New Notebook freezing for several minutes at startup...

[mikeydchicago]

I purchased a Dell XPS M140 about 3 weeks ago and have been having problems for the last week or so. Hopefully someone has overcome this issue before.
Whenever I boot up the system or log off and log backon - after windows loads and I attempt to load a program (ie. Internet Explorer, Outlook, Word, etc..) nothing happens. I get an hour glass for a few seconds and then nothing. After about 5 minutes or so everything that I tried to load pops up all at once. After that the system seems to work perfectly. It seems like it's just an annoyance, but my wife and I both use the system with different logons. Whenever she logs off and I log on (or vice a versa) the same problem occurs.

Please help.
Thanks.
Mike.

XPS M140
Windows XP Media Center
512MB Ram
Home wireless network (D-Link DI-524)

 

[cowboytech]

Sounds like a software problem! Have you tried Dell support yet?
Did you do all the critical updates for windows, and for your anti-virus? You could try disk maintenance, a scan and cleanup. But since it sounds primarily related to ie-explorer, usually it is related to some malware!
Go online and run this and scan for spy's malware etc... and viruses;

http://www.trendmicro.com/hc_intro/default.asp

 

[mikeydchicago]

I already made sure I have all of the updates and I ran spybot and deleted all of the spyware. Still having the problem. I agree I think it is a software problem. I ran msconfig and deleted all the startup programs that are not required. It's not only with Internet explorer, it's with any program that I try to load in the first several minutes after boot up or logon. I called Dell support and they seem to think it has something to do with my wireless network. Never had a problem before with my old Thinkpad.

 

[cowboytech]

When I'm cleaning a machine because of issue's, I use more than one cleaner! Spybot is one of them, But, before I kill the spy's I Identify the "Viruses, troj, and worms (I havn't seen a worm this year yet)" Then I go to work on the spy's malware etc... And I used to make paper notes on what I've caught, because some take special fixes, After they've been killed! Some other cleaners I use; Ad Aware personal, Trendmicro, Panda, Hijackthis, and these are just to Identify and kill, Then you get to go repair the damage they've done.

Some machines, even though they make it to windows and you see the desktop, arn't done getting them selves together, still starting proccess and programs in the background.

I am sorry about the parts of this that sound vague, but its so much easier when the machine is right in front of me!!
Have you considered saving stuff you don't want to lose and doing the F10 reinstall?

 

[mikeydchicago]

I think I have isolated the problem. If I disable wireless networking, the problem is eliminated. As soon as I enable wireless networking, the problem returns.

Does anyone know of anything that can be causing this problem only when wireless networking is enabled???

Please help.

Thanks. --Mike

 

[sturm]

do you have any mapped drives or other computer shares that are set to reconnect at logon. It might be looking for them.
do you have the same problem if you connect to the network with a wired connection?

 

[mikeydchicago]

I believe that I have solved the problem. My notebook was using the Intel Pro-Wireless client to connect to wireless networks. If I use the windows client instead, the problem disappears.

 

[sturm]

Windows had to wait for the connection attempt to time out/give up on trying to connect.
Glad you found out what the problem was.

And thanks for posting back what it was for anyone else with this problem.
Many people never post back with their solution or just say,"I got it fixed"