A very long splash

[Guest]

Until a couple of days ago the blue maggot on the WinXP splash screen would
crawl across his slot about eight times before vanishing. Now he is doing
over fifty laps.

I can't see anything new or unusual in the start-up items ot the run section
of the registry.

Does anyone have a likely suspect or know how I can put a trace on this?
The system starts in the usual time in safe mode.

 

[null]

It is apparently something loading at bootup to Normal mode. Have you installed
any new software, hardware, drivers recently? If so, that's a good place to
start.

If not, you can try eliminating startup items one at a time until the boot time
becomes more normal, and you will be much closer to a solution. Or, you can try
updating and patching the OS, the installed software, and newer drivers for your
hardware. Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check for spyware and viruses, as
well as defragging the hard drive.

 

[Guest]

Thank you - yes, I'll have to go through the startups one by one. Some time
back in the geological past you could run step by step as a startup option.
I'm wondering if there is a utility somewhere to do something similar. That
would be really useful.