Windows 7 booting SLOW - no malware, please help!

Discussion in 'Software' started by biondanonima, Jun 15, 2012.

  1. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Hello,

    I have been having some issues with my Windows 7 (64 bit) HP laptop for the last 5 days. I run Avast and Comodo Firewall. I was watching TV online when Avast gave me a warning about a virus or malicious website, and suddenly my audio stopped working and the computer slowed way down. I thought it must have been malware, so I opened Avast to find that it had somehow been turned off, at which point I got a message from Comodo asking if I would allow AvastIU.exe to run. I thought this was all rather strange, so I downloaded Malware Bytes and ran a scan. Nothing major came up, but the computer was still taking 10 mins to load and running slowly overall, so I went through the Malware removal process detailed in the Malware forum here. Here's the thread with my logs: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1745027&posted=1#post1745027

    Anyway, I just restarted again today and allowed the computer to install Windows updates, and it's still booting slow - it took about 10 minutes from start to finish, including maybe 3 minutes to install the updates. Normally it takes about 45 seconds, I estimate. It sits on the screen with the Windows logo for about 2 minutes, then goes to black for 2-3 minutes, then I get the Welcome screen, enter my password and have to wait a few minutes more. Any ideas what might be causing this? As a side note, I had some sort of drama with it two weeks ago and took it to a repair shop because it wasn't charging. Turns out my charger was bad, but the guy said he also did some sort of diagnostic on it and installed some updates, etc. (I'm short on details because I'm in Germany right now, and my German just was not up to the task of understanding computer lingo that I don't really understand in English!).

    If anyone out there has any ideas for me, I'd really appreciate your advice! Thank you in advance!
     
  2. Goldenskull

    Goldenskull I can't follow the rules

  3. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Thanks Goldenskull. I was also wondering if doing a System Restore to a date before the problem started might help - I am just having a hard time believe that this doesn't have something to do with malware or a virus since it all suddenly started when I got an Avast warning (and was admittedly using untrustworthy sites for streaming video).
     
  4. Goldenskull

    Goldenskull I can't follow the rules

    I just think your system might need a cleaning after awhile it will build up if you don't clean stuff out every once in a while.

    Oh and try to clean out your Temp Folder

    Go to Start
    Then Run
    Then in Run Type %temp%
    When page pops up
    Hit Crtl + A to high light all then delete it.
    Will not harm the computer most of the stuff in the temp folder is junk and just takes up space.
     
  5. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    I think I cleaned out my temp files when I went through the steps prescribed by Kestrel in the Malware forum (ran Cleano, etc.) - so I don't think that's the issue. I will try the other two programs and report back!
     
  6. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    BTW, I just noticed that after the today's windows update, I have two desktop.ini file icons on my desktop that were never there before. A brief google search indicated that seeing more than one desktop.ini file in a given location can be indicative of a virus - should I be worried? And is there anything I can do, given that all of my scans have come back clean?
     
  7. tgell

    tgell Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Take a look at Event Viewer. It may give some clues on your startup problems.
     
  8. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Thanks tgell. I just opened Event Viewer but I have no idea what I'm looking at - should I export a log and post it? I'm seeing a ton of "errors" whose source is "atapi" - no idea if that's normal or not.
     
  9. tgell

    tgell Major Geek Extraordinaire

    You can export the log and attach as a text file. Somebody here with more experience reading Event Logs should reply. Atapi errors I believe are related to your IDE controllers which are used for your hard drive and CD/DVD drives.
     
  10. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Hm, very interesting. I assume the booting problems I'm having are hard drive related because I can hear it working when I boot up. Also, I tried to burn a DVD today and the process stopped about halfway through, and said something about waiting for a hard disk level of some kind - I'd never seen anything like it before. Anyway, here's my log!
     

    Attached Files:

  11. tgell

    tgell Major Geek Extraordinaire

    There is a possibility either the motherboard or hard drive is failing. If you can hear the hard drive making noises, I would lean toward a hard drive failure. Do you have access to a flash drive for backing up any important data on your hard drive? I would do that as soon as possible.

