Delay to XP Startup

XP loads after about 50 secs as usual, I enter my password and within 5 seconds all my programs are loaded in the tasktray and I'm ready to go. I startup my browser (IE) but Google won't load... It just sits there until approximately 3 minutes and 40 seconds after I first hit the button. That's what I see every time I boot up - here is what else is happening:

On my Z96JS I'm having the following syptoms for that first 3.5 minutes or so:

- Webpages won't load
- Network Connections Control Panel won't load
- If I go to System Properties, the section under 'Computer' listing CPU and Memory
- I uninstalled my modem and anti virus software, after the 3.5 minutes I got a popup saying that the modem had been detected and a Windows Alert that I was not protected. Could this mean that some driver/device is holding up the processes?

There could be a lot more symptoms, these are just the ones I noticed. This has been like this for a few months.

Nothing in particular seems to be occupying all the CPU or memory, it shows as 'System Idle Processes' 99% for the entire time. I upgraded my system to 2 GB out of curiousity to see if it had an effect but it had none at all. The system does not act as though it is under strain except that those things do not load, many other things do fine. As soon as the 3.5 mins is up, everything that I had clicked loads, almost instantaniously. It's a 2+ minute delay on every boot.

I originally thought it was expected because of proxy I setup to run through Azereus, and it was justa delay from that starting up over the network, but even when I disable those proxies it still has these problems.

I tried uninstalling the extra Realtek programs and reinstalling those drivers, but it had no effect. I have disabled all but the essentials in msconfig.

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated,

Thanks,
Cat

 

Sounds like the problem is IE trying to do/wait on something right after you start it up rather than a drive issue - have you uninstalled every one of the proxies you set up, and this still happens? Is there any other software or process that you have installed which might be trying to communicate out when you start IE for updates/etc..... that would do it too. Virus and spyware scans are negative?

 

try a software called bootvis. Google it.

 

Thanks guys for replying - actually I did hear about bootvis when I was researching but it's not really what I need (I also did a TweakXP Optimization already).

Sorry though I did it again . I guess I post it and it helps me talk it out, and it also leaves a record for myself and others if we run into this same set of problems again.

The solution I found was, after uninstalling/reinstalling all the network device software I could see in the Device Manager, I did some ipconfig tests and found there was still 1 more Ethernet Adapter left. I went back to Device Manager, selected to show hidden devices and there were a lot more, with about a dozen hidden network devices alone. So I disabled a bunch of them, including all the Nortel adapters and a Speedsteam Ethernet USB Adapter, and the Bluetooth Adapters (I already uninstalled the Stack, and I never use Bluetooth anyway) and setup my IP as static. I'm not sure which of these fixed it, but I know my DHCP server has never made my computers operate like this before so I'm leaning towards it being one of those hidden devices. When I rebooted and it works like a charm, 45 secs to boot, 10 secs to load and as soon as I hit IE, Google is up

Thanks again for your replies,

Cat

P.S. Anyone out there with a Z96J who also has these hidden devices? I'm not sure where they came from or if they were always there...

 

It's really piqued my interest, the way I fixed it is not posted anywhere or anything...

Does anyone out there with a Z/S96J have these Nortel and other hidden devices in their Network Devices listing in Device Manger (to see them go to View and Select 'Display Hidden Devices')? Does anyone know what they are for?

Thanks,
Cat

 

Do you use ZoneAlarm? I had similar problem but solved it by removing Zone Alarm and currently using the much better Comodo firewall.

 

No, I don't have Zone Alarm, the problem is fixed now but... I've been just using the default Windows Firewall, I wonder if that could have been interfering with those unknown Hidden Devices? Very odd behaviour, and I still have no idea why they are there to begin with..

Update: Now I know, I tried to use the VPN Client to login to my work and my system Blue Screened. I had to re-enable all the devices in order to be able to login to my work server again without the BSOD. Sucks, but now I know who to blame for my 3 minutes of wasted time each boot and I'll count it towards my work time . I will talk to them and try to get them to give me a better/fixed version...

Thanks,
Cat