# 88 seconds to starts WinXP!



## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

Yep, 88 f-ing seconds. I've looked all over this Internet and tried everything I can to increase the boot speed, but nothing works!!! All the service, registry and control panel types stuff tweaks, ive done.

First of all I get the pretty bar, then a black screen for about 10 seconds and then the Welcome screen for aaaages. I did run bootvis and the things that are taking ages to boot are the Shell and then the logon + server. 

Anyone got suggestions? I hope this isn't a reinstall Windows jobby.


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## d44ve (May 8, 2007)

new_rez said:


> Anyone got suggestions? I hope this isn't a reinstall Windows jobby.



how long have you had this version of XP installed?


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

3 months. I Did a clean install when I got my new rig, it was booting fairly quick at the beginning. 

If you have bootvis ill post my boot file.


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## hat (May 8, 2007)

That should not be happening. Mine takes ~30 seconds before it is at the desktop ready to functon


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## PVTCaboose1337 (May 8, 2007)

How many processes when you go to task manager?


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

Yeah, Microsoft say the average time is around 33 seconds. I don't know wth is going on 

34 processes and 3 start up entries - My firewall, dumprep and ctfmon

I've also done virus scans with AVG, Adaware, NOD32 and spyware with Spybot. They all show up nothing.


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## hat (May 8, 2007)

Very long shot in the dark using an M-60, but defrag your hard drive?


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

hat said:


> Very long shot in the dark using an M-60, but defrag your hard drive?



I must have defragged it about 6 times in the past 2 days using diskkeeper to try and sort the problem


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## DR.Death (May 8, 2007)

run adwear and spy bot


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

I've done that. I've also run AVG and NOD32.


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## pt (May 8, 2007)

have you checked your hdd for errors?


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

Yep, I did a CHKDSK earlier...it took bloody ages! lol

And just after the welcome screen the screen is blank. Explorer seems to have a 5 second delay before it starts


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## ktr (May 8, 2007)

Run ccleaner...and disk cleanup...that should help. 

according to bootvis, what app is taking the most time?


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## FatForester (May 8, 2007)

have you tried toning down your overclock and seeing if that has anything to do with it? it seems like you've tried a bit of everything already.


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

ktr said:


> Run ccleaner...and disk cleanup...that should help.
> 
> according to bootvis, what app is taking the most time?



I've run those too  

Im not sure, I can't really read bootvis to well. It looks like explorer is taking the most time, thats shell right? and the Logon services are taking quite a while.


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## ktr (May 8, 2007)

show me a screenie of bootvis results.


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

Ill just do a fresh boot as I changed a few network settings and then ill have a new file.


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## Da iLLeZt TL973 (May 8, 2007)

could this be a memory issue or maybe you need a bigger HDD???.....do you have a shitload of stuff on your rig?


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

The memory is fine. I've run memtest on it for about 10 hours and there were no errors. I also have a second HDD and on my primary one I have about 30Gb free.

Lol, i just re ran bootvis and the boot time has actually increased. Thats well bad. Its now at 99 seconds...

ktr, which bit do you want a screeny of? its really long.


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## ktr (May 8, 2007)

new_rez said:


> The memory is fine. I've run memtest on it for about 10 hours and there were no errors. I also have a second HDD and on my primary one I have about 30Gb free.
> 
> Lol, i just re ran bootvis and the boot time has actually increased. Thats well bad. Its now at 99 seconds...
> 
> ktr, which bit do you want a screeny of? its really long.



lol, i dont know...just give me the ones with the graphs and the length of the processes.


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

Ok, here it is. If you zoom in you can make out the words. There are processes starting for programs that I had unclicked for startup though.

Anyway, its pretty bad


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## Solaris17 (May 8, 2007)

new_rez said:


> Yeah, Microsoft say the average time is around 33 seconds. I don't know wth is going on
> 
> 34 processes and 3 start up entries - My firewall, dumprep and ctfmon
> 
> I've also done virus scans with AVG, Adaware, NOD32 and spyware with Spybot. They all show up nothing.



do a regclean/defrag then go into the woindows folder delete the temp and the prefetch it is not uncommone for some files in the temp to not be deletable just get as many as you can that will increase times at least i notices a diff.

also put your page if you have one on a drive that doesnt have your os


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## ktr (May 8, 2007)

how about safe mode? is it slow there?


