Fast Boot, but sluggish response first few minutes 2

[MitelInMyBlood]

XP_Pro SP3
AVG Pro 8.5.something
Zone Alarm Integrity Client

Both my Laptop (Sony VAIO, Intel 1.5 Mhz, 1-gig) and Desktop (Generic, AMD 2600+, 3-gigs, SATA drive) Boot-up reasonably quick to a desktop including icons and giving all appearances of being 100% "ready" to go. However, there is massive disk i/o taking place for the first 2~3 minutes or so after bootup that is literally bringing both machines to their knees, rendering them completely useless and really frustrating the user. (my wife)

Both machines appear ready to go, but they're not, and still not, .....and still not. From initial power-on until you can actually do something productive is typically 3~4 minutes, sometimes longer. Process Explorer indicates plenty of available resources.

Any idea what's going on? I used to think once you had a "desktop" with your icons that the boot & behind-the-scenes processes were finished.

Thanks

 

[jdemmi]

Have you opened Task Manager during that period and sorted by processory utilitzation and/or memory utilization -- they often coincide with disk I/O.

My guess is you have a fair amount of items starting at boot up.

You can remove these manually by deleting any items from your STARTUP folder or download any number of utilites to view these items and delete them via a GUI front end.

Alternatively you can GO TO START --> RUN and type MSCONFIG and then press enter

This will launch system MS's system config util which has a STARTUP tab. Click it and deselect any items which you don't NEED to have started at bootup. Note -- by deselecting them here you are NOT REMOVING THEM permanently from startup, you'r just disabling them.

Once you're done here reboot and see if there has been any improvement.

Also -- if you want, post a list of what is found there and we can help you figure out which ones are not required at startup and what the culprit might be.

Later,

J

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[goombawaho]

I would do a malware scan with MalwareByte's Anti-Malware 1st before doing anything else. Then follow my instructions below.

What antivirus program are you running. I've seen this with Norton 360 and Webroot Anti-Spyware + Antivirus. You absolutely cannot use the computer until these items have fully loaded.

Download and use Process Explorer to see what's actually running and then download and run Autoruns (instead of MSCONFIG) to see what's trying to start and to trim down startup items.

Here's what to do with Autoruns:
Navigate to the C:\Autoruns folder you created in Step 1 and double-click on autoruns.exe.
When the program starts, click on the Options menu and enable the following options by clicking on them. This will place a checkmark next to each of these options.
1. Include empty locations
2. Verify Code Signatures
3. Hide Signed Microsoft Entries

Then press the F5 key on your keyboard to refresh the startups list using these new settings. Take a look at everything starting up and post if you'd like.

 

[BadBigBen]

You could post a HiJackThis Log here for our perusal, it will include every startup item and what is running visibly in the background, and we will tell you what is not necessary and what may be dangerous, etc. ...

Trend Micro HiJackThis...

http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[bubba100]

To add take a look at FAQ779-6085. you could also Google- start XP faster.

 

[edfair]

Well, the first thing you can do is use MSCONFIG and unlink all the AVG stuff and see if that doesn't resolve it on the next boot.

My suspicion if that you are running the internet security version.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[goombawaho]

Don't use MSCONFIG - it's not nearly as complete as Autoruns and it's only supposed to be used for diagnosing problems, not managing startup items from a global and permanent perspective.

 

[jdemmi]

I disagree, sort of. START with MSCONFIG -- like you said,

"it's only supposed to be used for diagnosing problems"

As I understand it, that's what he's doing...


-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[goombawaho]

Not really. He is experiencing "sluggishness" which is not really a problem, but a symptom usually caused by a malware or too many startup items or a particular startup item that is having a problem launching or using too much processor/memory.

A problem is like a blue screen at every boot. Then you COULD use MSCONFIG to disable a driver or force a start in safe mode every time. But Autoruns is much better all around and allows more control and easy "check/uncheck to enable/disable drivers and all kinds of startup items.

Listen to me - I be smart on Komputers.

Autoruns in conjunction with Process Explorer will let you see what's hogging resources and then trim things down. You can keep trimming until you find the culprit.

The basic test is this: Does boot faster/run better in Safe Mode??? If the answer is yes, then there are gains to be made by looking at what is running/starting up with each boot.

If no malware is present, I always DISABLE all antivirus programs as a starting point (usually Norton, Norton 360, Mcafee) by unchecking all their entries in Autoruns and then rebooting. That proves to about 80% of customers that their antivirus is hogging their system.

If it's not AV, then you move on down the line to other things starting up.

 

[BadBigBen]

Listen to me - I be smart on Komputers.

EdFair be so, and jdemmi be no idjot too, on those newfangled thingamajigs ...

but you do have a valid point with: Autoruns is much better all around and allows more control...

