Windows 8, slow startup and strange sound service problem..

Hello fellow Alienware users, posted this some time ago in the windows forum as i thought this was a general problem, but i see they are not as kind as you guys, 'cause i didn't get any answers..

I Just installed windows 8 on my old M17x-R1, but i have been running in to some problems. First of all my computer runs really good, except for the fact, that it boots really slow. Windows itself runs really fast under the whole bootup process, but my startup programs doesn't even start to load before a while after i entered the desktop. I ran some of the built in performance tools, and i came up with three programs slowing my boot:

1. Windows Modules Installer worker
Filename: TiWorker.exe
The delay is around 85 seconds

2. Antimalware Service Executable
Filename: MsMpEng.exe
delay: 34,8 seconds

3. Steam
which has a delay around 34 seconds too.

I also experience that my sound service act strange. I don't know if it has any relation to the slow startup.. But the problem is the little sound control in the right corner. It takes almost 10 seconds before it's opened and responding after i press it. If i try too access the sound settings from control panel, i also get a really long waiting time. There's an IDT sound card in my computer, and i tried to update it with various drivers, but with no luck..

Any help would be much appreciated!!

 

Anybody? I would really appreciate ANY input as i'm stuck, and my only option right now is to revert back to 7 :/

 

Did you do a clean install or upgrade?

 

Clean install, and i already tried to refresh the pc, but nothing works. I just tried uninstalling the sound drivers, and that speeded the volume control a whole lot up. If i reinstall the drivers manually (without idt controlpanel) i experience the slowdowns again. As for the boot time, I still don't know what to do.

 

Depends, are you 'Restarting' or shutting down and starting up again?
From what ive seen shut down and power on does not equal restart, restart starts the computer form cold whereas shut down and power on is a hybrid of hibernation basically.
I don't know why it would be any slower, unless its still installing updates in the backgorund maybe?

 

I tried both restart (cold boot) and shutdown (hybrid), but theres pretty much no difference. I also tried to turn of hybrid boot, but with no effect. But i agree that it maybe could be something with windows update, as the service that takes the longest to boot is the windows update installer, if i read correctly on the internet.

 

Just out of interest what HDD you have? and how full is it? etc? maybe needs defrag etc.

 

I run a crucial m4 120gb ssd, with 68 gb left, as my priamry harddrive with windows installed onto it. My secondary harddrive is a standard seagate 500 gb 7200rpm hdd.

 

To be fair, half of my taskbar icons dont load steam, nvidia, intel hd, and the rest don't load until a while after the boot up process. Im running windows 8, samsung 830. Probably around 30 seconds after it gets to the desktop. I guess your laptop is booting from cold start to desktop within 30 seconds I hope?

I know windows is supposed to stagger any background processes to speed up the boot. There could be a way to force them to start instantly if you want it to, I need to check it though.

 

yeah that sounds pretty much about the same.. I guess it's a common windows 8 "problem" or feature maybe Anyway thanks the help. Do you have any idea of what i can do about the audio?

 

I guess what your experiencing is normal, I don't like steam starting up when computer boots so dont worry as long as it gets to the desktop quick I wouldn't worry. I guess you should look for any windows 8 approved drivers for your sound card? If there are any, or use the latest w7 version for it, if it wont install, turn off 'signed drivers windows 8' as it may stop any non w8 approved drivers from installing properly.
EDIT: just remembered, your audio drivers may rely on .net framework 3.5 which is not enabled by defauly, you will have to uninstall drivers, find' program features' or something like that and enable the 3.5 .net framework. Might be causing it to be slow, I don't know, worth a try I guess.

 

Do you know where to look for newer drivers for IDT cards? As far as i read, it's up to the manufaturer to release newer drivers. But do you think it's possible that the drivers install but doesn't install everything because of the driver signature check?

 

My .net is already installed, and it didn't help to enable test mode either.. i found this thread here: Michael's NEW IDT/Sigmatel Modded Driver - IDT/Sigmatel Support - LaptopVideo2Go Forums - But unfortunately the download link is gone.. :/

EDIT:
Weird.. if i restart the audio service it comes back to normal speed, but after a restart the service acts strange again.

 

Alright so I originally came to this forum from a google search as I was having the same problem. No one who posted back to your problem had anything helpful to suggest But I figured out it was my antivirus causing it. I have Bitdefender and the night before I had set it to aggressive scanning. I put the settings back to default and my computer behaved normally after that. I do not know if you did something similar or not but I thought I would sign up and post what I did to solve the issue! Hope this helps!