Halp!

[Hummer9120]

This is really odd... I know my details are rather vague, so any and all help is appreciated.

Around 4am this morning, I decided to reinstall Windows XP Pro. Everything went well, Everything was running perfectly with drivers installed, etc.

I have Windows on a 150gb Raptor, so my Windows boot time is fairly quick.

Here's the issue -- After installing all my hardware upates/vital programs, I went to the Windows update site and found 98 updates to install. Okay, installed.

I reboot, and jesus christ the boot time is long. It takes about a minute and a half for my computer to get past the Windows boot screen (the screen with the scrolling blue bar). After it boots, however, everything works fine, blazingly fast.

I noticed that there seems to be an issue with loading my USB devices. I have a microphone, a G15 keyboard, and a Razer Deathadder mouse. All of these have LED's that turn on when the device is active. When the computer first gets to the Windows load screen, all three devices are on. About one minute into the load, all three go off. When they come back on 5 seconds later, the boot takes 20 seconds.

So I guess there is some sort of problem with loading my USB devices. Ideas?

Short of reinstalling Windows, is there anything I can do to fix this? Is there a specific hotfix I should uninstall?

I ran bootvis, and noticed a *slight* decrease in boot time (about one minute and fifteen seconds now)



Thanks for any help.

 

[fiftyone]

Unplug the mic boot up to see !
Long load time, swap mouse/keyboard usb positions, (they got a pecking order).
Working, plug in mic !

Might help !

 

[LogisticEarth]

Ah...crap my Dad's computer had this problem too. Something about the USB drivers/devices would slow the computer down considerably. He's running XP also. I'm sorry I can't remember more right now but that sounds like your problem.

Do a little digging around online and you'll probably find a fix. I'd bet my money it's the USB stuff causing the problem. Although it only seems to be affecting your boot times.

 

[Hummer9120]

I tried unplugging all my USB devices, and my boot time was still miserable.

Any other suggestions?

 

[LogisticEarth]

I tried unplugging all my USB devices, and my boot time was still miserable.

Any other suggestions?

It wasn't the actual devices, it was the USB drivers, I think. So if they've already installed unplugging them isn't going to change anything. Sorry I can't give many more details right now.

 

[Gomer Pyle]

Did you make sure you got all the updates? You should keep going back to Windows Update until it tells you there are no more updates. Also, driver updates aren't usually considered critical and don't always load automatically. You may have to select them manually.

You will rarely get all the updates with just one visit to the update page. Some updates aren't applicable until certain other updates are installed. It's possible some combination of new updates will solve the problem. But maybe not.

 

[Hummer9120]

Downloading some new updates.

If this doesn't work, guess I'm reinstalling Windows tonight. :|

 

[LogisticEarth]

Downloading some new updates.

If this doesn't work, guess I'm reinstalling Windows tonight. :|

If it's just affecting your boot time, I really don't think it's worth reinstalling everything. You said the boot time was what, 1.5 minutes? How often are you rebooting that this is an issue? I think I reboot my computer once every few weeks.

Remember, there's always the option of "just live with it". If it's not spilling over into your actual perfomance once it's up and running, I'd say just don't worry about it and deal with it when a larger problem crops up that warrants a total reinstall.

 

[Hummer9120]

I do a lot of overclocking and stability testing, so I have to restart often.

Well, I uninstalled all my USB devices one at a time, same issue. I am fully up to date.

Gah. I tried googling around, but the interwebz are clogged with noobs who don't know what MSCONFIG is. No one really seems to have my issue.

 

[DONT_SHOOT]

I have had this happen in the past and it turned out to be a network issue. As far as i could tell, one of the services activated on startup was pinging out to find other computers on my network. Trouble was I had no other comps on my network at the time and it had a long timeout period. Made booting a chore. I went into the services section of computer management and started turning off all the services, if I remember correctly the service might have been something with the printers.
hope it helps

 

[fiftyone]

Check your MB web site to see if there are fixes or bios updates.
Don't OC until you have solved this problem !

 

[Hummer9120]

Just reinstalled windows, same ****ing problem.

I'm going to sit down and check out my services one by one until this is fixed.

Thanks for your help guys.

EDIT -- fiftyone, everything is up to date, BIOS is flashed to the most recent. I'm leaning towards a default service that is messing things up.

 

[Hummer9120]

Never mind, it doesn't seem to be the services either.

Any ideas?

 

[fiftyone]

Full System spec's please !

 

[Hummer9120]

8800 GTX
E6850 Processor
680i Motherboard
WD Raptor HD @ 10000rpm
I have another HD but don't know the name of it, I just back stuff up on it for work.
Soundblaster X-FI X-Treme Gamer
3gb of RAM
CD/DVD Drive
Windows XP

I don't know if this will help, but here is my Boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

And here's MSCONFIG

 

[Hummer9120]

So here's what I've tried so far.

Disabled one of my monitors, so I was running only one. Still had the issue. Removed the soundcard, same issue. Reinstalled all drivers up-to-date. Same issue.

This is where it gets weird. I reinstalled Windows, and without a single driver installed other than stock, I had the exact same issue.

New drivers didn't help. It looks like a hardware issue, but where? The Raptor is crazy fast when transferring files, but I guess it's sucking when it comes to bootup?

 

[LogisticEarth]

I think the solution would be to upgrade to Vista with all that hardware. I mean you've got a 8800 GTX and you're not going to run DirectX 10?

Edit: Yeah that doesn't really help your problem if it's with the external hardrive. I'm not sure but is there something that gets activated when you boot up that allows for faster transfer? That is, the device might be fast but without the supporting software working it defaults back to a lower rate? Who knows.

 

[BuddyLee]

I wonder if you have a bad stick of RAM... if it is failing hardware that is what I would suspect first.

 

[Hummer9120]

I think the solution would be to upgrade to Vista with all that hardware. I mean you've got a 8800 GTX and you're not going to run DirectX 10?

Edit: Yeah that doesn't really help your problem if it's with the external hardrive. I'm not sure but is there something that gets activated when you boot up that allows for faster transfer? That is, the device might be fast but without the supporting software working it defaults back to a lower rate? Who knows.

Huh? The Raptor is on my board's SATA port. It's definitely performing at its maximum potential.

DirectX10 sucks as of right now, my money is better spent buying better hardware and games.

 

[Hummer9120]

I wonder if you have a bad stick of RAM... if it is failing hardware that is what I would suspect first.

Thing is, Windows et all run PERFECTLY, it's just this boot up is horrible.