How To Improve Slow (4-minute) Boot Speed?

[Trevor]

I have a Toshiba Core 2 Duo 2006 laptop running Windows XP. Normal operation is fast. Problem is that initial boot up or recovery from hibernation takes up to 4 minutes, so with a buggered battery it's a real delay getting back to work if I turn off the mains power for safety & economy whilst away from the desk. All laptops have cr*p Li-Ion batteries which hold only a few minutes' charge after a year's use in my experience. When the computer was new it certainly booted much quicker. There is plenty of free hard disk space (200 GB HD) and 2 GB RAM. Does keeping (closed) image folders on the desktop slow down boot-up? I don't think so.

I have tried all the usual suspects: unchecking all Msconfig Startup items apart from two, clearing all the caches, running Ad-Aware and Avira Antivirus, defragmenting, disk error-checking, & removing all but essential fonts. I'm a very tidy person and that extends to installed programs too -- no excess baggage there I don't need.

Nothing I do seems to improve boot-up or hibernation-recovery speed. Any ideas? Thanks.

Edited August 12, 2008 by Trevor

[RKASA]

Well you checked most everything else how much is being pre fatched.  Check out your prefatching which speeds the start of applications by preloading parts of them at start up.  If I recall correctly thats what its called.

[niller74]

Make sure the 'Turbo' button is pressed

Edited August 13, 2008 by niller74

[Oscheck]

Hi,

Maybe if you try 'TuneXP' on the following link http://www.download.com/TuneXP/3000-2086_4-10290929.html

I've used it before with good results for "ultrafast boot (rearrange boot files); boot folder defragmentation; prefetch folder cleaning" and its free. It's easy to work with. If you want to be safe, I suggest to do one step at the time, but that's more for the other features. It reboots, does its work, and starts up again.

Another nice free tool to keep your computer alive is ccleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/ for a more regular basis.

"CCleaner is a freeware PC optimization tool.

It combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from your system and also a fully featured registry cleaner!

CCleaner allows Windows to run faster, more efficiently and gives you more hard disk space."

No adware, notice with the installation to unmark the yahoobar if you don't want it. If you use cleaner - windows, scroll down to advanced, mark it, unmark all but the first - old prefatch data. (The prefetch has already been done by TuneXP, but it's for next times) Analyze and run cleaner. The registry tool, betters your registry and therefore also your startup time.

I think that should do the trick, and I presume you have all your drivers and windows patches up to date.

Hope this will help you.

Greetz Os

[malcolmswaine]

Maybe some hardware problem ... maybe something timing out waiting for some device to complete some operation? If you haven't done already I would check the event log (clear it down first and then reboot so you know what's what) to see if there are any clues.

Other things you can check ... you said you'd checked the programs that were due to run at startup, but what about the services?

If you boot in safe mode does it make things any quicker?

[crev]

I would suggest backing up everything and reinstalled your XP. I do this every 6 months or so.

Thats why I always partitioned my hard drive into 2 so I always have my files on the non boot drive and reinstalling is much easier.

[onethailand]

Actually, having a number of icons on the desktop does slow down your computer. I highly doubt this is the reason for a 4-minute bootup, however.

The first thing I'd be wary of is some sort of Trojan or virus - I know you have Avira installed but no anti-virus program is perfect. The best way to inspect what is happening at bootup is to get a copy ot Hijack This! (should be available at trendmicro.com) - run a scan, then post the results of the scan and I will have a quick look.

Next thing you should test is a bootup without Avira and Ad-Aware - these alone can be the reason for a slower boot-up.

After that - the next most important thing is the size of your registry. There may be a number of obsolete items - try and find a good registry optimizer program and do that - but backup your registry first!! I do not know the programs that someone posted above (maybe because I run Vista now, but also I am always a bit wary of a first-time poster) but quick check on download.com will show which programs are most popular (and generally safer).

edit-> Forgot to mention one other thing - your laptop may have a battery management program which slows everything down to optimize battery life - I haven't worked with a Toshiba laptop so I don't know for sure - but on my Lenovo there are settings for the battery and there is a noticeable difference in speed when on battery power unless I change the settings to maximize performance (and thus minimize battery life).

Edited August 13, 2008 by onethailand

[nikster]

Re-installing XP is the best way to go, I think (after you pushed the turbo button of course! )

My 2006 laptop with similar specs was showing the same behavior. I didn't have a virus or malware, and I had done several defrags with renowned defragging programs, I had uninstalled all useless programs, cleaned startup using a startup checking app, cleaned up the registry using ccleaner.

