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long delay between WinXP splash and user login screen

3K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  bayesianlogic 
#1 ·
I'm running WinXP Home Edition SP2 on this one machine. Latest updates from Microsoft. I have systematically updated my hardware drivers in an attempt to solve this problem, including Nvdia's drivers just this afternoon.

I'm seeing this behavior where the system will reboot okay, except there is an INCREDIBLY LONG delay between when the WinXP splash screen shows up and when the user login screen appears. By that time, my flat panel has decided nothing is happening soon, and has turned itself off, so to check that login is available I usually have to move my mouse.

I have tried to systematically track this thing down, including worrying that my hard drive or IDE were going and being really careful about backups, and buying a replacement hard drive in hand. It does not appear the system is concluding C: drive is dirty. I have tried setting dirty scan time long and deliberately setting C: dirty, thinking that was a problem and I could intervene. Doesn't speed things up. I have tried going into Safe Mode and poking around, but I don't see what to look for, i.e., all seems okay. There are no special startup gizmos AFAIK and boot.ini looks pretty vanilla.

I thought maybe nothing was wrong and there was something amiss with the display or graphics card, but I have no consistent evidence of that.

The system returns, and is stable, it's just that this happens maybe a half hour or so later. I'm loathe to try different kinds of system combinations because of that. I could, if necessary.

There was no obvious change to software at the time this started. I did download Disney's "Pirates of the Carribean" game about that time, but have since uninstalled it. I have also cleaned up other video games, primarily to save some disk space. I have been struggling with this now about 50 days.

I have worked through the long bootup troubleshooting guidance in "WinXP Annoyances" and the like, without good results.

I have fixed my Virtual Memory setting so WinXP does not manage it itself.

I have scanned my disk using the WinXP utilities, and that scan reports no errors of any kind.

I even did a defrag a couple of weeks ago.

Suggestions?
 
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#4 ·
The system is a CyberPower, inc (http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/) KT3 Ultra2 from several years ago, running an AMD Althlon. Particulars:

Computer Type: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon XP 1550 MHz.
BIOS: AT/AT COMPATIBLE Date: 04/25/03 (can get details here if wanted)
Memory: Total physical: 511 MB. Used: 69%
Monitor: ViewSonic VX922
Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS/XT
Mouse: Kensington PS/2 Mouse Driver
Keyboard: Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Drives: 29 GB free 75 GB total.

Windows name and version: Uniprocessor Free (5.1.2600)
IE version: 7.0.5730.11
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904

System is always on, and always connected to our household LAN, itself connected to Internet. There is a firewall on the router and each system has its own firewall, including this one.

The antivirus is Alwil's AVAST, a registered copy, paid for, and kept current. The firewall is current Komodo, although during this time I did have Agnitum Outpost which was very quirky and, thinking that it might be contributing to these problems, I eliminated in favor of Komodo. I have tried Symantec's and Kaspersky, but these tend to be too all-inclusive for my taste, and interfere with things I want to do on this system.

Yes, I have scanned the system top-to-bottom, deeply for this problem, with no finds. Even did a scan for Web monitoring malware using another product. (Can tell you that if you like, too. Don't remember.)


Let's go back to that Safe Mode part, when you booted up in Safe Mode, was there a delay or not?
Actually, there was no delay with Safe Mode, but the problem is more complicated. I cannot get Safe Mode to be entered reliably, at least using the procedural machinations I have yet tried.

I have some progress to report, in that I seem to have a procedure for getting the system to come up in a reasonable time, with a high probability of success. Testing has shown, however, it is not failsafe. In particular, if I reboot and elect to do the BIOS entry thing, depressing F11 to get to the Boot Menu, and then I cancel it, things are okay through login. I have not poked around with BIOS setup to see if there's something there I could tweak. This seemed to happen between WinXP splash and user login, so I thought it was WinXP. But given that the BIOS thing seems to have an effect, I may try things there.

The manufacturer has stopped releasing BIOS ROM updates for this thing, sort of losing interest in it. The last BIOS image I tried updating cost me all kinds of issues, and I had to roll back to the previous, and barely succeeded in that. This was quite some time ago, perhaps 2006.

Still welcome any ideas.
 
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