Long bootups and shutdowns

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary Burton
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Gary Burton

I have the home edition, with SP2. My shutdowns are getting very long, and I am hoping someone can tell me what (if anything) I can do about it -- short of re-installing my system.

With a 2 GHz Athlon and 512 Mb of memory, my shutdown time now goes over a minute. Once my applications are closed and the screen turns blue, I spend about 20 seconds with the message "Saving your settings", then I spend a full 45 seconds looking at the "Windows is shutting down" message. The boot-up time is about 5 seconds longer, where again I am counting from the off condition until I see the desktop. Shutdown time comes to 65 sec from blue-screen to off. Bootup time: 70 sec from off to desktop.

It's been over a year since I installed Windows. I really hate spending several days to re-install Windows and all my applications in order to correct problems like this. Therefore, I try to keep my system very clean. To keep my system clean, I am routinely run Zone Alarm, Norton AntiVirus, AdWatch, and PestPatrol, with occasional scans of SpyBot. I also routinely do an extra deep cleaning of my registry with RegSupreme, and use Resplendent Registrar to defragment the registry. About once every 2 months, I defrag the disk with Norton SpeedDisk.

My system seems to be working just fine. I have a lot of programs loaded -- about 8 Gb not counting data. I don't think that has much to do with it, however, because this long shutdown time occurs even if I don't open anything (other than my TSRs) before I tell it to shut down again.

Am I expecting too much? Is this shutdown time normal under the circumstances? If not, is there a "magic bullet" to speed this thing up?
 
Gary said:
I have the home edition, with SP2. My shutdowns are getting very long, and I am hoping someone can tell me what (if anything) I can do about it -- short of re-installing my system.

With a 2 GHz Athlon and 512 Mb of memory, my shutdown time now goes over a minute. Once my applications are closed and the screen turns blue, I spend about 20 seconds with the message "Saving your settings", then I spend a full 45 seconds looking at the "Windows is shutting down" message. The boot-up time is about 5 seconds longer, where again I am counting from the off condition until I see the desktop. Shutdown time comes to 65 sec from blue-screen to off. Bootup time: 70 sec from off to desktop.

It's been over a year since I installed Windows. I really hate spending several days to re-install Windows and all my applications in order to correct problems like this. Therefore, I try to keep my system very clean. To keep my system clean, I am routinely run Zone Alarm, Norton AntiVirus, AdWatch, and PestPatrol, with occasional scans of SpyBot. I also routinely do an extra deep cleaning of my registry with RegSupreme, and use Resplendent Registrar to defragment the registry. About once every 2 months, I defrag the disk with Norton SpeedDisk.

My system seems to be working just fine. I have a lot of programs loaded -- about 8 Gb not counting data. I don't think that has much to do with it, however, because this long shutdown time occurs even if I don't open anything (other than my TSRs) before I tell it to shut down again.

Am I expecting too much? Is this shutdown time normal under the circumstances? If not, is there a "magic bullet" to speed this thing up?

Several things to do. For the shutdown issues one option is to run the
User Profile Hive Cleanup Service:

Troubleshooting profile unload issues
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=837115

To download and install UPHClean:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1B286E6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582

For additional information about UPHClean, view the Readme.txt file:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1B286E6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582

Also see this excellent shutdown troubleshooter:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

For both boot up and shutdown you can try some clean boot troubleshooting:

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
 
Gary said:
I have the home edition, with SP2. My shutdowns are getting very long, and I am hoping someone can tell me what (if anything) I can do about it -- short of re-installing my system.

With a 2 GHz Athlon and 512 Mb of memory, my shutdown time now goes over a minute. Once my applications are closed and the screen turns blue, I spend about 20 seconds with the message "Saving your settings", then I spend a full 45 seconds looking at the "Windows is shutting down" message. The boot-up time is about 5 seconds longer, where again I am counting from the off condition until I see the desktop. Shutdown time comes to 65 sec from blue-screen to off. Bootup time: 70 sec from off to desktop.

It's been over a year since I installed Windows. I really hate spending several days to re-install Windows and all my applications in order to correct problems like this. Therefore, I try to keep my system very clean. To keep my system clean, I am routinely run Zone Alarm, Norton AntiVirus, AdWatch, and PestPatrol, with occasional scans of SpyBot. I also routinely do an extra deep cleaning of my registry with RegSupreme, and use Resplendent Registrar to defragment the registry. About once every 2 months, I defrag the disk with Norton SpeedDisk.

My system seems to be working just fine. I have a lot of programs loaded -- about 8 Gb not counting data. I don't think that has much to do with it, however, because this long shutdown time occurs even if I don't open anything (other than my TSRs) before I tell it to shut down again.

Am I expecting too much? Is this shutdown time normal under the circumstances? If not, is there a "magic bullet" to speed this thing up?

Also make sure the system is clean of spyware, adware, viruses, trojans,
worms, and other nasties. Run a combination of the good programs
available in safe mode. Post back if you need more info on this aspect
but here are some good links:

http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.spywareinfo.com
http://rgharper.mvps.org/cleanit.htm
 

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