Very Slow Startup

[crockett]

Hi,

here is something for the techies out there. Hope you can help.

My laptop (Thinkpad R51, Win XP Pro SP2, 1 GB Ram) has recently developed a strange behavior.

It boots up fine, but after I have entered my account password, the processes and services take ages

to load (15-20 minutes). Sometimes the computer even freezes while loading. The mouse pointer is then

still movable, but there is no more disk activity and when I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to show the task manager and

restart, nothing happens leaving only to push the power button.

I also recognized that the processes not always start in the same order and that - this is my assumption -

it always seems to be a different process which causes the problem. I have so far checked for viruses,

spyware, rootkits, defragmented and checked the hard disk for errors including bad clusters, all to no avail.

Any other idea anybody?

[Guest Reimar]

Have you try to start in Safe Mode? If not do it and check how fast the system starts up! Normally start in Safe Mode is more slow than in normal mode.

If the sys startup fast in save mode, try to go back to an date before the problem happens and run System Restore.

[crockett]

Have you try to start in Safe Mode? If not do it and check how fast the system starts up! Normally start in Safe Mode is more slow than in normal mode.

If the sys startup fast in save mode, try to go back to an date before the problem happens and run System Restore.

Thanks Reimar, I have not tried Safe Mode yet, but will do when I am at home tonight and let you know.

Unfortunately I have disabled System Restore, but I could go back to an incremental image of the disk (Acronis)

which I do every month. However, I consider this the last option only if everything else fails.

[malcolmswaine]

The first thing i would try is starting the machine in safe mode to see if that makes any difference (F8 just as windows starts to load will give you the option). If that clears things up then its a process of elimination really trying to find the culprit process or thread that’s hanging the machine. A handy utility that ships with XP is a utility called msconfig.exe. If you click start -> run and then type msconfig into the run box and click open it will display a window from where you can selectively choose which programs get run when the OS starts (startup tab) and also choose which services to disable (services tab). On the services tab there is an option 'hide Microsoft services' which is very useful when weeding out rogue services. Look for anything you are unsure about up on google to see if its problematic.

Failing that- has your machine been removed from a network or have you changed any network dependant profile setting that may cause the machine to try and search for logon or profile information across a network ?

Further check the event log for error messages. Start -> run then type in eventvwr into the run box and click open. Look for any messages that may dictate what it was that was waiting for something to happen (and probably timed out).

Hope this helps

Malc

[Wolfie]

Another option is (once you've got your machine to boot up properly) is to goto the start menu, run, then type 'msconfig' - switch to the start up tab and check what is being loaded. Remove everything that isnt 100% necessary then reboot.

I would also run a full virus scan on your machine and also a full spyware/malware scan.

Let us know how you get on!

[crockett]

Malc - thanks for the detailed reply. I will try Safe Mode tonight when I'm home. For the processes I have some

other utility (Process Explorer) on the machine, which should also do the job. So far I have not seen anything

unusual or strange there but will take a closer look again. The machine is not and was never on a network so this

can be ruled out. The event viewer is a good idea, I will definitely try that one as well tonight.

Wolfie - thanks. I have checked for viruses (Kaspersky) , spyware (Spy Sweeper) and all the other evil things out

there, but the machine is clean. I will follow yours and malcolmswaine's advices and let you know the outcome.

[crockett]

Ok guys, here's the follow up.

The machine is back to normal

The problem was caused by a little program which I installed a while ago,

called Teamviewer.

http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

I used it a couple of times to help my brother on problems with Vista.

Now that this nasty thing is gone, everything is fine again.

Once again, many thanks to all of you for the great advice

crockett