Then I put in a 7200 RPM 320GB hard disk, and it sped up quite a bit, went to be actually almost fast. Now it has its old 160GB HD back and is a little bit faster thanks to cloning the original disk back and forth using XXClone. This program clones using the Windows API so you end up with a perfectly defragged disk, whereas defraggers always seem to leave something behind.

But I think the only real cure would be to re-install Windows. This is my backup machine so I am not doing that. I just live with the slowness.

BTW I know that all the slowness comes from disk access. The HD light is on constantly and CPU usage idles at < 10% most of the time I am waiting.

Oh one more thing, check that you didn't accidentally "optimize" Windows virtual memory settings, like I did once. Make sure that settings for Virtual Memory management are all on "let Windows manage Virtual Memory". I once thought that I didn't need the paging file since I had 2GB of RAM - and that ended up slowing my Windows XP to a crawl.

Edited August 13, 2008 by nikster

[Trevor]

Actually, having a number of icons on the desktop does slow down your computer. I highly doubt this is the reason for a 4-minute bootup, however.

The first thing I'd be wary of is some sort of Trojan or virus - I know you have Avira installed but no anti-virus program is perfect. The best way to inspect what is happening at bootup is to get a copy ot Hijack This! (should be available at trendmicro.com) - run a scan, then post the results of the scan and I will have a quick look.

Next thing you should test is a bootup without Avira and Ad-Aware - these alone can be the reason for a slower boot-up.

After that - the next most important thing is the size of your registry. There may be a number of obsolete items - try and find a good registry optimizer program and do that - but backup your registry first!! I do not know the programs that someone posted above (maybe because I run Vista now, but also I am always a bit wary of a first-time poster) but quick check on download.com will show which programs are most popular (and generally safer).

edit-> Forgot to mention one other thing - your laptop may have a battery management program which slows everything down to optimize battery life - I haven't worked with a Toshiba laptop so I don't know for sure - but on my Lenovo there are settings for the battery and there is a noticeable difference in speed when on battery power unless I change the settings to maximize performance (and thus minimize battery life).

Not the battery. Only Avira is in startup menu; I'll try removing it. Thanks for the tips.

Also found this tip ... but it didn't help at all : http://www.metacafe.com/watch/399057/drama..._startup_speed/

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2

Scan saved at 04:11:32, on 14/08/2008

Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)

MSIE: Internet Explorer v7.00 (7.00.6000.16705)

Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe

C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless\Bin\EvtEng.exe

C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE

C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless\Bin\S24EvMon.exe

C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\aawservice.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe

C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\sched.exe

C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avguard.exe

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\AppleMobileDeviceService.exe

C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe

C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\ConfigFree\CFSvcs.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\DVDRAMSV.exe

C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRecvr.exe

C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehSched.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

C:\Program Files\Kontiki\KService.exe

C:\Program Files\Common Files\LightScribe\LSSrvc.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe

C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless\Bin\RegSrvc.exe

C:\Program Files\CyberLink\Shared Files\RichVideo.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

C:\Program Files\Toshiba\TOSHIBA Applet\TAPPSRV.exe

C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\X10\Common\x10nets.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllhost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\TPSMain.exe

C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avgnt.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\TPSBattM.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

C:\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\Smart Web Printing\hpswp_clipbook.exe

C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.google.co.uk/

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyServer = 127.0.0.1:8080

O2 - BHO: HP Print Enhancer - {0347C33E-8762-4905-BF09-768834316C61} - C:\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\Smart Web Printing\hpswp_printenhancer.dll

O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll

O2 - BHO: dsWebAllowBHO Class - {2F85D76C-0569-466F-A488-493E6BD0E955} - C:\Program Files\Windows Desktop Search\dsWebAllow.dll

O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_05\bin\ssv.dll

O2 - BHO: HP Smart BHO Class - {FFFFFFFF-CF4E-4F2B-BDC2-0E72E116A856} - C:\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\Smart Web Printing\hpswp_BHO.dll

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TPSMain] TPSMain.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [avgnt] "C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avgnt.exe" /min

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe

O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE/3000

O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_05\bin\ssv.dll

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_05\bin\ssv.dll

O9 - Extra button: PalTalk - {4EAFEF58-EEFA-4116-983D-03B49BCBFFFE} - C:\Program Files\Paltalk Messenger\Paltalk.exe (file missing)

