XP Pro: What's it doing on startup?

[Guest]

This is my first experience with XP, so I don't know if this behavior is typical. When I turn on my (standard AMD desktop) PC, I see hard drive activity and BIOS-related information on my display. Then, the XP startup screen is displayed, the one with the three blue squares racing left to right across the screen. But at this point, hard drive activity ceases, and it seems as if nothing happens for nearly a full minute (other than those three blue squares racing across the screen). After a minute or so, hard drive activity begins again, and I'm fairly quickly into the login screen

My question: What's happening during that minute? Is there any way I can eliminate or reduce that time? I thought one of the benefits of XP is reduced boot time, but I'm not getting it. Is there any way I can find out what my PC is doing during that minute (a bootlog?) I've turned off startup items, but nothing seems to impact this behavior

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rich Barry]

Don, check here. www.blackviper.com See what Services you can disable
and don't really need.

This is my first experience with XP, so I don't know if this behavior is

typical. When I turn on my (standard AMD desktop) PC, I see hard drive
activity and BIOS-related information on my display. Then, the XP startup
screen is displayed, the one with the three blue squares racing left to
right across the screen. But at this point, hard drive activity ceases, and
it seems as if nothing happens for nearly a full minute (other than those
three blue squares racing across the screen). After a minute or so, hard
drive activity begins again, and I'm fairly quickly into the login screen.

My question: What's happening during that minute? Is there any way I can

eliminate or reduce that time? I thought one of the benefits of XP is
reduced boot time, but I'm not getting it. Is there any way I can find out
what my PC is doing during that minute (a bootlog?) I've turned off startup
items, but nothing seems to impact this behavior.

 

[Guest]

Hi Rich

I did as you advised, going through all my services and disabling as the website recommends. It didn't change the length of that 'pause' at all. Any further thoughts?

 

[Chuck]

Hi Rich,

I did as you advised, going through all my services and disabling as the website recommends. It didn't change the length of that 'pause' at all. Any further thoughts?

Don,

If checking Services doesn't help, check for spyware. Use HijackThis,
Spybot S&D, and expert advice at SWI Forums (all free). Complete
instructions are available at:
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=5187

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Rich Barry]

Don, give Bootvis a try. You can get it here.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664 Also that was a
good suggestion from Chuck. You can use these sites if you havent
already.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

http://safespy.net/Spyware_Hunter.htm

http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=knowledgebase/threats

http://spybot-spyware.com/trojan.htm

This is my first experience with XP, so I don't know if this behavior is

typical. When I turn on my (standard AMD desktop) PC, I see hard drive
activity and BIOS-related information on my display. Then, the XP startup
screen is displayed, the one with the three blue squares racing left to
right across the screen. But at this point, hard drive activity ceases, and
it seems as if nothing happens for nearly a full minute (other than those
three blue squares racing across the screen). After a minute or so, hard
drive activity begins again, and I'm fairly quickly into the login screen.

My question: What's happening during that minute? Is there any way I can

eliminate or reduce that time? I thought one of the benefits of XP is
reduced boot time, but I'm not getting it. Is there any way I can find out
what my PC is doing during that minute (a bootlog?) I've turned off startup
items, but nothing seems to impact this behavior.