Windows XP Slow Startup

S

sonnyikea

Joined
Sep 22, 2003
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Hi,

I'm looking for some pointers. I have a fairly old 600 Mhz computer running Windows XP (256 RAM all runs fine). All was working fine until I got a virus, sobig I think it was. I installed Norton AntiVirus to protect the computer after I removed the virus.

Ever since then the system has taken ages to startup. Previously it was very quick. I have tried to turn off things on startup but to no avail. It seems to run 4 versions of an .exe file called SVCHOST.exe the largest being 14mg which I think is causing the problem.

I thought I also had the BlasterWorm virus but I downloaded the patch from MS and checked using the Symantec tool but it found nothing.

I have since installed a Firewall from ZoneAlarm and this is the only thing that I have running (or that I can tell) on startup.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to look for what is causing this slowdown??

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers
Craig
 
We will have a guide on how to optimise startup times soon hopefully.

Can you tell my which items are ticked when you run "msconfig.exe" and then click startup?
 
Sorry Ian I only got this now.

The items that are checked in msconfig are:

Winampa C:\program files\Winamp\Winamp.exe
Location = HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

msmsgs C:\program files\Messanger\msmsgs.exe /background
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

msmsgs C:\program files\Messanger\msmsgs.exe /background
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

And Zonealarm.

I suppose I could stop Winamp and msmsgs from running as I don't use them. I did try and deselect all but it didnt make any difference to the startup time. Maybe its something else?

Any pointers would be great.

Cheers

Craig
 
The only thing I can think of now, is that Norton AV is virus scanning all of the files in the background (as is common with virus protection), and it is slowing your starup.

Try disabling the AV once whilst starting up to see if this is the cause :)
 
Ian,

Thanks for the reply - I originally thought that myself but being the muppet I am I could not find out how to disable Norton for the life of me.

Any pointers on how to do this?

Cheers

Craig
 
ok, disabling it before shutting down will help but it will still use up resources.
go to start-run-type "msconfig" under startup untick the box which says"hide all microsoft services"(im not on an xp, machine so its a guess)
there is another bar (doesn't say startup) but it will have other services that are running as well, when im on my xp machine i will explain more.
well, u should look for a resemblence to these:
navnt.exe
Nav.exe
nething will a "N" init and looks like summot to do with norton,
sorry if i dont help but i will re-post l8r
 
Thanks Kalbal - so I should untick these as well? If you could post again later when you are at an XP machine I would be grateful. Also the disabling before shutdown - I gather this is through the Norton program itself?
 
im back on my xp machine
what i said was parcially correct :crazy:
ok

start-run-msconfig

(i have McAFee 7, may differ slightly)

ok,
under the "services" tab a box saying "hide all microsoft services" will be ticked, untick it.
this shows all the stuff that starts up except from the xp stuff, for my AV these are ticked
"Def Watch"
"Norton Antivirus Client"
try unticking these, this should free up system resources.

now, under the "startup" tab:
these are with my AV:
"NvCpl"
"nwiz"
"NVMCTRAY"
if anything resembling these are on you startup tab, untick them also, then try restating your computer. if it boots up at a good speed then u know that the antivirus is to blame
;)
this will stop norton and disable it, if u need it to be running then go thru the same process but tick them instead of un-tick them

hope it helps,

kalbal
 
Right, that seems to have done it. Thanks for all your help.

It seems that the Symantec Scheduler was the culprit. The system is back to its usual quick start up times :spin:

Thanks again
 
Back
Top