O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\REFIEBAR.DLL

O9 - Extra button: HP Smart Select - {DDE87865-83C5-48c4-8357-2F5B1AA84522} - C:\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\Smart Web Printing\hpswp_BHO.dll

O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: @xpsp3res.dll,-20001 - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe

O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe

O16 - DPF: {17492023-C23A-453E-A040-C7C580BBF700} (Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool) - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=39204

O23 - Service: Lavasoft Ad-Aware Service (aawservice) - Lavasoft - C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\aawservice.exe

O23 - Service: Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Antivirus Scheduler (AntiVirScheduler) - Avira GmbH - C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\sched.exe

O23 - Service: Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Antivirus Guard (AntiVirService) - Avira GmbH - C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avguard.exe

O23 - Service: Apple Mobile Device - Apple, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\AppleMobileDeviceService.exe

O23 - Service: Ati HotKey Poller - ATI Technologies Inc. - C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe

O23 - Service: Bonjour Service - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe

O23 - Service: ConfigFree Service (CFSvcs) - TOSHIBA CORPORATION - C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\ConfigFree\CFSvcs.exe

O23 - Service: DVD-RAM_Service - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. - C:\WINDOWS\system32\DVDRAMSV.exe

O23 - Service: Intel® PROSet/Wireless Event Log (EvtEng) - Intel Corporation - C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless\Bin\EvtEng.exe

O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Roxio\Roxio MyDVD Basic v9\InstallShield\Driver\1050\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe

O23 - Service: iPod Service - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe

O23 - Service: KService - Kontiki Inc. - C:\Program Files\Kontiki\KService.exe

O23 - Service: LightScribeService Direct Disc Labeling Service (LightScribeService) - Hewlett-Packard Company - C:\Program Files\Common Files\LightScribe\LSSrvc.exe

O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (NVSvc) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe

O23 - Service: Intel® PROSet/Wireless Registry Service (RegSrvc) - Intel Corporation - C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless\Bin\RegSrvc.exe

O23 - Service: Cyberlink RichVideo Service(CRVS) (RichVideo) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\CyberLink\Shared Files\RichVideo.exe

O23 - Service: RoxMediaDB9 - Sonic Solutions - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roxio Shared\9.0\SharedCOM\RoxMediaDB9.exe

O23 - Service: Intel® PROSet/Wireless Service (S24EventMonitor) - Intel Corporation - C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless\Bin\S24EvMon.exe

O23 - Service: stllssvr - MicroVision Development, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\SureThing Shared\stllssvr.exe

O23 - Service: TOSHIBA Application Service (TAPPSRV) - TOSHIBA Corp. - C:\Program Files\Toshiba\TOSHIBA Applet\TAPPSRV.exe

O23 - Service: X10 Device Network Service (x10nets) - X10 - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\X10\Common\x10nets.exe

--

End of file - 7482 bytes

Edited August 14, 2008 by Trevor

[monty]

Hmmm,

you are saying you have the same slow boot when coming out of hibernation!

Which to me more looks like a hardware problem, since there is no actual boot when doing this. You are just re-loading a memory snapshot which was saved on your hard drive when hibernating.

Unless this file is extremely huge, this certainly shouldn't take 4 minutes!

I don't know what hard drive is inside (ata or sata) but if it is the former, it might be running in PIO mode instead of ultra DMA. Data transfer is extremely slow when in PIO, resulting in very long times to load windows, or load the hibernation file...

[Trevor]

Hmmm,

you are saying you have the same slow boot when coming out of hibernation!

Which to me more looks like a hardware problem, since there is no actual boot when doing this. You are just re-loading a memory snapshot which was saved on your hard drive when hibernating.

Unless this file is extremely huge, this certainly shouldn't take 4 minutes!

I don't know what hard drive is inside (ata or sata) but if it is the former, it might be running in PIO mode instead of ultra DMA. Data transfer is extremely slow when in PIO, resulting in very long times to load windows, or load the hibernation file...

Correction : after performing the recommended tweaks above, coming out of hibernation is much faster at 40 seconds. But booting up from cold has NOT been improved by ANYTHING : it is still far too long at 4 minutes. Looks like a clean XP re-install is the only option left, which I will not do unless something else forces me. Takes days to re-set everything and download all the utilities.