    Can you determine what the make of hard drive is? You can see by opening up the drive panel on the bottom of the laptop or by looking in Device Manager under Disk Drives. Hard Drive manufacturers usually have a diagnostic test to see if the drive is bad. If it passes the test, then your motherboard is probably going bad. What is the model number of your HP laptop?

    I could be wrong about this so if anybody on the board feels differently, please jump in.
     
  12. the mekanic

    the mekanic Major Mekanical Geek

    I was going to mention using Ccleaner to clear out the old prefetch files, but it seems like the problem may be bigger than that.
     
  13. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    I see mention of ATAPI errors; I've yet to see this in W7 but check this out as in XP and Vista, this could fit your problem: http://www.winhlp.com/node/10
     
  14. the mekanic

    the mekanic Major Mekanical Geek

    Just looked at the log, I only gave this a quick scan earlier as I was headed out to the doc's office.

    How old is this laptop? It's showing IDE/ATAPI, not SATA/AHCI in the error log.

    :confused

    Do you have an old external storage device? Are your drive(s) set to AHCI in the BIOS settings?
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2012
  15. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Hi everyone,

    Thanks for weighing in. To answer some of your questions - the laptop is an HP Pavilion dv-2145dx, approximately 2 years old. I normally back up to an old external hard drive, but I'm away from home right now and didn't bring the backup drive with me, so no possibility of backing up for the next week or so. I'm only using the computer for web access and very light word processing till then, though, so hopefully it will limp along until I'm back in the States. I don't know what the BIOS settings are, nor do I know how to check them, but if someone could walk me through the process I'll check it out!

    As for the hard drive, I listened to it again today when I started up - I think I spoke too soon when I said it was making noise. I can hear it spinning if I put my ear close to the computer, but it doesn't really sound any different than it ever has - it's just taking longer. Startup today took right around 6 minutes, which is an improvement from the 10+ it was taking (the Windows Update I installed yesterday seems to have improved the process).

    This issue is made all the more mysterious given that I was having difficulty just two weeks ago, to the point where I took it into a shop. No idea what they did to it, but when I got it back it was running PERFECTLY until I made a wrong turn on Project Free TV.

    Anyway, thank you all for your help - let me know what my next steps are, if any!
     
  16. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    BTW, thank you Satrow for that link - I checked out the settings on my IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and it looks like they're as they should be, with the second one in Ultra DMA Mode 5. It may be that something else on that page applies, though - I will keep reading!
     
  17. tgell

    tgell Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Is it possible to contact that shop and find out what they did?
     
  18. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    I could try, but the problem is that they don't speak English and my German was just not good enough to understand all of the computer speak (let's be honest - my English is probably not good enough to understand computer speak!). From what I could understand, the guy said he ran some kind of diagnostic and updated something, then let some Windows Updates run. I wouldn't actually have taken it in, but by annoying coincidence, my adapter died at the same time the computer started acting up, so I was running of out battery but I didn't know if it was actually the adapter or some other type of software or hardware issue, and I didn't have enough battery to play around with it myself or come here for help.
     
  19. tgell

    tgell Major Geek Extraordinaire

    When you get home, try running chkdsk/f from a command prompt after backing up all of your important data. I would not do it now because it could make things worse.

    I would also run the hard drive diagnostic when you find out who the manufacturer is.
     
  20. the mekanic

    the mekanic Major Mekanical Geek

    If this laptop is only two years old, I can't imagine it having an ATAPI based HDD, or DVD drive. The ATAPI error would most likely be coming from the DVD drive, if at all, unless I am mistaken regarding the evolution of SATA.

    Something is definitely up, because I highly doubt this laptop has an IDE/PATA channel.
     
  21. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Thanks guys,

    I am in the middle of nowhere Germany now with limited internet access, but I will be sure to post again when I'm back in the states and have my data backed up. Thank you for your help so far - let's hope the computer lasts until next Monday!!!!!!
     
  22. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Hi Everyone,

    I'm finally back in the US with a dependable internet connection and backed up data - where do I begin? I've attached a new Event Viewer log to this message. My hard drive is a Toshiba MK3256GSY ATA device according to Device Manager. Let me know what other information I need, and thanks in advance!
     
