Startup slow, RPCSS takes 2 minutes

[LuannV]

I recently got a new hard drive so I have a clean installation of XP Pro and
mostly just my productivity software. Windows is starting very slowly, and I
turned on verbose messaging so that I can see what it's doing. When it gets
past the splash screen and shows "RPCSS is starting", it sits with that
message for 2 minutes before going on to the logon. I've run utilities to
clean up the registry, clear up any spyware, and optimize the system, and
I've pared down services and startup to what I believe is bare minimum. I'm
not sure what else to do, or if Windows is attempting to load something out
of order (and how to fix that). Ideas?

Performance after logon is great, I just don't know why it's taking so long
to get from the splash screen to logon.

thanks,
Luann

 

[Gurpreet Singh]

This is a bit tricky as you can render your box non bootable if done
incorrectly. Take backup of the registry key do the following
1 Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs

2 Take a backup of this key and On the right side of the viewing pane,
right-click ObjectName, click Modify, type
LocalSystem in the Value data box, and then click OK.

3 Reboot the machine

If issue still happens run the secedit command given in KB 313222 to reset
permissions to default settings

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb
/verbose

Reboot the machine and check.

 

[LuannV]

Thanks, Gurpreet. Unfortunately, I did both of these things, rebooting
in-between, and neither had any effect. The machine is still taking ~3
minute tso get from the splash screen to logon, with 2 of those minutes
sitting at "RPCSS is starting".

Luann

------------------------------

 

[Gerry]

Luann

Select Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and right click
on Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and select Properties. Is the
StartUp type set as Automatic?

Select Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and right click
on Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator and select Properties. Is the
StartUp type set as Manual.?

Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for Errors
and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any more than 48 hours ago.

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! Right click on the Report in the
list and select Properties. In the window, which appears are three buttons
towards the top right of the window. The top one has an arrow up, underneath
is an arrow down and third is a button resembling two pages. Click the
button and close Event Viewer. It is not obvious but this action places a
copy of the report in your Clipboard. 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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[LuannV]

Thanks Gerry. Those services are set to Automatic/Started and Manual,
respectively.

Thanks for reminding me to check Event Viewer. I had gone in there yesterday
and got an error about it being corrupt, so I emptied it then never went back
to see what was going on. I just checked it, found a couple of things that
needed to be resolved and fixed those. A restart is showing no warnings or
errors in Event Viewer, but it's still taking the same amount of time to get
from splash screen to logon.

Shortly after the system is running, this error pops up in Event viewer:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Launch
permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{24FF4FDC-1D9F-4195-8C79-0DA39248FF48}
to the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18). This security permission
can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

When I search for that key in the registry it is called "Quarantine Private
SHA Binding class." I've switched Network Access Protection back and forth
between automatic (which then gives me warnings about not getting a health
certificate) and manual and no setting on that seems to affect my startup
issue. (This is just a home desktop machine with a router, and I do a VPN
connection during the day to access a remote machine for my work, but I'm not
otherwise networked.)

thanks,
Luann

 

[Gerry]

Luann

Is your version of Windows XP =Windows XP Professional x64 Edition?

Event 10016 may be logged in the System log on a computer that is running
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899965

--


Hope this helps.

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

 

[LuannV]

No, it's XP Pro 32-bit, with SP3.

Luann

Is your version of Windows XP =Windows XP Professional x64 Edition?

Event 10016 may be logged in the System log on a computer that is running
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899965

--


Hope this helps.

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

 

[Gerry]

Luann

This security permission can be modified using the Component Services
administrative tool.

See what you make of this link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727120.aspx

This security permission can be modified using the Component Services
administrative tool.

--


Hope this helps.

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

 

[LuannV]

Thanks, Gerry. I'm sure that article is helpful -- it's so comprehensive,
though, that it seems like way more than I need to know or can absorb right
now. I do believe that error has to do with the VPN connection I make later
on in my work, and I checked with the server folks on it and they said it's
nothign to worry about.

So I'm stumped as to why I have the long delay between the splash screen and
logon prompt. The only other suggestion I got was to defrag the hard drive in
case the issue is simply the scramble by Windows to find all the files it's
looking for to start up. I'm skeptical, but will do this later in the day
when I can afford to be away from the machine for a while. New hard drive
with new installations of everything and only 40 Gb out of 140 Gb being used.
I'm skeptical it will make a difference, but I'm trying everything at this
point.

thanks,
Luann

 

[Gerry]

Luann

My advice is still that you need to eliminate the error message and the
error report is telling you what you need to do.
http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=10016&eventno=4718&source=DCOM&phase=1

--


Hope this helps.

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

 

[LuannV]

Thanks, I added NETWORK as a user with the same permissions as the others to
netman and Network Provisioniong Serice in DCOM Config. Unfortunately, I've
had a process running for several hours on my machine which I cannot
interrupt to restart and see if I have improvement, but will do so as soon as
I can.

As an aside, when I attempt to open DCOM Config in Component Services, I get
several warnings about some CLSIDs having a named value AppID but not
recorded under \\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppId, and asking if I wish to record it.
I say Yes to each one, then the next time I open Component Services, I get
the same prompts again. Yet another thing to resolve...

thanks,
Luann

 

[LuannV]

My latest reboot had the same result -- so far nothing I've tried has reduced
the startup time.


Luann

 

[Gerry]

Luann

Are you still seeing this message "When it gets past the splash screen and
shows "RPCSS is starting", it sits with that message for 2 minutes before
going on to the logon."

Are you still getting the DCOM error in Event Viewer?

. Power On Self Test (POST) processing

. Initial startup process

. Boot loader process

. Selecting the operating system

. Detecting hardware

. Selecting a configuration

. Loading the Kernel

. Initializing the Kernel

. Logging on



Which completes immediately before the delay?

What is the Boot Menu Delay. Select, Start, Run, type "msconfig" without
quotes and hit ENTER. Select Boot Ini tab and reduce Time Out. Click on
Apply and OK and restart the computer for the change to take effect. A
setting of 5-10 seconds is reasonable.

Have you tried a logged boot?
A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315222

--


Hope this helps.

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

 

[LuannV]

I finally had time to get back to this! While troubleshooting an issue with a
USB device today, I found that there was an error in Device Manager which
required an updated USB hub driver to be installed. Once I did that, the
restart issue seems to have resolved itself.

Thanks so much for your help!

Luann

 

[Gerry]

Luann

Glad it's sorted. Thanks for reporting the outcome.


--


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