Computer is Extremely slow on startup

[platinumike]

it is absolutely unusable when it has just booted up, it will look normal and the mouse moves around like normal but clicking anything will not give you a response for like 5 minutes. However if you just let it sit for like an hour or so, it eventually gets back to normal and is quite fast. I was having a problem with spyware/viruses before so i installed a few virus programs I heard good reviews about. I dont have much running on startup either, just mcafee and one of the newly installed virus programs, and thats about it.

It is so frustrating that I just reboot into safemode with networking and it runs absolutely fine, no problems at all on startup.

Another problem im having is when I try logging into administrator I get a blank desktop and no taskbar, just a mouse with my desktop. Help me out, thanks dudes.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Have you checked the Event Log for any clues?

 

[platinumike]

you mean the processes tab in taskmanager? ihave and im not sure what to look for exactly.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: platinumike
you mean the processes tab in taskmanager? ihave and im not sure what to look for exactly.

If this happened just recently, and due to your installing additional programs, and it doesn't happen in save mode, you can do a few things to fix this, including:
1. Uninstalling recently installed applications
2. Using MSCONFIG to temporarily disable services and programs

Try that and let us know.

 

[l Thomas l]

Start > Run > msconfig

Disable all startup entries (you should probably stay disconnected from internet), reboot, and see if you still have the problem. If you still have the problem, it might be a driver, in which case update all your drivers (probably should do that anyway). It could also be a service. Google "windows xp services" for help on which ones to enable and disable.

If you don't have the problem after removing all startup entries (hopefully), try enabling one startup entry at a time and seeing which one causes the problem.

 

[ZYFER]

Also wouldn't hurt to provide system specs for everyone so they have a better idea...

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: platinumike
you mean the processes tab in taskmanager? ihave and im not sure what to look for exactly.

Event Viewer. Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> System

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: sm8000

Originally posted by: platinumike
you mean the processes tab in taskmanager? ihave and im not sure what to look for exactly.

Event Viewer. Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> System

For the navigationally challenged

WindowKey + R (open Run) -> eventvwr (type) -> System
😉

I would also look at Device Manager during startup. This sounds a lot like a redetect of the audio subsystem on startup, but it should only happen once.

 

[dclive]

>>I would also look at Device Manager during startup. This sounds a lot like a redetect of the audio subsystem on startup, but it should only happen once.<<

I don't see where that is occurring (what led you to that conclusion?) but you can look in c:\windows\setupapi.log (at the very end of the file - it's done by date) and you'll see if the audio subsystem is being redetected. That would be interesting to see if new hardware or new changes are being made to Windows itself on every bootup.

If the OP wants to post his MPSReports .CAB file somewhere, I'll take a look at the errors. My .sig shows how to get the binary and where to send it....

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: dclive
>>I would also look at Device Manager during startup. This sounds a lot like a redetect of the audio subsystem on startup, but it should only happen once.<<

I don't see where that is occurring (what led you to that conclusion?) but you can look in c:\windows\setupapi.log (at the very end of the file - it's done by date) and you'll see if the audio subsystem is being redetected. That would be interesting to see if new hardware or new changes are being made to Windows itself on every bootup.

If the OP wants to post his MPSReports .CAB file somewhere, I'll take a look at the errors. My .sig shows how to get the binary and where to send it....

Just one I ran across and almost always on a startup with Sysprep that had PnP forced. I had seen it one other time on one piece of hardware and a rebuild fixed it. We assumed that one of the drivers fell on a bad block and it was redetecting at startup because it never finished.

Should have noted that it was a 1%er (check about everything else), but it is a quick check and can show symptoms of other issues. During a series of redetects, the system becomes very unresponsive, tends to show no load, and shows minimal activity. But, in Device Manager, you will see devices change status about once every 30 seconds and it sorts through device detect and load of the driver. With audio, as each device loads, it leads to the discover of new devices. The system will take about 5 minutes to sort itself out, and suddenly, everything works normally.

 

[dclive]

Are you skipping the mini-setup portion of Sysprep? Why would you force Pnp on a Sysprep, assuming no ancient ISA hardware in the machine?

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: dclive
Are you skipping the mini-setup portion of Sysprep? Why would you force Pnp on a Sysprep, assuming no ancient ISA hardware in the machine?

Me? No. Was XP SP1 days when we still had some ISA bus machines. But was one of those crazy symptoms that I had to open a SRX with Premier for and took awhile to figure it out. Guess the crap sticks in memory too long. Where is the defrag button?