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

Solaris17 said:


> do a regclean/defrag then go into the woindows folder delete the temp and the prefetch it is not uncommone for some files in the temp to not be deletable just get as many as you can that will increase times at least i notices a diff.
> 
> also put your page if you have one on a drive that doesnt have your os



I've done most of that, ill try putting the page file on my other drive.



ktr said:


> how about safe mode? is it slow there?



I've not tried safe mode. I completely forgot to do that! Ill try it when I get home from college.

Edit: Actually I did try safe mode lastnight. It hung on some GOGO thing


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## DR.Death (May 8, 2007)

try msconfig and stop unnecessary processes from starting


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## ktr (May 8, 2007)

new_rez said:


> Actually I did try safe mode lastnight. It hung on some GOGO thing



safe mode would be the most gutted out startup that you can get...something is wrong. How is your loading times when gaming?


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## new_rez (May 8, 2007)

Loading times when gaming seem fine. Oblivion and BF2142 are running well, they load up quickly.

I've stopped most services that aren't needed. I've got about 5 different guides on tweaking XP. 

DAMN YOU OS! WHY WONT YOU WORK PROPERLY!


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## JrRacinFan (May 8, 2007)

You guys think its PSU related? 

Could try doing a bootup with a single hard drive no cd/dvd drives see if that does anything. Other than that .... really no clue! Maybe ram going bad  ... a few drivers gone corrupt/taking a while to load ... hell bad sectors on hdd would do it too.


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## DRDNA (May 8, 2007)

I don't think PSU , I do think its your crappy hard drive ... I say go get you a bigger hard drive (perpendicular)They are pretty cheap and very fast!!! Then Ghost your current slow as sh1t drive over to the new drive and I bet that fixes every thing.....I also bet that the Ghost process will take a long long time due to the sh1ty drive you now have....I bet the next thing you hear is click click click ....Maybe you should run HD Tach post post back a screenie , or try pcpitstop.com and run there full test suite and report back the hard drive score .Good luck


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## new_rez (May 9, 2007)

I would get a new HDD, but I cant afford it. I'll check out what scores im getting when im back from college. Everything seems to load up very fast and I never get any errors after the immensly slow boot


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## peach1971 (May 9, 2007)

Let´s resume:

- You did all jobs like defrag, regclean etc.
- System performance is okay as soon as XP is fully awake.
- Slow boot exists even in Safe Mode

1) I´d make a HD performance test using HD Tach.
http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach
[edit: okay, we had that already]

2) If the HD performs well, try system file repair (XP setup console).


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## Mediocre (May 9, 2007)

Was thinking about this last night....

What is you boot order? I know you are having slow XP boot, but if you turn boot from CD and floppy OFF (or move it down the list) it should save you ~5s?


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## new_rez (May 9, 2007)

Mediocre said:


> Was thinking about this last night....
> 
> What is you boot order? I know you are having slow XP boot, but if you turn boot from CD and floppy OFF (or move it down the list) it should save you ~5s?



I've only got hard drive set to boot in bios. I'll check my HDD later and if its not that i'll just send my RAM back, just to be safe (I think this GeIL has a lifetime warranty)


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## lemonadesoda (May 9, 2007)

1./ Turn off power management - esp. on the HDDs
2./ Check your local network connections... maybe your PC is struggling getting an IP address. Consider fixed IP not server allocated
3./ Turn off ALL automatic updates on all your softwares, incl. Antivirus, Windows, etc.
4./ As a last resort, try sysprep'ing your HDD.  Sometimes that helps fix registry/hive problems


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## new_rez (May 9, 2007)

Here you go, HDD tests. I did both the long and short tests.

is my HDD crap and should I smash it into little pieces? *after i save everything.


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## russianboy (May 9, 2007)

Looks good to me...

Try a fresh install?


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## mas0n (May 9, 2007)

If it is hanging for long periods of time during boot without disk activity I would check to make sure that there are not any mapped drives that are offline and configure all TCP/IP settings manually.

You may also try disabling all network adapters in device manager and rebooting.


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## ktr (May 9, 2007)

run this: http://hddguru.com/download/software/HDDScan/HDDScan_v28.zip


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## DRDNA (May 9, 2007)

new_rez said:


> Here you go, HDD tests. I did both the long and short tests.
> 
> is my HDD crap and should I smash it into little pieces? *after i save everything.



Sorry for calling your Harddrive bad names. Looks pretty good to me.I'm stumped


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## lemonadesoda (May 9, 2007)

mas0n said:


> If it is hanging for long periods of time during boot without disk activity I would check to make sure that there are not any mapped drives that are offline and configure all TCP/IP settings manually.
> 
> You may also try disabling all network adapters in device manager and rebooting.



