Resolved Boot-up hangs for 15 minutes

The only thread I found in a search was one of my own. This problem is with DW's ASUS netbook rather than my desktop and has different symptoms.

The machine is Win XP with SP3 and 1GB RAM, no CD/DVD. We use a cordless USB mini-mouse instead of that dinky little touchpad. It's on a wireless LAN with my desktop.

Until last week sometime, boot-up on that machine was just a couple of minutes. Now it gets part way through the boot and then hangs up for about 15 minutes.

After the initial part of the boot process, the desktop comes up but the tool tray (bottom right) only gets the basic MS time display, then the boot-up stops. The time doesn't increment. In this state, the desktop icons for resident programs (Word, Games, Adobe reader) all work, but none of the programs using the LAN are accessible.

The wireless hook-up light on the edge of the keyboard is on, but the hourglass icon alongside the mouse cursor is blinking about every 2 seconds. After about 15 minutes, the TClock time display comes up in the tooltray, along with Norton Security and the Lexmark printer manager. At that point everything else becomes availalbe.

I remember, at one time, there was a function in Safe Mode that allowed you to trigger each start-up program in sequence to see which one was causing the problem. I can't find that on this machine.

I did do a clean out of all the items in the Start Menu that seemd unnecessary, and also removed a lot of Wifi addresses left over from an RV road trip to the Oregon Coast last Fall, but nothing has helped.

Ideas would be appreciated.

Frank

 

Do you have the same problem in Safe Mode?

 

Mr. Bill:

Yes, the same problem occurs in Safe Mode if I let it go through a boot up.

Pete:

If the troublesome program eventually boots, will that log identify that it took too long? By the time we get through the 15 minutes boot up, everything seems to work fine.

I'll try it on wife's netbook later.

 

OK, Pete. I'll let you know.

 

The boot report was a surprise. It's 38 pages! I'm working on the assumption that the attempts are in sequence from page to page. It successfully loaded the first 27 drivers it tried.

The next 15 drivers failed to load in several attmpts.

Overall, 214 drivers loaded successfully.

I'll send another message with a total of unsuccessful loads.

Would it be any use to actually send the 38 page log, or are you guys so far removed from XP that it wouldn't help?

 

Thanks, Arie. I'll get into it in more detail.

 

I've marked the thread "Solved" for the time being. I've made the boot-up slightly faster, but it still needs more work.

I'll post a new thread when I get mor specific questions.