Posted on 04/13/2009 8:20:14 PM PDT by Blogger
Several months ago, my computer crashed on me. Wouldn't even get to the beginning stages of boot up. Lights flickered if you hit the button, but beyond that, nothing. So, I took it to Best Buy where I bought it and where it was still under warrantee. They determined it was a fried motherboard. Consistent with the warrantee, the Geek Squad replaced it. Ever since that time, it takes about 2-3 minutes to boot up. Everything else seems to run fine, but boot up is excruciatingly slow. Any ideas why what normally took 30 seconds or so now takes 5 times a long?
Vista?
Try booting up in safe mode. Also check to see if it needs to be defragged and run a chkdsk to check for errors on your hard drive.
If it’s just slow at the power-on sequence (not necessarily the “boot” itself), you should probably check to see whether your antivirus software (and update software for everything else) isn’t set to “run at startup.”
How many active startup items do you have?
2. Download CCleaner and run that afterward to help assure traces are gone.
3. Go to the Start button and type in msconfig.exe and if in Vista, run as Administrator. Go to your Startup tab and look at all items your are starting up. You don't need the Adobe Preloader, Adobe Updater, Java Updater, QuickTime Updater, etc. Uncheck all of those. Check all the rest of your loading items on in Google by typing in the program name (comes right before “.exe”). If you need to feel comfortable with getting updates to all of the above programs, download Secunia PSI and have that run in their place. It is much smaller and checks a ton more programs.
4. Make sure your antivirus and antispyware aren't bogging your system down. The tightest antivirus is probably ESET’s NOD32. Others to consider are the free Avira, but AVG and Avast both take quite a bit of resources. For free, get Avira.
Run the Disk Defragmenter after all the above. You will have probably gotten yourself back to the best speed you had before.
Does the screen freeze for more than 30 seconds during boot? If so, tell what you are seeing.
It could be many things. For instance, they could have left the bios setting on which scans all of memory. (This is probably a good thing to leave.) If they left the memory scan on, then the BIOS usually tells you that it is scanning memory.
They could have also altered the order of device searching during the boot where your hard disk might be low on the list.
There could also be a lot of things added to your startup. A lot of new computers, or newly loaded computers, get a bunch of garbage loaded at startup in order to send you pop-ups describing the stuff they want you to buy. Do you notice more items in the task tray on the far right lower corner?
Vista. But no problems with Vista until now.
I have ESET. Heard about it on Free Republic :)
Love it.
Turn off ALL of your firewall, phishing, virus software. And then get all of the crap on your desktop...if that doesn’t work then get a new computer!
re-format
get an extra hard drive and have one that contains ONLY work and the other boot drive for fun and games
get a good pc cleanup program regclean is a good one
Despite what BreezyDog suggests, do NOT turn off your firewall and virus protection software! If you want to go this route, then first reach around behind and UNPLUG from the internet, then turn off those protections and reboot. Do not replug until you have your firewall and virus protection back in place.
I’d start with “start/run/msconfig” check your list of startup programs. I’d start by disabling all of them. Sometimes I’d leave things like any sort of sound card software running. But I’d disable as much as possible. If it boots faster, use process of elimination from there.
Reboot your computer and log into the BIOS Setup (F2 on a Dell). Check to see if you computer is configured to do a fast (quick) boot or if configured to run a complete system diagnostic upon boot-up. This can add several minutes to the boot process, depending on your computer.
The Geek squad around here will configure any computer to run the dignostics upon startup (helps to identify hardware issues before the OS is loaded); they usually don’t reset the computer to run a quick boot, you have to do that yourself.
Bingo!
bookmark
I do this for a living and I have seen in recent months hundreds of examples of what you describe. In fact tomorrow I am re-imaging the hard drives of an entire branch of the company I work for..,
The cause is currently unknown - but a complete ‘from scratch’ - wiping out the volume partitions on the hard drive — then reinstalling Windows XP or Vista from the CD — then reinstalling all your applications - will return you computer to normal... Drastic - yes - but nothing less will do the job... BUT - first you must back up all your data - My Documents, document folders, etc. — then restore them after the re-installation.
Sorry - but that is the way it is...
After tomorrow - I have Six more Corporate Branches to go...
It slowly gets to a blank blue screen (not the infamous blue screen of death but the one that matches the Vista opening screen with my user icon).
I just tried deleting programs, and I went to msconfig.exe and turned off some unnecessary programs didn’t work. I’m going to look for whether it is doing a quick bootup in the BIOS or not.
Actually, there weren’t a lot. A few unnecessary ones, but mostly system type stuff.
I had the Geek squad come to my home, seems some tree trunks were interfering with my cables, putting strain on them and not allowing a “full” connection, cables were replaced with lots of slack..internet, phone and television reception are now first rate.
Save.
It looks like it is selective startup.
I do have a lot of “Services”
Things like Microsoft.net Do I need that?
While you are in MSCONFIG, uncheck Ready Boost and Superfetch under Running Processes ( Applications ) - I think that is what it is called. I have a Chinese Operating system so am not sure of the tab names. Although these are not the problem with startup, once you are running, things will go smoother. These use a lot of memory and it will clear that up for you. They are services that are not really needed.
They are running.
If I disable them all won’t I not boot up?
That would be the first time the Geek Squad did underground work.
Then tonight, before you to bed, be sure to check the lock on each door and window in your house at least 10 times. And whatever you do, don't go near any vehicle; especially cars, trucks, boats, trains or planes. You just never know.