[Trevor]

Just another thought : if I did re-install Windows XP, is there any way to save downloading all the program updates, utilities, telephony etc.? These are what really take the time, especially as my version of XP is 2 years old. Reinstalling personal files is easy from DVD.

Any tips for a speedy XP re-install guys? And thanks for contributing to the helpful thread.

Edited August 14, 2008 by Trevor

[onethailand]

Looking through your Hijack This! log - I'd have to say that looks pretty dam_n good, other than the fact that there are a lot more items in there than I see when I look at my own computers (and I thought I was/my kids are bad!). The only recommendation I can make from this is to uninstall those things you don't really use.

Oh yes - and one other thing - if you don't use Windows Desktop Search, remove it - it is known to slow things down quite a bit.

Monty's point was a very good one - must admit I never even thought of that. But then again I can't remember the last time I ever saw a hard disk set to PIO mode. At least your hibernate problem seems to be solved.

As for startup - really all there is left to do is to clean your registry with a registry cleaner/optimizer. That will save a fair bit of time checking for non-existent or orphaned items. CCleaner as mentioned by someone above does seem to be quite popular - you might also want to have a look at Tune Up Utilities 2008 - both are available on Download.com.

A reinstall would've been quite normal with the older versions of Windows - but I actually don't recommend this on XP because you would have to reinstall everything else as well - and XP is generally very stable, so a reinstall just for hoping to gain a bit of speed would be overkill. In fact, a reinstall only really does two things - one, replace any files which may be corrupted (but then again with old files which will require further updates from Windows Update anyhow) - and two, empties your registry - which you can do much more quickly with one of the tools above.

Edited August 14, 2008 by onethailand

[JetsetBkk]

Have you done this yet?

...check the event log (clear it down first and then reboot so you know what's what) to see if there are any clues...

I wouldn't reinstall XP just yet. I also think there's a h/w problem (as malcolmswaine does) and something is "timing out".

A few questions: what sort of disk activity do you get during this 4 minute boot?:

- Is the disk activity light flashing all the time? - If so, it's busy reading a lot of data from your HD (difficult to believe), or it's having trouble reading it.

- Does it start flashing after 4 minutes and then completes the boot sequence? - If so, it's finished (given up?) waiting for something and is carrying on with the boot.

[NHJ]

Just another thought : if I did re-install Windows XP, is there any way to save downloading all the program updates, utilities, telephony etc.? These are what really take the time, especially as my version of XP is 2 years old. Reinstalling personal files is easy from DVD.

Any tips for a speedy XP re-install guys? And thanks for contributing to the helpful thread.

update all the drivers for your stuff, not on the laptop maker website but on the device builder.

a good first step is to use http://www.touslesdrivers.com/index.php?v_...0&v_forum=0 , it's in french but it's not a trouble as new versions will be listed, it might not always be up to date but it's a good start.

[jeffer]

Did you ever try Safe Mode as suggested earlier?

You do have a lot of services including a few that could be conflicting e.g. different messenger and media programes. You could put on manual a lot of items e.g. Lightscribe. There is a missing file for Paltalk that should be sorted. If you use Adobe only for viewing files then you could replace it with something like Foxit which is much faster to load than Adobe.

Hibernation can be a problem for some notebooks. Mine loads in less than 20 seconds but I keep an almost empty desktop. Did you try removing the image folders you mentioned from the desktop?

[gazzasore]

Download this little beautie StartUpLite

From here stops all the stuff you really dont need to have at startup

http://www.malwarebytes.org/startuplite.php

& While you are there download Malwarebytes to get rid of any nasties

Edited August 15, 2008 by gazzasore

[JetsetBkk]

You should also disable "Quiet boot" so you can see what is happening: Power up, hit F2 to enter "Setup" (of the BIOS) and then hunt around for any option that looks like "Quiet Boot" and make sure it is disabled.

Then you will see what the system finds while it is booting - memory, hard disks, USB devices, mouse, etc.

If there is a delay while this boot information is being displayed, you need to note what it says.

[Trevor]

My boot time is still a full 4 minutes. First I get the 'Welcome' within a minute, then 2 minutes of black screen, and finally one minute of the desktop loading and stabilizing.

I couldn't find 'Quiet Boot' anywhere in my BIOS. Presumably not an option on my Toshiba Satellite A100-998 laptop (2006).

Startuplite immediately informed me (I ran it twice) that there were no unnecessary programs running on start up.