  23. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    log is invisible :major
     
  24. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Oops, forgot my attachment - here it is. BTW, I reread the thread posted by Satrow and checked my IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers again - the second channel is in DMA mode, but the first channel said PIO mode - could that be the issue?
     

    Attached Files:

  25. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    All channels need to be on DMA, preferably DMA 2-6 (2+ for CD/DVD, 5-6 for hard drives) for any chance of decent throughput and performance. PIO = 1980's speed = slooow.

    Study that page I linked earlier, it's pretty complex in places but there are some gems of info there that should enable a fix.
     
  26. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Thank you Satrow - this definitely seems to be the problem. However, I'm not entirely sure how to follow the instructions since my problem is with the primary channel (i.e. the hard drive), not the secondary channel. If I uninstall it entirely as suggested in Step 7 of that site, will that completely inactivate the hard drive? Perhaps it would be safer to try the solution in Step 6? I'm not sure I know enough to recognize the keys/subkeys, etc.

    ETA: I just ran REGEDIT and checked all of the subkeys under the key listed in the article - none of them contain the MasterIdDataCheckSum or SlaveIdDataCheckSum files described in the article. Any other suggestions?
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2012
  27. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    New development - I checked Device Manager again and it said the primary IDE channel was in DMA mode, then I closed the window, went back in 10 seconds later and it said PIO mode (and the DMA if available mode box was greyed out). I'm finding conflicting information about uninstalling the channel, too - there seems to be a debate as to whether uninstalling the channel uninstalls the hard drive itself or not. Can anyone clarify?
     
  28. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Uninstall the whole thing, Windows won't 'drop' it until log off, it'll find it as new hardware on boot, it may require another reboot to fully load it.
     
  29. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Thanks Satrow. I uninstalled, did the reboot at the prompt, then rebooted again after checking device manager and seeing a note about my changes not being complete until another reboot was complete. Unfortunately, things are still VERY slow. When I check Device Manager it now says I'm in Ultra DMA mode, and general internet browsing and such seems a bit better, but both of my reboots took 6-7 minutes. Might I see further improvement with my next reboot?
     
  30. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    The boot speed probably won't vary much, that's dependent on many factors that will need to be looked into once you know the drive is running at full speed within Windows.

    Do the programs open faster now, less laggy? How much free space is on the drive, what size is it, when was it cleaned up and defragged last?
     
  31. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Programs do seem somewhat less laggy but still not perfect - I'm getting a "Firefox is not responding" message maybe every 3 minutes instead of every 30 seconds while typing/surfing, for instance. Before this problem started, the laptop was running perfectly (20 second startup, no lagging), so it's not as though this was a gradual decline.

    I ran Cleano two weeks ago when I first came to this forum (along with every malware/antivirus program known to man), but I'm not sure when the last defrag was. The hard drive is 300GB and has 173GB of free space.
     
  32. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    So 55% free space is great.

    I'm not amused by anyone throwing random software at a problem in the hope of a fix - it ain't gonna happen - troubleshoot and pinpoint the problems first, study long and hard and then make one change at a time.

    Some logs might help us, MSInfo32 (type it into Run, save as when it's done, zip and attach), Autoruns - save as the default type and zip/attach.

    FX and Flash have had some problems recently, that may be a different problem completely.
     
  33. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Well, I wasn't exactly throwing random software at the problem - I thought I had picked up malware or a virus, so I followed the malware removal instructions from the malware forum plus the suggestions of the helpful folks over there. When everything came back clean, they sent me over here for further assistance.

    Anyway, here are the logs from MSinfo32 and Autoruns - I'm not sure I saved the right info, so please let me know if these aren't what you need! Thank you!
     

    Attached Files:

  34. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    If you use Cleano again, don't check the Clean Windows Prefetch files. Ccleaner uses a better option, it only cleans out the unused and old entries.

    Removing the following from auto-starting will speed up boot times, you can uncheck the boxes in Autoruns' Logon tab:
    Run a full defrag and when it's done, run defrag c: /b to place the boot files optimally (the cmd box closes when done).
     
