Realy slow start up

Well I am in need of help on a windows XP Pro set up,
My sisters computer was working great and all of a sudden (she thinks after windows up date) It takes forever to compleatly start! It boots normaly and the windos xp start up screen is normal but it then it is blank for about 5 minutes then the back ground immage apears then about 3 minutes more the task bar apears and the mouse starts to move, After that it all runs for the most part normal (The diskeeper wont run nor will windows defragmenter)
but every thing else seems fine??? oh when diskeeper is tried it says it is running allready But I tried Ctrl-Alt-Del and it isnt shown running. confused
any Ideas??

 

Happened after a download...Malware? Does msconfig run? What kind of security is she using?
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407
Bug

 

Not likely, She Has Kaspersky internet security, Ad Aware 2007,
Spybot search and destroy , all them say the system is clear (Ad-Aware did find 3 non criticle items and removed those.and it happend after restart. msconfig is no go (i get no err message just it wont start) I click run the screen blinks slightly and that's it. :cry confused also system restore goes through the motions but after re start it says it cant finish try another restore point tried 3 times with different points but same same, well tomorow is another day and i"ll keep at it think mabe I'll put in the windows disk and try to repair from there see what happens rolleyes
any other advice welcome!!!!

 

What percentage of free space is left on the hard drive? confused

Have you run a check disk? confused

 

Tried to run check disk, same result as the system disk defrag (no go)
as for disk space I can see the drive in computer management and it shows
96 % free space.

 

Last try for any ideas before I end up having to wipe it clean and re install:cry
any suggestions would be helpfull

 

This link contains instructions on reducing the number of startup programs on your machine. This should help you get a normal machine booting from powered off, to using Windows more quickly.

However, your machine sounds like it has a much deeper problem. I would not dismiss the possibility of malware so quickly. Once the nasties get in, they have a tendency to disable anti-malware apps. Maybe your scanners aren't actually finding them. Strongly recommend you check out Bugballou's link. At the very least, it will put the machine in a state us Majorgeeks are more familiar with, allowing us to offer better support.

 

I would at this stage and in principle agree with the fact that:

1. You may have too many items starting up
or
2. You may have some type of spyware / malware present.

The fact that diskkeeper or windows defragmenter does not run is a cause of worry as it does suggests some o/s corruption.

However from the top

1. Download HijackThis and run the scan. Copy paste the .txt document here

http://www.hijackthis.de/

and hit analyse. This will give you a good idea if your system is safe. Appreciate that you have SB and Lavasoft.

2. Check mscofig ie start>run and note how many items are loading and are they strictly necessary.

3. Also hit ctrl+Alt+del and note what is open and whether any prog has a high cpu usage assigned to it.

4. I would also boot into safe mode and try to run diskkeeper + do a scandisk

5. Of course it could be one of those MS downloads that has thrown a spanner in the works so also check from add/remove what recent goody was installed.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but as you are probably aware, sometimes quicker to reinstall than trying to find the source of the problem(s).

Good Luck

 

NO HIJACK THIS LOG FILES BEFORE READING THIS: HJT Tutorial & LOG File Posting

 

Mada_Milty, for complete clarity I was not advocating to the OP that he should post his HJT log in the MGs forum but to copy and paste his log file in the link that I had provided (see below).

http://www.hijackthis.de/

Ultimately, if the OP has any kind of major malware/spyware issues he should consider posting in a specialised forum namely SpywareInfo or TomCoyote.

Good Luck

 

Thank you for your imput i"ll try all suggestions be for total wipe and fresh install! Again thank you it is apreciated!:wave