Slow startup on WinXP Home

[eljainc]

Hello,

We have a couple of computers that run Windows XP home, with 1GB RAM.
There is a part of the boot process which really is slow. The part
that is slow is before the desktop icons appear on the screen, but
just after the Windows GUI is being initialized (after the welcome
screen). There is just a black background with the windows pointer
cursor. What could be taking all of the time during this process?
Could it be a networking issue? I suppose BootVis might offer some
insight into this process.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas on this.
Mike

 

[Leonard Grey]

Bootvis is unsupported and won't offer any insight.

Do you have the same issue when booting into Safe Mode? If not, one or
more of the applications that start with Windows (including drivers) is
likely the cause of the problem. Of course, malware is always a possibility.

There are no silver bullets here, only process-of-elimination
troubleshooting, which you can perform if you are 100% certain that your
computer is free of any type of malicious software.

 

[Gerry]

Have you tried this approach?
How to configure Windows XP to start in a "clean boot" state
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us

Another approach might be to compare the start up list for one computer
with another where one computer starts OK with the poorly starting
computer to see what is different using Autoruns.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx

With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting,
or you can can right click an item and then delete it. If you uncheck
you can recheck to re-enable the item. It is a much safer approach than
editing the Registry. Another useful feature of the programme is that
you can right click an item and select Search Online to get information
about the item selected.


--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[jmh]

Hello,
I am curious to know if you have Quicktime installed and what the
configuration is.
I am having a slow boot problem and _seem_ to have solved some of it by
reconfiguring the Quicktime 7 advance video setting back to DirectX from
Safe Mode (which I had to change in order to view iTunes videos)
Hope this helps.
JMH

 

[eljainc]

Hello,
I am curious to know if you have Quicktime installed and what the
configuration is.
I am having a slow boot problem and _seem_ to have solved some of it by
reconfiguring the Quicktime 7 advance video setting back to DirectX from
Safe Mode (which I had to change in order to view iTunes videos)
Hope this helps.
JMH

I will check the Qucktime issue and post a follow up. It may not be
for a few days however as
this is a co-worker's computer and I get limited access to it.

Mike

 

[jmh]

Any additional thoughts on the Quicktime question?
hmm,
Not a very activie board, considering the many questions here at the
Windows boards

 

[clr525]

Hi, just had to thank Gerry, his second link he gave has helped to sort my
laptop out, so much so, that it has gone from 10 to 15 min to boot up, to now
booting up quicker than our new desktop. Had tried everything, just wish I
had found out about these forums earlier. Thank you again, Phil

 

[Gerry]

Glad I was able to help.

--
Regards.

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