BleepingComputer.com: 20 Minute Startup

I've never seen this symptom before, perhaps someone could suggest a solution? My PC running Vista Premium now requires about 20 minutes to startup. When I turn it off and back on, it pauses at the greeting screen that shows the motherboard brand and displays "Press Del to setup, Tab to show POST messages". It's an Asus motherboard. After pausing there for about 20 minutes with no disk activity or sound, it mysteriously wakes up and speeds through the rest of the POST process.

This behavior began after I installed Adobe Acrobat 5 (an old program with known Vista compatibility issues) and got partway through the installation of Trend Micro Internet Security Suite 2009. It was during the reboot caused by that install that this behavior first cropped up.

Anybody know what I should look for in treating this annoying problem? I figure I'll start by scanning the disk with the Trend Micro product, then use Spybot and any other spyware program. I'll uninstall Acrobat 5, of course. The hard drive is fairly new and hasn't given me any problems in the past.

Thanks.

Start up Windows Defender and click on the 'Tools' tab. From the menu, select 'Software Explorer'. Make sure the 'Category' dropdown box is set to 'Startup Programs' so you are looking at all programs that start up by default from all sources. Examine the left side of the window looking for anything you suspect should not be there or that you consider useless. When you select any one of them, the right half of the screen shows a bunch of info about the source and at the bottom of the screen, you can either 'Disable' or 'Remove' the program. If you are uncertain, you can simply disable it. I suggest you would be better off using the program's 'Uninstall' utility or the Control Panel - Programs and Features to remove anything you decide should be permanently removed. Those removal mechanisms don't always work however (especially with anti-virus programs) so you may have some additional work to do.

I'd suggest starting with Startup Repair: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/repair-windows-with-windows-startup-repair/
If that doesn't fix it, post back and we'll start suggesting other things to try.

Startup Repair looks very promising, but unfortunately I can't use it. It requires that I boot up using the Windows Vista installation disk. When I place that in my DVD drive and start my machine I wait 15 or 20 minutes looking at the signon screen (described in my first message), then it goes directly to the next stage of startup without showing me the "Press any key to start from CD...." option. Weird, huh? Maybe my DVD drive is kaput. I'll try unplugging that from the motherboard when I get home later today.

--------- Rick

With an Asus motherboard you should be able to press "Del" to get into the BIOS and change the boot order.
In my last Asus mobo you could press F8 to get at the boot menu also.

You're right. The screen that says "Press Del for BIOS setup or Tab to see POST messages" is the one that my machine pauses on for 15 or 20 minutes. Pressing either key doesn't speed up the delay nor does it cause the machine to immediately or later go to the BIOS or show POST messages. It's like it's dead during that time. It may respond to a Del key or F8 keypress after it wakes up from its pause but I don't know when that is and can't keep hitting those keys for 20 minutes in hopes that it will respond.

Weird.

--------- Rick

Did you uninstall Adobe Acrobat 5? Not only does it have problems with Vista, it is also an insecure application....vulnerable to malware attacks.

I'll check it when I get home later today.

-------- Rick

If it's hanging before Windows starts to boot, then it's not a Windows issue. So, if you can't access the BIOS or boot menu, then you likely have a hardware problem that's preventing the boot.

You'll have to be able to boot - either to Windows or to a CD - in order to run any testing software. I'd have to suggest first resetting your BIOS by unplugging the system and removing the CMOS battery (the shiny, round thing about the size of a nickle - it's a CR2032 battery usually) for about 30 minutes.

Then plug everthing back in and see if it'll boot. You may get an error message when first booting (this is because the time was reset) - press the Del key to enter setup and adjust the time. Then save the settings and exit.