I have XP sp3, fairly new, (notebook for Christmas) not allot of crap
loaded. It has worked fine up until about 2-3 weeks ago. When I turn
it on in the morning (cold start) it will load the desktop image, I
hear the stupid music, then it sits for over a minute before anything
pops up, then it's instant. I can look at the task manager while it's
loading and only about 23-25 of a normal 38-40 processes running but
no cpu activity so I can't tell whats hanging. I tried to do a system
restore but before I did that, I tried the "Diagnostic Startup" in
msconfig and that erased all my restore points (there should be a
warning for that by the way)
I have disabled all the items I think of that could cause it to hang,
like Diskeeper, update services, including Avast, google updater, and
I have checked the logs in everything I can (event viewer etc...)
I do have Process Explorer installed, how can I use that to see whats
going on while windows is starting up? any other ideas on how to track
down the culprit? oh yea, did check for viruses and maleware.
You can use PE to figure it out and I have some instructions for how
to do that since I have explained it so many times! I can give you
those if you want to learn how to do it (which is not hard), but here
is another way that I am starting to use as a starting point and then
if needed, we can still use PE to do some fine tuning.
My ideas do not involve trying things, finding things, tinkering, dust
bunnies or generalities like a "good malware scan" and then wondering
what to do next. You need to do things, not try things.
We can see exactly what is going on and fix the problems with
certainty. Not counting the scans, this whole process should only
take a small amount of your time.
This will not quite show you everything you can see in PE (like
Services which we will do next), but it is a good place to start, less
complicated than PE and there will be fewer back and forth messages
that include words like "try" and "maybe". Then we can fix what is
left.
Reduce the possibility of a malware infection.
Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware
detection programs:
Malwarebytes (MBAM):
http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS):
http://www.superantispyware.com/
They can be uninstalled later if desired.
Here are three things we need, how to do it and then some examples
from my system.
1. Supply msinfo32 information about your system
2. Supply a screenshot of Task Manager information
3. Supply a screenshot of startup information available from CCleaner
1. Click Start, Run and in the box enter:
msinfo32
Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select
All, Copy and then paste the information back here.
There will be some personal information (like System Name and User
Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just
delete it from the pasted information.
2. Right click the Taskbar, choose Task Manager and select the
Processes tab.
Click View, Select Columns, check the box that says: Virtual Memory
Size. Expand the width of the Task Manager box so you can see all the
columns and processes.
Double click a column heading in TM to sort by the column. For
example, sort Task Manager by the CPU column.
3. Download CCleaner, install it, run it, click Tools, Startup and
drag the columns around so all the Startup items are easy to see.
CCleaner is good for this since it shows the Startup information in a
bigger display and has other useful functions. You can uninstall it
later if you don't use it.
Get CCleaner here:
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Post a screenshot of your Task Manager and CCleaner Startup
information screen.
When you are done, we will be able to see what you are seeing.
Here is how to create and post a screenshot:
Press the Print Scrn button to copy your entire screen to the Windows
clipboard.
Press Alt Print Scrn to copy just the active window to the Windows
clipboard.
Open MS Paint:
Start, Program Accessories, Paint
When Paint opens, press CTRL-V to paste the clipboard, save the new
Paint file to your desktop or someplace you can remember. JPG files
take up less hard disk space than BMP files and just as readable.
Make as many screenshots as you need. Practice makes perfect. Be
careful your screenshot does not contain any personal information.
Practice viewing your images before you upload them to be sure they
are okay.
If you cannot upload or attach screenshot to your post (you can't
here), you can use a free third party image hosting WWW site.
Create a free account on some free picture hosting web site. You can
always remove your account later if you want.
Here are some free image hosting sites:
http://www.imageshack.us/
http://photobucket.com/
Using your free account, upload your screenshot(s) (the JPG or BMP
files) to the site and it will return to you a URL web address (a
Direct Link) for your new image(s) which you can paste the Direct Link
in a message post, email, etc.
When you are done, what you post for others to use should look
something like this:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6428/taskmanagerr.jpg <- Task
Manager
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6969/ccleanerstartup.jpg <-
CCleaner Startup
If you click those example links, you can see some examples. Yours
will be similar. As you can see, mine are pretty boring, but I don't
have much of a performance problem either.
Post that Direct Link web address back here in your response and we
can click on the link address and see your screenshots. Post as many
as you need - the sites are free.
Three things are needed from you after the MBAM and SAS scans run
clean:
1. Supply msinfo32 information about your system
2. Supply a screenshot of Task Manager information
3. Supply a screenshot of startup information available from CCleaner
I checked the windows update history and