Help with slow boot process

[Xerapis]

Ok, so I upgraded recently.

MSI K8N Diamond Plus with FX-55...

Grabbed another gig of ram while I was at it...

Threw in a 1900XT...

New power supply, of course...

Now why does my computer take forever to boot up?

[schild]

How much USB stuff do you have plugged (in)? What order is it looking for boot devices? Still have a floppy drive?

[Trippy]

Now why does my computer take forever to boot up?

Need more information.

[Engels]

Now why does my computer take forever to boot up?

Define forever, and at what stage does it seem to be hanging the most? Also, did you just plug in your old hard drive to the new motherboard and let her rip? Because right there could be the source of your problem. Most changes like that prevent booting at all, but in some cases the chipset is similar enough that it will boot to your OS, but your OS is still trying to find the missing components of your old motherboard and other discarded hardware.

[Xerapis]

New hard drive didn't fix it.

Ok, you know where the Windows screen pop up and that little blue bar floats across the loading indicator?

It crosses that thing 17 times.

That's the hang up.

Checks the cd-rom, then the hard drive, all others in boot order disabled.

No floppy connected currently.

Lots of USB thing-a-ma-bobs.  Umm...5?  Yeah, 5 USB thingies.

[Trippy]

New hard drive didn't fix it.

Ok, you know where the Windows screen pop up and that little blue bar floats across the loading indicator?

It crosses that thing 17 times.

That's the hang up.

Is this a fresh install/reinstall of Windows XP?

[Xerapis]

Yes, a fresh installation of windows xp...

It didn't start out with 17X..

But it quickly jumped up there, just from updates and installing drivers and anti-virus

[Trippy]

Yes, a fresh installation of windows xp...

It didn't start out with 17X..

But it quickly jumped up there, just from updates and installing drivers and anti-virus

How long does it take if you boot into Safe Mode?

Edit: At this point I would suspect your anti-virus software -- it may be checking certain key files at startup. Try disabling that.

[Xerapis]

The anti-virus is AVG free.  Is it known to do evil shit like that?

I'll have to check it's options once I get home, I guess.

[Engels]

Next time you have a chance, type msconfig into your run line, then check out the start up tab. Your culprit is probably in there. Quicktime, Real player, Java, all like to put crap in your start up processes that aren't necessary and just hog resources. I'm not saying its one of those three, in fact, its likely its not one of them, but some other 3rd party software that's clogging the works. Its either that, a virus or a corrupt install somehow. Check your Event Viewer under Administrative Tools to see if there are any obvious start up errors.

[Bunk]

I was going to say the same thing. Run MSCONFIG and get down to your virus scanner and pretty much nothing else. I run AVG and it doesn't take any significant amount of boot time.

[Trippy]

Next time you have a chance, type msconfig into your run line, then check out the start up tab. Your culprit is probably in there. Quicktime, Real player, Java, all like to put crap in your start up processes that aren't necessary and just hog resources.

Those things typically load up after you get past the Windows XP splash screen though -- his delay is earlier than that.

[Xerapis]

Okay, I'll check out msconfig when I get back to my apartment.

I know it's not Quicktime or Real, since I don't have them.  And the slowdown occurred well before I installed Java.

I'll be sure to check the Event Viewer too.

It's been rather frustrating to upgrade and then have a slowdown >:[

[Engels]

Good point. So my bet is checking the eventlog, and failing that, seeing if safemode makes it boot faster. If even safe mode fails to speed things up, there's some serious issue, either with corrupt OS files or some piece of hardware, although lord knows how to figure that out. Do you have any extraneous PCI stuff working? Or strange USB devices, aside from simple plug and play stuff like headphones and joystick?

[Xerapis]

Negative on extraneous PCI or strange USB devices.

 USB is for keyboard, mouse, printer, webcam, external dvd drive.

1900XT is PCI-16 with standard ATI catalyst.

The only other slot thingy is the little "extra 2 usb port" card.

One internal cd-rom, one SATA 250gig drive (WD).   

Power supply is Hiper Type-R 580W

[Xerapis]

SafeBoot cut it down to 6 blue floaties.

Don't see that event viewer thingy right off...could be the nicotine withdrawal headache...

Startup just has normal stuff i recognize...webcam, AVG, msn msgr, googletalk, java, and then some system32 stuff.

[Trippy]

SafeBoot cut it down to 6 blue floaties.

Hmm...when I boot into Safe Mode the blue bar doesn't even show up on my computer, and on a full boot it only goes across 9 times. Assuming your AV isn't running in Safe Mode (it shouldn't be) my guess at this point is that your hard drive isn't transfering data at full speed -- i.e. it's not using the fastest UDMA mode. Are you using an 80-conductor IDE cable or a 40-conductor one (assuming you are using IDE)? Also under the Device Manager check your drive controller(s) and see what transfer mode they are set to.

Don't see that event viewer thingy right off...could be the nicotine withdrawal headache...

It's under Administrative Tools.

