Long delay on startup - XP Pro

[TonyG]

Just recently I have noticed a long delay occurring on boot up with my Win
XP Pro system (SP2). The delay occurs between the appearance of the desktop
background and the display of the toolbars and desktop icons. The screen
just displays the desktop background during this period (about 20-30
seconds). System is a P4-650 with 1GB RAM. Can anyone give me a pointer to
what WinXP Pro is doing during this period and where I might need to look to
find the source of the problem?

Thanks, TonyG

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Just recently I have noticed a long delay occurring on boot up with my Win
XP Pro system (SP2). The delay occurs between the appearance of the
desktop
background and the display of the toolbars and desktop icons. The screen
just displays the desktop background during this period (about 20-30
seconds). System is a P4-650 with 1GB RAM. Can anyone give me a pointer to
what WinXP Pro is doing during this period and where I might need to look
to
find the source of the problem?

Thanks, TonyG

The most likely culprit would be a program that is starting when you boot.
Some programs like anti-virus or other utilities may be performing a pre-set
task during the start up process.

Go to Start/Run and type msconfig and press OK. Click the Start Up Tab
to see all of the applications that are starting when XP starts.

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

 

[ppcc]

Just recently I have noticed a long delay occurring on boot up with my
Win
XP Pro system (SP2). The delay occurs between the appearance of the
desktop
background and the display of the toolbars and desktop icons. The
screen
just displays the desktop background during this period (about 20-30
seconds). System is a P4-650 with 1GB RAM. Can anyone give me a pointer
to
what WinXP Pro is doing during this period and where I might need to
look to
find the source of the problem?

Thanks, TonyG

You could also uninstall any programs that you dont use anymore, and
running a disk cleanup and then the disk defragmenter, this can help
improve the speed if you havent done these in a while and your drive is
fragmented or if theres lots of crap in the system. Also delete your
prefetch.

 

[TonyG]

Hi Ronnie

Thanks for the tips. Following the clean boot instructions, I was able to
isolate the cause to the "Workstation" service. If this service is disabled,
the PC boots up fine. Problem is, I think I need to run the "Computer
Browser" on this PC as it provides shares for printer and some drives on my
LAN. I think the browser is dependent on "Workstation" service running. Any
thoughts on how to debug the Workstation service so I can enable it again
without this problem?

Tony