applying computer settings delay?

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SkaarjMaster

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Jan 31, 2002
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Anyone know why some computers on our network have an approx. 30 second delay before it gets to the Ctrl-Alt-Del screen for logging in to the network? In the meantime, it hangs for this time period at the "Applying Computer Settings" screen. My computer has no delay, but three others have a delay for about 10-35 seconds. I believe once in Windows both of these also have a delay at "Applying Personal Settings". I've searched the Internet and can't seem to find an answer. All 3 computers are set for automatic IP and DNS and all that stuff in Internet protocol. All computers have XP Pro SP2 or XP SP2 installed and the server is Windows 2003. Could it be a service that I disabled, but the other computers still have it running? :confused:

What I know so far:
- I'm only worried about 4 computers right now with 10, 15, 22 and 35 second delays. Mine has no delay at all.
- everyone is on the same switch and we have no hubs
- no roaming profiles on any computer
- no network shares on any computer
- the mapped drives for each person is the same, so this shouldn't be an issue
- My computer and the 35-sec delay computer have 512MB of ram and all the others have only 256MB.

- I checked some of the user profiles on the computers and here are the results.
mine (no delay): 5 user profiles, 1 account unknown, 90 MB
22 sec delay: 7 user profiles, 3 account unknown, 78 MB
15 sec delay: 9 user profiles, 7 account unknown, 33 MB

I'm still thinking I disabled a service or changed a setting that gives my computer no delay at all and all the other ones have no tweaks applied, but what do I know. :D Thanks for any help. :)
 
My first hunch is DNS is not setup correctly. Is the 2K3 server running DHCP? Or are they pulling DHCP from a router?

What do they use for DNS?
 
A 30 second delay isn't that big of a deal. Most of the time when there is a DNS problem in an Active Directory domain, the delay is several minutes.

If policies that are applied to the machine have changed, the machine will need to apply them prior to allowing logon. Sometimes this takes more or less time depending on the specs of the machine.

I would verifiy DNS is OK. If it is, I wouldn't fret to much.
 
Looking at my computer, IP and DNS are set to automatic and it looks like the DHCP server, DNS server and WINS server all have the same IP address. There is a router, but I have no idea if the server is running DHCP or it's being pulled from the router. What's the standard way of doing this? We only have about 12 computers in the office connected to this server. I have no idea what they use for DNS. Maybe there's just a slight DNS problem on these machines or more policies are being applied than usual.

What's really strange is the other guys machine (35-sec delay one) is configured almost exactly like mine and he has a 35 second delay and I have none. I know it's really no big deal in the long run, but the logic escapes me. One thing I still need to do is compare msconfigs on these computers, but I'm pretty sure the 35-second delay machine keeps that down to a bare minimum like mine.
 
Lets say your router is 192.168.1.1
Lets say your server, the domain controller, is 192.168.1.11
If you run an IPCONFIG /ALL on your workstations, you should see an IP address, the DNS server..and that DNS server should be 192.168.1.11, it will also list the DHCP server, which if it's your server would be 192.168.1.11, if it's the router then it would give the routers IP address, 192.168.1.1

The server should also be setup correctly, its TCP properties using itself for its DNS server, NOT your ISPs DNS servers.

I'm assuming you're running active directory.

There are some other things to look at...but first..NEED to know if this is setup correctly or not...no sense in guessing at other things unless we know 100% that the above is setup correctly.
 
Yes, that sounds about right for the IP addresses and the server is using itself for DNS and I remember it using Active Directory. I don't have access to the server anymore (it was upgraded and password protected for off-site access by our IT guys off-site) and it will cost $ to access the server, so hopefully all this stuff can be checked at the workstations for now. If it's something that has to be checked at the server, then I know our company is not willing to pay to fix these small delays. I'm just curious what it is and if it can be fixed as I'm anal like that. :D

Anyway, I tried the ipconfig /all command at Start/Run and it flashes on the screen and then out. WTF is with that? ..........Wait, I just tried it in DOS (command prompt) and it worked. As I said before, DHCP, DNS and WINS servers all have the same address, which is just the default gateway with a digit added to the end as in your example.

I checked my Startup in msconfig and I only have 6 things and all are kinda necessary for me (no fluff). I still have to check the others.

I tried ipconfig /all on the 35-sec delay computer and everything is similar to mine except his Autoconfig is NOT enabled for some odd reason. Also, bare minimum like mine under msconfig startup, so no problems there. I wonder what the other computers show.....hmmmmmmm?
 
