XP Home dire slow boot up
 

My dads XP Home has taken at least 45 mins to boot, I tried to run AV & Adware Sw but gave up.

tried to boot up in safe mode but 15mins and counting

Also the processor is running at 100%

any ideas, reformating not an option.

---------- Post added at 18:12 ---------- Previous post was at 18:06 ----------

Is it possible for only one account in XP to be affected, leaving others on the system untouched?

I've boot using my login and i've got in far quicker.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

CPU running at 100% would point to an issue with a program starting up or a virus. Can you boot from an XP CD and re-install, choose to leave the files intact and only remove the Windows Folder?
If you can't boot to Safe mode then you are stuck for ways around it :(

---------- Post added at 18:16 ---------- Previous post was at 18:13 ----------

If you can use your login then something on the other profile is knackered, can you get into the start up menu for that profile or use this
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml
to stop anything running from startup on that profile which could be causing the problem? If you are an admin try checking the admin tools, event viewer for issues.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

I second what Paul says... As usual, good advice.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

ive seen a svchost fault crop up resently on a few machines where for some reason its running the cpu at 100 % close it once using task manager then it doesnt load 100% again (I know it dont make sense)
If you can stop whatever it is in task manager you should be able to stop it starting up also.It could also be a bad controller driver or ata lead but this is a remote chance

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

What svchost? Ive got 5 of them. I shut them all down and the system shut down

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Could it be that the drive is in PIO mode,,, thus causing 100% CPU usage and slow loading of, well, everything form disc.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

you only needed to do it if one of them was 100% lol

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

As soon as the desktop appears and its still booting, hit ctrl-alt-del if you can, and lanch task manager. Go to processes, and click the CPU header a couple of times so the highest value is at the top.

What's using the most?

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

:erm: check out some of the links in the thread you started a long time back ...lol

Thread

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

there are 36 processes all have '00'

javaw.exe = 33,120k
explorer.exe = 16,776k
vsmon.exe = 12, 992k
svchost.exe = 10,448k (3,620k, 3,180k, 2,704k & 1,688k for the others)

---------- Post added at 19:06 ---------- Previous post was at 19:05 ----------

services.exe cpu now =99

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Whats the path of the services.exe at 100%?

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

I managed after several hours to use a sysem restore point, which has solved the problem (I hope).

I ran AVG and found nothing.

I ran ad-ware (Lavasoft) and found loads of stuff.

Could adware stuff cause a 100% processor used

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

depends on what it found to be honest, may have just been a damaged system file.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Now that your 'in' what progs have you got loading at start up ? run>msconfig>start up tab, I had a friends lappy do almost the same as yours, whenn it eventually let me in there were about 20 progs loading, take out ( untick ) what you don't need, this will save some resources as well.

HTH :tu:

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Some reading for you

Linky

Linky 2

Linky 3


Its always good to google for anything your not sure of in Task manager, even start up.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Often a USB device can affect the boot up. Until i found the reason (and promptly unplugged it), my SD card reader made my PC take 5 mins to boot. Try disconnecting all USB stuff and see if that makes a difference.:D

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Yep my dad did it again, I've managed to do a restore point, and hings are running back to normal.

I ran Ad-Aware SE Personal, it found 121 dodgy thing before it started scanning IMS.cab in the I386 folder for 5 hours.

So I had to stop it and do a full scann minus the I386 folder it found about a hundred. I got rid of them. I the did a scan of the I386 folder only, agian it sticks on the IMS.CAB file.

Any ideas

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

safe mode

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

What exactly does services.exe (the proper one) do?

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Ok tried safe moe but, it stills stops in the cab file

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Tried a chkdsk? SFC?

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

what is SFC

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Run sfc /scannow from a command line. It checks that all protected OS files are correct and in proper versions...

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Tried SFC and nothing reported.

Today my dad turned it on and again the processor is running at 100%, he did a restore point, back to normal.

Just know he wanted to plug in a 4GB USB stick in it and guess what, the processor is running 100%

I'm ready to through the thing out of the window.

I've tried ad-ware but that stops om IMS.CAB what files are not needed in the i386 folder as this seems to be the problem.

---------- Post added at 19:19 ---------- Previous post was at 18:59 ----------

I found the repair CD that came with it but he can't remember the admin password.

now what.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

I asume you got XP there Hom3r... if so download a OEM copy of it from the usual sites...and just install it with that instead of the recovery cd as that will more then likely dump ****e on it again.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

ERD commander i think will reset all passwords. Not too sure how to use it though, heard it recommended on here a few times, that's all.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

IE7 used to make svchost.exe run at 100% bloody murder it was, I got by, by removing IE7.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

yeah Hom3r..Druchii has a point there...that will reset all your pw's and stuff

drop me a pm and I'll see if I can drop you a copy ;)

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Right I'm ready to throw this dam PC out of the window.

last night I did yet another restore point, removed the cab fils from the i386 folder on to a usb stick, scanned the fold and removed 17 items.

Just now I turned it on everything was OK, I upgraded the firewall. after it reboot guess what.

processor running at 100%

I'm at my wits end KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Ok, go to Start >>> Run and type in the open box control userpasswords2 and press enter. Highlight the Admin Account and click on Reset Password. Type a new password and click ok.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

I'd just be looking at resetting the TCP/IP and Winsock, and changing firewall.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

I could kick myself for not thinking of this sooner, as it's happened to me a bunch of times. Sometimes CPU useage can show as full, even though it isn't, assuming you're seeing it reported via Task Manager. If it's the same thing, it really used to drive me nuts, but it's a very easy fix.

In Task Manager, go to View -> Update Speed, & make sure it's set to Normal. If it already is, try setting it to something else, then set it back to Normal. When you look at that menu option you'll see there's a paused option. Don't ask me why, as I haven't a clue, but sometimes it gets set to paused.

If that doesn't work, do you have Spybot Search & Destroy installed on that machine? If so, open it, & under Tools - View Report, make sure the 1st tickbox is OFF, & the rest are ON, then click View Report. When it's generated the report, Export it [save it somewhere easy to find], then zip it & attach it to your next post & I'll have a look.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

When the processor is running at 100% it is slower that a dead snail.

My mate who works in IT came round and looked in the registry, admin tools couldn't find anything despite trying for 4 hours.

So I'll have to run a restore point to help then copy all the need files/save and reformat the HDD :(

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Tried it with the firewall off, btw?

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Ah, right. :(

Even experts can miss stuff sometimes, the offer's still there if you want.

Probably the best idea in the long run, though if you want, my offer to look over a Spybot report of that system still stands.

Another thing just occurred to me about slow startups - does it have any network adapters/ports that are enabled but either not connected to anything or connected to something that's not powered up? Pre-SP2 that used to cause a fairly big delay, though it's improved somewhat with SP2.

Re: XP Home dire slow boot up
 

Update.
I put an old 30GB HDD in the PC and reformatted it and installed XP.
Today I bought an External HDD enclosure, connected this via USB2 and I am running a virus check, it has found a trojan in pagefile.sys, which I have deleted.
Its still running, but could this have solved it?