Boot slowdown due to Explorer.exe process

[Merlin]

Hello everybody,

I have an annoying problem with my WinXP. After upgrading to SP2 with
Windows Update, I noticed that the bootup was very slow (2 minutes in
comparison of the 30 secondes of my WinXP SP1). I reinstalled a fresh
WinXP SP2, but the problem is still here. The only change made was the
operating system, the hardware, drivers and applications are still the
same. The machine boots quickly enough, but after logging in the disk
works like mad. It takes about 2 minutes before the disk activity
settles down. This issue is related to Windows only, because the
slowdown was already present just after the installation of SP2, and
just after the re-installation of a fresh WinXP SP2. My PC in a
standalone computer and is not connected to any network.

I have tried everything to solve this issue : defragmentation of C:,
chkdsk, new IDE drivers. I spent many hours playing with Msconfig and
trying to reboot without any startup processes. I have disabled many
services, including Antivirus, Firewall and Indexation service. My PC
is absolutely clean (no virus, no trojan and no spyware).

After a while, I used Bootvis, a very powerful program from Microsoft,
and I discovered that my problem is related to the process
explorer.exe. After 40 seconds, explorer.exe is opening hundreds of
files on every HDD (.exe, .Dlls, .lnk, etc). Disk utilisation remains
solidly at 100% during this operation (but CPU usage remains low
during the entire process). Looks like Explorer.exe is searching for
icons or "prefetching". When Explorer.exe stops doing that after 1
minute and 30 seconds, the system becomes responsive and stay stable.
In order to help explorer.exe, I have deleted the preftech directory
and the IconCache.db file, without any results. And no anomaly in logs
files ...

During his madness, Explorer.exe also try to reach unknown files,
because bootvis shows lot of errors messages like E:FObj_NotFound or
F:FObj_NotFound (again, I have checked the disk with chkdsk and others
tools). I don't want to reinstall my WinXP again, because I'm sure the
issue will still be here. I just want to UNDERSTAND what going on with
Explorer.exe during the bootup sequence, and desactive forever his
"read every file" behavior.

Astonishingly, a search on Google for "FObj_NotFound" don't give any
result, and it is also the case with the Microsoft knowledge database.
A search on the newsgroup with Google shows that I am not the only
people with this issue, but unfortunately no troubleshooting is
provided. Could you please help me to understand my problem ?

Thank in advance for any help !


Mars | Philippe "Merlin" Labrot
or | Email: (e-mail address removed)
bust | De la planete rouge a l’origine de la vie : www.nirgal.net

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Please post copies of any error reports in Event Viewer.


Make an exact note of the precise text of any error message. Minor
discrepancies can
make it harder to search for information about the error message.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools,
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/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

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. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now start your
message
(email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This will paste the
info from the
Event Viewer Error Report complete with links into the message. Make
sure this is
the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer.


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Merlin]

Thank for the reply Gerry,

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no error in the Event Viewer (in
application, system or security tab). For XP, everything seems OK !

Errors appear only in the trace file created by Bootvis during the
boot :

The precise text of these errors is :

"F:FObj_NotFound "

or

"F:FObj_NotFound "

I have taken several screenshots related to this problem

- Three screenshots of the Event Viewer after my last reboot (just for
you Gerry !), showing ... nothing !

http://www.nirgal.net/bootup/bootup_eventview_application.gif
http://www.nirgal.net/bootup/bootup_eventview_security.gif
http://www.nirgal.net/bootup/bootup_eventview_system.gif

- Two screenshots of Bootvis, showing the issue with Explorer.Exe. The
first screenshot, taken between +73 seconds and + 107 seconds, shows
the FObj_NotFound error, here for an access to an unknow file on the
E: hard drive. The second screenshot was taken during the entire
"activity period" of Explorer.Exe. At +118s, Explorer.Exe stops
reading files, and the PC is again very fast and stable.

http://www.nirgal.net/bootup/bootup_bootvis_error.gif
http://www.nirgal.net/bootup/bootup_bootvis_overview.gif

I really appreciated if somebody could help me to understand WHY
Explorer.Exe read so many files during the bootup sequence, and more
important, HOW I can prevent this #%?$# behavior, which is absolutely
not normal (again, the system has been reinstalled from scratch and is
perfectly clean, ie no virus, trojan or spyware, and no "tweak"
applications).

Thank in advance for any advice or help !

Philippe

Please post copies of any error reports in Event Viewer.


Make an exact note of the precise text of any error message. Minor
discrepancies can
make it harder to search for information about the error message.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools,
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/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

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. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now start your
message
(email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This will paste the
info from the
Event Viewer Error Report complete with links into the message. Make
sure this is
the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer.

Mars | Philippe "Merlin" Labrot
or | Email: (e-mail address removed)
bust | De la planete rouge a l’origine de la vie : www.nirgal.net

 

[Gerry Cornell]

The Event ID: 26 messages merit investigation:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/su...indows+Operating+System&LCID=1033&ProdVer=5.2

Can you post a copy of the first appearing on your system?

BTW from Google your problem has been reported before albeit with no
solutions mentioned.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[NeilC]

Hi Philippe "Merlin" Labrot

I have exactly the same problem as yours. Did you find the solution of
this problem? Appreciate if you can share it with me.

Thanks for your help.

 

[david673]

Unnecessary file opening at startup

I, too, have noticed (using Filemon) that quite a long time is spent by Exporer.exe during startup on Windows XP Home reading all the EXE files recursively linked from the Start Menu.

Since I create an alphabetized list of links to all my executable programs and point to it in the Start Menu, this is a very large number of files.

I can think of no reason why all these files need to be opened. It takes a very long time and I would like to stop this inane behavior.

I can find no help for this problem using Web searchs.

My guess is that this has something to do with user profile management, perhaps roaming (which I am not using). I have two active users on my computer, so perhaps user login causes all Start Menu files to be scanned? It makes no sense.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Please do not reply with the usual suggestions about turning off indexing, looking at the error log, removing malware, etc. I am an advanced user and my system is otherwise working just fine. There are no viruses or malware. I have no errors shown in the event manager, and the computer's plug is connected to a power socket .

David