Slow booting xp home.

[Macbeth]

My home pc is booting up very slowly up to 3 minutes from pressing the power
button to desktop.

I have tried various things like,

Removing as many programs from the start menu as I can (via msconfig),

Removing all programs from quick launch,

Defragmenting both drives,

Cleaning the discs and registry via ccleaner,

checking for spyware,

Changing the setting in NOGUIBOOT in BOOTINI in system config aswell as the
timeout from 30s to 10secs.
Running bootvis,

I tried booting up with zonealarm switched off it made no difference,

After all this, this morning it took 21/2 minutes from pressing the power
button to all the icons and taskbar being ready on the desktop.

When it first boots the screens with the text flashes past quickly, POST
screen?
then the screen with the white lines along the bottom, the lines fill up
pretty quickly then it will stay like that until the time from pressing the
power button is about 1 minute 5 seconds.
(I apologise as I dont know the correct term for this screen).
Windows is loading will come on and then the desktop, icons first then the
task bar. When I booted up this morning this took about 2 1/2 minutes!


I have seen so many hints tips and tweaks on various forums on the net I'm
not sure what to do now! I read somewhere that Microsoft suggest 30s boot up
on xp home, I have seen videos on youtube of 8s boot up on xp, I'd be
delighted with 30s and happy just to get below a minute.

Can anyone help?

System spec:

Mesh matrix

2 drives

1 60gb with xp home sp3 installed 30% free capacity

1 x 80gb 60% free capacity

Not connected to any home networks (does connect to 2 work networks via vpn)

Using AVG 8

Zonealarm.







Report Abuse



Page 1 of 1 (1 items)