I tried ipconfig /all on the 15-sec delay computer and everything is similar to mine. It also has a few thinks in the Startup under msconfig that are used a lot (HP printing stuff, Pervasive SQL, and Quickbooks). I haven't had a chance to check msconfig and ipconfig on the 22-sec delay computer as I think she just went on vacation.
 
I tried checking user profiles on the computers and here's what I found:

mine (no delay): 5 user profiles, 1 account unknown, 90 MB
15 sec delay: 9 user profiles, 7 account unknown, 33 MB
22 sec delay: 7 user profiles, 3 account unknown, 78 MB
35 sec delay: 7 user profiles, 4 account unknown, 24 MB

So, it looks like user profiles is not the culprit either. I'm guessing it's probably some setting(s) that has to be checked on the server, which I can't do. Anyone have any other ideas?
 
Does your AD have any policies that it runs based off the computer? Like my AD runs a few policies for making sure the machine is up to date on patces, setting the firewall to off or on depending on location, or making sure the IE home page is set to the corporate standard. Some places have policies that make sure certain software is installed, or that firewall settings are a certain way, or what have you.
 
My machine has no automatic sh*t set, so that's part of the reason why it's faster on bootup than all the other ones. I was shocked when that one computer had a 35-sec delay as I thought it would be the 2nd fastest. Where on each computer do I check this AD policies thing or is this a server setting that I don't have access to? :confused:
 
Have you looked into the Event logs and seen what errors you're getting? I'm willing to be that you'll see some sort of Group Policy errors indicating that your domain is unavailable. From what I've generally seen about these errors it means that something has registered a private, self assigned IP address (or otherwise) as a domain address.

For example if you are in domain.com and you have three AD servers, there should be entries for each of your DC IP addresses listed as "(same as parent folder)". This way when your domain members load up and look for a DC they get proper DCs to authenticate to. If there is an erronious entry then you'll get this pause (time out) before getting into the desktop.

Oh BTW, those records should be host or "A" records as well.
 
The computers that are running slow could have the "Wait for Network" configured. XP comes with it turned off by default, which could make GPO's wait to be applied until after 2 reboots. Otherwise, XP just loads up and checks the network later to shorten the time. You could also check the DisableDHCPMediaSense registery key and set it 0 if it's 1.
 
LittleMe said:
The computers that are running slow could have the "Wait for Network" configured. XP comes with it turned off by default, which could make GPO's wait to be applied until after 2 reboots. Otherwise, XP just loads up and checks the network later to shorten the time. You could also check the DisableDHCPMediaSense registery key and set it 0 if it's 1.
Click to expand...
Yep. That's a GPO setting, and a good one at that.

I would say that since you don't have the proper access anymore, leave it for somebody that knows what the hell they're doing when tinkering around in a DNS console. Hey, get this, if you fuck up the network it's your fault. Is that what you're paid to do? If not...

I'm saying DNS. I bet if you flushed your cache you'd see a markup in boot time.

Checking the event logs should have been the first thing you did, if you even have access to do so...which you wouldn't if you were on my network.
 
feigned, let's just chill out. I already said I don't have access to the network anymore and no one's going to pay for our IT people off-site to change this or check into this. Don't worry about what I'm paid to do or not. That's really none of your business. :mad:

Wolf-R1 and LittleMe, can any of this stuff you mention be checked on individual workstations and where if so? Thank you.

Everyone, please only post stuff that can be checked on individual workstations only. Thank you.
 
feigned said:
I'm saying DNS. I bet if you flushed your cache you'd see a markup in boot time.
Click to expand...
The cache is flushed either at boot or shutdown. Point being: It's not carried over between reboots.
 
SkaarjMaster said:
feigned, let's just chill out. I already said I don't have access to the network anymore and no one's going to pay for our IT people off-site to change this or check into this. Don't worry about what I'm paid to do or not. That's really none of your business. :mad:

Wolf-R1 and LittleMe, can any of this stuff you mention be checked on individual workstations and where if so? Thank you.

Everyone, please only post stuff that can be checked on individual workstations only. Thank you.
Click to expand...

You can check the DisableDHCPMediaSense via the registery, so if it's not blocked via policy and you have workstation admin rights you'll find it @

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

It's a DWORD and you'll find it in that key.
 
