BleepingComputer.com: Sudden Slow Startup

Hi Everyone,

I never use to have any problems with my computer starting up but the last few times I have started it, it has hung at a certain spot for about 2 minutes. After the Windows logo comes up showing the bar that scrolls it goes to the black screen and hangs there for about 2 minutes before going to the Welcome to Windows screen and it use to only stay at that spot for about 20 seconds.

I had only installed one program within the last few weeks, and the first few reboots after installing that program were normal, but I uninstalled it anyway just in case and it made no difference at all. I also did a System Restore to a date I believe was before this problem started and that made no difference either.

There have been no other changes made to the system, there are no new startup items and once it loads everything runs normally.

I have ran my ZoneAlarm virus program, Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware, all of which came up clean. Device manager shows no problems.

Does anyone have any idea what could cause this problem?

Thanks to everyone who can help

This post has been edited by Stang777: 15 October 2009 - 03:44 PM

Hold on, I think I may have figured it out, have to run to work now and will check my theory when I get back, just didn't want anyone wasting time trying to help if I have it figured out. I will post back and let you guys know if I fixed it or still need help, thanks anyway

Well, I did not have it figured out. I thought that maybe something funky had happened with my antivirus program since the computer loads fine into safe mode and the antivirus program does not load in safe mode, but that wasn't it.

Even with the antivirus program removed, the startup process will usually hang for 2-5 minutes at the spot described above.

If anyone has any ideas as to what could be causing this problem, please let me know.

Thanks

Did you try running chkdisk maybe your hard drive is acting up?

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: 16 October 2009 - 01:34 AM

Thank you for replying and trying to help sleepwalker. I have not tried that yet, thought about but since everything runs great after it finally loads and the fact that usually when there is a problem that requires checkdisk, it runs on its own at startup, I have not done it.

I was thinking of trying that but since you suggested it, I will absolutely do that.

I am running another virus scan since I just reinstalled the program and because there was something funky going on with it before I uninstalled it (the control panel for it was opening rather strangely) and when it finishes I will run checkdisk.

Thank you very much for your help

I think I'd give bootcfg /rebuild a shot, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291980.

Louis

I gave checkdisk a shot, but it found no problems.

Thank you Louis, I will check out that link after I get home from work tonight. For now I need to get some sleep. I have been messing with this all night, to no avail. I hope whatever that link tells me to do is something I can actually do and will be the fix for it, I am out of ideas completely and am baffled so I really appreciate the help.

This post has been edited by Stang777: 16 October 2009 - 08:44 AM

Well, I was too curious to not check it out before going to sleep, if I understand it correctly, you think I should rebuild the boot.ini file using the recovery console. I have never used that so I hope it is something I can do easily. the below is a copy of my boot.ini, it does not seem to have changed...

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Does that look right to you and should I still try to rebuild it?

Rebuild it, no harm can result from doing such.

Damaged files never appear to be damaged, unless it is to Windows.

Of course, if you don't want to attempt it, it's your choice. Just telling you what I would try.

Louis

Oh, ok. I am willing to attempt it and I appreciate you telling me what you would try. I am just a little nervous because I have never used the recovery console before but I will give it a shot tonight.

Btw, I have found that it does not hang every time, sometimes it boots up normally, but more often than not, it does hang, and once in a while it does not boot at all, I have to restart it once or twice before it will load all the way. When it stops, it always stops at that same place.

Thanks again for your help

Have you run a diagnostic on your hard drive?

Chkdsk is a good utility...for certain things...but it's not the equivalent of any hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic when it comes to detection of problems with the drive.

Louis

Yes, it is a Western Digital hard drive so I ran the Western Digital hard drive test and it passed both the quick and extended tests.

i think i would look at the ram next. test by removing all and boot with one at a time. alternately you can run memtest86

This post has been edited by caperdog: 16 October 2009 - 05:20 PM

To make sure I understand, to rebuild the boot.ini I just put the Windows XP disk in, select recovery console, then select boot menu and type bootcfg /rebuild, is that correct?

And am I correct that there is no way I can mess that up and make things worse?

(Yes, you can call me chicken)

Caperdog, thank you for the help and suggesting Memtest, if all else fails, I guess I will end up doing that but I really do not see any signs of ram being bad cause after it finally loads Windows, everything runs great.

The ONLY problem my computer has is getting past that one spot when booting

Thank you everyone for your help, if anyone has any other ideas, please share them, it will probably be a couple of days before I have time to do much

This post has been edited by Stang777: 17 October 2009 - 01:14 AM

Since I am a major chicken about using the recovery console, and a bit pressed for time right now, I was just wondering if this idea I had might work instead.

I have a backup copy of the boot.ini from a time when my computer was booting normally, is it possible to just replace the current boot.ini with that copy and have it do the same thing as using the rebuild command from recovery console?