MSDN Forums » Windows Forms » Windows Forms General » Slow XP boot up
(please select) Forums Home -» Search Forums -» Active Threads -» Unanswered
Posts Feedback for forums and MSDN websites -» Where Is the Forum For...? -»
Announcements -» Suggestions for Forums website -» Bug Reports for Forums
website -» Off-Topic Posts (Do Not Post Here) MSDN Website Feedback
Community Chat -» Hot Technology -» Show and Tell ASP.NET and Visual Web
Developer Forums .NET Development -» .NET Framework Setup -» .NET Framework
Networking and Communication -» .NET Remoting and Runtime Serialization -»
ASMX Web Services and XML Serialization -» .NET Base Class Library -» Common
Language Runtime -» JScript for the .NET Framework -» 64-Bit .NET Framework
Development. -» Regular Expressions -» Building Development and Diagnostic
Tools for .Net -» Acropolis Visual Studio Express Editions -» Visual Basic
Express Edition -» Visual C# Express Edition -» Visual C++ Express Edition -»
Installing and Registering Visual Studio Express Editions Smart Device
Development -» Device Emulator General -» .NET Compact Framework -» Smart
Devices General -» Smart Devices VB and C# Projects -» Smart Devices Native
C++ Development Visual Basic -» Visual Basic IDE -» Visual Basic Language -»
Visual Basic General -» Visual Basic Interop and Upgrade -» Visual Basic
Power Packs -» Feedback for Visual Basic Bug Submission Pilot Visual C# -»
Visual C# General -» Visual C# Language -» Visual C# IDE Visual C++ -»
Visual C++ General -» Visual C++ Language Visual J# -» Visual J# General
Visual FoxPro -» Visual FoxPro General Visual Studio -» Visual Studio Setup
and Installation -» Visual Studio Extensibility -» Visual Studio Debugger -»
Visual Studio MSBuild -» Visual Studio Source Control and SourceSafe -»
Visual Studio Class Designer -» Visual Studio Guidance Automation Toolkit -»
Visual Studio Report Controls -» Crystal Reports for Visual Studio -»
Developer Documentation and Help System -» Phoenix -» Visual Studio 2008 SP1
(Beta) Visual Studio Team System -» Getting Started With Visual Studio Team
System -» Visual Studio Team System - Architecture & Design -» Visual Studio
Performance Tools (Profiler) -» Visual Studio Application Verifier -» Visual
Studio Code Analysis and Code Metrics -» Visual Studio Team System - Testing
-» Visual Studio Team System - Web and Load Testing -» Visual Studio Team
System - Database Professionals -» Visual Studio Team System - Microsoft
Solutions Framework (MSF) -» Team Foundation Server - General -» Team
Foundation Server - Setup -» Team Foundation Server - Administration -» Team
Foundation Server - Build Automation -» Team Foundation Server – Power Tools
& Add-ons -» Team Foundation Server - Process Templates -» Team Foundation
Server - Reporting & Warehouse -» Team Foundation Server - Team System Web
Access -» Team Foundation Server - Version Control -» Team Foundation Server
- Work Item Tracking Visual Studio Tools for Office -» Visual Studio Tools
for Office Windows Forms -» Windows Forms General -» Windows Forms Designer
-» ClickOnce and Setup & Deployment Projects -» Windows Forms Data Controls
and Databinding -» Windows Forms Sample Applications Visual Studio 2008
(Pre-release) -» ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to Entities (Pre-release)
-» XML in Visual Studio 2008 (Pre-release) -» Visual Basic 2008 (Pre-release)
-» Visual C++ 2008 (Pre-release) -» Visual C# 2008 (Pre-release) -» Visual
Studio 2008 (Pre-release) Install and Setup -» Visual Studio Tools for Office
2008 (Pre-release) -» Visual Studio 2008 IDE, Debugger, Build, Deployment,
Help, etc. -» Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions - Installation and Setup -»
Visual C++ Express 2008 (Pre-release) -» Visual C# Express 2008 (Pre-release)
-» Visual Basic Express 2008 (Pre-release) -» Windows Communication
Foundation ("Indigo") -» Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) -» LINQ
Project General -» Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET -» Visual
Studio WPF Designer Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc. -» Game
Technologies: General -» Game Technologies: DirectX 101 -» Game Technologies:
Graphics -» Game Technologies: Audio / XACT -» Game Technolgies: XNA Build -»
Direct3D 10 -» XNA Framework -» XNA Game Studio Express System Center -»
Capacity Planner General SQL Server -» SQL Server Integration Services -»
Data Mining -» SQL Server Reporting Services -» SQL Server Analysis Services
-» SQL Server Tools General -» Transact-SQL -» .NET Framework inside SQL
Server -» SQL Server Data Access -» SQL Server SMO/DMO -» SQL Server XML -»
SQL Server Replication -» SQL Service Broker -» SQL Server Security -» SQL
Server Database Engine -» SQL Server Documentation -» SQL Server Setup &
Upgrade -» SQL Server Disaster Recovery and Availability -» SQL Server
Notification Services -» SQL Server Compact Edition -» Getting started with
SQL Server -» Database Mirroring -» SQL Server Express -» SQL Server Driver
for PHP SQL Server Katmai -» .NET Framework inside SQL Server Katmai -» Data
Mining for SQL Server Katmai -» SQL Server Katmai Analysis Services -» SQL
Server Katmai Data Access -» SQL Server Katmai Data Warehousing -» SQL Server
Katmai Database Engine -» SQL Server Katmai Disaster Recovery and
Availability -» SQL Server Katmai Documentation -» SQL Server Katmai Express
-» SQL Server Katmai Integration Services -» SQL Server Katmai Replication -»
SQL Server Katmai Reporting Services -» SQL Server Katmai Search -» SQL
Server Katmai Security -» SQL Server Katmai Setup and Upgrade -» SQL Server
Katmai SMO/DMO -» SQL server Katmai Spatial -» SQL Server Katmai
Manageability and Tools -» SQL Server Katmai XML -» SQL Server Katmai Service
Broker -» Transact-SQL for SQL Server Katmai Silverlight (formerly WPF/E) -»
Silverlight (formerly WPF/E) General Discussion -» Silverlight (formerly
WPF/E) Designer Issues -» Silverlight (formerly WPF/E) Developer Issues
Audio and Video Development -» Media Foundation Development -» HD DVD
Interactivity Authoring Architecture -» Architecture General -» Modeling and
Tools -» Architecture Events -» The Architect Role Windows Live Developer
