xp very slow to boot

When I boot my pc (amd 1600, 512 MB) it takes more then 10 minutes to start up. When it finally boots programs sometimes take very long to start (say 2 minutes for IE). Once a program starts it works ok. Some programs have no problems (like mathematica). While I wait CPU, HD and network usage is low.
I don't think it's a virus (I have an up to date mcafee and runned adaware).
What to do? I'm a bit desperate.. hope you can help,
Luc

 

Hi luchp. Was this a sudden change or is it a problem that started small and is getting worse?

Home or Pro version of XP and what SP?

Also a good idea to get a double-check on the virus thing by running an online scanner. Some critters can disable your resident AV and leave it appearing to work but doing nothing.

Also some spyware that Adaware could miss.

Check quicklinks (in my signature) for online AV scan sites and for the Hijackthis utility. Do an AV scan. Then run HJT to create a log file and post the file contents here.

It may be something other than critters but best to check for them before we spend lots of time looking for other things to fix.

 

another thing to try, is disabling some services. to do that, go to: www.blkviper.com

make sure you read his warnings, and never,ever disable anything that is RPC affiliated with any other service. you will find that this site is helpfull in shutting down some un-needed services.

 

Check out BootVis by Microsoft.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664

 

Hello Luc,

Check out BootVis by Microsoft
Good idea - as an analytical tool. Don't use the "fix" feature, at least not w/o ensuring that you can backtrack. Have seen too many posts where the problem became worse.

MS officially removed BootVis from their download site because of this. The tool originally was meant for developers, not the general public.

Regards - Charles

 

Ok, I did an online scan and installed spybot, scan found nothing. Spybot found some tracking cookies that I removed. I also checked disks and defragmented them (just to be sure). The output from hijackthis is at the bottom of the post.
Finally I installed bootvis (nice tool) and it turned out it spends several minutes initializing the cdrom driver (!!). I looked in my DVD-RW drive and there was a CD in it, if I boot without CD the boot time drops to about 1 minute.

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 22:03:58, on 11-Sep-05
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\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\Apache.exe
C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStartService.exe
c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsrte.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug\mdm.exe
C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 4.1\bin\mysqld-nt.exe
C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\Apache.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcshield.exe
C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_04\bin\jusched.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Mixer.exe
C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStartTrayApp.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsshld.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\agent\mcagent.exe
c:\progra~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsescn.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\Luc\Bureaublad\HijackThis.exe
C:\Program Files\WinZip\WZQKPICK.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName = Koppelingen
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O3 - Toolbar: McAfee VirusScan - {BA52B914-B692-46c4-B683-905236F6F655} - c:\progra~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsshl.dll
O3 - Toolbar: ICQ Toolbar - {855F3B16-6D32-4fe6-8A56-BBB695989046} - C:\Program Files\ICQToolbar\toolbaru.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NeroFilterCheck] C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_04\bin\jusched.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [C-Media Mixer] Mixer.exe /startup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [GhostStartTrayApp] C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStartTrayApp.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VSOCheckTask] "c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcmnhdlr.exe" /checktask
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VirusScan Online] "c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsshld.exe "
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MCAgentExe] c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\agent\mcagent.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MCUpdateExe] C:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\agent\McUpdate.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [CTFMON.EXE] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Gamma Loader.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OSA.EXE
O4 - Global Startup: WinZip Quick Pick.lnk = C:\Program Files\WinZip\WZQKPICK.EXE
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office10\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_04\bin\npjpi150_04.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_04\bin\npjpi150_04.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
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.c...ls/en/x86/client/wuweb_site.cab?1110029226031
O16 - DPF: {7B297BFD-85E4-4092-B2AF-16A91B2EA103} (WScanCtl Class) - http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/webscan.cab
O18 - Protocol: ms-help - {314111C7-A502-11D2-BBCA-00C04F8EC294} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help\hxds.dll
O23 - Service: Apache - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\Apache.exe" --ntservice (file missing)
O23 - Service: GhostStartService - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStartService.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee.com McShield (McShield) - Unknown owner - c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcshield.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee SecurityCenter Update Manager (mcupdmgr.exe) - McAfee, Inc - C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee.com\Agent\mcupdmgr.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee.com VirusScan Online Realtime Engine (MCVSRte) - McAfee, Inc - c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsrte.exe
O23 - Service: MySQL - Unknown owner - C:\Program.exe (file missing)

 

I just took a peek in the BIOS setup and my DVD drive was at the top of the bootsequence.... I moved my HD to the top and now boottime is down to about 35 seconds. I think my problem is solved. Thanks for the tips, especially bootvis is a nice tool.
Luc

 

Thanks for the update. The new boot time does sound much easier to tolerate. There is a little stuff showing in the HJT log that you probably don't need starting at boot time but I didn't see signs of any baddies - just a couple of 'sludgy' items.