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Slow post

D

drmcgahey

n00b
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Messages
48
I'm sure you guys have seen this problem multiple times, but I don't know the answer and couldn't find it while searching the forums.

Lately my machine has been taking about 10 minutes from startup --> post --> welcome screen. I'm running XP Pro with SP2. Once I'm up and going, the machine runs fine. I'm hoping there's a simple solution, but I don't know where to start.

Thanks for any help!
 
I too would be interested to hear an answer to this question...
Without researching it I would think about trying...
1. Defragment your hard drive with a program that places startup files and drivers in a continous section on your hard drive.
2. Check the drivers/modules that get loaded. I'm not sure which program to use for this. The drivers can be found in your windows\system32\drivers folder, but it is registry entries that determine if they get loaded. I was once using a Yamaha driver that caused XP to show a blue screen of death very often and removing the hardware didn't stop the issue - only by deleting the .sys file was the issue solved.
3. (in fact,) Use a tool to clean ur registry. Perhaps there are some entries referring to missing files etc.
4. Disable any unnecssary services. This shouldn't really be necessary if nothing has changed but there may be a new service that is causing the problem.
5. Anti-virus, Anti-Spyware...

If you cannot solve the issue you MIGHT (some day) want to look into reinstalling XP. I'm interested at looking into making all apps that I use portable apps (except low level apps) and storing them on a separate partition - that way you are free to reinstall Windows whenever you wish. Perhaps a bit extreme... :S
 
POST is when the PC is doing the "Power On Self-Test" which lasts till the OS starts to load, so... don't include the entire Windows boot process in that measurement of time as it has nothing to do with POSTing a machine. The two processes are not connected, and the title of the thread is a bit misleading...

Get BootVis, run a "Next Drivers + Network Delay" pass so it can show you what is taking so long to get to the Desktop on an item by item basis and why, then run an Optimization pass and it'll help out considerably.

Here's what my Run key in the Registry looks like:

runaq0.png


If yours has entries there, each one of them will slow down your boot - or as you put it your post time - from power up/warm boot to the Desktop, each and every time. I've encountered client machines that had 40 entries on that list and it took anywhere from 10 to 23 minutes to boot. After I got my hands on the machine(s), cleared all that muck out, then hit it with a BootVis optimization pass, the boot times drop to under a minute; in fact most boot in under 20 seconds depending on what does need to load at boot/run time.

Some items need to remain in that key depending on your hardware configuration. Luckily, I know mine inside and out and none of it is required to get the machine operational, hence my Run key stays empty pretty much always. This XP Pro x64 machine with a Q6600 at 3 GHz with 8GB of DDR2 800 hooked to my (now aging) 250GB SATA I 7200 rpm 16MB hard drive boots from cold power up to Desktop in about 23 seconds flat. Can't wait till I actually decide to get a newer hard drive with SATA II support and more space, but I can wait, this setup is rock solid stable so I don't bother with it.

If your machine is taking that long to boot, you have two options, realistically:

1) Spend time and effort "trimming the fat" by getting rid of stuff that loads from that Run key because as I said, each item that loads just slows down the boot time. If you run multiple instant messenger applications, disable all of them from starting with Windows. In fact, I would disable everything that automagically starts when Windows does. Fire those applications up when required.

2) Back up your personal data and schtuffz and reinstall XP Pro SP3 - yes, I said SP3 as you should be running it nowadays, there's not one logical or rational reason not to at this point - using a properly slipstreamed XP SP3 installation CD (takes about 10 mins to make one) and then start from scratch. During the process, keep an eye on that Registry key and make note of stuff that tries to force itself into that key to load with Windows and then delete the entries as they're created.

Once you're done, defrag it with whatever tool you want, hit it with a BootVis "Drivers + Network Delay" checking pass, look at the results, then do an Optimization pass with BootVis.

You'll have a smoother running PC that boots much faster and isn't quite so clogged up with crapware.

Good luck...
 
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