SkaarjMaster said:
feigned, let's just chill out. I already said I don't have access to the network anymore and no one's going to pay for our IT people off-site to change this or check into this. Don't worry about what I'm paid to do or not. That's really none of your business. :mad:
Click to expand...
If you don't have access then you'll have to call them. This isn't me arguing with you about that, it's a simple fact. I'm pretty sure you messing around with it for hours is a lot more wasteful then just letting the "issue" slide for 30 seconds on every restart. How often is that again? Once a day? That and the fact that you still don't even know if there really is a problem since you haven't checked the event logs on every machine. You've been spinning your wheels for how long wasting your company's money? A week? :mad:

Wolf-R1 and LittleMe, can any of this stuff you mention be checked on individual workstations and where if so? Thank you.
Click to expand...
See above, event logs.

Everyone, please only post stuff that can be checked on individual workstations only. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Got it there, chief.

Now go, fix your network (if it's even a problem)! Good luck! :D
 
feigned said:
If you don't have access then you'll have to call them.
Click to expand...

Like I said before, I don't have to call them, I don't want to call them and my company is not going to pay for their services for this small problem. OK, now that's straight, let's move on.

feigned said:
I'm pretty sure you messing around with it for hours is a lot more wasteful then just letting the "issue" slide for 30 seconds on every restart. How often is that again? Once a day? That and the fact that you still don't even know if there really is a problem since you haven't checked the event logs on every machine. You've been spinning your wheels for how long wasting your company's money? A week? :mad:
Click to expand...

First, you need to stop caring about me supposedly wasting time here. That is not the issue. How do you know I'm doing all this posting during company time anyway? You don't know what hours I work. Maybe I'm making up all this time by working longer hours. You don't know that either. Basically, there is a lot you don't know. Seriously though, let's take the wasting time thing out of the picture please. This is just something I noticed while at work that didn't seem very logical at the time. I'm trying to see if anything exists between the workstations that can be checked at the workstations that could account for this. Also, there is a problem; a bootup delay exists that should not. Why do I have no delay and everyone else does? That's the problem.

feigned said:
See above, event logs.
Click to expand...

Based on what I'm read and no one really comes out and blatantly says it, but it seems these event logs are checked on the server. That means that's out of the picture if this is indeed the case. If not, someone please let me know where they are on the workstations.

LittleMe, thanks for the registry thing. I'll try that and see if that works. I'll time the 35-second delay machine again, then change the registry setting and see if it makes a difference. I'll check the "wait for network" thing as well.:)
 
It will be on the local workstation Application Event log. It's source will be "Userenv" and you'll see errors indicating that the domain "whateverdomain.com" is unavailable.

Again using the example domain.com what you'll want to do is go to a workstation that's being affected by this problem, look in the event logs, if the errors are there an easy way to check the domain availability is to ping the domain.

Go to a command prompt > ping domain.com
One of the server IP addresses will get resolved and pinged.
Clear the DNS cache > ipconfig /flushdns
Ping domain.com again and see what address comes up. Do this several times. Depending on the number of DC controllers you have you will round robin through the list of servers listed in the DNS server's address tables. If you are having a DNS problem then you'll eventually run into the bad IP address record and your pings will time out.

For example if your subnet is 10.0.0.0/24 and your servers are at 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 your first ping to domain.com may come up as either of those addresses. But let's say there's a bad record of 169.198.10.1 in there. One of the times you ping domain.com (between DNS flushes don't forget) will come back with that address and your pings will time out.
 
SkaarjMaster said:
Based on what I'm read and no one really comes out and blatantly says it, but it seems these event logs are checked on the server. That means that's out of the picture if this is indeed the case. If not, someone please let me know where they are on the workstations.
Click to expand...

Just go to control panel, administrative tools, event viewer. Look in your application and system logs for any errors or warnings.

Just for curiousity, if you start | run | rsop.msc ,does it complete without errors?
 
Every Windows 2000, Windows XP machine has their own event logs, these are important troubleshooting tools to tell you what is going on with the machine.

Right click on My Computer, select Manage, click on Event Viewer, you will see three items there. Application has anything related to your applications like Word, Powerpoint, Thunderbird, etc. System has anything relating to hardware or the OS. Security is all related to security, who accessed your machine, and when, maybe what was accessed.

As far as AD, that is server based.
 
Thanks guys! Looks like I have some stuff to try. I'll try today if I have time on the 35-sec delay computer and see how it goes. I'm going on vacation, so I may not be able to try this again until Tuesday.
 
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