Long boot up time

Etch-a-Sketch

I have been experiencing extremely long boot up times with my computer whenever I restart it. It takes only a couple of seconds for it to actually power on and off, and only a minimum of time for it to greet me with the select user screen (of my Windows Xp home edition sp2), but after logging in as any user the computer "freezes" for upwards of two minutes. During this time I see the desktop and all folders and items as normal, however trying to open any will result in my cursor changing to the working "hourglass" image, but the folder will eventually open after some two minutes. I am also unable to open the task manager with ctrl+alt+del, and hovoring the cursor over the taskbar also changes it into the hourglass image.

The computer is relatively new, I recieved it approximately three months ago, and it's hardware is as follows:

ASUS A8N SLI Premium Socket 939
AMD64 X2 4400+ processor
2048mb ram (2x 1gb)
Radeon x1900 (512mb) video card
250gb western digital hard drive
Windows XP home edition service pack 2 OS

A list of all the programs in my startup folder is:

Logitech setpoint
adobe reader speedlaunch
PLANET WL-U356A utility [this is for my wireless internet]
google web accelerator [newly installed]

My HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run folder of the regedit contains:

ctfmon [located at C:/windows/system32/ctfmon.exe
powerbar [it's data field is "..."]

Finally, my HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run has the following:

C:\Program Files\Google\Gmail Notifier\gnotify.exe
"C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\cli.exe" runtime -Delay
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe"
C:\Documents and Settings\Haraldur\Desktop\Ragnar\Digidesign\Drivers\MMERefresh.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1153563057\ee\AOLSoftware.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\IPHSend\IPHSend.exe
"C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
KHALMNPR.EXE [the name of this field is Logitech Hardware Abstraction Layer]
c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\agent\mcagent.exe
c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\agent\mcupdate.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe
C:\Program Files\McAfee.com\VSO\oasclnt.exe
"C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
"C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PDVDServ.exe"
SOUNDMAN.EXE [the name of this field is soundman]
C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_07\bin\jusched.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\SYMNET~1\SNDMon.exe /Consumer
C:\Program Files\McAfee.com\VSO\mcvsshld.exe
"C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee.com\VSO\mcmnhdlr.exe" /checktask




Additionally, completely unrelated to the above problem, I have attempted to connect my computer to my "home theater reciever" via a 10 meter long 2 phono rca cord. The problem is that I am at a loss for where to plug this into my computer, my options include line in, line out, mic in, rear speaker out, side speaker out, center\subwoofer speaker out. Compare this to my Yamaha device, which only has a red and white input for audio, albeit about 10 different channels.

Attempting to plug the rca cord into the computer brings up a RealTek Sound Manager, apperently curtousy of my ASUS mobo, but I am at a loss for which configurations I should use. So far I have only been able to produce an annoying buzz sound, so any help on this matter would be appreciated.

Ruu_Old

Whats the AOL Software link thats in there used for (or is it at all)? A good few McAffee entries there too. Is McAffee just the viruscan or do you have Norton as well?

Etch-a-Sketch

I recently installed AIM, and that would be pretty much all I use it for. McAffee and Norton are my virus scans and general virus/spyware stoppers. I severly doubt that my load up problem has anything to do with virii, considering how new the box is and I have both Mcaffee and Norton scan twice a week.

Ruu_Old

If it was my computer I would chuck McAffee and Norton in the bin, Norton is a serious resource hog (it still runs in the background) and get one of the free AVs out there like Anti Vir, avast! or AVG, just imo. Get Windows Defender and Spybot for to keep the malware and spyware away as stuff might have slipped through the others.

Etch-a-Sketch

Might look into that, but I'm not too happy with deleting MCaffee and norton as they cost my cira 10$. But do you really believe that these two programs are causing my long load times after boot up? As for Norton being a resource hog, my cpu usage rarely goes over 50% while playing performance heavy games, so I don't think it has much of an adverse effect.

Ruu_Old

Ok well you can try Microsoft Bootvis. It should help analyse your boot up and help you solve some the problems.

Etch-a-Sketch

I just downloaded and ran bootvis, and from what little I can interpret the disk utilization reaches 100% and jumps back and forth between 100% and 0% sporadically for 60 seconds, then at 200 seconds it again reaches 100% and stays that way til the report ends at 279 seconds. The first 6 processes pop up at 48 seconds and disk utilization pops up to 100 with it, then the rest of the processes launch at or shortly after 200 seconds. The only other field that shows any status is the disk I/O, which warns me that "disk writing cache is disabled".

I was unable to upload the bootvis file, likely due to size problems. Was this enough to pinpoint any problems?

8T8

Did you run the optimize system function in Bootvis under the trace menu after doing the boot + drivers trace ?

You can get rid of the following entries as well
C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe
"C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
"C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PDVDServ.exe"

They are non-essential and will not affect the operation of the programs.

You might want to ditch the Google web accelerator as well it could be a potential source of the problem from it's local proxy server and any privacy concerns as Google tracks everything.

Is the PLANET WL-U356A WiFi utility necessary can the card be configured though Windows own control panel or is it unreliable when doing this ?

As for the audio cable problem you need whats called an RCA to 3.5mm adaptor which will allow you to plug into your sound cards line out get one here or at least you have an idea of what to get.

youcancallmeal

First of all an obvious question but have you got the nForce4 chipset drivers installed?

Also you'll probably need to go into your bios and disable all network related items you are not using and a few other things aswell. See a good guide here for the deluxe version but its more or less the same for the premium.

Then go to start>run and type msconfig. Go to the startup tab and start unchecking eveything that doesnt need to be run on start up. As 8T8 already stated you can get rid of:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe
"C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
"C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PDVDServ.exe"

also get rid of

C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1153563057\ee\AOLSoftware.exe

The following are optional:

KHALMNPR.EXE (Related to logitech mice, the extra buttons on my mouse do not work properly I disable this)
C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_07\bin\jusched.exe (Java updater that is apparently essential to system operation?)

Theres 5/6 McAfee related items there which is just crazy? they couldnt all be needed?
Anyway your best bet is googling everything else to find out wether they are essential or not.

PogMoThoin

By the look of it you have the full McAfee security suite. This is a complete hog. Got rid of it myself, with few mths subscription left and went for the following:

Firewall: Kerio
Virus Scan: AVG free
Spyware: Spybot & Windows Defender

Dl Startup inspector, it googles each startup item for you & tells you whether its safe to turn them off.