AND



lemonadesoda said:


> 1./ Turn off power management - esp. on the HDDs
> 2./ Check your local network connections... maybe your PC is struggling getting an IP address. Consider fixed IP not server allocated
> 3./ Turn off ALL automatic updates on all your softwares, incl. Antivirus, Windows, etc.
> 4./ As a last resort, try sysprep'ing your HDD.  Sometimes that helps fix registry/hive problems



will fix it.


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## new_rez (May 10, 2007)

Ok, so i've done all the things you guys have recommended, but still my system boots up slowly. Could eplorer.exe be damaged? and how could I go about repairing it? Im not entirely sure about the recovery console commands etc.

Thank for the help so far


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## L|NK|N (May 10, 2007)

new_rez said:


> Ok, so i've done all the things you guys have recommended, but still my system boots up slowly. Could eplorer.exe be damaged? and how could I go about repairing it? Im not entirely sure about the recovery console commands etc.
> 
> Thank for the help so far



Are you running SP1 or SP2 or SP1 w/SP2 installed?  (Seems like a wierd question, I know)  But I have my suspicions as my PC takes way longer to load windows than it ever did with my previous AMD system.


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## new_rez (May 10, 2007)

LiNKiN said:


> Are you running SP1 or SP2 or SP1 w/SP2 installed?  (Seems like a wierd question, I know)  But I have my suspicions as my PC takes way longer to load windows than it ever did with my previous AMD system.



Im running SP1 w/SP2 installed. The system was fine after the update. Its just gradually gotten slower and slower


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## L|NK|N (May 10, 2007)

new_rez said:


> Im running SP1 w/SP2 installed. The system was fine after the update. Its just gradually gotten slower and slower



Ha!  Interesting as in the past I ran Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 from the get-go.  But by selling my prior rigs with the copies has left me with one last XP Pro SP1 disc.  My bootup is slow also.  Slower than Im used to anyways.  And Ive optimised everything the same as I always have regarding the OS.  But, like you, Im running a SP1 w/SP2 installed.  Its not the root cause, but maybe were on to something.


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## s1rrah (May 10, 2007)

If your using Windows XP Professional or XP Server, then the following advice from the late great AlecStarr might help:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=197306&postcount=10

Worth a shot ...


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## new_rez (May 10, 2007)

LiNKiN said:


> Ha!  Interesting as in the past I ran Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 from the get-go.  But by selling my prior rigs with the copies has left me with one last XP Pro SP1 disc.  My bootup is slow also.  Slower than Im used to anyways.  And Ive optimised everything the same as I always have regarding the OS.  But, like you, Im running a SP1 w/SP2 installed.  Its not the root cause, but maybe were on to something.



It's the dreaded Windows 'halflife'. It really doing my nut in. I constantly look after and maintain my system, yet its booting slower and slower every day. 

Maybe since Vista was released the new MS patches for WinXP have been designed to slow it down so you have to upgrade!! lol 



s1rrah said:


> If your using Windows XP Professional or XP Server, then the following advice from the late great AlecStarr might help:
> 
> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=197306&postcount=10
> 
> Worth a shot ...



I would like the server edition. Isn't it supposed to be better?


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## s1rrah (May 10, 2007)

new_rez said:


> I would like the server edition. Isn't it supposed to be better?



Just more granular management functions; more akin to Windows 2000 Professional or NT Server, etc. Lots of administration and security functions.

...

Otherwise ... I so feel you pain.

I've been running this same instance of XP Home for about six months; it boots in about 16 seconds, once hardware and bios stuff is done ... 

I'm so freaked by a slow boot that I do full system images every night (forget Windows restore!); if I ever screw something up with my services or otherwise do something which messes up the boot time or system in general. I just restore the full drive image and am back in business.

It's saved my butt multiple times.

I had the same problem, a while back ... ended up just restoring an image to fix it.

Good luck ...


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## strick94u (May 11, 2007)

new_rez said:


> It's the dreaded Windows 'halflife'. It really doing my nut in. I constantly look after and maintain my system, yet its booting slower and slower every day.
> 
> Maybe since Vista was released the new MS patches for WinXP have been designed to slow it down so you have to upgrade!! lol
> 
> ...


It sounds like computer bird flu Have you been on any Asian porn sites?