Forums -» Windows Live General: Development -» Windows Live Search:
Development -» Windows Live Messenger Web APIs: Development -» Windows Live
Messenger Client: Development -» Microsoft adCenter: Development -» Windows
Live Spaces: Development -» Windows Live Controls Development -» Virtual
Earth: Map Control Development -» Windows Live ID: Development -» Windows
Live Writer: Development -» Windows Live Data Development -» Windows Live
Alerts Development Forum -» Windows Live Agents Development -» Microsoft
Atlas APIs: Development Software Development for Windows Vista -» Search,
Organize and Visualize in Windows Vista -» DirectShow Development -»
Notebook, Tablet PC, and UMPC Development -» Security for Applications in
Windows Vista -» UI Development for Windows Vista -» General Windows Vista
Development Issues -» Windows SDK -» Windows Workflow Foundation -» XML Paper
Specification (XPS) -» Vista Pro-Audio Application Development -» Development
for Windows Accessibility and Automation -» Transactions Programming -»
Optical Platform Discussion -» Windows CardSpace ("InfoCard") -» Application
Compatibility for Windows Vista -» Windows SideShow Development -» Windows
Imaging Component (WIC) Internet Explorer Development -» Internet Explorer
Web Development -» Internet Explorer Extension Development Office Live
Development -» Office Live Basics, Essentials and Premium -» Open XML Format
SDK Windows Networking Development -» Winsock Kernel (WSK) -» Network
Quality of Service (QoS/qWAVE) -» Peer-to-Peer Networking -» Windows
Filtering Platform (WFP) -» Windows Vista Wireless SDK -» Windows XP Wireless
SDK Windows Search Technologies -» Windows Desktop Search Development -»
Windows Desktop Search Help Commerce Server -» Commerce Server 2007 -»
Commerce Server 2002 and Earlier Connected Services Framework -» Connected
Services Framework Customer Care Framework -» Customer Care Framework
Microsoft ISV Community Center Forums -» ISV Open Discussions -» Partnering
with Microsoft -» Architecture, Tools, and Process for ISVs -» Visual Basic
for Applications (VBA) -» Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) – Language
Specification -» Windows Error Reporting for ISVs Gadgets -» Web Gadget
Development -» Sidebar Gadget Development BizTalk Server -» BizTalk R2
General -» BizTalk R2 Adapters and Adapter Pack -» BizTalk EDI and AS2 -»
BizTalk Interceptors -» BizTalk RFID SharePoint Products and Technologies -»
SharePoint - General Question and Answers and Discussion -» SharePoint -
Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation -» SharePoint - Design and
Customization -» SharePoint - Development and Programming -» SharePoint -
Business Data Catalog -» SharePoint - Business Intelligence -» SharePoint -
InfoPath Forms Services -» SharePoint - Workflow -» SharePoint - Excel
Services -» SharePoint - Search -» SharePoint - Knowledge Network -»
SharePoint - Enterprise Content Management -» SharePoint - Accessibility -»
SharePoint - Social Computing -» SharePoint - Community Advancement -»
SharePoint - Collaboration Microsoft Robotics -» Microsoft Robotics -
Community -» Microsoft Robotics - Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR)
-» Microsoft Robotics - Decentralized Software Services (DSS) -» Microsoft
Robotics - Simulation -» Microsoft Robotics - Visual Programming Language -»
Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Data
Platform Development -» ADO.NET DataSet -» ADO.NET Data Providers -» LINQ to
SQL -» XML and the .NET Framework Data Platform Development (Pre-release) -»
ADO.NET Data Services (Pre-Release) -» Project Codename: Jasper -» Microsoft
Live Labs Volta -» Project code name “Velocity†Software Licensing and
Protection Services -» SecureLM General Discussion -» Software Licensing and
Protection Business Discussion -» SLPS Microsoft's Online Service Discussion
-» SLPS Code Protector and Software Protection Discussion -» SLPS Developer
Discussion -» SLP Server 2008 Software Engineering Discussion -» Software
Testing Discussion Popfly -» Popfly General Discussion -» Popfly Bugs and
Suggestions -» Popfly Explorer -» Popfly Game Creator Visual Studio Rosario
-» Visual Studio Team System Code Name "Rosario" Small Business Application
Development -» Small Business Application Development Storage Platform –
Core -» Storage Platform – ATA Windows Server 2008 -» Windows Server 2008
Application Compatibility and Certification -» Server Virtualization Office
-» Innovate on Office JScript -» JScript Native HealthVault -» HealthVault
Master Data Management -» MDM General Discussions -» MDM Integration -» MDM
Business Rules and Workflow -» MDM Data Quality and Profiling -» MDM Setup,
Configuration and Security -» MDM Entity and Hierarchy Management Unified
Communications Developer Forums -» MICROSOFT UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS AJAX SDK
-» MICROSOFT UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS MANAGED API SDK -» MICROSOFT UNIFIED
COMMUNICATIONS CLIENT SDK -» MICROSOFT OFFICE COMMUNICATOR 2007 SDK -»
MICROSOFT OFFICE COMMUNICATIONS SERVER 2007 SDK Microsoft Research
Commercial Tools -» Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout Microsoft Search Server
2008 and Search Server 2008 Express -» Report a Bug -» Known Bugs and
Workarounds -» Frequently Asked Questions -» Feature Requests -»
Installation, Configuration and Administration -» Developers and
Customization -» Federation Parallel Computing -» Parallel Computing General
-» Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework Industry Solutions Group -»
Interactive Media Manager Tellme Studio -» Tellme Studio Microsoft
Reference Source -» Reference Source Server Discussion Open Protocol
Specifications -» Using the Open Protocol Specifications -» Windows Protocols
-» File Services -» Using the Exchange Server Protocols -» Using the Office
Open Protocol Specifications -» Using the SharePoint Products and
Technologies Protocols -» Office Binary File Formats Interoperability -»
Interoperability Conversations -» Technical Interoperability Scenarios -»
Achieving Interoperability through Standards


