XP Slow to boot up

[mondoray]

Guys,

I have a Pentium 3 @ 450 mhz running XP Pro. I seems to take for ever to boot up. Scrolls through about 20 sets of beads on startup screen. The screen then goes blank for about 15 secs then the welcome screen appears. It has been behaving like this for a long time. I recently installed XP SP2 with no difference. I have done virus scans, etc numerous times and also defraged the HD no difference. I have considered formatting C:

Any other suggestions?

mondoray

 

[Wishdiak]

mondoray,

Before you do anything drastic like formatting your hard drive, have you checked the Event Viewer to see if any processes are timing out or giving some other error on startup?

I'd check that first, if you're certain you don't have any malware on your computer.

Right-click My Computer > Manage > Event Viewer

If no errors there, try running AdAware and antivirus just to be sure that it's not a malware problem.

Wishdiak

http://www.wishdiak.com

 

[mondoray]

Wishdiak,

Thks for your response.

I have run Spybot and Adware without any results. I will give Spyblocs and your other suggestion a go.

mondoray

 

[linney]

How does it go in Safe Mode? How does it run when it finally boots and you logon?

Removing adware & spyware
faq608-4650

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

 

[mondoray]

linney,

I haven't tried a safe mode boot. It works fine when it finally starts.

Thanks I will try the chkdsk.

mondoray

 

[bcastner]

. Disable (not unintstall) any unused network adapters, or give them phony ip addresses;

. Use AutoRuns to examine your startup entries, it will also allow you to selectively disable them.

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/autoruns.shtml

Look for unecessary entries, particularly if they need internet access to check for updates.

. Defrag the hard disk drive

. Place the virtual memory pagefile on a different hard drive or partition than the boot volume

. Do the prefetch optomization suggested in faq779-4518

 

[bcastner]

The problem about MUP.SYS is that it is the last shown on the screen during a diagnostic boot. What is most likely the case is that it is the next driver that is at fault, not MUP.SYS.

Vol4Ever is correct, that there is a ton of stuff available with a Google search under "Groups".

But try my earlier recommendations.

 

[mondoray]

Guys,

Sorry for the delayed response.. I have tried all the suggested virus, spyware, adware, etc etc, scanners finding one or two small problems. I have defragged the hd. The compter (home) still takes about 3 mins from the start of XP until the desktop is usable. I have installed autoruns. There are no unwanted programs starting. I did a dskchk the drive is healthy. The event viewer shows no errors.

Any other suggestions?

mondoray

 

[linney]

Perhaps it time to try experimenting with what is starting on the computer and see if preventing various applications from running fixes the problem.

310353 - How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

316434 - HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH