Slow OS startup, slow app/page loading, & frequent freezing-pls see hjt log & bootlog

Hi. Lately, it has taken about 8 minutes for the Windows startup process to reach the desktop on my notebook pc. In addition to the symptoms listed in my thread title, I'm also getting the Error message "Unable to load language resource DLL" every time I right click on a file or icon.

I can't think of any specific actions or events that preceded this condition--just seems to be gradually getting worse. Please let me know if you need further info or action on my part to help resolve these issues. Thanks in advance for any replies. My log files are shown below.


Bootlog Analysis:

10:52:05 0.44 LoadFailed = C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
10:52:05 0.44 LoadFailed = C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
10:52:06 0.44 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DELTREE.EXE[000ABED6] starting
10:52:06 0.33 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DELTREE.EXE[000ABEDE] starting
10:52:07 2.78 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DELTREE.EXE[000ABEF0] starting
10:52:10 0.28 Loading Vxd = C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\VMM.VXD
10:52:12 0.28 LoadSuccess = ndis.vxd
10:52:13 0.22 LoadFailed = ndis2sup.vxd
10:52:13 0.28 LoadSuccess = vnetsup.vxd
10:52:13 0.28 LoadSuccess = mtrr.vxd
10:52:14 0.28 LoadSuccess = SAGE.VXD
10:52:14 0.28 LoadSuccess = nwlink.vxd
10:52:15 0.28 LoadSuccess = nscl.vxd
10:52:15 0.28 LoadSuccess = vredir.vxd
10:52:16 0.28 LoadSuccess = vnetbios.vxd
10:52:16 0.50 Loading Vxd = C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG7\AVG7CORE.VXD
10:52:17 0.00 LoadFailed = vshare
10:52:17 0.00 LoadFailed = vpowerd
10:52:17 0.28 LoadSuccess = vmouse
10:52:18 0.00 DEVICEINITFAILED = MTRR
10:52:18 1.00 DEVICEINITSUCCESS = FWDRV
10:52:19 0.50 Dynamic load device pci.vxd
10:52:20 0.33 Dynamic load success pci.vxd
10:52:20 0.39 Dynamic load device isapnp.vxd
10:52:21 0.50 Dynamic load device mmdevldr.vxd
10:52:21 0.33 Dynamic load device cwbaudix.vxd
10:52:22 0.28 Dynamic load device vwstream.vxd
10:52:22 0.50 Dynamic load device dsound.vxd
10:52:22 0.39 Dynamic load device mmdevldr.vxd
10:52:23 0.33 Dynamic load device vjoyd.vxd
10:52:23 0.33 Dynamic load device mmdevldr.vxd
10:52:24 0.33 Dynamic load device cwbaudix.vxd
10:52:24 0.28 Dynamic load success cwbaudix.vxd
10:52:24 0.33 Dynamic load device NmgcVdd.vxd
10:52:25 1.22 Dynamic load success NmgcVdd.vxd
10:52:26 0.33 Dynamic load device dsound.vxd
10:52:26 0.33 Dynamic load device PCCARD.vxd
10:52:27 0.28 Dynamic load device cbss.vxd
10:52:27 0.94 Dynamic load device PCCARD.vxd
10:52:28 0.33 Dynamic load device cbss.vxd
10:52:28 2.78 DEVICEINIT = VCDFSD
10:52:31 0.44 DEVICEINIT = IOS
10:52:33 0.06 Dynamic load failed C:\WINDOWS\system\MRCI.VXD : [000AC0BC] File not found
10:52:33 0.83 DEVICEINITSUCCESS = VMOUSE
10:52:34 0.44 Dynamic load device pppmac.vxd
10:52:35 0.28 Dynamic load device C:\WINDOWS\system\spap.vxd
10:52:35 0.56 Dynamic load device vtdi.386
10:52:35 0.39 Dynamic load device vip.386
10:52:36 0.33 Dynamic load device vtcp.386
10:52:36 0.44 Dynamic load device vdhcp.386
10:52:37 0.39 Dynamic load device netbeui.vxd
10:52:37 0.56 Dynamic load success netbeui.vxd
10:52:38 3.11 DEVICEINITSUCCESS = NWLINK
10:52:41 0.28 Initing hsflop.pdr
10:52:41 1.33 Initing esdi_506.pdr
10:52:43 2.06 Initing esdi_506.pdr
10:52:45 0.83 Init Success esdi_506.pdr
10:52:46 29.39 INITCOMPLETE = AVGCORE
10:53:16 293.50 INITCOMPLETESUCCESS = AVGCORE
10:58:09 0.83 INITCOMPLETE = AVGTDI
10:58:10 0.39 INITCOMPLETESUCCESS = VDMAD



Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 3:33:24 PM, on 11/14/07
Platform: Windows 95 B (Win9x 4.00.1212)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v5.50 (5.50.4134.0600)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSGSRV32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MPREXE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mmtask.tsk
C:\PROGRAM FILES\TINY PERSONAL FIREWALL\PERSFW.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\GRISOFT\AVG7\AVGCC.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\GRISOFT\AVG7\AVGAMSVR.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\WINPATROL\WINPATROL.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PSTORES.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\OUTLOOK EXPRESS\MSIMN.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\RNAAPP.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\tapiexe.exe
C:\PROGRAM FILES\INTERNET EXPLORER\IEXPLORE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CMMON32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDHELP.EXE
C:\ANTIMALWARE\HIJACKTHIS.EXE

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/index.php
R3 - Default URLSearchHook is missing
N1 - Netscape 4: user_pref( "browser.startup.homepage ", "http://www.webcrawler.com "); (C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\wayback\prefs.js)
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\PROGRAM FILES\ADOBE\ACROBAT 5.0\READER\ACTIVEX\ACROIEHELPER.OCX
O3 - Toolbar: @msdxmLC.dll,-1@1033,&Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSDXM.OCX
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SystemTray] SysTray.Exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG7_CC] C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG7\AVGCC.EXE /STARTUP
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG7_AMSVR] C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG7\AVGAMSVR.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [WinPatrol] C:\PROGRAM FILES\WINPATROL\winpatrol.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ScanRegistry] C:\WINDOWS\scanregw.exe /autorun
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [PersFw] C:\Program Files\Tiny Personal Firewall\persfw.exe
O8 - Extra context menu item: + &Download Express: download this file - C:\Program Files\Download Express\Add_Url.htm
O9 - Extra button: Real.com - {CD67F990-D8E9-11d2-98FE-00C0F0318AFE} - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\Shdocvw.dll
O12 - Plugin for .swf: C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\COMMUNICATOR\PROGRAM\PLUGINS\npswf32.dll
O12 - Plugin for .asp: C:\PROGRA~1\INTERN~1\PLUGINS\npdyn32.dll
O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\PROGRA~1\INTERN~1\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll
O14 - IERESET.INF: START_PAGE_URL=http://www.aol.com
O16 - DPF: {CEBC955E-58AF-11D2-A30A-00A0C903492B} (CV3 Class) -
O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} -
O16 - DPF: {31564D57-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71} -
O16 - DPF: {9A9307A0-7DA4-4DAF-B042-5009F29E09E1} -
O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\VxD\MSTCP: Domain = concentric
O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\VxD\MSTCP: NameServer = 207.155.184.72,206.173.119.72

 

Boot to safe mode with network (F8 at startup) turn of system restore (its ona tab in system in control panel) run trendhousecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com

The trend will take a while.
Clean out temp files form under local settings in your ptofile (under documentments and settings)

Hopefully that will clean it, reboot and re enble system restore.

 

Welcome to WindowsBBS wayback

Have you got Corel Wordperfect or Paradox installed?

Error Message When You Right-Click a File in Windows Explorer: Unable to Load Language Resource DLL

 

Thanks guys.

If I remember correctly, I can't run housecall because my pc is too old and slow. I'll check at the trendmicro website to see if this is still the case.

I do have Wordperfect Suite 8 installed, but I've never used Paradox. A few months ago I accidently found Borland Database Engine 4.0 had been loaded as part of Suite 8 and created a desktop shortcut, thinking I might play with it sometime (never got around to it). I've also located 3 files dating from when the pc was new that seem to be associated with Paradox:

Pdoxusrs (a 13KB NET file located in C:\)
mspdox35.dll (a 245KB Application Extension located in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM)
Pdoxusrs (same 13KB NET file located in C:\Corel\Suite8\Shared\Address\Database)

And thanks for that link. Looks like I'll have to reinstall the WordPerfect suite if I want to get rid of the error message.

I don't suppose you saw anything else in the logs that would help explain my symptoms? Standing by for your reply.

Cheers

 

I don't see anything, but admittedly, Windows 95 is not one of my strong points ....... started on XP I will try to get a couple of 95 folks to take a look though.

 

Thanks Dave. My situation is continuing to deteriorate.

 

I don't know if it may help.

It appears you suspect something not loading correctly at startup. Win 95 needs to run Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files at startup for loading startup programs/drivers, etc. If you look at the files on the root (C:\) you will see the backups made of these files (Autoexec.old, autoexec.bak, etc). I would try running a set of Autoexec and Config files from a time previous to when these problems started happening (see their creation date).
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232558/en-us
Don't forget to backup what is currently in those files.

I had limited success editing those files, one problem was that the files that they load may have changed version (but this may be the source of the problem). If you have any problems or want to test run software that does not rely on drivers, boot into Safe Mode.

Matt

 

Thanks for the replies.

I checked out the osr2 link and followed up on a suggestion to enabe Memory Manager to track my Swapfile size and usage in System Monitor. However, I don't know enough about virtual memory settings to be comfortable with making changes there. I'm definitely open to suggestions about the "optimal" vm settings for my system.

After my slowdown issues became more pronounced, I added DELTREE commands to what had been an empty Autoexec.bat file in an effort to increase overall performance--and got some improvement. I also recently downloaded msconfig and made some changes there, boosting system resources a bit.

So far, nothing I've done has accelerated OS startup. At this point I'd like to continue the process of elimination by making sure there's nothing in my hjt log or bootlog that indicates a problem. For instance, I'm not sure if I should be concerned about those "failed" lines in the bootlog.

Please let me know if I need to provide more info or if there's anything I should do in the way of diagnostics. Thanks again.

 

Thanks for the reply Pete. I have a 2.1GB hard drive with about 760MB of free space on it. If it helps to know, I'm running with 32MB of 66MHz SDRAM. I have an unopened CD that came with the pc titled "Microsoft Windows95 & Microsoft Plus! With USB Support" which I'll assume is the full install CD.

Following up on an idea mattman mentioned, I saw something puzzling in msconfig. Under the Config.sys tab, the following lines are displayed with checked boxes in front of each:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS D=64
BUFFERS=15,0
FILES=30
DOS=UMB
FCBS=4,0
DOS=HIGH

Then there's a blank line, followed by 3 checked boxes with no description of what those boxes are for.

At first I thought this might have been caused by using a Win98 utility in 95. However, when I pretended to edit the config.sys file in DOS, I was able to move the cursor down exactly 4 lines below the last visible entry and no further. So it would seem there are at least 3 invisible entries in that file. Could they be the 3 programs that start with Windows (anti-virus, firewall, and WinPatrol)? If so, why wouldn't they be identified? Is there any way of revealing those invisible entries? If not, would it be okay to uncheck those 3 boxes--one at a time--and reboot after each uncheck to see if it helps, or should I leave them alone?

Thanks again for helping. Hope to see another reply soon.

Cheers

 

10:52:17 0.00 LoadFailed = vshare
10:52:17 0.00 LoadFailed = vpowerd
10:52:33 0.06 Dynamic load failed C:\WINDOWS\system\MRCI.VXD : [000AC0BC] File not found
10:52:18 0.00 DEVICEINITFAILED = MTRR

Those above entries are not that surprising for me to see. Just some Win 95 and 98 bugs.
These bugs are confirmed here

However, the vshare and vpowerd files are usually compressed into the Vmm32.Vxd file. This file that contains several system files, and is created when windows is installed. Instead of several files being loaded, only one is. This is meant to decrease loading time of Win95. The typical reason these show up as LoadFailed is because they are already loaded.

Setver.Exe is a holdover from the older msdos operating systems, meant to report a different operating system version to certain programs which balk at not having the correct version running. For example, said program is looking for Dos 3.3, Setver would then "lie" to it, and say this is what it is. Setver isn't needed.

I do recommend changing around and editing your Config.Sys file. I recommend it to be like this.

DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS D=64
FILES=50
BUFFERS=30

I put the DOS=UMB and DOS=HIGH together as it streamlines the Config.Sys file, and put it there at the front. It lets the operating system know first hand the Upper Memory Area is to be used, plus this is what I learned from my MSDOS 5.25 days when this feature first became known to me.
The Upper Memory Area is the plot of memory (360 KB) that exists after the basic 640 KB, and before the 1 MB boundary.
You'll notice I left out 'FCBS=4', the reason is that this is the default setting.
I raised the FILES as this gives you more files that the operating environment can have open at the same time.
Raising the BUFFERS will increase the read/write performance of the hard drive, I took out the second zero as it does nothing, and windows does not use Secondary Buffers from dos, and wasn't doing anything anyway.
This may help with the blank lines. After editing the Config.Sys file and before saving it, have the cursor right after the zero in the BUFFERS=30 line, then press and hold the DEL key for a second or two, you may have some invisible carriage return charactors in some subsequent lines, this will get rid of them. Then save the Config.Sys file.