Subscribe to RSS




Manage Your Profile
© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use |Trademarks
|Privacy Statement

 

[Leonard Grey]

Eight seconds to boot Windows? That's ridiculous. Thirty seconds to boot
Windows? That was Microsoft's original goal for booting to the Welcome
Screen, not the desktop. And that was for the original (pre-service
pack) release of Windows XP by itself...you probably have other
applications starting with Windows, like your security software (I
hope), video driver and others.

You need to adopt a more realistic approach to Windows startup. Two
minutes or so is a perfectly fine time to get to a working desktop, so
as long you're 100% certain that your computer is free of /any/ kind of
malware, I think you should stop worrying.

And you should definitely not hack away at your operating system (e.g.,
by using registry cleaners or misusing the System Configuration Utility)
- that will hurt your computer, not help it.

Windows startup is a simple function of what demands your system makes
on your hardware. You can either reduce the load on your hardware - by
configuring resource-hungry applications not to start with Windows - or
upgrade your hardware. Pretty soon you'll arrive at the best your
computer can do. And it won't even be close to 30 seconds, let alone 8
seconds, lol.

 

[Gerry]

What errors appear in Event Viewer?

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System and Application logs in Event Viewer relating to the last boot in
normal mode . No Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate
which also appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

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. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Macbeth]

LOL I understand that 8s (have a look on youtube) would probably mean
changing everything and make the actual day to day running of the pc slower
and possibly less stable, but I get the feeling that I could do something to
make the machine boot quicker, even a little quicker, and still have it
stable.
What is a normal sort of boot time for an older machine? 1 minute? 2? 5?
30s to the windows screen? Ah I see, the story is that it was 30s to desktop
and ready to work.
I am not worried about it, I am curious to see if there is anything I can do
to improve it and maybe learn a little along the way. Or at least make
certain that all settings are at their optimum.
There is so much information on the web its hard to know whats true and
whats not, or who to trust!
A lot of it involves changing registry values or bios settings.
For example one suggestion is to make sure that the primary boot location in
the bios is set to the main drive. Now that makes sense to me, yet my machine
was set to floppy as primary.
Other things like changing the registry values for things like start up
delay values from 480000 to 40000 to decrease boot time,
or
Changing the registry value for waittokillservicetime from 20000 to 500 to
decrease shut down time. (I know that one works I tried it but changed it
back afterwards, yet it made no difference to my machine, making me think
theres something causing a problem somewhere. I just dont know where to start
looking)
Sound a little risky to me but thats because anything to do with the
registry makes me a little nervous!

This is something I'd never heard of before and never thought about.
http://www.pchell.com/hardware/masterslaveorcableselect.shtml

Does that make any sense?

 

[Macbeth]

Thnks Gerry I'm on a different pc at the moment I'll try to get the
information and post it up tonight.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Actually, not much of what you've read makes sense. For example:

Changing the boot order to boot first from your hard disk might save you
a half second, but you won't be able to boot from a CD until you change
it back - and the time spent to do that will erase any previous time saved.