(that was a vain attempt to add humor to this thread I will now ban myself for 3 days)


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## JrRacinFan (May 11, 2007)

new_rez said:


> Maybe since Vista was released the new MS patches for WinXP have been designed to slow it down so you have to upgrade!! lol



Amen to that! THATS SIG WORTHY!!!!!!


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## pt (May 11, 2007)

strick94u said:


> It sounds like computer bird flu Have you been on any Asian porn sites?
> 
> 
> 
> (that was a vain attempt to add humor to this thread I will now ban myself for 3 days)



that has earned a right to be in my sig


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## strick94u (May 11, 2007)

pt said:


> that has earned a right to be in my sig



I am deeply moved


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## Ripper3 (May 11, 2007)

Have you tried installing new drivers for mobo and gfx card?
My ATi drivers were slowing things down upon boot. Not quite the same way, but it would make my system unusable until it finished loading the graphics drivers, which sometimes took up to a whole minute.

Have you tried installing the dual-core optimiser patch for XP? Kind of helped my performance overall, and didn't do much for boot up, but worth a try

Also, about XP SP1 w/SP2 installed, I've heard that most of the time, installing XP and later updating with SP2 gives some performance boosts. I can't really confirm, as every tiem I try to slipstream XP with SP2, something breaks and I have to fall back, installing SP2 manually later. Worth a try if you give up and decide to reinstall completely.


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## mitchy24 (May 11, 2007)

Alright Mate its a shot in the dark , but do you have a usb stick in or any other memory stick e.g. SD ,Pro duo plugged in when booting up? If so take it out then try.. Also if there is a disk in the drive take that out... worth a try


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## erocker (May 11, 2007)

Try going into your windows folder and deleting everything in your temp folder and everything in your prefetch folder.  Deleting the files in the prefetch folder will deffinately help!


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## new_rez (May 13, 2007)

erocker said:


> Try going into your windows folder and deleting everything in your temp folder and everything in your prefetch folder.  Deleting the files in the prefetch folder will deffinately help!



I did that, but it still didn't help. 



Ripper3 said:


> Have you tried installing new drivers for mobo and gfx card?
> My ATi drivers were slowing things down upon boot. Not quite the same way, but it would make my system unusable until it finished loading the graphics drivers, which sometimes took up to a whole minute.
> 
> Have you tried installing the dual-core optimiser patch for XP? Kind of helped my performance overall, and didn't do much for boot up, but worth a try
> ...



Im just downloading new graphics drivers now. It does seem a bit strange that I get 3 of those black flashes on boot (one like when CCC starts up). Im also going to look through and update all of my other drivers.

Where can I get that dual-core optimiser patch?

If updating the drivers fails it looks like ill have to reintstall XP. I can afford a 500Gb HDD but  that will take quite a large dent out of my savings for my Gf's birthday


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## Kammster (May 13, 2007)

i have not the entire thread but the long load time for blue logoon screen, whenever i had that it was:
1. a program at startup messing around
2. nvidia chipset IDE driver 


i use Ace Utilities to manage windows startup registry
and Pc wizard to check and see what processes have been loaded in to memory
its problaby one program causing it.


Why not just cut your losses, backup your Documents and Settings folder to dvd/flash drive and reinstall windows.


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## new_rez (May 14, 2007)

Kammster said:


> i have not the entire thread but the long load time for blue logoon screen, whenever i had that it was:
> 1. a program at startup messing around
> 2. nvidia chipset IDE driver
> 
> ...



I could do that, but its sooo boring and takes a while to reinstall all of my computer stuff... games, software, drivers, etc, etc. I also have a lot of work for college to do. I won't be finished for another 2 weeks, so formatting isn't really an option I can go with. I want to exhaust all possibilities before I format.


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## theonetruewill (May 14, 2007)

Another shot in the dark questions, but when you defragment are their still a few files that are left fragmented as in over 200 fragmented files. Anything less isn't really of concern.


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## Fleekar (May 14, 2007)

Do you have ati hotkey poller disabled in services.msc? That gave me - ~10 seconds.
Also, in my experience, windows would hang on the user name screen if i had external hds plugged in during boot, dunno if that applies for you.

Do 1950 pros have 2d/3d clocks? Try disabling the ati2evxx.exes and ccc if u haven't already

U could also try the ultra fast booting option on tunexp 1.5, I killed off some more seconds with that as well, but sometimes it would crash my bootup and i'd have to use last known config cuz normal boot would no longer work. so use at ur own risk XD


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