Slow win XP boot up

Hi everyone,

Hope someone here can help.

Recently my Win XP Pro boot up has gone slow. What used to be 1 minute is noe 3-4 minutes from power on to boot up. You can almost feel the PC struggling to bring up windows, but there are no error messages.

Once the OS is booted there are no other problems - all the programs run fine with no evidence of lagging or sluggish response. even the resource hungry ones. The system resources shows virtually zero CPU use when the system is idle.

I have checked the PC with anti-virus, anti-adaware, anti-spyware, malicious program removel tool and registry fixers. The PC is behind a hardware and software firewall.

Any thoughts as to what is causing this sudden slow down of Win XP boot up?

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During bootup, the system is reading a lot of data from the hdd's and loading a lot of services and memory-resident programs.

These are the 2 possible areas that are affecting your bootup time.

Firstly the hdd - defrag to improve performance. The standard windows one is ok, but something like PerfectDisk is better.

Secondly, all those services and programs that are being loaded. By removing those that are not needed, you can improve bootup times.

These are the areas to check:
1. Your Startup folder - check what shortcuts are here, and remove anything that does not need to be started on load. Note that you can load any of these manually if you need to as and when you need them

2. Registry - this is a bit more tricky. Run Regedt32, and navigate to the following 2 keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MicrosoftWindows/CurrentVersion/Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run
Check the entries in these locations and delete anything that you do not need. Please do not delete anything without first checking if it's needed. If you are unsure, do not delete.

3. Services - There is an excellent guide from BlackViper on WinXP services. I need to search for it, as they moved the page. Will let you know if/when I can find it.
EDIT: Found it here

Just some ideas...

Reply to Covered_in_bees

Covered_in_bees' solutions are great if they work, but I'm sure it goes without saying that re-installation is a panacea in this situation.

Covered_in_bees, I'm pretty sure that the Startup folder in the Start menu is processed after the UI/Windows Explorer is loaded so I don't think it could be that.

Good call on using services.msc instead of msconfig, it's way better (I hate the fact you can't maximise msconfig!)

Reply to mesarectifier

Quote :

Good call on using services.msc instead of msconfig, it's way better (I hate the fact you can't maximise msconfig!)

They both have their place. Most things that appear in msconfig are not registered as services, so you won't find them in services.msc anyway.

Reply to MaximRecoil

Only thing I can add/advise is "chkdsk /f" and see if it can do anything for the file system. **requires reboot from the command line.

And to clear all *tmp files from the system, especially from the local settings temp folder.

Reply to Grimmy

Hard to say w/o system specs and an install history.

Have you added apps lately?

Are you runnign new services?

Checked for spyware? Adaware will help, maybe.

Check your virtual memory settings.

Try a registry cleaing app.

majorgeeks.com has some.

If you don't have spyware and have updated your pc and runs repairs on the OS, reimage it.

If you have the saem problem after a freshy install - you've got a hardware bummer.

If all else fails, just add ram..

^_^

Reply to 940Socket2me

Thanks for the suggestions. Am working my way through them.

Will let you know if there is any joy

Reply to Walkerboh

Quote :

2. Registry - this is a bit more tricky. Run Regedt32,...

there is no regedit32 in win xp
just regedit

id say it is main fragmented files

to the arthur: u mean boot up as in seeing the log on screen or u mean boot up as in till u see the start menu?

get disk keeper, it defrags the folders, files, pageing file, master boot record, system files, master file allocation table!

Reply to derek101700

Quote :

Hi everyone,

Hope someone here can help.

Recently my Win XP Pro boot up has gone slow. What used to be 1 minute is noe 3-4 minutes from power on to boot up. You can almost feel the PC struggling to bring up windows, but there are no error messages.

Once the OS is booted there are no other problems - all the programs run fine with no evidence of lagging or sluggish response. even the resource hungry ones. The system resources shows virtually zero CPU use when the system is idle.

I have checked the PC with anti-virus, anti-adaware, anti-spyware, malicious program removel tool and registry fixers. The PC is behind a hardware and software firewall.

Any thoughts as to what is causing this sudden slow down of Win XP boot up?

Are there the same amount of items in your systray? I would ask if there are more services due to added programs but it's hard to say if you don't monitor Task Manager.

Reply to BaronMatrix

Quote :

2. Registry - this is a bit more tricky. Run Regedt32,...

there is no regedit32 in win xp
just regedit

id say it is main fragmented files

to the arthur: u mean boot up as in seeing the log on screen or u mean boot up as in till u see the start menu?

get disk keeper, it defrags the folders, files, pageing file, master boot record, system files, master file allocation table!

Actually, its the same thing.

Its exe name is.. regedit32.exe, in the system32 folder.

You can still type it as regedit on the run command.

Reply to Grimmy

Quote :

2. Registry - this is a bit more tricky. Run Regedt32,...

there is no regedit32 in win xp
just regedit

id say it is main fragmented files

to the arthur: u mean boot up as in seeing the log on screen or u mean boot up as in till u see the start menu?

get disk keeper, it defrags the folders, files, pageing file, master boot record, system files, master file allocation table!

Actually, its the same thing.

Its exe name is.. regedit32.exe, in the system32 folder.

You can still type it as regedit on the run command.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=141377

If you try to find "regedit32.exe" in XP or any other version of Windows, you won't find it. It is "regedt32.exe". In versions of NT previous to XP, regedt32 was different than regedit. In XP and Server 2003 though, regedt32 is just a small exe that launches regedit, so they are the same, for all intents and purposes.

However, all of the NT kernel Windows have Regedt32.

Reply to MaximRecoil

idk if its really a good idea but i have a .bat file that runs the defrag and i put it as a scheduled event for like 5 in the morning every night and i can tell it helps things run a lot faster.

Reply to nannerla

Oh... that older version?

Where it shows, other windows when you open it up. (autoexec.bat, sys.ini, ect)

Almost forgot all about that thing... :oops:

Reply to Grimmy

Quote :

Oh... that older version?

Where it shows, other windows when you open it up. (autoexec.bat, sys.ini, ect)

Almost forgot all about that thing... :oops:

Exactly, except it doesn't show autoexec.bat or sys.ini or anything like that (you are thinking of "sysedit" which has the same type of cascading windows); it has the different HKEY's windowed. Here is a screenshot.

Reply to MaximRecoil

That brings back some

Memories.... :lol:

Gawd that was awhile back for me to remember that old regedit.

Reply to Grimmy

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