XP Pro (SP2) Slow or Hangs on Startup

What would make Windows XP come up as far as showing the wallpaper, then sit there and sneer for about 15 minutes? I finally - failing all attempts at keyboard intervention - turned off the power and turned it back on again, at which point the system started normally.

(Normally for post SP2, that is; it took about two minutes to get into operation - it's been a bit slower than pre-upgrade to get past the wallpaper stage from the get-go.)

It showed no sign of remembering the abortive wake-up.

ThinkPad running XP Pro, 1.6 GB Pentium M, 512 MB RAM.

 

Go START > RUN > type in msconfig. And see how many things you have running at startup.Uncheck any unnessesary items. Try that. Might work.

 

Well.... I use Startup Manager to keep the opening crush to a dull roar, and the three new items in it are all things I installed deliberately, with the advice of WiseWiz.

The question I'm really worried about is why the system froze entirely - I can live with a two-minute startup, though I'd rather not have to do so....

 

No, I don't think you should have to live with a two-minute startup. There's a real conflict somewhere, and we just have to work through the things that are happening on startup and find the problem.

I've contacted you privately to work through the startups and services list, since this doesn't seem to be a widespread problem.

 

I wouldn't recommend msconfig, it allows you to turn off vital services that windows will not run without. I would use services.msc at the run prompt instead.

 

Good advice, Zyto.

I never use msconfig for services, and I use a good Startup Manager app for program-launch control, for exactly that reason. In fact, BlackViper has a page on his site about why you DON'T use msconfig for services.

A simple path to access Services is right-click My Computer>Manage>Services & Apps>Services.

 

Yes BlackViper is a wise man. I use his service configurations all the time. Wonderful resource. Go BV!

Pardon my lapse of sanity for the moment and on with the thread :-Þ

 

No it doesn't.

In fact, services.msc shows the same thing.

 

I don't get your meaning, Adryn.

Services.msc gets you to the Windows services panels, where you can start or stop things instantly, set things to automatic, disabled, or manual, and read about dependencies.

msconfig only gets you a primitive, basic set of panels (services is one, granted) that you can check or uncheck.

(And I just gave him the mouse-path to Services because I hate using Start>Run. In fact, I almost never use Start. If it disappeared, I wouldn't miss it. Everything I can access with Start I can access another way, without clicking Start. That's a side-issue, though. I don't understand your comment above.)

What BV actually says is this:

 

Hey Wisewiz, I'd appreciate knowing what you did to correct this as I seem to be having the same problem. Thanks

 

Bob,
I had her use a startup manager to disable 6 startups at a time and reboot. If the boot sped up, she knew the prob was in that six. If not, she enabled the first six again, and moved on to the next six and rebooted and checked the speed.

But the big thing was that she had Norton (NIS) on the machine before she installed SP2, and I told her to get rid of it. That made it possible for the SP2 installer to work, but I think Norton is still in the registry, causing a hunt at every boot for files that aren't there. So I've asked her to try RegScrubXP on the machine. It will let her look specifically for anything with the name Norton in it, and it's also a very good reg scanner/cleaner, with reliable backups.

I'm not sure where she is in the process now, because she's busy with work. I haven't heard from her that she's found the culprit yet.

If you need a good startup manager, you can take mine for free from
http://editorsdesktop.com/resource/StartupManager.zip
It needs no installation: just unzip and run. Use the red X in the toolbar to disable things; use the green check to ENABLE things. Don't mess with desktop.ini.

 

Haven't tried that yet, as it sounded like a loooong process...

I ran RegScrubXP and restarted this morning. When I restarted the machine, the wallpaper without icons sat there for 40 seconds, which is a big improvement over 1.5-2 minutes, but still slower than I recall from before.

But it does help - and I've said yes once too often to incoming work this month, so it'll be a while before I can devote a morning to re-re-restarting the machine and chasing anything that's delaying action there.

It's great to have a place to turn with questions like this!

 

Sorry, let me explain. I was replying to this:

He had mentioned going to services.msc instead.

While in truth, there is more use of services.msc, they both show the same services, and both let you disable.

However, msconfig does not allow you to disable vital services windows cannot run without any more than services.msc does.

Hope that clears up the confusion.

 

Thanks, ma man. Now can I please get your take on my latest queries? (Services)

 

Sorry O Wise One, I misread her initial post. I thought her browsing speed was slow & hanging. Sorry to jump in. I'll go back to my corner now. Thanks