Computer start-up slowed to a crawl

Hi all --

Having a really difficult (and strange problem) with my computer. The start-up has slowed to a really absurd speed (maybe 10-12 minutes); there hasn't been any new software added and it does not seem to be maleware. After trying several different things (detailed here: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1143757#post1143757), it was suggested that I try to post in this forum. Thanks in advance for your help; I really appreciate it!

- J

 

The hard drive may be completely fragmented, you may have a corrupt file system, maybe too many items in the startup list, faulty/outdated drivers, even a dying hard drive can cause slowness. First things to do is visit your hard drive maker's web site and download and run their extended in-depth diagnostic on your hard drive to make sure that it's 100% healthy. If it passes this test, we should probably move this thread to the software forum and go from there. It would also help if you could post some system specs like RAM, CPU, version of Windows, etc...

 

Hi Dlb --

Thanks for taking the time to write me; sorry it took so long to post back (I've been under a stack of papers these past few days -- the slow computer doesn't help matters.)

A few pieces of additional information:
1) I've defragged the hard drive (using Iobit's tool)
2) My personal startup list has nothing in it other than my VPN client and I didn't see anything particularly unusual in boot, win, or system .ini (that I didn't see anything unusual doesn't mean there is not anything unusual, of course). All that said, it's a work machine and IT does run a couple of extra programs that do slow start-up once I log-into the network. But this wouldn't seem related to that, because start-up is slow prior to logging into the network or when I'm off-line.
3) I did run Seagate's diagnostic and it passed fully.
4) This is an IBM T61 with 2GB of RAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2 Ghz), running Win XP (with SP2).

I will move this over to the software forum, thanks for your advice.

- J

 

Oh -- to the extent that it's relevant, the hard drive is model number ST910021AS.

It's firmware version 4.06 and it passed the following SeaTools tests:
1) S.M.A.R.T. Check
2) Short DST
3) Long DST
4) Short generic
5) Long generic

Again, thank you for any thoughts; I have posted in the software section as you suggested.

 

Really interesting thought -- the presence of USB devices (in particular, my mouse and keyboard) does seem to impact start-up time. However, it's still slow even when those aren't plugged in (just faster). Here is my "with USB" approximate start up time:

0:00 - power on
0:10 - windows splash screen starts
3:40 - windows splash screen ends; screen goes black
3:45 - log-into win XP appears on screen
7:45 - full desktop shows (e.g., all icons are there)
11:45 - computer fully operational (e.g., I've successfully started Firefox or Outlook)

As you can see, this is *really* slow given that I have a reasonably decent laptop. It is particularly slow given that, just three weeks ago, start-up took maybe 5 minutes in total.

Again, thank you for your help.

 

There are only three accounts ("administrator" "me" and "ASPNet") So I don't think that's the problem.

I spend about 4 minutes waiting for Firefox to load. Some of that time the hard drive is churning, but most of the time the computer seems to just be sitting there. That's what's so weird about it.

This is a problem whether at the office where I have a wired connection (I have no idea what my connection to the outside world is here, but it's pretty fast) or at home using WiFi (ultimately through my fairly old Belkin router and Motorola cable modem.) This does not rule out a network driver problem because there's one driver for both wireless and wired.

Thanks much for your help; the software guy took one look at this and said, basically 'tough luck' (I am over dramatically paraphrasing because, as I'm sure you can guess, I'm pretty frustrated -- it's obviously not his fault my problem is elusive).

- J

 

To every experienced Computer Tech, SLO-Mode is a well known Hard Drive failure mode.

I replace several hard drives every year for just this particular failure.

If you brought that computer to me for repair, I'd make a Ghost Image of the HD and then replace it with a new one.

SLO-Mode does not seem to be related to any particular brand of HD. I've seen it happen to several different brands of HD's.

Another Seagate HD to replace your current drive would be as good as any.

Before going to that extreme, I'd be doing extensive malware scans to detect Viruses, Trojans, Worms and Spyware.
I have a whole library of programs that I use for that.

Good Luck,
The Shadow :cool