XP Welcome Screen takes forever

[Gerbil333]

First, I'd never seen this occur until I did a fresh install of XP slipstreamed with SP2. I did not encounter the issue with SP1a slipstreamed installations that had been updated to SP2.

I first noticed this after buying a new Seagate 120gb hd for one of my computers, which replaced its old 20gb drive:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0
Athlon XP 1700+ JIUHB TBred B
Corsair 512mb TWINX2700LLPT @ 2-2-2-11
MSI GeForce 4 Ti 4200 64mb
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Seagate 120gb 7200.7 8mb cache 7200rpm hd
Black Lite On 48x24x48x16 Combo Drive
Green Aluminum Chieftec server tower w/window
Green 12" Cold Cathode
Black Rounded IDE Cables
Logitech MX Duo
Enermax 431W daul fan PSU

After I'd finished installing everything, I realized that XP was spending about 12 seconds just sitting at the Welcome Screen. It only took 25 seconds to get from the POST screen to the Windows XP Screen, but then 12 seconds to sit staring at that. Before, the Welcome Screen had only appeared briefly (maybe 1 second).

When I found some free time recently, I formatted it again to see if I could get it to boot like it used to. It didn't work. For the first few restarts during driver and software installation, the Welcome Screen only lasted for a second, but for some reason it went right back to the 12-15 second delay after another restart. It stayed that way, except for a very rare occasion when it will start up with no delay...

I got a Raptor 74gb hd for Christmas for one of my other computers, so of course I had to do a fresh installation of XP Pro. The same problem popped up after I'd finished installing everything. I'm using the SAME drivers for EVERYTHING, and the same version of ALL software! The Raptor boots the computer in about 19 seconds, but once I get to the Welcome Screen, it pauses. No hd activity, nothing. After 12-15 seconds, the desktop starts to load.

I rebooted a while ago after installing Abit EQ (hardware monitoring software). This time the Welcome Screen only took 1 second, as it used to do! I'd seen the computer do this a few times, but it's usually about once out of 15 boots. I tried uninstalling Abit EQ and reinstalling it, but the Welcome Screen took 12-15 seconds again. Here's that configuration:

Abit NF7-S 2.0
Athlon XP 2500+ w/Retail hsf
Kingston 2x512mb HyperX PC3200 @ 2-2-2-11
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Western Digital 74gb Raptor
Black NEC 3500A 16x DVD+/-RW
Black Lite-On 52x32x52x16 Combo Drive
Black Aluminum Chieftec Dragon Server Tower w/window
Blue 6" Cold Cathode
Black Rounded IDE Cables
Logitech Elite keyboard
Logitech MX500 w/modded blue LED
Enermax 460W Blue dual fan power supply

Here's what I've tried:

-Reset my router and modem to see if it was a DHCP delay
-Installed a Linksys NIC on the 1700+ computer to see if it was a NIC driver delay.
-Checked msconfig settings (everything in the startup tab is disabled)
-I would have tried different drivers, but as I wrote above, these are the same drivers I used on my last installation (without the Welcome Screen delay)

Now for the interesting part...

I have a "junk" computer. When I upgraded to the Raptor in my main system, I put my old WD 40gb 8mb cache hd in the junk machine and used the same slipstreamed Windows XP Pro SP2 disc. Here are those specs:

ECS K7S5A v3.1
Athlon XP 1900+ Palomino
Kingston 2x256mb HyperX PC3000
GeForce 3 Ti 500 64mb
Western Digital 40gb WD400JB 8mb cache
Black Lite-On 40x12x48 Black CD-RW
Integrated NIC
Integrated Audio
Black Cooler Master Centurion 2 aluminum case
MS Explorer 3.0 modded with green LED
Enlight 300W PSU

It boots up faster than both computers! I have an identical software configuration on all three computers--same programs, same games, same Windows XP settings, and I used the same installation methods. The Welcome Screen only takes 1 second on my "junk" machine :|

Edit (a few months later): I found a solution a few weeks ago, and the problem has gone away. I disabled the Wireless Zero Configuration service. Even though I have no wireless devices, this got rid of the 10 second Welcome Screen Delay. Now my machines boot up 10 seconds faster...the Welcome Screen only appears for a second or so.

 

[talyn00]

Turn off the welcome screen, that should solve that problem

 

[Gerbil333]

But then I'd have to log in. Right now I don't have to do anything.

And it didn't do it before, so it shouldn't do it now.

 

[RVN]

Check your jumper settings/bios configuration ...slave, master or cable select. You might try swapping the IDE cable out.

 

[Oyeve]

Simular thing happened to me and my SATA drive. I had to put the SATA on the second channel and now its fine. Is your drive SATA?

 

[Gerbil333]

No, guys. That doesn't make sense...the same cables and hardware produced different results with a different installation of Windows.

I've already switched cables from the junk computer and my good one because they fit better (different lengths).

One computer is PATA (the Seagate 120gb 7200.7) and the other is SATA (WD 74gb Raptor). The BIOS settings are fine!

 

[jvarszegi]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
But then I'd have to log in. Right now I don't have to do anything.

And it didn't do it before, so it shouldn't do it now.

Well, at least you can get TweakUI (or enable settings directly in the BIOS) and have your machine auto-login, but as you point out that isn't exactly a full solution to your problem. I have some notions as to what it could be, but I haven't tested them yet.

 

[Gerbil333]

I ran "control userpasswords2" (Start, Run) and disabled passwords and turned off the Welcome Screen and Fast User Switching, but that didn't speed up boot time. A good boot for this computer takes 29 seconds (normal welcome screen), and my slow boot screen boot time is about 41 seconds. Disabling the Welcome Screen just made it boot slowly without the picture...

In other words, there was still a delay. So, I turned the Welcome Screen back on (still automatic).

However, I'm on to something *crossing fingers*

I turned on QoS in the LAN settings, rebooted, and my computer booted in only 29 seconds 😀 Maybe that was the 1/15 times I got lucky...I hope not. BRB.

I'm back: Didn't work. It worked for the second reboot, so I tried it on the other computer and that didn't help. I rebooted a third time on this computer, and it took 40+ seconds again 🙁

Edit #2: After another hour of fiddling with anything I could think of, I'm 80% sure I've figured it out. I converted my background to a .bmp and chose "Center" instead of the default "Stretch", even though my wallpaper was already at the right size. I rebooted, and the Welcome Screen quickly dissapeared. I rebooted again. It didn't screw up that time either. I tried the same thing on the other computer, and it worked too. Surely I wasn't lucky 4 times in a row.

Edit #3: Well, that didn't last. Today the WS took several seconds again. I'm running out of ideas.