Slow Desktop Display at Startup

[Guest]

System is Windows XP Pro SP2, current on updates; P4/3.4 w/2GB RAM, 80GB HDD
(30GB free).

On startup, there is an extended delay (two to three minutes) between the
Windows XP startup screen, and display of the desktop.

The desktop background color appears, and then there is no apparent activity
until a few minutes later the desktop icons appear and the start menu
programs in the system tray begin loading.

During the delay, I can press Ctl/Alt/Del and open the task manager to check
running programs and processor activity, and nothing there has been untoward
to the point that it grabs my attention.

Note that if I Ctl/Alt/Del and then Shutdown I do get a shutdown error in
explorer.exe - first the timeout as Windows attempts to shut down, and then
the "unable to shut down the program" type message. When I click the button
to shut it down manually, the system then goes ahead and shuts down and
restarts.

I've run full scans with Symantec corporate, Ad Aware, Spybot Search &
Destroy, and Windows Defender without finding anything thus far. There
doesn't appear to be anything else wrong with the system, but I'm concerned
that this could be an indicator of either a security issue or imminent
hardware problem, and would like to rule out other possibilities.

Is there any way to repair/replace explorer.exe as an attempt to isolate the
problem?

Thanks for any suggestions or assistance.

 

[Otto Moehrbach]

John
This is an Excel newsgroup. You should be posting your query to a
Windows XP newsgroup. HTH Otto

 

[Otto Moehrbach]

John
Sorry about my post. I was in the wrong newsgroup, not you. Otto

 

[sdlomi2]

John
This is an Excel newsgroup. You should be posting your query to a
Windows XP newsgroup. HTH Otto

Are you sure John is the one who is wrong????? s

 

[Guest]

Look at this:
http://www.tunexp.com/tips/maintain_your_computer/long_pause_during_windows_startup_process/

If this is like what you are experiencing try editing the boot.ini file like
it suggests.
Information on it here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

-Dan

 

[Alias~-]

System is Windows XP Pro SP2, current on updates; P4/3.4 w/2GB RAM, 80GB HDD
(30GB free).

On startup, there is an extended delay (two to three minutes) between the
Windows XP startup screen, and display of the desktop.

The desktop background color appears, and then there is no apparent activity
until a few minutes later the desktop icons appear and the start menu
programs in the system tray begin loading.

During the delay, I can press Ctl/Alt/Del and open the task manager to check
running programs and processor activity, and nothing there has been untoward
to the point that it grabs my attention.

Note that if I Ctl/Alt/Del and then Shutdown I do get a shutdown error in
explorer.exe - first the timeout as Windows attempts to shut down, and then
the "unable to shut down the program" type message. When I click the button
to shut it down manually, the system then goes ahead and shuts down and
restarts.

I've run full scans with Symantec corporate, Ad Aware, Spybot Search &
Destroy, and Windows Defender without finding anything thus far. There
doesn't appear to be anything else wrong with the system, but I'm concerned
that this could be an indicator of either a security issue or imminent
hardware problem, and would like to rule out other possibilities.

Is there any way to repair/replace explorer.exe as an attempt to isolate the
problem?

Thanks for any suggestions or assistance.

Right click on My Computer/Properties/Hardware/Device Manager and expand
the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and see if any of the IDE Channels or
Controllers are set to PIO instead of DMA. Right click on each one and
go to Properties/Advanced settings. If so, uninstall it and reboot.

Alias

 

[Gerry Cornell]

John

Please check Event Viewer for Warning / Error Reports in the System
and Application logs for the last boot and post copies.

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

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&sd=tech

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you should
double click for further information. You can copy using copy and paste.
Often the link will, however, say there is no further information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

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. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now
start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This
will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error Report complete with links
into 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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Hi - that link appears to point to a delay earlier in the process than the
one I'm experiencing, as it says "this delay occurs before the Starting
Windows progress bar appears"; my problem is happening after the Windows
progress bar and startup screen go away. But thanks!

 

[Guest]

Thanks, but that doesn't appear to be the problem - primary (HDD's) is at
UDMA5, secondary (CDD's) is at UDMA2. I do note that when I display the
drives themselves that write caching is disabled for the boot drive, but the
check box to enable it is greyed out, if that's an indicator of anything.

 

[Rock]

System is Windows XP Pro SP2, current on updates; P4/3.4 w/2GB RAM, 80GB
HDD
(30GB free).

On startup, there is an extended delay (two to three minutes) between the
Windows XP startup screen, and display of the desktop.

The desktop background color appears, and then there is no apparent
activity
until a few minutes later the desktop icons appear and the start menu
programs in the system tray begin loading.

During the delay, I can press Ctl/Alt/Del and open the task manager to
check
running programs and processor activity, and nothing there has been
untoward
to the point that it grabs my attention.

Note that if I Ctl/Alt/Del and then Shutdown I do get a shutdown error in
explorer.exe - first the timeout as Windows attempts to shut down, and
then
the "unable to shut down the program" type message. When I click the
button
to shut it down manually, the system then goes ahead and shuts down and
restarts.

I've run full scans with Symantec corporate, Ad Aware, Spybot Search &
Destroy, and Windows Defender without finding anything thus far. There
doesn't appear to be anything else wrong with the system, but I'm
concerned
that this could be an indicator of either a security issue or imminent
hardware problem, and would like to rule out other possibilities.

Is there any way to repair/replace explorer.exe as an attempt to isolate
the
problem?

This is a standalone system? Do some clean boot troubleshooting.

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

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

 

[Guest]

Hi, Gerry. Took me a couple of days to ferret it out, but your suggestion
put me on the right track - although there were no error messages in the
system logs, the timestamps ended up telling the tale. The "Windows Image
Acquisition (WIA)" service was taking approximately 57 seconds to start.
Changing it from "Automatic" to "Manual" startup resolved the bootup delay.

Now I need only find out why it started happening!

Thanks for the help.

 

[Guest]

Hi, Rock. Thanks - good suggestion, but it didn't help (I'd tried those
before I posted here) - turned out to be a Windows service - Windows Image
Acquisition (WIA) that was causing the delay, as evidenced by the timestamps
in the system log (no error flag). Setting it to "Manual" instead of
"Automatic" startup has solved the startup problem for the time being, until
I can research the problem deeper.