So it would seem there are at least 3 invisible entries in that file. Could they be the 3 programs that start with Windows (anti-virus, firewall, and WinPatrol)?
These do not load from Config.Sys or Autoexec.Bat at all. They are loaded when the windows registry is processed, way after those two files are processed.

I do not believe changing your VM setting will improve much, as you have 32 MB of ram. I have read 64 MB is considered to be optimal for Win95. When 95 came out, 16 MB (Win95 minimum) was considered impressive by quite a few folks.

P.S. If you want to see what is loaded into the Upper Memory Area, do this command in a dos window.
mem /d > c:\windows\desktop\memd.txt
You will have a text file appear on the desktop. You'll notice the location of Vmm32.Vxd and Ifshlp.Sys, your Files and Buffers may also be in this area.
The use of this Area frees up a slight amount of memory, windows will grab any unused memory in here for it's own use.
This will not show any 32 bit windows programs.

BTW, what were you deleting with the Deltree commands?

 

I may have found something. mtrr.vxd is a DirectX file (at least it is used by DirectX). MS lists it here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/230562/en-us

Go to the command line (Start -> Run) and enter dxdiag. This will give you information about DirectX and your multimedia hardware/drivers.

If you have a version of DirectX earlier than version 6.1, get version 6.1. If you have version 6.1 or a version later than that, just be careful. If you get a version that is too modern for your graphics adapter, the graphics might not work at all.

See what versions of DirectX are recommended for Win 95. For Win 98, I don't recommend going past DX 8.1, unless you are using a quite modern graphics adapter.

If you upgrade DirectX by a minor version, it may reinstall and reset the use of mtrr.vxd.

Investigate DirectX, I might have some other suggestions if the situation remains.

Matt
Edit: Hi Mark, you posted before me. Glad you can do some deciphering of the startup files

 

Thanks guys.

I edited the Config.Sys file as recommended and most of the invisible entries went away. I've gotta think its in better shape. However, upon reboot the OS still took over 8 minutes to reach the desktop and my other symptoms haven't abated. I added the Deltree commands to the Autoexec.Bat file to conform with the "Deleting Temporary Files Painlessly" technique.

Windows couldn't locate dxdiag so I looked into my files and, after some research, found that I've got DirectX 5.0 installed. Win 95 can use DirectX versions up to 8.0a. Nevertheless, I agree that DirectX 6.1 would be a safer upgrade so I'll probably go for it.

This brings up another question. I'm using Grisoft AVG 7.5 with the bootup and e-mail scanners disabled. After installing it, my pc ran much slower than it did when I was using AVG 7.1. Is it possible that updates to this program are having a cumulative negative effect on system performance? If this might be the case, are there any system upgrades--in addition to a newer version of DirectX--that I could install to help counteract this effect? Please let me know.

Cheers

 

Ahh I see. While this is effective at deleting files, it can get slow when deleting a few thousand files, as there is no disk caching going on. This is a good recommendation to accomplish the same thing. Copy and Paste the following lines into Notepad.

@echo off
smartdrv
deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1
echo All Done!

If you desire you can put these lines there also. Be sure to have them after the smartdrv line.

deltree /y c:\windows\cookies
deltree /y c:\windows\history
deltree /y c:\windows\temp

Then go to the File Menu, select Save As, then use this name including the quotes.
"c:\windows\clean.bat "
To verify, use Windows Explorer and find Clean.Bat in the windows folder, it should be listed as 'MS-Dos Batch' as the file type.
To use this file, go to Shutdown, but select Restart in Dos Mode as the method. When the prompt appears, type in CLEAN and press Enter. The phrase "All Done!" will appear when finished. You can now simply turn off the computer, or reboot, your choice.
If the smartdrv line is inserted into the Autoexec.Bat file, you will get an error when windows is loading up as Smartdrv.Exe (dos version) will clash with Smartdrv.Vxd (windows version).

That is entirely possible. I have had a similiar problem concerning AV updates and AVG in the recent past. It would do the daily update, then immediately be slow in loading up. I uninstalled AVG, downloaded a new setup file from them and installed it. Two days later the very same thing, followed up by uininstalling AVG, and downloading another setup file from their site, and installing it. Haven't had another problem since.
My guess is the update files were corrupted, while the new installation files were not.