Incredibly slow bootup

[Firespirit]

I have taken on my mother's computer as a project. This computer -- a Compaq Presario -- has one of the worst bootup times I've ever seen in an XP machine -- timed, it takes a full 7 minutes to start completely, excluding the time to type the password. Most of this is spent loading the Windows desktop.

The PC has a Sempron 1.73 GHz, and 192 MB of RAM. At first I thought that might be the problem, but as far as I am able to tell, it does not run out of memory except when you go to a high bandwidth website. It is used for Internet, music, word processing, and a couple of games that don't demand much. They expect it to be poky for some applications, but the bootup is just abysmal. I would've shrugged it off as "well it's almost 4 years old," but my 8-year-old Dell laptop has a 650 MHz Pentium3, 256 MB of memory, and goes from zero power to fully loaded Windows desktop in 1.5 minutes.

I've read some things to suggest that Compaq/HP has preloaded a lot of its lower-end machines with assorted crap, and installed a modified version of XP (the one on the System Recovery disc), and the only real solution is a clean install with a "pure" copy of the OS. It would make sense; my laptop is running a Microsoft install, not a manufacturer-modded one. This is not an option for the other computer, however, because my clean XP disc is a Win98 upgrade, and my Win98 disc is a Dell Product Recovery disc.

I am at a loss. I have combed the registry for junk and have shut off all nonessential Windows services. Does anyone have any additional ideas?

[Gore1FL]

1. try this:

Go here and download autoruns

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

You can kill a lot of startup stuff through here. Got to the logon tab and export the list to a txt file then copy it and past the text here and I'll give you suggestions on what to wipe.

[Firespirit]

2. I'll have the results of this sometime tomorrow

12:40 here in Central time. :P

Thanks. This has become a personal battle now, heh... it's outlandish to me that I've tuned up my old-as-dirt machine to run XP several times faster than this other one.

[madokie]

3. may I ask you a question about autoruns

under the everything tab I have 11 C's that over to the right it says file not found then there is 3 CC with the same, file not found.
I've deleted them and they just come back in different numbers of but they never go away. I notice they are under the boot execute tab also. Thanks in advance.

Firespirit, I hope I'm not out of line asking this in your thread, if I am my apologies.

[Gore1FL]

5. It actually says C and CC?

I am a bit confused. What is the heading (ie HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\Protocols\Filter) that these fall under?

[madokie]

6. Hklm\system\current control set\control\session manager\boot execute

This is under the Everything tab and also under the Boot Execute tab. I delete them and then refresh and they're right back.

This has me baffled

[Gore1FL]

7. I only have two things under boot,myself

autocheck and ls delete. My guess is something you (or the system) is running thereafter is repopulating everythign else.

if you delete them, close autoruns, and and then re-run autoruns (without doing anything else in between are they still there?

if not, logoff and back on, re run autoruns and see if they are there.

That will narrow down what might be repopulating the registry.

It shouldn't be doing anything harmful if it says "file not found," but if something else is kicking in to put them there that something else *might* be harmful

[madokie]

8. deleted all of them and closed autoruns and then opened it and now there is more than ever

when I first ran autoruns a couple weeks ago there were only a few listings for C but not I have 20+ with 10+ CC, over to the right it says file not found.

I appreciate the help but don't worry about it as I will be reformatting and reloading one day soon. But I would like to know what is going on so as to avoid it later. I'm using xp home sp3 with IE7 and avast.

I have these and use them regularly, CCleaner AWCv2, Wise reg cleaner, regseeker, spybot s&d, adaware, malwarebites, and keep them all updated.

[Gore1FL]

9. My suggestion before you reload

would be to go into regedit and browse down to the entry and see what shows there. IT maybe something is screwy with your registry and autoruns as misinterpretting it--it might be the reg cleaner you are using. It might be worthwhile to check it right at the source and see if you see any patterns.

[hobbit709]

4. 192 Mb of RAM isn't really enough

Download PC Decrapifier and run it
http://pcdecrapifier.com/
That will get rid of the "trial offers" and other junk. If it's using Norton-get rid of it and get either AVG or Avast.
Download Advanced Windows Care
http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html?Str=download
This will fix registry errors, optimize performance, allow you to remove items from the startup.
Then download Spybot Search & Destroy and run it
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
All that should increase performance but getting the RAM up to 512 Mb will also make a major difference.
What kind of ram is in it?

[paparush]

10. Definitely run Spybot S&D and maybe even Ad Aware by lavasoft

spyware, malware, crapware is notorious for loading tons of processes, behind the scenes, when you boot.