
slowly
to the Welcome Screen. When the Progress Bars stop on the Windows Logo
screen, it takes 60 secs to get to the Welcome Screen. It used to take 15
secs. This is something new, only since an apparent Virus Attack. Can you
advise what files could be affected and how to correct the cause of this
annoyance. FixMBR, FixBoot, SFC , Chkdsk, Ntldr, NtDetect.com have not helped
to overcome this.
Also, but not neccessarily part of this problem, First Boot hangs during
BIOS Memory Test, Re-Boot is successful.
Win XP Pro SP2 ++++, P4 3.0, DDR400 4Gb on GA-81PE775Pro with GeForce 6600GT.

 

[Gerry]

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in
the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot. No
Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in
a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[ocar23]

Thank you Gerry for your response. You would not believe this, but the last
few boots since posting this problem, the problem is rectified without me
being able to identify just what was the cause, which of course I am not too
happy about. The only thing that may have had an influence was, I ran AVG
Rootkit yesterday. Although it did not report anything found, it may have
cleaned out something that was lurking in the background and which Zonealarm
had not found during its Deep Scan. I would liked to have known more about
the problem in case I cop it again. I have encountered it in the past.
Viewing Events and Warnings since this problem reared its head did not
produce anything of interest, unfortunately. I quess I will just have to be
satisfied that my machine is now performing correctly and that Zonealarm
Internet Security Suite will do a better job of looking after my interests
than my past security software.
Even though this is fixed I would still appreciate any info that anyone can
offer about this nasty.
Thank You

 

[Gerry]

Ocar

The problem of a slow boot is not normally a malware issue. You can
often see the cause by a careful examination of the System log in Event
Viewer. Another approach is to use the techniques described here:
How to configure Windows XP to start in a "clean boot" state
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us

Drivers can cause start up delays so if you have updated a third party
driver that could be the explanation. Another area is having programmes
load at start up, when they may be better used on an "on demand" basis.
Autoruns is a useful tool to look at what loads on Start Up. Others use
Msconfig but i much prefer Autoruns.

A safer way than msconfig to disable / remove unwanted start up items is
to use Autoruns.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx

With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting,
or you can can right click an item and then delete it. If you uncheck
you can recheck to re-enable the item. It is a much safer approach than
editing the Registry. Another useful feature of the programme is that
you can right click an item and select Search Online to get information
about the item selected.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~