The only two items I have ticked in Msconfig are 'TPS Main' and 'Avira antivirus'. But it adds these two back in checked each time I delete them :

NvCpl RUNDLL.32.EXE C:\Windows\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup

cftmon C:\Windows\system32\cftmon.exe

My Sysconfig WIN.INI tab has all 9 items checked -- are these all necessary?

Did you ever try Safe Mode as suggested earlier? You do have a lot of services including a few that could be conflicting e.g. different messenger and media programes. You could put on manual a lot of items e.g. Lightscribe. There is a missing file for Paltalk that should be sorted.

I will try Safe Mode next ... what are you looking for there?

Are you saying that it is loading Lightscribe and other stuff even though it is not checked in Sysconfig Startup? How do I manually block these?

To my knowledge I don't even have Paltalk. What is this so I can identify what you are talking about?

Thanks again to all ... interesting thread which has been included in the last ThaiVisa email summary ... keep it up.

Edited August 16, 2008 by Trevor

[JetsetBkk]

My boot time is still a full 4 minutes. First I get the 'Welcome' within a minute, then 2 minutes of black screen, and finally one minute of the desktop loading and stabilizing....

Glad to see you're still with us!

So if you get the Welcome screen within a minute, the delay is in Windoze, not the BIOS.

You may get more information about what is happening during the "2 minutes of black screen" by making this small change:

If you are using a stand-alone computer or if you want to enable verbose status messages on only one computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.

3. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then click System.

4. In the right pane, double-click Verbose vs normal status messages.

5. Click Enabled, and then click OK.

6. Close Group Policy Object Editor, and then click OK.

From here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325376

You may have to boot several times to catch what is displayed immediately before and after the black screen - but it might give useful information.

You also must check the event log to see if there is anything there! I bet there is!

[Eureka]

Here are a few likely problem areas not yet mentioned (or not explained)

1. Windows looks at the Prefetch folder (standard install is c:\windows\prefetch ) to preload programs you have used before but it does not know if the program is still installed or how important it is to you. Delete ALL entries in this folder as Windows will renew a current list as you use the computer. This may cause a very minor reduction in speed initially.

2. Turn off your Bluetooth. A faulty driver or hardware will mirror your problem. Late week there was a driver update in the XP Updates which crippled many installations but is easily fixed with a driver reinstall. For some unknown reason Bluetooth driver conflicts are more common on legit WinXP installs than Pantip copies.

[onethailand]

Sometimes the startup processes are hidden by the manufacturer. But now that it's clear the startup happens before booting the OS - you need to see what has changed in the BIOS.

* First thing - especially with 2 GB memory - is to change the memory check settings to quick, rather than extended.

* Usually the only other thing would be some sort of hard disk detection routine. I think that would be a bit strange on a notebook, but you may want to see what your hard disk settings are - it may be possible to run a one-time hard disk detection instead of having the machine autodetect each time at bootup.

[jeffer]

Starting in Safe Mode means only essential services start up. If everything runs quickly when in Safe Mode then it's an indication the problem is with one of the other items you normally have running at start-up. The most likely candidate is your Anti-Virus software. If things run okay in Safe Mode then unhook from the internet and any networks, disable your anti-virus and try rebooting and see if that makes a difference. NVcpl, google it. Apparently it can be disabled safely but some people report it as a virus however you have run virus scans so probably not, just an NVIDEA program.

Paltalk is in your HJT report. You should be able to set HJT to make a backup before you start deleting anything. While I thought before about the problem being too many services it probably isn't as you have a newish computer so it should handle things okay. You indicate you've checked for viruses and spyware so we have to assume the problem isn't there. Still could be possible conflicts but thinking about when I've encountered similar problems it's always been due to an anti-virus setting (possibly running a startup check that takes a long time), a network issue or a driver problem.

If you can't fix it soon then I'd save time and do a clean install. I always keep a folder with all the programs I download so that's one way of saving time when i do a clean install about once a year. Another smarter way is to use something like Acronis to make an image of your system once you have everything set up correctly, then you can always go back to that if you have problems and want to start fresh. Install your major programs one by one, reboot each time and then test hibernation.

[JetsetBkk]

...But now that it's clear the startup happens before booting the OS - you need to see what has changed in the BIOS...

I don't understand why you said this. Do you mean "now that it's clear the delay happens before booting the OS"? If so, how does that tally with what he said here:

...First I get the 'Welcome' within a minute, then 2 minutes of black screen, and finally one minute of the desktop loading and stabilizing.

