XP Very Slow Boot

I have a Compaq Laptop with XP home and SP2. System has plenty of resources Athlon XP2800, 1.25Ghz and 192 MB Ram. HDD has plenty of room.

I have tried not loading most everything, have updated everything, defraged and run Bootviz optimization. This seams to help a little but nothing substantial.

From the Bootviz trace I see it takes 200 secs to boot. Obviously something is amiss. The problems look to be in the Logon+Serv and Shell portions. Video finishes at about 25 secs and Logon starts at about 30 secs(about 5 sec gap?).

Logon finishes at about 90 secs and Shell starts at about 160 secs(about 70 sec gap?).

Any ideas what to try next? I can live with slow boots but the is way over the edge. By the way I can't do a Bootviz trace on drivers, system just keeps rebooting. Drivers take about 6 secs after about a 2 sec gap.

Thanks,

Greg

 

Have you checked your event viewer for any errors? I don't know if it will show anything but if there's any errors it might give a hint. Start>run>eventvwr.msc. Double click an event to view it.

 

Well, Pete, I have to admit I didn't notice the ram thing and have to agree that it's not enough. It's probably the source of a lot (if not all) of the delay. Guess I'm guilty once again of not reading the post thoroughly enough.

 

HJT results

Here is the HJT log file results:

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 5:35:04 PM, on 4/29/2006
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\gearsec.exe
C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
C:\Program Files\Linksys\Wireless-G Notebook Adapter\NICServ.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\MsPMSPSv.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\SymWSC.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe
C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe
C:\Program Files\HPQ\One-Touch\OneTouch.EXE
C:\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\gcasServ.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\carpserv.exe
C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel\atiptaxx.exe
C:\Program Files\Symantec\LiveUpdate\ALUNOTIFY.EXE
C:\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\gcasDtServ.exe
C:\temp\bootvis\BootVis.exe
C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
C:\Program Files\Utilities\HijackThis.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://ie.redirect.hp.com/svs/rdr?TYPE=3&tp=iehome&locale=EN_US&c=Q304&bd=presario&pf=laptop
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: NAV Helper - {BDF3E430-B101-42AD-A544-FADC6B084872} - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Norton AntiVirus - {42CDD1BF-3FFB-4238-8AD1-7859DF00B1D6} - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SynTPLpr] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SynTPEnh] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Symantec NetDriver Monitor] C:\PROGRA~1\SYMNET~1\SNDMon.exe /Consumer
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QT4HPOT] C:\Program Files\HPQ\One-Touch\OneTouch.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [gcasServ] "C:\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\gcasServ.exe "
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccRegVfy] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccRegVfy.exe "
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe "
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CARPService] carpserv.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ATIPTA] C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel\atiptaxx.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ALUAlert] C:\Program Files\Symantec\LiveUpdate\ALUNOTIFY.EXE
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2\bin\npjpi142.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2\bin\npjpi142.dll
O9 - Extra button: PartyPoker.com - {B7FE5D70-9AA2-40F1-9C6B-12A255F085E1} - C:\Program Files\PartyPoker\IEExtension.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: PartyPoker.com - {B7FE5D70-9AA2-40F1-9C6B-12A255F085E1} - C:\Program Files\PartyPoker\IEExtension.dll
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O14 - IERESET.INF: START_PAGE_URL=http://ie.redirect.hp.com/svs/rdr?TYPE=3&tp=iehome&locale=EN_US&c=Q304&bd=presario&pf=laptop
O16 - DPF: {17492023-C23A-453E-A040-C7C580BBF700} (Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool) - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=39204
O16 - DPF: {2BC66F54-93A8-11D3-BEB6-00105AA9B6AE} (Symantec AntiVirus scanner) - http://security.symantec.com/SSC/SharedContent/vc/bin/AvSniff.cab
O16 - DPF: {644E432F-49D3-41A1-8DD5-E099162EEEC5} (Symantec RuFSI Utility Class) - http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/SharedContent/common/bin/cabsa.cab
O16 - DPF: {6E32070A-766D-4EE6-879C-DC1FA91D2FC3} (MUWebControl Class) - http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/V5Controls/en/x86/client/muweb_site.cab?1130640702447
O16 - DPF: {AB86CE53-AC9F-449F-9399-D8ABCA09EC09} (Get_ActiveX Control) - https://h17000.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Secure/HPGetDownloadManager.ocx
O16 - DPF: {DE625294-70E6-45ED-B895-CFFA13AEB044} (AxisMediaControlEmb Class) - http://66.91.147.106:8010/activex/AMC.cab
O23 - Service: Ati HotKey Poller - Unknown owner - C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Event Manager (ccEvtMgr) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Password Validation Service (ccPwdSvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccPwdSvc.exe
O23 - Service: Gear Security Service (GEARSecurity) - GEAR Software - C:\WINDOWS\System32\gearsec.exe
O23 - Service: iPod Service (iPodService) - Apple Computer, Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
O23 - Service: Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service (navapsvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
O23 - Service: NICSer_WPC54G - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Linksys\Wireless-G Notebook Adapter\NICServ.exe
O23 - Service: ScriptBlocking Service (SBService) - Symantec Corporation - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\SYMANT~1\SCRIPT~1\SBServ.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Network Drivers Service (SNDSrvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\SNDSrvc.exe
O23 - Service: SymWMI Service (SymWSC) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\SymWSC.exe