  35. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    If you have nothing to add, don't. Majorgeeks rule. We are here to help not have random discussions or arguments. Thanks in advance.

     
  36. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Satrow, thanks for your reply - I'm off to parts unknown with sketchy internet this evening, so I'll have to work on this when I return next week. I'll post back and let you know what happens. In the meantime, my husband dropped his laptop last night and now gets nothing but a weird, lined green screen - anyone know what to do about that? :cry;)
     
  37. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Well, when I get a laptop that looks like it may be suffering from physical damage, I call someone in who helps me deal with it. Based on that, I'd say it was worthy of a topic of it's own.

    Make the most of your time away :major
     
  38. Goldenskull

    Goldenskull I can't follow the rules

    Hmm Wires could have poped out in side.Do you have warranty on both laptops.

    Did the Screen get a little knock that could cause a screen issue.

    How far did it drop.

    I mean it don't take much to damage a laptop.Most of them are Flimsy and easy to break if they are treated unfairly.

    Check your Warranty on it that sounds like a serious issue.

    People wonder way i like Desktops better.

    Are you able to post a Picture on what its doing for us.
     
  39. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Hi Everyone,

    We're back from our vacation and ready to tackle the issues. I opened up Autoruns today to try to get rid of the unnecessary startup items, but when I try to uncheck the boxes in the Logon tab, it says "Settings from loaded scans cannot be modified." Am I accessing the program incorrectly? As for HP Wireless Assistant, I opened it and couldn't find a way to disable it, but I have seen instructions for uninstalling it entirely or disabling it through MSCONFIG. Is there any risk to doing this? Regarding the defrag, should I simply run the Windows defrag or download an external program?

    As for my husband's laptop, he managed to get it started the other night and everything SEEMS to be in order, except for the screen, which is now multiple funny colors and somewhat blurry (but legible enough for some things). He backed up his data, but everything seems to be functioning fine, so we're guessing that it's just the screen or a connector, not the hard drive or anything more serious. However, I would assume fixing/replacing the screen will probably cost more than the laptop is worth (it's a 2-year old HP dv7). I may go post in the hardware forum to see if anyone there has any suggestions!
     
  40. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    In Autoruns > View, select your User ID and it should auto-refresh the settings, if you still can't change the settings, try hitting the Refresh button - you may also need to start Autoruns from the Run as Administrator on the right-click menu (don't start the autoruns.arn file that you saved previously, find the autoruns.exe).

    Providing you can re-enable the HP Wireless if you can't get Windows to configure it, there should be no problem disabling it - there must be a way somewhere in the settings to force it to use Windows, maybe there's some help on the HP forums for it if you do get stuck.

    Best to ask about diagnosing the laptop screen issue in Hardware, I'd guess a screen replacement should be available from about $60 new, plus 1 hour labour to fit - if you can't find a neighbour or work colleague to help you with it, it's not usually very difficult. Diagnose first though, it does seem like it's something other than the screen itself. Extensive stripdown manuals are usually readily available to download for laptops from the makers, Youtube will have video's of most common models and there are many other helpful sites, too.
     
  41. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Ok, I unchecked all of those things in Autoruns and restarted. It took 10 minutes to reboot fully, as usual. ARGH! I checked Autoruns again and the things that were disabled are still unchecked, so at least that is something. Next step, defrag? Should I do the standard Windows defrag or something else? Thanks!

    ETA: I just checked Device Manager again and my primary IDE channel is back to PIO mode. Double ARGH!
     
  42. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Ah, I see I missed the logs you'd previously posted, ID 11 Atapi errors: "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0".

    The controller could be the motherboard controller for the SATA drive, as it's a laptop, that's the last thing we want to replace. It may refer to the controller on the drive itself, that means a new drive. Between and around those controllers, the trigger might be a poor connection or cable, it might also be something that only shows under stress - heat -related, for instance. I'm not sure we can completely rule out a bad block on the drive, in the page file maybe, either.

