How to find startup bottleneck?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jacky
  • Start date Start date
J

Jacky

I have a P4 2.6C 1GB DDR400 Radeon 9600
SATA150 harddisks x 3 16X DVD-RW 52x CD-RW
Windows XP SP2..
It is taking 5 minutes to start up Windows XP...
Are there any software that can help me find the bottleneck?
Thanks
 
Jacky said:
I have a P4 2.6C 1GB DDR400 Radeon 9600
SATA150 harddisks x 3 16X DVD-RW 52x CD-RW
Windows XP SP2..
It is taking 5 minutes to start up Windows XP...
Are there any software that can help me find the bottleneck?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, there is: msconfig.exe. Disable each and every task under
the Startup tab, then bring them back in again one by one until
you find the bottleneck.
 
Per Jacky:
I have a P4 2.6C 1GB DDR400 Radeon 9600
SATA150 harddisks x 3 16X DVD-RW 52x CD-RW
Windows XP SP2..
It is taking 5 minutes to start up Windows XP...
Are there any software that can help me find the bottleneck?
Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm in the same situation.

Another poster suggested:
----------------------------------------------------------
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310353
----------------------------------------------------------

Haven't done it yet - got company coming today.... but my guess is that the
implied strategy is to set up a boot that doesn't load anything but XP, take
some benchmarks, and then spoon feed the stuff that's being loaded a little bit
at a time, looking for the guilty party/parties.
 
Jacky,

Try looking using this utility as its so far superior to the MSCONFIG that
was suggested earlier as MSCONFIG misses some standard startup locations:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/autoruns.mspx

(see logon tab on AutoRun tool)

Be careful using MSCONFIG or the AutoRun tool as you could disable something
incorrectly & stop your machine from booting. NEVER uncheck all the items &
'hope' like the other user suggested unless you know exactly which are safe
to remove from startup because you could be disabling Antivirus/Firewall etc
which wouldn't be advisable.

Other things you could look into is things like is the Temp Internet Cache
folder etc. Are there any redundant user profiles?

On a clean boot, press CTRL + ALT + DEL together & look on the PROCESSES tab
of Task Manager. How many are running? More than 40

Do you have rubbish like MSN Messenger/Skype/Yahoo all running in the
background that are unneeded at startup? You cannot use MSCONFIG to remove
MSN from startup as it will come back. You have to disable it through the
TOOLS menu | Options...

Then the Startup folder (START | All Programs | Startup) may contain rubbish
like Adobe Speed Launcher...

As you see there are a number of things that can be contributing to the slow
start

Would like to know more info of what is running in the
'HKLM\...\...\...\...\Run' & 'HKCU\...\...\...\...\Run' keys

If you have rubbish like Abode/Real Media Player you can safely delete it.
If you so wish you can list the entries in your reply & we can tell you the
ones to safely remove.

Hope this helps,
 
Be careful using MSCONFIG or the AutoRun tool as you could disable something
incorrectly & stop your machine from booting.
Click to expand...

If you feel that the OP might disable something that stops
the machine from booting then you must provide specific
advice instead of vague warnings. Telling her to "be careful"
is useless - how can she be careful if you don't tell her
which program(s) to keep running?
NEVER uncheck all the items &
'hope' like the other user suggested unless you know exactly which are safe
to remove from startup because you could be disabling Antivirus/Firewall etc
which wouldn't be advisable.
Click to expand...

Good point. However, firewalls and virus scanners are often
the worst offenders when it comes to slowing down a machine.
They must be tested first! To do so safely, the OP must unplug
the cable that connects her machine to the Internet.
 
Pegasus,

Many users shouldn't use MSCONFIG/AUTORUN/REGISTRY EDITOR or other
applications unless they know what they are doing. What can you do unless
they allow you to remote to their machine & let you fix it for them? They
have to learn sometimes, but a little knowledge can be dangerous, as you
know

Some virus scanners can cause slowness to the machine due to startup scans I
agree, but you can go one level lower & ask the OP if they are protecting
the BIOS or scanning there as most (not all ) BIOS' support it. Is the BIOS
doing memory checks? Its true that Norton does to some extent, but the
corporate version I use doesn't seem to.

Its more likely to be a startup issue in the registry then a firewall/virus
scanner one, agreed?

You could also say to the OP that they have 3 * SATA I (150) drives. Are
they raided correctly? Are the correct board drivers installed... too? Those
factors would also slow disc access. Then you could ask if the drives have
2/4/8/16 MB cache, which makes some difference. Also things like the PC3200
DDR memory (400 MHz) etc etc etc. What is the memory on the graphics card &
is the OS stealing some of that memory. Is it on-board VGA instead of an
AGP/PCI - E? See how far you can go with this issue if needed?

One question I would have asked the OP, but not relative to this post is why
do they have a DVD re-writer & a CD re-writer? The CD re-writer is surely
obsolete. For less than £20 ($40) can be changed for another DVD re-writer

So, you & I will wait for the OP's reply to our suggestions :)
 
Jacky said:
I have a P4 2.6C 1GB DDR400 Radeon 9600
SATA150 harddisks x 3 16X DVD-RW 52x CD-RW
Windows XP SP2..
It is taking 5 minutes to start up Windows XP...
Are there any software that can help me find the bottleneck?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Windows XP Boot logger: http://greatis.com/utilities/bootlogxp/

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2008)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
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