So is CCleaner, but lets wait until the OP posts back, in order to garner more info, and what he has done in the meantime to alleviate the problem...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[goombawaho]

Thanks for backing me up on Autoruns. It's not that MSCONFIG is the tool of the devil, it's just that Autoruns gives a finer level of tuning in terms of startup items and gives a global perspective on all areas where items can start.

Let's hear from the OP and we can proceed.

 

[edfair]

I had suggested using MSCONFIG to disable all the AVG stuff as a quick and dirty test to see if that is causing the problem. The reason for the suggestion is my "war story" about one internet security package and the trials and tribulations of throwing the latest version of PANDAIS into the mix with a router that was going south.

Thank you Ben, but smart is only as good as the last fix.




Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

OK.... AVG indeed is the major contributor and yes, it is the full blown version 8.5 that does everything but shine your shoes. A second component (contributing a little to the sluggishness immediately post-boot) is Zone Alarm Integrity Client (a commercial flavor of plain-vanilla ZA). AVG is the primary culprit and most suspect however, as that is the component most recently installed (in place of McAfee 8.0 Enterprise Ed.)

I'm not quite sure what to do next, as the components of the swiss army knife version of AVG each and of themselves seem to offer a level of protection that I think I need - but alas not without a major tradeoff it would seem.

Apparently AVG phones home every time it's started, but it also appears to be performing some sort if abbreviated scan of G_d knows what with every startup and that is what I'd like to tame. I'm really unsure of what it's actually doing, but it's AVG doing it. (my assumption was it's performing a cursory scan)

Thanks!!

 

[BadBigBen]

My suggestion, throw out AVG and replace it with a less hungry AV, e.g. Avira AntiVir...

second suggestion, throw out ZA and also replace with a less hungry app, e.g. COMODO...

third suggestion: was already mentioned way way above, is to post a HJT log, that way we could tell you what is NOT necessary to be run at START UP (also called auto run at start), e.g. who in the h*ll needs iTunes to run in the background at every start (seen this on TOO many installs), or the nVidia Media Center for example...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[robmazco]

bye-bye AVG, go Avast.

 

[edfair]

Time to enable everything. Reboot and then go into settings to specify what you want to run, when you want it to run, and what you want it to check.

Default setting throw the whole enchilada at the machine. You can slice and dice things to get what you want.

I would make suggestions, but I've pulled AVS off my machines that were using it. (AVS doesn't support SE any more)

There is another setting, can't remember where, that allows you to change the foreground/background time slices. That will affect your problem.

Agree with BigBadBen about the stuff that is loaded. I've mangled my share of registries culling the crapware.



Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[goombawaho]

Personally, if you're behind a router, I wouldn't even run any firewall and would just run the free AVG. That would be enough protection. That is, if you're careful where you go and aren't big into random browsing and downloading. If you're the type of person doign all kinds of file sharing or downloading everything you happen to see and installing it, I'd be more worried about a firewall.

To me, all the A/V and firewall stuff is way over-hyped. Have a good up to data A/V and run MBAM once a month and you're good.

AVG doesn't seem to take too much of a hit on a modern system compared to the Nortons, Mcafees and some of the other "biggies".

Startup items are still needing to be culled though. This can be said for almost ANY machine.

 

[BadBigBen]

Q. Should I use Windows Firewall on a computer that is also behind a hardware firewall?
A.

Yes. You should keep Windows Firewall turned on for all computers in your home network. This helps prevent the spread of viruses or worms across your network if a computer is infected. A computer on the network could become infected through a separate Internet connection, such as one on a laptop that is used on your home network and on public networks. Or a virus could be introduced to a computer on your network by way of e-mail or software installed from a CD.

source:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/firewall/faq.mspx

and I tell all my customers and friends, to install a software firewall... it has saved my *ss twice in the past 10 yrs., as a malware got past my AV (always up to date) and the router, but got caught by the Comodo FW, as it tried to change REG entries and phone home...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Thanks all.
We've previously tried Comodo & while it's fine for me, it's intimidating to the wife, and the kids ignore the warning popups and allow the connection. The car is only as smart as the driver, right? I tamed the kids somewhat with a hosts file to block myspace & facebook. Jury still out on twitter.

On A/V programs it seems you talk to a dozen desktop support folks at a dozen different companies and get a dozen different answers/recommendations. We'd been fine with the old 8.0 McAfee on a perpetual license, but tho still valid (the lic) it seems McAfee recently stopped offering new .dat files for it plus going forward it doesn't support any of the Win7 variants (incl Vista).

I'll look at some of the other stuff mentioned. Thanks again

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Okay, tried Autoruns this weekend... Judas priest! It's a wonder there's any space left in the TPA. Is all this stuff really running in background or loading resident in memory?

More important, is there a list someplace of what can be safely culled?