Slow Windows Start Up

Hi,

I've been helped by Tomk on the Malware forum with my slow XP laptop. Having carried out all the changes Tomk kindly advised, the PC is still slow.

Please see this thread for HiJack logs etc - http://forums.whatthetech.com/Baseline_Hij…970#entry531970

I think the problem may have come about either after temporarily installing a second virus software application (now uninstalled) or after the PC being left without power and dying.

Does anyone have any suggestions? The PC is old, but the drop in speed has been sudden and is extreme!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers
LB

Just to add some more info…. My PC is a Dell X300 Lattitude, running XP. It is probably 4 or so years old. I do try to keep it clear of viruses and malware by usind Ad-Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy, CCleaner and doing semi-regular defrag's. I dont know if its related, but since the PC 'died' on battery power last week, I have had the "No disc detected, press Ctr+Alt+Del to restart". I don't know if this is contributing to the problem. If there is any more information you need, please let me know. Cheers LB

Hi LittleBro,

Let's start with this guide on regular maintenance:
http://www.malwareremoval.com/tutorials/runningslowly.php

You can also download this great little start up manager:
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Install it and it creates a new Control Panel called Startup (no reboot needed). Open the new cp and in the first 4 tabs you will find almost all of your third party software that starts at boot. Don't want one? Uncheck it. Want it back? Recheck it. That's all there is to it.

Your system will love you for it - it will boot faster, use less RAM/pagefile, and run more efficiently by getting rid of all those programs that insist on starting up even though you don't need them to do that.

After doing that please let us know how your system is running and if you have any special problems. Also let us know when especially you experience a slower system than normally (startup, while browsing, overall, etc.).

Regards,
John.

Hi John B, Thanks for the reply. I have had a good read of the first link, most of which I already do as a habit. I have also downloaded the Startup Control Panel from Mike Lin - there is nothing in the Startup (user) tab and only one item in the Startup (common) tab. The HKLM/Run tab has 14 items in iti though - would that be slowing things down? In terms of what is wrong with the PC, it generally runs very, very, slowly. Startup takes 20-30 minutes, opening up any programs would take 10+ mins. If I try to install anything (I had to re-install Java yesterday) it take a very long time - Jave took c1hr. I also ran a SypBot Search and Destroy on Saturday which showed an elapsed time of 58 mins…it actually took 10-12 hours! Is there anything else you could suggest? Again, thanks for your help. Jamie

Hi LittleBro

You might want to check, that you are running in DMA mode and not
PIO on your IDE channels.

Start or "My Computer"
Control-panel, then system entry
Hardware tab, then Device manager
Scroll down to IDE ATA/ATAPI-Controllers
Expand the plus sign
Right-click primary and secondary controllers.

Check that transfer mode is DMA or DMA if Available
If set to PIO mode, adjust accordingly. If already set
to DMA if Available, change it to PIO, click ok. Then
reverse this, choosing DMA if available, click ok.

If the above doesn't work, right-click the IDE controllers
and remove them. Reboot, and let windows re-install
them.

Regards

Hi Abydos, Thanks for the suggestion. I've got the following - Intel ® 8280 1DBM Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CA Primary IDE Channel I couldn't find any way of adjusting the transfer mode on the Intel, but have done so on the Primary IDE Channel. I have Device 0 and Device 1. I have changed them as you mentioned and Device 0 is now showing as "Current Transfer Mode - Ultra DMA Mode 5", whilst device 1 is showing as "Current Transfer Mode - Not Applicable". Should I uninstall both of the above? If I do, do I need any disks for them to be reinstalled or will the drivers be on my PC anyway? Thanks again for your help. LB

Hi LittleBro If possible, there is no harm done trying to uninstall / remove those controllers. The files needed for windows to reinstall them, is there, no need to download anything. Reboot afterwards. Regards

Hi, Again, thanks for the replies. I carried out the uninstall last night and have had to wait until this morning to reboot (its taken that long! :)) After I rebooted, there hasnt been any changes to the speed of the PC. I did notice last night that once it had been running for a while, it got a little better (to the point it was almost usable - I am using another machine at present). It got better when I 'killed' a couple of processes - is it possible that some of my software is clashing or something? Thanks again for the replies. LB

Hi again LittleBro

Its possible that the malware removal have damaged some files.
Both OS system files and application files. System files being most
important at this point, I suggest you run the two tools here under.