Seriously, disabling protective software for a short time while you investigate performance issues is highly unlikely to get you infected. It may allow currently existing malware to phone home, but if the malware was already able to get itself installed, and is responsible for your current problem, your protective software isn't worth much anyway. Anti-virus software and firewalls aren't the best way to keep your computer infection free. Keeping kids away from your computer is.
How much RAM do you have? Click Cotrol-Alt-Delete ONCE Click on the Performance Tab and check your CPU Usage. When the Motherboard fried it may have fried a RAM chip as well that they didn’t catch. Sometimes with low RAM they’ll chug along slow or sometimes a bad RAM chip will give a BSOD.
I’d bet a dollar that the problem isn’t with the OS, or anything on the disk. I’d consider settings in the BIOS, boot sequence, low power CPU clock setting that doesn’t get fixed until the OS gets in and figures it out, or something like that.
Remember, the problem started with a fried MoBo.
BIOS settings may not be set right by Geek Squad when they replaced it. It’s worth going into setup at (press F2 or some other key at initial boot time) and checking the boot sequence. Could be it’s trying to boot off of something that’s waiting for a timeout, like a non-existent floppy or CD.
Also, there may be a flash upgrade for the MoBo. Check the manufacturers web site. Go there and plug in your comp’s model number and look for a BIOS flash upgrade.
If there is an upgrade available, go ahead and do it. But read the manufacturer’s instructions carefully. Flash upgrade isn’t usually hard to do. Self-service is fine if you are careful.
If you don’t currently need .Net framework, you will before long. I’d keep it. Most new programs rely on the framework.
You’ve gotten a lot of good advice on this thread. One other thing to check ... does your computer have multiple modes of accessing the internet turned on? I’ve seen devices that are using WiFi, Phone Cards and a wired connection and they are all battling each other for dominance. Turn off the extraneous modes and it boots a whole lot faster.
Okay disabled all startup programs except for my virus protection.
What I have left is
Virus protection
Microsoft Configuration Utility
Microsoft Userinit Login app
Microsoft Windows Explorer
and something called
soft thinks launcher
Make fun if you want, but please unplug if you want to be safe. Two years ago I was rebuilding my father-in-laws XP system. The installation disk came with SP1, but SP2 wasn’t in place. I thought I’d go ahead and download SP2 before I got the virus software in place. It took all of 45 minutes for a worm to infect the beast. I had to wipe the drive and reinstall.
Take a look at your router history some time. There are probes from the wild internet CONSTANTLY. I run a web site and I have to monitor the logs. I only allow SSL input authenticated by WEBAUTH/Kerberos. (I also beat on my user base about the strength of their passwords.) Most probes are somewhat benign, but many are looking for specific weaknesses. Why take a chance when unplugging is so easy?
That is only true if you have a router acting as a firewall that you plug into for the internet.
Otherwise, you will be pwned in under ten minutes.
Of course this would make sense IF the Geeks preserved your data and disk. On the other hand, if he got a freshly loaded system, then the prior occurrence was probably unrelated.
Blogger: I can't say without looking, there's a number of factors that can be causing the slow boot times. If it has changed since the Geek Squad had their hands on it, then they can fix it. They probably changed some things, or didn't reset or tweak some things, BIOS settings, drivers et al, for a new motherboard. There can also be starup programs that were not there before, can't say. It's never easy to diagnose 'puter problems in these forums. If you have a geek squad type friend perhaps he can come over and correct it for you. If not, you might have to take a trip. Another option down the road would be learning more about your system, because, despite the best efforts of M$, Dell, HP and others; it's not an appliance, and they're all different. It is an intricate, complex tool. Learning more about it, and how it works is never going to be a bad thing.
bump thanks for the check list and the Avira info.
To link two bits of advice you’ve gotten so far — if you do have more than one mode of internet connection trying to connect at the same time, remember if you do disable your firewall or antivirus, to be sure you’re not accidentally still connected to the web.
Especially if your “other” connection isn’t securely behind a router.
There is one other possible course of action - but you really need to be ready to throw caution to the wind if you decide to go this route. You could use the situation as an excuse to install Linux on your machine.
Thing is, if you don’t like it, that can be a big step to try to get back from.
Good luck to you.
RAM size could definitely be an issue. We sent one machine in for repair and it was magically missing a chip; i.e., half its memory, once it returned.
Right click on “My Computer” to select the “Properties”. Verify that the amount of installed memory is correct.
I dabble with some of this stuff and went to the Geek Squad because the computer was still under warrantee (think it is up this month). It wouldn’t start at all. I may take it back and see what happened.
Thank you mmichaels. I’ve gotten some great advice here.
I run eset which is pretty non-invasive for virus protection. I will disable it temporarily and turn off the internet on the front of my computer.
I looked at the boot sequence and they were trying to boot up a non-existent floppy drive, but that didn’t fix the issue :( Will keep trying.
Thanks everyone!
An automatic scan at bootup is a distinct possibility, especially if he boots down before it has a chance to complete. Windows used to also start building indexes for Fast Search, but I haven’t noticed that as an issue on my machines lately.
Perchance is there a CD or DVD in the drive drawer? One of the guys at work was just remarking that CD handling tends to freeze the system briefly and hasn’t improved since Windows 3.1.
Warranty replacements will many times NOT preserve your hard drive. They find it easier to throw a new machine at you.
Let me know if you hit upon the solution. If the thread is dead by then, feel free to FReepmail. Every experience is a learning experience.
Some of the other hardware might be damaged also.
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