Win XP SLOW load boot restart SLOW (help)

[CoolPaul]

Dear Sirs,
Please help. My computer boots/loads really slowly. I Have windows XP. What happens is it takes about 30-45 minutes on the black windows xp loading screen with the loading blue squares. (thats the best i can describe it) When loaded it runs fine. This tends to happen after ive installed somthing. There is nothing on my computer as its brand new. Then only software is norton anti virus and a telewest cd thats my internet account.

The first problem i had I took the pc back to where i got it and what was causing my computer to screw up was that 2 copys of norton were conflicting with each other and svhost was using 99% cpu usage. They deleted that factory put on one ('03) and put on the free copy that came with the computer ('04), they also done a full system restore before that. They returned it to me saying the problem was fixed. I took the pc home and booted it up and everything worked fine. Now as im very busy of late it was only today I installed the telewest software for my internet connection. Everything was going super fast, after install i got the usual you must now restart your computer for the new settings to take effect. Well the restart took over 30-45 mins on the black xp loading screen as described above. Please help me, what is wrong.

My computer is a 2.6 celon Packard Bell
80 gb
256 mb
windows xp.

Im not taking it back again, its a pain. I think the people on
here are much more intelligent and I would really appriacate any help.

Thanks Paul

[Front242]

Have you tried restating it again to see how long it takes to restart?

[uethello]

How about a logged boot? Press F8 while windows is starting, pick it from the list.

[Tazman]

Welcome to TechIMO Paul .

The first thing I would check is how many programs are loading at startup. When the computer does a fresh boot, check and see how many icons are loaded in the task bar. Make sure the "hide inactive icons" isn't hiding them from you - if you see the little arrow pointing to the left, click on it.

Second, do a ctrl-alt-del to bring up the task manager. Click on the "Processes" tab to see how many processes are running.

To clear some of the processes and programs loading at boot that don't need to be, go to your start menu, select the run command and type in "msconfig" (without the quotes). Click on the "Startup" tab and uncheck the programs you don't use often. More info on it can be found here.

Next, click on the "Services" tab. Carefully go through and uncheck unneeded services. To avoid a major problem, first check the box "Hide all Microsoft Services". You can find a pretty complete list here .

Hope that helps some. I was going to suggest bootvis but for some reason Mircosoft doesn't support it anymore??

Mike

[KarenMarie]

Have you tried to clean out your registry?

Get something like System Mechanic. They have a free trial period and you can do some azz kicking system maintenience with it. I had a similiar problem and it turned out to be too much usless crap in the registry. When I went to boot, they system took *forever* to run thru all the un-needed carp in the registry.

I did a registry clean with system mechanic, and then defragged and have not had a problem since. I bought the full version, and I will say again that they have some awesome utilities in the package.

[RAR]

When I had a problem like that before it was the network card. It would try to load the driver and take a long time and finally after either loading the driver or timing out it would continue. Are you connecting via cable modem or dial up? If it has a network card in it you may want to try uninstalling the network card drivers and the card itself to see if the computer will then boot up correctly.

[Gettinbye]

Quite agree, KM. Cleaning out your registry can be a big help (and system mechanic is a great little prog)
As Taz mentioned, bootvis would give you a much better idea of what is going on. I don't think you can download it from MS anymore, but I've got a copy-if you need it I can Email it to you (968kb file)
*EDIT* I have had similar problems with a gamesurround Muse XL sound card driver...it DOES NOT play nice with XP. Was taking almost two full minutes to boot. Got a new sound card and haven't had a problem since.

[KarenMarie]

thanks gettinbye!

I would not mind having a copy if you would be kind and generous enough to send it to

karenmarie at comcast dot net

thanks so much!

[Gettinbye]

Just sent it. Sorry it took so long (was out hanging MORE Christmas lights-up to about 400 feet of them now). If you need any help using it, post back...

[KarenMarie]

Office 2003 Professional, by default, blocks access to attachments that end in .exe

I have no idea how to get around that! LOL



edit: My one and Only child... my daughter ... is 19yrs. old and in University in England. No XMas decorations needed here! I have a housefull of cats, but they would just destroy them