SFC /Scannow:

Have your windows CD ready at hand, as it might ask for it during
the run of this command.

Goto Start, then Run
Type: SFC /Scannow (Notice the space between C and the slash / )

Windows will now begin to scan for damaged / Missing files, and try
to Repair / Replace them. Let it run undirsturbed, unless it ask for your
CD. There won't be a text or anything else when it is finished. But if it
asked for your CD, it is likely that it found a error.

For further info on the SFC command: http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

CHKDSK:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

Given your current situation with the PC, these operations may take some time. So
patience is required.

Keep us posted

Regards

Thank Abydos, I'll do that right away! Out of interest, will it reuslt in a loss of any of the files I have on the PC (photo's, xls workbooks etc)? And when you mention having the Windows CD, is that just the install/reboot disk I got with my PC when I bought it? Sorry for the questions, but I want to make sure I dont do any (more) damage to my PC. Thanks again LB

Thank Abydos, I'll do that right away!

Out of interest, will it reuslt in a loss of any of the files I have on the PC (photo's, xls workbooks etc)? And when you mention having the Windows CD, is that just the install/reboot disk I got with my PC when I bought it?

Sorry for the questions, but I want to make sure I dont do any (more) damage to my PC.

Thanks again

LB

Hi LittleBro

It is understandable you want to be certain. To my knowledge, they can't harm your files, nor
any software, such as pictures, music, text documents etc.

That said, I am not 100% certain on CHDSK, if it finds a damaged sector on the HD. The repair
it would initiate on that sector, might cause loss, altho I have never heard of such a incident.

As for the CD you should be using for the SFC command, you use your Windows XP CD. If you
don't have such a CD, its ok to borrow one for this purpose, as long as it is the same version.
Home uses Home edition, pro uses pro. But no harm will be done if you try out the one you
have. Not certain what type it is you have, genuine, OEM or recovery CD. You could always try go
with the CHKDSK tool first, and see if it will remedy anything.

Regards

Thanks Abydos. I think its the OEM disk I have, it came with the PC and says it is for reinstallation of sotware already on the PC. I've set it off and it has already asked for the CD so hopfully it is correcting something. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again LB

Hi Abydos, I've done those two steps and it did find one file to repair/replace. Sadly, it hasnt made much of a difference to the speed of the PC i.e. it still takes 15-20 mins just to start up and then programs take minutes to open, Internet Explorer takes much longer! It took since my last post to do just those two steps! Is there anything that I can do to check my processor or my hard drives are all performing OK? I'm beginnnig to look a lot like this little fella ==>> Thanks for your continued help, its genuinely appreciated. Cheers LB

Hi, Just whilst your waiting for Abydos to get back to you…I suggest you try this: 1 With your Internet disconnected (physically pull out the connection from the socket) 2 Click on Start 3 Click on Run in the white box type the following: msconfig 4 press the Enter key 5 Click the startup tab 6 Click Disable all 7 click OK 8 Click on Restart NOTE when your machine restarts only the minumum stuff will be loaded (and this means among other things your 2 way software firewall and anti.virus/protection products will not be loaded…………….this is why its important to ensure that your Internet is disconnected before starting this test. 9 click on do not remind me again note down the time the startup takes with all the items in startup disabled……..did it start up a lot quicker this time? if it did start up a lot quicker then one of the items you disabled in startup could be the culprit……….. Here's what to do next to help identify it. 10 put a checkmark/tick in the box immediately to the left of the first 10 of the lines ( note down their names ) and OK your way out, and restart your computer. 11 If the "start up" was still quick then the 10 items you allowed to start did not include the culprit, so you can now move on to enable the next 10 and so on ……..( keep a good list of all the names otherwise its easy to get lost!) 11 At some stage you will find that enabling items causes the problem of very slow startup, so you need to zero in on the culprit…..to make the job as easy as possible just keep on halving the selected items until you have found the culprit! 12 When you have done, then then you can leave the culprit unticked/uncheckmarked, enable the rest Ok your way and then restart your computer. Let us know how you go Regards paws

Hi Paws, Thanks for the suggestion - I'll do that as soon as I can. Or should I say, as soon as I can overcome another problem! I've just fired up my PC and it wont start, it now pops up with a warning box that says "The end point format is invalid" and the file it refers to is lsass.exe. I'm going to try again in a minute….I have my fingers crossed. Thanks again for the reply, I'll do that ASAP. Cheers LB