Windows XP login slow...hangs at applying computer settings...

[Guest]

Hi all.

I am an admin of a small network of about 50 users. I am having an issue
with PC's taking a few minutes to login in after typing in the username and
password.

When a new pc is introduced to the domain it works great for serveral weeks,
maybe even a couple of months. But after a while, the PC starts taking
forever to login and usually hangs at "Applying computer settings..."

I have looked around the forums and everyone else seems to have this issue
right from the beginning, either after upgrading their server or after
upgradring their individual PC. But for some reason, here they work fine in
the beginning and then one day they start taking forever to login.

I have checked out the DNS on my Windows 2003 server and it seems fine
except for the domain name being a .com when it should be a local. I did not
setup the server unfortunately and have not had a chance to do anything about
it and may not any time soon.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Chuck]

Hi all.

I am an admin of a small network of about 50 users. I am having an issue
with PC's taking a few minutes to login in after typing in the username and
password.

When a new pc is introduced to the domain it works great for serveral weeks,
maybe even a couple of months. But after a while, the PC starts taking
forever to login and usually hangs at "Applying computer settings..."

I have looked around the forums and everyone else seems to have this issue
right from the beginning, either after upgrading their server or after
upgradring their individual PC. But for some reason, here they work fine in
the beginning and then one day they start taking forever to login.

I have checked out the DNS on my Windows 2003 server and it seems fine
except for the domain name being a .com when it should be a local. I did not
setup the server unfortunately and have not had a chance to do anything about
it and may not any time soon.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Ben,

How large are the individual profiles? I've seen profiles get larger over time,
mainly from temporary files downloaded, and from files copied onto the desktop.
That will slow down the startup process as you've noted.

And make sure that DNS is properly setup.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/windows-xp-on-nt-domain.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/windows-xp-on-nt-domain.html

You might want to try the Profile Cleanup Service too.
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en>
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the help so far!

I have another question that may shed some more light on the situation also.
I looked at my profile size and it is 277MB. I know that is pretty big and
I do have several files on the desktop.

I had another profile that is on the domain already setup on this PC and it
is about 2MB, so I rebooted and logged into it. It took some time to login to
that profile as well but not as long as the one I normally use. I then
logged off and logged back into my normal profile (the 277MB one) and it came
right up much faster then it has in a while and faster then the smaller
profile that I logged into just previous.

Does this possibly point to a network / DNS issue?

 

[Chuck]

Thanks for the help so far!

I have another question that may shed some more light on the situation also.
I looked at my profile size and it is 277MB. I know that is pretty big and
I do have several files on the desktop.

I had another profile that is on the domain already setup on this PC and it
is about 2MB, so I rebooted and logged into it. It took some time to login to
that profile as well but not as long as the one I normally use. I then
logged off and logged back into my normal profile (the 277MB one) and it came
right up much faster then it has in a while and faster then the smaller
profile that I logged into just previous.

Does this possibly point to a network / DNS issue?

DNS should affect everybody, equally. If the problem varies by user, and not as
a result of profile size, see what's in the profiles.

You can use something like SequoiaView or TreeSize to compare contents of the
user profiles.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/...ktop-and.html#TechnischeUniversiteitEindhoven>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/...ktop-and.html#TechnischeUniversiteitEindhoven
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/essential-tools-for-desktop-and.html#JamSoftware>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/essential-tools-for-desktop-and.html#JamSoftware

Take a look at the timeline of the tasks started. You can have Process Explorer
auto started under All Users. By displaying Start Time for each task, you can
sort the Process Explorer display by start time, and see what's taking so long.
Process Explorer is free, and takes no work to install.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/essential-tools-for-desktop-and.html#ProcessExplorer>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/essential-tools-for-desktop-and.html#ProcessExplorer

A third possibility is persistent share references. Enumerate share lists for
each user - "net use", and see if any differences.

Just detective work now. Enjoy.

 

[Guest]

Are the wkns all on same LAN? When win is starting up and logon it checks for
connection speed and it does it by sending a ping requests to DC. If anything
prevents ping to be completed the logon takes long time before win gives up.
Also if anything might prevent UDP kerberos packets to get to\from DC it
takes a long time too.
If any suspicion change kerberos to use TCP instead of UDP (Microsoft site
has an article how to do it) and\or check if anything can obstruct ping (it
is not a default ping size, it is much larger so it can be discarded on the
router or firewall in between your wkn and DC) or simply disable "slow link
detection" on wkns (article on Microsoft site). Sorry, do not have exact
numbers for the articles.