Changing registry values to increase your boot speed is a fool's game
that can cripple your PC.

The internet - and the computer press - is full of silly ideas that
accomplish very little aside from giving you the impression that you're
doing something worthwhile. Don't fall for hype. There's no trick to
speeding the startup of your computer. It's as simple as I explained:

1- Be free of malware.
2- Consider what software you really want to start with Windows (and the
smart way to stop an application from starting is with the app's own
menus) and also how you've configured your applications at startup
(e.g., do you really want to check for updates every time you boot?)
3- Add more RAM (or, if you think it's worthwhile, upgrade your
processor and hard disk.)
4- Maintain your computer normally (i.e., don't become a maintenance
junkie.)

Startup speed is individual to each computer, so you can't say what's
good and what's not good. Broadly speaking, a startup time of more than
5 minutes to a working desktop is likely the sign of a misconfigured
computer or a malware infection.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

LOL I understand that 8s (have a look on youtube) would probably mean
changing everything and make the actual day to day running of the pc slower
and possibly less stable, but I get the feeling that I could do something to
make the machine boot quicker, even a little quicker, and still have it
stable.
What is a normal sort of boot time for an older machine? 1 minute? 2? 5?
30s to the windows screen? Ah I see, the story is that it was 30s to desktop
and ready to work.

There's no such thing as a "normal" boot time, and how old the machine
is is not a factor. Things like your particular hardware
configuration, what options you've set, and what programs you choose
to load automatically are all factors, and these factors can differ
greatly from one computer to the next.

Your boot time is 2-1/2 minutes. That's not particularly slow at all,
and well within the range that many people experience. If I were you,
if you're not having any performance problems after booting, I would
simply forget about it; it's a non-issue.

Here's my standard post on this subject:

My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it
takes to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is
otherwise satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most
people start their computers once a day or even less frequently. In
the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up isn't
very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the
morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it's done booting. I
don't know how long it took to boot and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what
programs start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them
from starting that way. On each program you don't want to start
automatically, check its Options to see if it has the choice not to
start (make sure you actually choose the option not to run it, not
just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily and best be stopped
that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run
line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want to
start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get
more information about these at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,
try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

 

[Macbeth]

Is this what you meant Gerry?
The microsoft fax one appears twice at every boot. It looks like its been
happening as far back as the log will go.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7034
Date: 12/08/2008
Time: 21:08:35
User: N/A
Computer: MACBETH
Description:
The LexBce Server service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1
time(s).

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Microsoft Fax
Event Category: Initialization/Termination
Event ID: 32026
Date: 12/08/2008
Time: 21:08:31
User: N/A
Computer: MACBETH
Description:
Fax Service failed to initialize any assigned fax devices (virtual or TAPI).
No faxes can be sent or received until a fax device is installed.

 

[Macbeth]

Is this the thing you meant?
The fax warning appears twice at every boot.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7034
Date: 12/08/2008
Time: 21:08:35
User: N/A
Computer: MACBETH
Description:
The LexBce Server service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1
time(s).

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Microsoft Fax
Event Category: Initialization/Termination
Event ID: 32026
Date: 12/08/2008
Time: 21:08:31
User: N/A
Computer: MACBETH
Description:
Fax Service failed to initialize any assigned fax devices (virtual or TAPI).
No faxes can be sent or received until a fax device is installed.

 

[Gerry]

Yes. If these are occurring during the boot process it will cause a
delay.

I assume Microsoft Fax is not working. Uninstall through Add / Remove
in Control Panel.

LexBce Server service is used by some Lexmark and some Dell printers.
Does the printer work as it should or does this error refer to a printer
you no longer use?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Macbeth]

Update: I have safely removed lexbce now. I couldn't remove it before as it
caused problems with application manager and print spooler, causing my
printer to dissapear. So the only thing out of the ordinary at start up is
the microsoft fax warning.

 

[Gerry]

Macbeth

I assume Microsoft Fax is not working. Uninstall through Add / Remove
in Control Panel.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Macbeth]

Cancel that. Print spool and application manager problems are back with
Lexbce disabled at start up. Discovered on first boot this morning.
Allowed lexbce to start and printer is ok.