What is slowing my boot-up?

System specs below in sig. I'm running Windows XP. Not too much software installed, plenty of HD space and RAM.

When my system boots into Windows, I have to wait about a minute before I can do anything or run any programs. If I try to run a program before that time, nothing happens until about a minute later, then the system runs normally.

I have noticed that the last thing that happens before the system reaches its "normal" state is that my scanner initializes. Thinking this was the problem, I unplugged it but the PC was still slow to boot up. Could the scanner drivers be doing this? I didn't install any add-on software with it.

Also, I tried nailing down the slowness to a running process, but nothing seemed unusual in the task manager except that all of the "User" fields are blank until the system completely boots. After that, they appropriately populate with SYSTEM, etc.

I found i had a long boot time with norton internet security and anti-virus trying to boot on startup but i ran a program called Bootvis and it boots in about 30-35 secs now heres a link
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/tune-19.html

www.blackviper.com has some great info on turning off services that slow down startup and take up resources.

The Bootvis tool didn't do me any good

What's weird is when I monitor the CPU usage its near 0% during this lag time. The lag usually lasts about 1 minute from when my Windows XP starts, which is completely nuts.

I'll check out that BlackViper site.

do you have DSL? that may be it.

The_Jizzler said:

do you have DSL? that may be it.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have DSL but it does not connect on startup. Could that still be the problem?

Do you use Norton Internet Security? I had the same problem when I ran NIS. I found this tip on it from RegScrubXP:

Click on Start button.

Select Control Panel.

Open "Network Connections".

Under "LAN and High-Speed Internet", right-click on your "Local Area Connection" and select "Properties".

Under "General" tab, select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and select "Properties".

Select "Use the following IP address:".

Under "IP address" enter following : 192.168.0.1

Under "Subnet Mask:" enter following : 255.255.255.0

Click "Ok".

Click to expand...

After I did that, the PC booted up a lot faster once into Windows and things responded once I clicked them while the regular windows processes were still loading (course a little slower than if everything was done loading and then clicked on them )

Hope this helps
Tipycol

Thanks. I'm almost certain that its DSL related. I brought my PC w/me to my parent's place in Kansas and I'm now plugged into their Cable internet connection. The PC now runs perfect on startup.

Norton Internet Security Issue

Thanks for the post Tipycol. I have been tryin to figure out my minute or two lag after loggin in for bout a month now. I finally narrowed it down to NIS a few days ago after going through the background apps and have been tryin to find work around since. It was really tickin me off to have a pc that boots in 20sec only to have to wait an additional minute or two before i could use it! The fix works. A few guys in my office will also find this info handy.

Again if what Tipycol doesn't work for you (didn't work for me when I had the problem) then just disable the Workstation in services.