[Xerapis]

It's SATA...brand new (for me) Western Digital 250g.

Checked the event viewer.  Nothing surprising during booting that I can see.

Did see the point where Starforce killed my external DVD/CD drive, though.

Space Rangers 2?  Not worth my drive.

[schild]

On my old computer, having my external (usb 2.0) dvd drive made the bootup take about 10x as long. That's why I asked. I would almost bank on it being a combination of starforce and that drive. Remove Starforce (good luck) and unplug the drive, see what the results are.

[Xerapis]

The external was never in the boot sequence.  Not ever.  It boots to my internal cd-rom, then the hard drive.  All other slots in boot sequence disabled.

Tried removing the external drive.  No change.

Hopefully the Starforce is gone.  My external drive had worked just fine until I used it to try to install Space Rangers 2.  Either there was an extreme fucking coincidence, or Starforce killed my drive. 

[schild]

There are no coinceidences with Starforce. Ever. It is perfectly valid to blame them for any problems you may have with your computer. Hell, it's valid to blame them for things that have nothing to do with your computer.

[Xerapis]

Well, the slow boot thing was around before the Starforce.

But my drive had worked fine before.  No problems ever.  Only had it a few months.

Tried to install Space Rangers 2 using it.  Got some weird error.  Tried it on the internal drive, installed just fine.

External drive hasn't worked since the Space Rangers 2 install error.

[Engels]

Just a small clarification, although it probably won't help you with this problem:

Boot sequence, as set up in BIOS , just dictates which devices your BIOS checks, in order, before it finds a bootable device, such as a CD rom, floppy or any hard drive you chose to be the main bootable drive. Having other drives plugged into your pc doesn't make them part of the boot sequence in BIOS, but once the BIOS has handed over control of the boot process to the selected drive with your OS on it, the OS itself tries to negotiate connections with all your existing periferals, including your USB keyboard mouse, camera and USB drive. Yes, even your keyboard, which works under BIOS functions, needs to have Windows drivers loaded for it to work within the Windows environment. In other words, all your devices become part of the Windows boot process.

[Xerapis]

You are correct.  That does not help me with my problem.

I used the little program from the boycottstarforce boys.  Hopefully the force is no longer with me.

If I go into the msconfig and turn stuff off...aren't there some things I should definitely leave alone?  And how do I know for sure what those are?

I have no clue what some of those system32 entries do...but they intimidate me into thinking they are perhaps essential to correct functioning of the system.

Since it still took 6 floaties even in safeboot mode....is there some other problem this could be?  I dunno, RAM or something?  That's the only other thing I can think about that would be causing slowdown that early....but I just added a second gig to that, so it doesn't make sense for it to be slower.

~sigh~  This process used to be easier.

P.S.  FUCK YOU WINDOWS!!  I LIKE TO UPGRADE MY SYSTEM!!  I LIKE TO SET UP NEW BOOT DRIVES!!  YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO ACTIVATE AS MANY TIMES AS I WANT, CONSIDERING THE AMOUNT OF MONEY I SPEND ON YOUR STUPID FUCKING PROGRAM!!  I DO NOT LIKE HAVING TO CALL YOUR FUCKING OPERATORS AND EXPLAIN THAT I UPGRADED MY SYSTEM AGAIN TO GET YOUR STUPID ACTIVATION CODE!! HATE HATE HATE LOATHING FIRE DEATH PAIN TORTURE TORMENT HATE!!

[Trippy]

If I go into the msconfig and turn stuff off...aren't there some things I should definitely leave alone?  And how do I know for sure what those are?

Pretty much everything under the Startup tab is nonessential. It may break something if you turn it off but it won't keep your machine from booting.

I have no clue what some of those system32 entries do...but they intimidate me into thinking they are perhaps essential to correct functioning of the system.

Well if you don't mind showing us what you have running on your machine and how your browser is configured, run HijackThis and post the log file.

Since it still took 6 floaties even in safeboot mode....is there some other problem this could be?  I dunno, RAM or something?  That's the only other thing I can think about that would be causing slowdown that early....but I just added a second gig to that, so it doesn't make sense for it to be slower.

You could try taking out that extra memory just for fun.

[Lt.Dan]

If I go into the msconfig and turn stuff off...aren't there some things I should definitely leave alone?  And how do I know for sure what those are?

You can just google the name of the executable listed in task manager - there's plenty of free sites that'll tell you what each one does.

[Xerapis]

OK...things I will do when I get home.

Try turning off the startup stuff.

Try booting up with out the second gig of ram. Need to open the little boi up and transfer stuff from old hard drive anyway.

Desperately wish for a cigarette.

Run Hijack This and let y'all go hogwild.

