Startup is extremely slow

VerySlowXP · Oct 28, 2009

Since 10/15, my computer (XP with 512 MB RAM) has had very slow startups. After entering in my password, I get the welcome screen for about 30 seconds and then I am taken to my blank desktop. The only thing there is my background; there are no icons, there is no start button, nothing until 1-3 minutes later.

At one point, it wouldn't even load after more than 3-5 minutes of waiting. I tried safe mode and it started fine, although I couldn't print or use the internet (in safe mode with networking). A few days later, it actually started up and I found this site and tried doing a few cleaning tasks. I ran CCleaner and it removed over 1,000 megabytes of junk and over 130 registry errors and used disk cleanup and defragmented. After that, my computer HAS been able to start, but it still takes 1-3 minutes for everything to load. Once everything gets loaded, the PC works fine.

I have very little on my startup list. I reviewed it and removed Google Update (I use Chrome) and Sandboxie Control. No change. A few days before the problems began, my Norton Antivirus removed Trojan.Pidief.F, a backdoor. Since my Online Armor never reported anything suspicous going on, it was probably dormant or locked down by OA. Further scans from Norton and Malwarebytes haven't revealed anything. I don't think I installed or changed anything before the slowness; it just happened all of a sudden.

I hope I am not leaving out any info that is needed. I will be very grateful for any help.
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After posting this in the software help forum, I was asked to post here. I have completed all of the scans except for ComboFix. A user told me that it wasn't really necessary at this point and I am put off at this point because of the multiple warnings on the guide about the dangers of using the tool. However, if anyone requests me to run it, I will do it without hesitation.

There are two rootrepeal logs because I missed a step and had to do it twice.

VerySlowXP · Oct 28, 2009

Here is the SAS log.

chaslang · Oct 31, 2009

Welcome to Major Geeks!

You are not having malware problems. You do not have enough memory to properly run Windows XP SP3 and all the other applications you have running. You logs show the below:

Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 154.60 MB
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This is only one-half of the minimum I would recommend which is 1 GB. Slow startup is due to low memory and the time it takes for all of the below to hook into your system:

Norton AV

McAfee SiteAdvisor

Sandboxie

Online Amor

You could remove all of the below unnecessary startups which will help a little but still may not change things as much as you would like.

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [OrderReminder] C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\OrderReminder\OrderReminder\OrderReminder.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NeroCheck] C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MSMSGS] "C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe" /background
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [LDM] C:\Program Files\Logitech\Desktop Messenger\8876480\Program\LogitechDesktopMessenger.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Google Update] "C:\Documents and Settings\sean\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe" /c
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Instant Update.lnk = C:\Program Files\U.S. Robotics\Instant Update\InstUpDt.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Logitech Desktop Messenger.lnk = C:\Program Files\Logitech\Desktop Messenger\8876480\Program\LogitechDesktopMessenger.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OSA9.EXE

VerySlowXP · Nov 3, 2009

Glad to see I am not infected.

Thanks very much for your advice but now my PC is starting up faster! I have no idea why, but Google Chrome was the problem. I decided to uninstall it and afterwards I had no slowness issues. I'll take the things you recommend of my startup list. Thanks again!

chaslang · Nov 7, 2009

You're welcome.

Since you are not having malware problems, it is time to do our final steps:

We recommend you keep SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for scanning/removal of malware. Unless you purchase them, they provide no protection. They do not use any significant amount of resources ( except a little disk space ) until you run a scan.

If we had you use ComboFix, uninstall ComboFix (This uninstall will only work as written if you installed ComboFix on your Desktop like we requested.)

Click START then RUN and enter the below into the run box and then click OK. Note the quotes are required

"%userprofile%\Desktop\combofix" /u

Notes: The space between the combofix" and the /u, it must be there.

This will uninstall ComboFix and also reset hidden files and folders settings back to Windows defaults.

Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.

If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.

If running Vista, it is time to make sure you have reenabled UAC by double clicking on the C:\MGtools\enableUAC.reg file and allowing it to be added to the registry.

Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.

Goto the C:\MGtools folder and find the MGclean.bat file. Double click on this file to run this cleanup program that will remove files and folders related to MGtools and some other items from our cleaning procedures.

After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:

How to Protect yourself from malware!

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Startup is extremely slow

VerySlowXP Private E-2

Attached Files:

MGlogs.zip

rrlog2.txt

rootrepeallog.txt

mbam-log-2009-10-27 (21-35-13).txt

VerySlowXP Private E-2

Attached Files:

SUPERAntiSpyware Scan Log - 10-27-2009 - 20-10-01.log

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

VerySlowXP Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member