I assumed that the "Welcome" was the Windows XP "Welcome" screen. So I understood from that, that the BIOS was finished doing what it does and the delay was during the OS startup.

[onethailand]

...But now that it's clear the startup happens before booting the OS - you need to see what has changed in the BIOS...

I don't understand why you said this. Do you mean "now that it's clear the delay happens before booting the OS"? If so, how does that tally with what he said here:

...First I get the 'Welcome' within a minute, then 2 minutes of black screen, and finally one minute of the desktop loading and stabilizing.

I assumed that the "Welcome" was the Windows XP "Welcome" screen. So I understood from that, that the BIOS was finished doing what it does and the delay was during the OS startup.

You could be right. I assumed he meant the welcome upon hardware bootup. If he meant the XP welcome screen, then obviously you can ignore what I said

[JetsetBkk]

.. I assumed he meant the welcome upon hardware bootup. If he meant the XP welcome screen, then obviously you can ignore what I said

Ah! OK.

Well, I hope he comes back and tells us all what happened, because I for one am intrigued as to what the problem is!

[RKASA]

If it still only loads slow from cold start, are you sure a full check disk was done.  It could be a hanging at a bad cluster and check disk could repair it.  Full check and format with install will to I guess.  I had a laptop that was doing that and check disk fixed it.

[scyriacus]

you are saying you have the same slow boot when coming out of hibernation!

Which to me more looks like a hardware problem, since there is no actual boot when doing this. You are just re-loading a memory snapshot which was saved on your hard drive when hibernating.

Unless this file is extremely huge, this certainly shouldn't take 4 minutes!

there are some systemfiles like hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys, which are not defragmented thru defrag. if they are heavily fragmented, they cause the described slowdown. a solution is a special defrag utility: "PageDefrag" by Mark Russinovich. you find it at http://www.sysinternals.com

[Trevor]

To answer some of your points :

1) My prefetch folder had 150 items in it. I deleted them. Now it has 19 items on re-booting.

2) In safe mode it boots in 40 seconds, which is normal.

3) Normal boot takes 3' 40". If I disconnect the network and disable the antivirus, it boots 30" faster.

4) The event viewer has, amongst others :

LightScribeService (part of my printer's driver which I can't isolate to delete).

Richvideo

Kservice

Regsrvc

Hpqddsvc (probably that HP printer again -- even though it's switched off).

Hpqcxs08

EvtEng

Come to think of it, this laptop may be running slower after I installed the drivers for my HP C8180 Multifunction printer/scanner. It has many features like Bluetooth and Lightscribe which I never use but they are integral to the driver package.

5) I was referring to the 'Welcome' on the screen for XP. This appears within 1', followed by black for 1', then 1'.5 for the colour desktop to load.

6) I have Bluetooth installed but don't think it is part of the boot. How to disable it? If I can't, I may delete it as it is never used.

7) Re: Paltalk, I don't need it and can't find where to delete it either.

8) * First thing - especially with 2 GB memory - is to change the memory check settings to quick, rather than extended. ... how do I do this?

[jeffer]

Just quickly...

Paltalk, in your Hijack This report you can tick items you want to remove. Find the HJT settings so it will make a backup and then (carefully) delete items you don't want including missing files. Create a system restore point if you're going to delete items you're not 100% sure of (google items you aren't sure of first). Looked at my setup on this comp last night and noticed HJT found a few missing items but I've never had the slow loading problems you have so don't expect it to make much difference.

I don't use Bluetooth but had a key on the laptop that was switched on, so turn it off if you don't want it searching for bluetooth hardware that doesn't exist. Double check your manual to see you are disabling the corect keys and/or switches.

If you have a copy of all your software and drivers for the scanner then why not roll back the drivers to a previous version. If no difference then try deleting the scanner from the system (in device manager) and unplugging it. See if rebooting without the scanner makes any difference. If it doesn't then it shouldn't take long to reinstall and that's one more possibility eliminated. When you are in device manager check to see there are no yellow icons advising of conflicts.

If safe mode boots up quickly then it suggests it's one of the additional items you have loading that is the source of your problem but the trick of course is to find out which one. On a clean install it's a lot easier to isolate the problem as you can install and check one by one.

Memory check settings? No idea unless it's a system bootup check in your BIOS.

Tried updating your graphics drivers?