Very Slow Upon Bootup After Restart

[Graeme]

Hi,
I have WinXP Pro, and whenever I restart it, the screen displaying the user
names will take over a minute to load (where each shade of blue will take
about 5-10 seconds to be refreshed). Then the computer will run super-slow
until I switch it off.

The way to prevent this is to turn off my PC for 20 mins before rebooting.

Does Anyone have any Ideas?

Graeme

 

[Graeme]

Hi,
Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm afraid though that I have done most of your suggestions.

I have about 5 items that load of startup (graphic card drivers, sound
drivers, etc), and I defraged a few days ago.
This problem has been around ever since I first ran the computer.
I have 512 DDR RAM, and an Athlon XP 1900+ CPU, with a fan and heatsink
certified and approved by AMD for this processor. Also I have two case
fans, and a 400W also approved PSU.

I have dual booting on my PC, and the problem is specific to WinXP only, the
other OS, Win98, does not have this problem upon restarting.
I don't think that the problem is to do with the CPU/PSU fan and cooling as
the computer will run fine for days if necessary, just it slows donw upon
restart.

As for paging files:
I have 2 HDDs, both running on the RAID controller, with no RAID set up
(allows me more space on the first two IDE channels), and is partitioned as
follows:

HDD 0 - C:/ WinXP system disk 5Gb
HDD 1 - D:/ My Personal Files 37.2Gb
HDD 0 - E:/ Win98 System disk 5Gb
HDD 0 - F:/ All software for both OS 18.6Gb

I have only one paging file, which is on the F:/ drive, and its size is
system managed.
I also have system restore running on all drives, but I don't know if that
is relevant.

Graeme

 

[Lawrence]

Hmmm.... seems like you've got a good handle on things....

1) I suppose there's a chance of a virus... stealing CPU time..... but that
seems remote. Unless you've never run antivirus software, and do not keep
it updated..

2) I still suspect a software configuration issue... Have you read through
these recommendations?
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/expertzone/columns/mcfedries/03june16.asp
One recommendation is to spread your paging file over two physical drives,
if you have them.... and you do.

A tiny corruption, or mis-setting, can have deleterious effects on an
otherwise stable system.
3) Have you tried purging the paging file (by setting it to 0), rebooting
cleanly, then re-establishing the paging file?

Unless I can think of anything else, I am afraid you'll have to continue
your search, or wait for a reply from someone more knowledgeable than me.
4) One more general thing... due to subject overlapping, and common
confusion of News Group focus, make sure you search the
microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain, and the .help_and_support
groups - not just this hardware one. I usually do a search on the newsgroup
folder (then ctrl+shift+f) for specific phrases, and it scans all the
microsoft.public groups that I've added... Also, use Google advanced
searches.... http://www.google.ca/advanced_search?hl=en Very helpful in
looking up solutions to the myriad messes we find ourselves in, from time to
time.

Regardless, please post back with your inevitable solution (I have faith
you'll find it)

Good luck,
-Lawrence in Seattle

 

[Lawrence]

Just to determine beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's software (as well as
to give you something of a success experience), have you tried booting in
SAFE MODE?

If it boots at normal speed, then you've eliminated hardware as an issue....
perhaps there's a driver that's mucking things up -- not enough to *crash*,
but enough to slow things down.

What was the last piece of hardware you installed? Considered uninstalling
it? To see if the problem goes away? You might be able to get a new driver
for it, then reinstall with better results....

Just trying to offer a variety now.... I do not know enough about RAID
configurations to know whether yours, combined with your drive partitioning
choices could cause slow performance.

Are there any BIOS settings you could change to improve it? Perhaps
something reverted to a poor-performance setting. Worth looking at the
unanticipated solutions, given all of the things you've tried.

Hang in there,
-Lawrence in Seattle

 

[Lawrence]

Well shoot..... I was actually hoping a SAFE MODE boot would be the speedy
one you're looking for.

If that had worked, it would cleaved off a huge branch of the
troubleshooting tree. But since the problem is still being evasive... hmmm.
I sincerely hope I haven't missed something. I am rereading our
correspondence to see if there's something I missed.

I know you mentioned having run Defrag. I just wonder about your paging
file setup... I have read in several locations (that seem reputable) that
your configuration is a good way to go - and yet, there seems to be some
heated debate about the subject. It seems that there are assumptions that
one school of thought makes, that are different from the other school of
thoughts. (How much physical RAM you've got, whether to put the paging file
an FAT32-formatted partition -rather than an NTFS one, etc.)

As for me, I got substantial improvements when I spread the file over my two
physical drives (and everything's formatted NTFS, fyi). Since you really do
seem to have a good handle on the variables - and seem bound and determined
to resolve this, I put the link below in, only *in case* you happened not to
have read it.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/columns/mcfedries/03june16.asp

Of course, if you end up locating a hardware problem that's the cause - the
paging file idea becomes little more than trivia.

Press on )
-Lawrence in Seattle

 

[Lawrence]

Safe Mode loads only the generic drivers, so since it booted fast in Safe
Mode you have proven that it IS software, Sir.

It means that a bad/corrupted driver is being loaded when you try it the
normal way.

If it had booted slowly in Safe Mode, too, then it would have pointed to a
hardware problem - since it would mean that drivers used made no difference.

Congratulations! Driver problems are usually much easier to resolve (and
for free!) than a hardware problem - which can be expensive, if you have to
replace parts.

Please continue to post your progress,
-Lawrence in Seattle

 

[Lawrence]

I had an idea....

Since our current theory about what on earth could be causing your slow
boots is a corrupt driver, consider getting and using Bootvis. It's a free
program, from Microsoft. Not only can it be used to "optimize" boot
performance, but it can be used to determine *exactly what* is slowing down
your boot (including tracking down a slow driver).

I use the program myself, every few months or so, to keep things in good
shape, but I didn't think about the fact that you can trace drivers with it,
too. (I've never needed to use that part of it) Sorry I didn't think of it
before!

Here's a link about the program, written by a third party:
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/tune-19.html

And here's the link for the program itself:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a7-08e8-4555-a313-40676ef111d7&DisplayLang=en

Please post back with your findings, and good luck,
-Lawrence in Seattle