Logon Delay

[karldenton]

Hi

I've got a users laptop. Windows XP. Not on a domain.

When it boots up, it gets as far as showing the background of the desktop then takes forever to load the icons.

I've done virus / spyware scan. I've selected the items that load on startup to a minimum

 

I'm guessing its the spec. It has 512 + 256 MB Ram and a celeron processor !!

Once the icons load its quite quick to do things. Its just that that takes forever.

Any ideas.

Thanks

[elsiegee40]

What AV are you using? I've found that Symantec really hits older slower PCs hard with its startup scan. Once that's dealt with everything's fine.

[karldenton]

What AV are you using? I've found that Symantec really hits older slower PCs hard with its startup scan. Once that's dealt with everything's fine.

 

Just using Microsoft security essentials

[SYNACK]

DIgging back into my ancient history books XP had multiple issues that could cause this kind of behaviour on an old pc.

 

FIrst up delete the contents of the prefetch folder either windows/pf or windows/prefetch, can't remember but it will be filled with .pf files. This alone usually cuts a couple of minutes off boot time.

 

Step 2, defragment the pagefile, use something like pagedefrag to defragment the page file (usual defrag does not), even better delete it and let it be recreated then defrag it. If you have not defraged the system as a whole do that to.

 

Step 3 recreate the shellicon cache - there is an xp powertow to do it floating around somewhere.

 

Step 4 don't have so much junk on the desktop to start with

 

Step 5 use msconfig to disable any unnessisary rubbish, quicktime system tray and the adobe equivilent are a good place to start. HP printing assistant that shipped with many consumer grade printers also causes this far to often.

 

Step 6, try making a different profile, a new one can be much faster

 

Step 7 reinstall it if none of this has worked

 

Step 8 buy a new pc

 

edit: disregard 4 and 5 as I reread your post

Edited March 2, 2011 by SYNACK

[Michael]

You can also delete profiles from within C:\Documents and Settings, so the PC is forced to download a new copy of the profile from the server. I'd also check the size of the profile as they can get out of control, especially over wireless networks.

 

Edit: I've just noticed, it's not connected to a domain, so I'd agree with the above and remove startup items from msconfig. You could also try Safe Mode to see if it's still slow. Generally speaking it should be lightening quick comparatively.

Edited March 2, 2011 by Michael