Odd startup problem in Windows XP

[Kaido]

I have a strange problem with my laptop. I just reinstalled Windows (XP Pro) - clean install, latest updates, etc. - and it hangs just after logging in for about 30 seconds at the wallpaper screen, then the screen flickers and the taskbar & icons appear. This wasn't the case with the previous installation; it was very quick. The machine has a 2ghz Core 2 Duo, 2 gigs of ram, and a 7200rpm 100gb hard drive. Again, fresh install of XP/updates/apps. Same as I had before. Any ideas on why it takes so long now?

 

[slirp]

My guess is something is waiting to time out. Like a network adapter to get an address or something. Check the event viewer to see what's erroring out.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: slirp
My guess is something is waiting to time out. Like a network adapter to get an address or something. Check the event viewer to see what's erroring out.

Checked and there are several warnings:

Your computer has automatically configured the IP address for the Network card with network address [MAC ID left out for security resaons]. The IP address being used is 169.254.225.142.

That IP is strange...it's not my home IP and my internal LAN is setup on 192.168.1.x. Next error message:

Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address [MAC ID left out for security reasons]. The following error occurred: The semaphore timeout period has expired. Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

There is also this error scattered around the log:

The browser service has failed to retrieve the backup list too may times on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip+{[long number]}. The backup browser is stopping.

I tried disabling the wireless connection, giving my laptop a static IP, rebooting the router, and deleting the clients on the DHCP table...nada. Still the 30-second pause.

 

[Kaido]

When I disable all of my network devices in the hardware manager, it boots up normally.

/puts on detective hat

 

[Kaido]

Here are my network devices:

Bluetooth
1394 Net Adapter (Firewire)
Ethernet
Wifi
Parallels Guest Adapter (VM bridge)

Bluetooth, Firewire, and Ethernet all have zero effect on boot time - it's near-instant if I only have those enabled. If I enable Wifi, it's about 20 seconds; if I enable the Parallels Guest Adapter, it's about 30 seconds. I believe the Parallels adapter is looking for a connection to bridge itself with, which explains the delay. I still can't explain the Wifi connection delay, however...previously it was near-instant. I'm going to see if there's a newer version of the driver available for it, to see if that helps.

 

[Kaido]

Well, I've updated to the latest driver and it still "hangs" at login for about 20 seconds. There are no more error messages in the system event log. I guess I'll just have to live with it 😛

 

[Stumps]

It happens all the time with my windows XP installations when I stuff around with the network settings....I'm not sure what causes it but I know that if you install Norton Firewall it makes the problem 10 times worse.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Stumps
It happens all the time with my windows XP installations when I stuff around with the network settings....I'm not sure what causes it but I know that if you install Norton Firewall it makes the problem 10 times worse.

Ugh, it's so weird. The only difference between this installation and the previous installation is that the previous installation had XP MCE and the new one has XP Pro. Same software, same settings, same network connections - different boot times. I'm using ZoneAlarm as a firewall, btw.

 

[Raduque]

Set both the problematic network connections to static IPs and see how that affects the boot time - it's possible they are timing out waiting for a flaky router's DHCP server to assign it an IP.

Which is what this means:

Your computer has automatically configured the IP address for the Network card with network address [MAC ID left out for security resaons]. The IP address being used is 169.254.225.142.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Raduque
Set both the problematic network connections to static IPs and see how that affects the boot time - it's possible they are timing out waiting for a flaky router's DHCP server to assign it an IP.

Which is what this means:

Your computer has automatically configured the IP address for the Network card with network address [MAC ID left out for security resaons]. The IP address being used is 169.254.225.142.

I tried that already, still had the long boot time with static. fyi, the router I'm running is a buffalo with dd-wrt, has been rock solid since I flashed it. Ho-hum 🙁