Slow Boot - Please help!

[Guest]

Hi all

Up until recently my computer started up in under 30 seconds, but now my computer harbors on the Windows boot screen (the bar keeps going and going across - 30 times now when 2 days ago it was 8). There is really nothing to account for this; nothing has changed since then. I don't run any AV software on startup (only when downloading files) and there are no viruses on my computer since I just scanned. I keep very little running on startup as well, so this should not be a problem.

To try to fix this I have
1) Checked for any uninstalled devices (none
2) Defragged my HD'
3) Upgraded to the latest patches and Video drive
4) Installed bootvis and did a trace pattern and found that for the first 4 seconds there is activity, then 30 seconds with NO activity, then activity resumes after this. Then, while I've heard this actually slows down the system, I figured it couldn't hurt so I chose OPTIMIZE SYSTEM, but this did not cut down on the time
5) Reinstalled XP (upgrade only)

Only thing left to try is clean install of XP but that takes forever to get my files and settings back so I'd rather not

My computer is
1700+ Athlon X
430 W PSuppl
120 + 80 G HD
GeForce FX 5200 AG
SoundBlaster Live 5.
Lite-On CDRW 52-32-5
Windows XP SP

Thanks very much
Andrew

 

[-xiray-]

Hi all,

Up until recently my computer started up in under 30 seconds, but now
my computer harbors on the Windows boot screen (the bar keeps going
I don't run any AV software on startup (only when downloading files)

Why only when you dl files? You should run it always. And you should
have a Firewall and a popup stopper as well

Only thing left to try is clean install of XP

NO! before you do that you should check whether your computer has
spyware running.

Download and run Ad-Aware or Spybot, or both (which I recommend).

And if you do not know what spyware is, do a Google search and read up
on it. Some spyware can cause exactly the symptoms you describe.

If after you do all that, sure reformat the drive and install XP
again. If it is just a gaming box, what the heck.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply. I am a pretty saavy computer user who never has gotten a virus, and while it seems silly to some why I don't use an AV all the time, it seems silly to me why I should. I scan files I am suspicious of and don't those which I know are safe. Regardless, I have done a full system scan recently because of this, just to make sure and nothing came up. I have both McAfee and Norton w/ full updates installed so I don't believe it is a virus

I also do run Spybot and Ad-Aware freqently, hadn't since you mentioned it nor since this problem started last night so I am doing this now.

Forgot to mention that and it probably is important, but this all started when I brought my computer to my big screen tv to hook up via s-video and didn't bring down my keyboard. Hence I booted up w/out a keyboard attached, and then the scroll bar took even 2x as long as it currently takes before XP loaded. In other words, I have a feeling that somehow not having my keyboard attached is in some way the culprit of my slow boot (long lag time before CPU activity). Everything appears fine in System Devices

If no one can give me any solutions, I probably will do a clean install, but I am tired of having to reset up all my programs and settings as it takes hours and hours to do this. Thanks again for any replies either past or future

Andrew

 

[-xiray-]

when I brought my computer to my big screen tv to hook up via s-video
and didn't bring down my keyboard. Hence I booted up w/out a
keyboard attached,

Hmmm. In that case, the first thing I'd try would be to go into Device
Manager. Delete the keyboard and reboot so that it gets recognized by
the computer.

Then reboot again to see if that helps the slow boot problem.