Resolved Problems with booting into Windows 7

Hi Evan,
I assume you meant for me to go to control panel>Programs and their Features. I uninstalled all I could find, but didn't see Photo Common, and none of the Windows LIVE components were listed.
I downloaded JavaRa 2.6, which had a remark next to it that stated "you probably want this one ". The download below that was JavaRa Legacy version 1.16 and it was for Windows 9x all the way to 7.
When I executed 2.6 as administrator, I got a small rectangle with 4 colored icons that read: Update Java Runtime, Remove Java Runtime, Update JavaRa Definitions, and Additional Tasks. There was no language selection option, nor remove older versions. So, I didn't do anything except exit the program
I will next uncheck the 7 items in the Autoruns and reboot.
I'll let you know how the laptop is acting while I wait for your response about JavaRa.
Thanks.

 

Sadly, there is still the 65 to 70 second freeze between the appearance of the Welcome screen and the appearance of the desktop. Happily, the sound still coincides with the desktop screen's appearance.
BTW, the welcome screen now reads "Preparing Your Desktop" but that was the case since I ran one of the programs early in the Optimization steps.
Also, in the autoruns logon tab, there is an item that has a checkmark that I'm sure wasn't there before. It is called rdpclip, has a yellow background, is blank under description, publisher, timestamp. Under image path, it says "file not found:rdclip ". I unchecked it, then rebooted, but still got the 70 second delay.

 

Hi Evan,
I ran chkdsk separately. Didn't find any problems.
I then ran through the 15 steps of your repair sequence. No change.
I did notice somewhere early on that it suggests doing the repair several times.
I plan to rerun the 15 steps in a few minutes.
I'd like to remind you that this laptop came to me with Windows 10, installed by someone who I'm sure made no preparations. I reverted it back to 7 Home premium 64 bit. I wonder if that has any bearing on the start-up sequence.
Also, the laptop suffered a spill of some sticky yellowish brown liquid, and has a couple of scratches and dings in the corners. I managed to clean up the sticky stuff, especially around the ZIF socket. It was this spill that caused the keyboard malfunction. I purchased a new keyboard. Replacing it was relatively easy, but I wonder if I should have gone further and looked under the keyboard platform to see if there are more sticky/hard areas of spill.
The laptop, except for that 65 second delay acts just as you'd expect a Core i7with 8 gigs and a dedicated video card to act-that is-pretty quick and responsive, so, I'm hoping that what I saw of the spill is the bulk of it.
I did look ahead to the steps after #15, and saw that some of the repair options require a username and password. I don't have those. I also don't have the recovery disks.
I appreciate you sticking with me, and look forward to the next recommendations.
The laptop was left in sleep mode overnight. When I tapped the touchpad, it quickly came up with the locked screen. Clicking the center icon gave me an immediate chime, the word welcome appeared, and the animated donut/circle froze for it's customary 65 seconds.
If I return to the laptop (after having put it into sleep mode) in less than 10 or 15 minutes(not sure), it pops up with the desktop screen immediately.

 

Just finished the second run through the repair routine. Again, no change.
I did notice that during some of the repairs, there were some error statements that scrolled by. They were too quick for me to read, and I probably wouldn't comprehend them anyway.
I also noticed that during the reboots in safe mode, there was no hesitation or delay.
Is there any point in my sending you the LOG folder? It contains today's and yesterday's subfolders which, in turn contain the error logs.
Today's folder is 252Kb while yesterday's is 326Kb.
I don't know if this indicates progress.

 

Hi Evan,
You are correct. As I had previously run through the Optimization steps with no fix, I just assumed that what you meant by "my entire guide" was the repair routine.
I will run the Optimization routine again.

 

By rest of the optimization guide, do you mean steps 29 and subsequent?
I had previously done 1 through 28.
Or, should I restart the whole thing and go from step 1 through 27, as 28 and the last few are listed as optional?

 

Well, 1-15 are completed with no change in the delay time.
I did notice that at the end of step 9, when a reboot is required, the messages displayed were similar to the ones you get when you do a Windows update: "Configuring updates, do not turn off the computer... "
When the next few messages were displayed, including "Welcome" and Configuring your desktop, there was NO hesitation. I then turned off the computer, and hoped that the problem was solved. Rebooted, but, the 65 second pause reappeared.

 

It starts fine in the clean boot mode. That is, no delay.
Ever since my first run through the Optimization procedure, the computer now goes from the STARTING WINDOWS black screen with the 4 color flag, to Please Wait for the Local Session Mgr to Please wait for User Profile Setup to Welcome to Preparing your desktop. Then, finally, the desktop screen appears.
Before the optimization procedure, it just went from the Black Starting Windows screen to Welcome to the desktop.
The animated circle used to freeze next to the word Welcome.
Now it freezes next to Preparing your desktop.
I have no problem with that as long as you can tell me that this is expected.
Did I mention that there is also no delay whenever I start the computer in Safe Mode?

 

Well Evan, I'm embarrassed to say that I evidently don't know what I'm doing.
I went back into msconfig to see which services were still running.
When I exited and rebooted, I was unable to get the laptop to boot beyond the starting windows>black screen with only the arrow cursor on the screen. I gave it 5 minutes or so, and nothing progressed. I shut the laptop down with the power button. I was subsequently unable to get beyond the black screen with the arrow no matter whether I chose safe mode with and without networking, command prompt.
I finally succeeded with the F8 key and chose boot to the last known good configuration.
I again went to msconfig and saw that of the 156 services listed, 153 had been disabled(by me) this afternoon. 19 of those in response to your 14:06 posting which resulted in me getting the first uninterrupted boot, the other 134 at 5:39 pm.
As of right now, there are 59 services running, 94 are stopped, and only 3 have not been disabled: Avast antivirus, Base Filtering Engine, and Task Scheduler.
So, I have no understanding of how a service can be disabled yet still be running.
Can you give me directions, and pretend you're speaking to an absolute novice?

 

I'm finally out of the woods, Evan. I narrowed it down to a service called AMD EXTERNAL EVENTS Utility. I re-enabled all of the other services and no longer get the 65 second delay upon startup.
The computer does seem to take a little extra time to execute various programs, but at this point, I think I can live with that.
Thank you so much for your patience and help.
I will mark this thread as resolved.
Kindest regards.

 

Thanks Evan. I would have left the Startup in selective-not knowing any better, not to mention disabling the AMD Utility.