I'll try adjusting the video RAM allocation and see if the event viewer does anything. I plan to get more RAM if I can get it to a point where it looks like it is salvagable.

Thanks for the help.

Greg

 

richard

hi i am new to this but if you did not have a problem before with the memory you have
have you installed any new progs
if so try uninstalling them
also have you got another drive running
try working the comp with only the one drive
but most of all i think you need more memory as if you are running norton it will slow it down

hope this helps

 

Thanks for the help. This is a problem that started a while back and has gotten worse over time. I looked at the event viewer and have found some problems. There is a service mrtRate that is causing part of it. I have also cut down on the video RAM. Bootvis says boot time is now about 100 secs.

I'll keep you posted and see what else your great suggestions yield.

Thanks again,

Greg

 

mrtRate was left after uninstalling Quicken 2003 which came as an installed trial version. Deleted it from the registry and so far that is cleared up. Boot was better (90 secs) but now is back to 200 secs. No more errors in the eventlog.

Now there is no more 70sec gap between logon an shell must have been the mrtrate.

Got the driver delay in bootvis to run and it shows symevent.sys runs the whole time almost.

I would get more ram but not convinced it would help since it used to boot fine with 256MB.

I have only 1 HDD and it is default boot device so that shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for any help.

Greg

 

Added 512 MB RAM. Still takes 180secs to boot.

Tryed setting the following to Manual:
ATI Hotkey Poller
Logical Disk Manager
Norton AV Auto Protect
Symantec Event Manager
Symantec WMI Service

No difference.

Logon starts at about 30 secs and takes 63 secs. Shell starts at about 90 secs and takes102 secs. These seem to be the culprits.

Does anyone know how to trace what is going on with them?

Thanks for any help.

Greg

 

I'm not able to find anything that says it runs at startup. Is there a setting somewhere?

Thanks,

Greg

 

My suggestion would be to watch the HDD activity LED. During those long periods you mention, if it flashes constantly something maybe checking files. If it stays constantly on, Windows may be having a problem loading the program.

I have found Norton wants to check every modified file. See if you can disable startup programs from within the program itself (Tools menu) or using msconfig (type msconfig in Run [Enter]...go to Startup).

You will need to isolate which program is causing the delay.

Matt

 

Well I have found the culprit. The HDD was going bad. I tried to run CHKDSK and it wouldn't finish then I got a SMART error during a reboot. Tried the bios disk utility and it wouldn't go either.

Left the computer on, ran and got a new HDD and upgrade utility. A few hours later I have a system that boots in about 35 secs and no loss of data.

Thanks all for your help and advice.

Greg

 

Good news Sorry to hear about the old drive.

The results may not be unexpected though, from my experience. 256Mb of RAM may have seemed fine to start with (remember that the graphics were utilizing some of this). When you install more programs and they begin loading their start up items, you may start reducing the amount of free RAM. If you run out of "free" RAM, the system starts to run on "virtual memory ", that is, Pagefile on the HDD.
Included in this may be file checks run by antivirus, so the system is accessing the HDD continuously (at least at startup). This is termed "trashing" of the HDD.

Your old drive may have been "worked to death ". With your increased RAM and new HDD, you should find your system runs very comfortably.

It sounds like you are interested in discovering the cause of such problems. Keep up the good work (and thanks for letting us know the outcome).

Matt

 

Bye the way, after the HDD fix I experimented with the boot times at 256MB RAM and 768MB RAM and there was no appreciable difference. This was with virtually no extras being loaded at boot. It is much better now with the drive and RAM, I don't have to get a new one.

Thanks again,

Greg