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/3189.event-id-11-atapi.aspx gives some causes (and a lot of SCSI specifics that are mostly irrelevant) and some useful comments at the end:
     
  43. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    I just tried to check Event Viewer and was in the process of writing a post here when my computer blue screened. Yay! I restarted in Safe Mode, though, and I may have gotten a clue as to what's going on. The Safe Mode restart got hung up on atipcie.sys for quite some time - probably about 4-5 mins. A quick google search of that driver turned up this:

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...very-nor/9e609d5c-4973-41cc-9de0-e2b3a96d8a31

    http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/227526-start-up-problem-possibly-atipce-sys.html

    Anyway, not sure if this tells you guys anything but I'm thinking perhaps to update the drivers discussed in those articles.

    In other news, just before the blue screen I tried to do a Windows defrag. The screen went gray with wavy lines and just sat there for several minutes. I finally powered off and then back on, after which I was able to get back on the internet before the blue screen.

    Not sure how to proceed - advice welcome!
     
  44. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Some info on that driver: http://sysnative.com/drivers/search.php?id=atipcie.sys it's a good idea to try to update it.

    Not such a good idea to defrag if the drive controller is reporting errors though, that might completely mash up the files if a crash happens.

    A chkdsk /r (allow it to schedule during startup) followed by a SFC /scannow would be good. Try to watch the results of chkdsk during boot, note any errors and fixes logged.

    Keep studying what's happening, we may yet hit on what's behind this - with luck!
     
  45. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    Hm. Here's another majorgeeks link to a similar problem: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=223271&page=2

    I'm not sure I understand exactly what he did though - looks like booting from a recovery disk and allowing the Windows repair to run did the trick? I think I have a recovery disk installed on the computer itself but I could also create a CD if that might be better.

    I also downloaded the driver from here: http://www.sysfreedownload.com/DownSoft/?softid=2241&pathid=0 but I'm leery of using a driver from an unknown third party website.

    Another fix here: http://www.pcmaxutilities.com/wikiexefiles/atipcie-sys-error-fix-guide.html
     
  46. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

  47. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Check for driver updates for your laptop at HP Support, look specifically for chipset, storage and graphics drivers.

    If you've previously updated the graphics drivers from the AMD/ATI site (or perhaps from Windows Update), this may be why you are having problems with this driver, The HP version may not contain it - you will need to uninstall the AMD/ATI drivers fully before you install the HP ones for your laptop.
     
  48. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

    There are several updates for my laptop at HP, but they're all from 2009. I don't know which drivers I would need to uninstall/reinstall from that list, or how to go about doing so even if I did - can anyone walk me through? Also, is there any way to know if any of the drivers on the HP site involve atipcie.sys?
     
  49. biondanonima

    biondanonima Private E-2

  50. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    We don't know exactly which HP laptop you have, there are way too many DV4 versions to wade through.

    Just don't touch any downloads from the lower 2 links in #45 ... the info they've scraped from legit sites might be good, but their own work - nooo.

    The RAM voltage is probably not something you would have many options in changing, if any in a laptop. The guy in the vid comes over as an oveclocker/hardware 'hacker' anyway - the first thing he did was tried to disable cores in his CPU - which makes me think he unlocked those 'extra' cores in the first instance (and probably made a mistake in some of his other BIOS 'tweaks' which ultimately led to his problem).

    But, he does have a point when he jumps to it being graphics card related (as noted by usasma in the link I gave you earlier (http://sysnative.com/drivers/search.php?id=atipcie.sys). So, back to finding the correct (even if it's old) driver from HP for your graphics card - uninstall the current drivers first, then install the original.
     

MajorGeeks.Com Menu

Downloads All In One Tweaks \ Android \ Anti-Malware \ Anti-Virus \ Appearance \ Backup \ Browsers \ CD\DVD\Blu-Ray \ Covert Ops \ Drive Utilities \ Drivers \ Graphics \ Internet Tools \ Multimedia \ Networking \ Office Tools \ PC Games \ System Tools \ Mac/Apple/Ipad Downloads

Other News: Top Downloads \ News (Tech) \ Off Base (Other Websites News) \ Way Off Base (Offbeat Stories and Pics)

Social: Facebook \ YouTube \ Twitter \ Tumblr \ Pintrest \ RSS Feeds