Windows load time 2 minutes+

[own]

After getting a new motherboard and installing Windows XP, Windows has taken forever to boot.

Everything goes pretty fast until after I click on the profile I want to login with. From there it'll take about 30 seconds to load profile preferences. After that I'll just get to the desktop with nothing but my background showing. I can still open up task manager and everything is there and running, including explorer. But it takes over 2 minutes for everything to actually load up.

I noticed that if I boot my PC, then leave and come back a few minutes later, this won't happen, only if I select my profile to login with right after I boot up the PC.

Both my hard drive controllers are in DMA mode.


Here is my computer info copy and pasted from AIDA32:

Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180
Computer Name ***
User Name ***
Logon Domain ***

Motherboard
CPU Type AMD Athlon XP-A, 1666 MHz (6.25 x 267) 2200+
Motherboard Name Unknown
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400
System Memory 1792 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (02/08/06)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (256 MB)
Monitor EPI EnVision EN-S1995A (1215118027)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Creative EMU10K1 SB Live! Audio Processor

Storage
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Maxtor 6E040L0 (40 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive WDC WD200BB-00DEA0
Optical Drive GENERIC DVD RW 16XMax
Optical Drive SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-348B (DVD:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD-ROM/CD-RW)

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 39202 MB (18689 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 18990 MB (4161 MB free)

Input
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network
Primary IP Address ***
Primary MAC Address **
Network Adapter Linksys LNE100TX(v5) Fast Ethernet Adapter (***)

Peripherals
Printer hp psc 1310 series

[own]

I'm unable to clear my DNS cache and don't know why. When I click on repair in the connection status Support dialog it'll successfully do everything but clear the cache. I also tried to use the ipconfig /flushdns, but I got the Function failed during execution error.

I've also been getting errors that my IP is in use by someone else on the network. I have DSL and this is the only computer on my end using the connection. Could my ISP have assigned someone else my IP by mistake?

[BipolarBill]

Are these the same PC? If so, your network card is the likely problem.

[Sterling_Aug]

I agree. It is either the card or the driver that is slowing down the boot up process and blocking the DNS flush.

Try removing the network card from the device manager and rebooting. If that fails to fix it, then disable the network card completely and reboot. Check how mch faster it boots, then figure out what the problem is.

[own]

I disabled the network card, and even removed it from my motherboard, and it still booted up really slow. Then I enabled the onboard lan and am using that right now, and it still won't clear the DNS Cache.

I also have two adapters and connections that will not go away, the most I can do is disable them. 1394 Net Adapter, and 1394 Net Adapter #2. If I uninstall them, they'll just be back next time. And both of those have their own network connections. I know 1394 is supposed to be firewire, but I have no idea what the network adapters are and why I can't uninstall them without them coming back.

I tried removing my slave hard drive also and that didn't work. I'll see what happens when I remove the cd rom and dvd rw drives.

[own]

Sorry for the double post, but this one will be big. Okay so I swapped my RAM out and that is not the problem. I disabled all my IDE devices except the main hard drive, and none of those were the problem.

Then I booted to safe mode and it didn't take forever to boot, it just loaded right up after I clicked which user I wanted to use.

So I logged my boot, but I don't really know what I am looking for. I'll paste it here, sorry if it's too long.

*** Deleted by Sterling_Aug ***

We do not need to see a 4 page long boot log file.

[Sterling_Aug]

Try running a registry cleaner such as Registry Booster and then defrag the registry.

[own]

Sorry about the bootlog, didn't know if it would be helpful or not.

Okay so I bought that Registry Booster and ran it, I had 86 errors (is that normal..?), fixed them all and defragged the registry. Still have the problem.

Could it be a CPU problem? It only happens when I restart or just power on the PC. I can log off and switch users at any time after that and it won't take any time to load, and if I let it sit for a few minutes before logging on after booting, it'll load right up also.

[Sterling_Aug]

If it boots up fine someo times and not at other times, then it sounds like more like a software problem than a hardware one.

Try running HijackThis! and see what it finds.

[own]

HijackThis! didn't find anything that shouldn't be there. And to clarify, it happens every time right after I boot. The only time it doesn't happen is when the computer is already booted up for at least a few minutes.

I don't really get it. I run spyware cleaners daily, keep my hard drives defragmented, run virus scans at least once a month, usually more. I check windows update weekly for updates, all my drivers are up to date, I even use driver cleaner pro before updating new drivers. I run chkdsk and sfc regularly. It's been doing this for a few weeks now, shortly after the new motherboard. It didn't do it for the first few days though.

I usually never turn off the computer, just let it hibernate, so it isn't a huge deal. It's just that it shouldn't be happening and I'd like to find out why it is. I think the next thing I'll try is digging up an older athlon xp cpu and find out if that is the problem. If it isn't then I don't know what is up. Guess I'll backup all my wifes things and reformat again.

[Baddog]

Go into Services, right click My Computer >>> Manage >>> Services and Applications >>> Services >>> and make sure your "DNS Client" is enabled (either manual or automatic) and started. To clear the cache, go to the command prompt and type C:\> ipconfig /flushdns.

[own]

Thanks baddog, I forgot about disabling that in services.msc.

So anyway, I ran bootvis and here is what I got for init times:

Disk .57 sec
Driver 6.36 sec
Registry+Pagefile 5.67 sec
Video 2 sec
Logon+Service 99.63 sec
Shell 27.07 sec

I'll read up on that to see what I can find out.

[Sterling_Aug]

I would try working on the NIC.

It shouldn't take 99 seconds to log on.

[Midknyte]

why are you running a linksys card instead of the onboard NIC?

that HP all in one might also be causing issues.

[own]

It still takes that long to load when uninstall all NIC drivers and remove the card, and it still takes that long when uninstalling printer drivers and removing printer.