[Xerapis]

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 8:13:03 PM, on 8/29/2006
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\Ati2evxx.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
c:\program files\common files\logitech\lvmvfm\LVPrcSrv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgamsvr.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgupsvc.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgemc.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\CTsvcCDA.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\<Deleted by Trippy>\Desktop\HijackThis.exe

O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_08\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: Windows Live Sign-in Helper - {9030D464-4C02-4ABF-8ECC-5164760863C6} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live\WindowsLiveLogin.dll
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_08\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_08\bin\ssv.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: {6E32070A-766D-4EE6-879C-DC1FA91D2FC3} (MUWebControl Class) - http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/V5Controls/en/x86/client/muweb_site.cab?1156577559796
O18 - Protocol: livecall - {828030A1-22C1-4009-854F-8E305202313F} - C:\PROGRA~1\MSNMES~1\MSGRAP~1.DLL
O18 - Protocol: msnim - {828030A1-22C1-4009-854F-8E305202313F} - C:\PROGRA~1\MSNMES~1\MSGRAP~1.DLL
O20 - Winlogon Notify: WgaLogon - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WgaLogon.dll
O23 - Service: Ati HotKey Poller - ATI Technologies Inc. - C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
O23 - Service: ATI Smart - Unknown owner - C:\WINDOWS\system32\ati2sgag.exe
O23 - Service: AVG7 Alert Manager Server (Avg7Alrt) - GRISOFT, s.r.o. - C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgamsvr.exe
O23 - Service: AVG7 Update Service (Avg7UpdSvc) - GRISOFT, s.r.o. - C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgupsvc.exe
O23 - Service: AVG E-mail Scanner (AVGEMS) - GRISOFT, s.r.o. - C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgemc.exe
O23 - Service: Creative Service for CDROM Access - Creative Technology Ltd - C:\WINDOWS\system32\CTsvcCDA.exe
O23 - Service: Logitech Process Monitor (LVPrcSrv) - Logitech Inc. - c:\program files\common files\logitech\lvmvfm\LVPrcSrv.exe

Edit: took out name

[Trippy]

Don't see anything odd at the moment. Some more suggestions:

Check again that you don't have StarForce running

Run something like HdTach

Check to see if your motherboard/chipset has updated SATA drivers

[UD_Delt]

You don't happen to have an iPod do you? If I have my iPod connected my laptop won't boot up at all. It just hangs on the windows splash screen.

[Sky]

P.S.  FUCK YOU WINDOWS!!  I LIKE TO UPGRADE MY SYSTEM!!  I LIKE TO SET UP NEW BOOT DRIVES!!  YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO ACTIVATE AS MANY TIMES AS I WANT, CONSIDERING THE AMOUNT OF MONEY I SPEND ON YOUR STUPID FUCKING PROGRAM!!  I DO NOT LIKE HAVING TO CALL YOUR FUCKING OPERATORS AND EXPLAIN THAT I UPGRADED MY SYSTEM AGAIN TO GET YOUR STUPID ACTIVATION CODE!! HATE HATE HATE LOATHING FIRE DEATH PAIN TORTURE TORMENT HATE!!

Yes, your hate makes you strong! Come to the Dark Side!

Put the OS you paid for on anything you want without a hassle. As a bonus, no registry!

But you have to see Microsoft's point of view. Piracy is destroying their business. They only made $3 BILLION in net profits in Q1 2006. Are you some kind of terrorist pirate commie?

[Yegolev]

Smells like hardware.  If they mystery continues, I suggest stripping down to base hardware and see what you get.  You know, single DIMM, boot disk, vid card.  Add shit until it breaks again, and you have your part.

Alternatively you might search support forums to see if any of your parts have issues.

[Yoru]

P.S.  FUCK YOU WINDOWS!!  I LIKE TO UPGRADE MY SYSTEM!!  I LIKE TO SET UP NEW BOOT DRIVES!!  YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO ACTIVATE AS MANY TIMES AS I WANT, CONSIDERING THE AMOUNT OF MONEY I SPEND ON YOUR STUPID FUCKING PROGRAM!!  I DO NOT LIKE HAVING TO CALL YOUR FUCKING OPERATORS AND EXPLAIN THAT I UPGRADED MY SYSTEM AGAIN TO GET YOUR STUPID ACTIVATION CODE!! HATE HATE HATE LOATHING FIRE DEATH PAIN TORTURE TORMENT HATE!!

If you think it's bad now, wait until you see what Microsoft has planned for Vista and beyond.  but the current activation/licensing scheme is nothing compared to their internal roadmap.

That and a beefed-up WGA give me the big skeevies about Vista.

[Engels]

Smells like hardware.  If they mystery continues, I suggest stripping down to base hardware and see what you get.  You know, single DIMM, boot disk, vid card.  Add shit until it breaks again, and you have your part.

Alternatively you might search support forums to see if any of your parts have issues.

I concurr. Could be a failing ram stick or simply that you put in the floppy drive cable in the wrong way. Its been known to happen.

[Miasma]

They accidentally leaked the pricing for vista yesterday.  Vista "Ultimate" is $450 US.  That's crazy.

As for the PC I also think you should strip it down.  You mentioned that you "grabbed another gig of ram", are you sure it is the same type as what you already had, if you have four slots are they paired correctly?