LOOOONG wait time for windows to fully load after I log in..

[BoostedA4]

Today when I turned on my T43, it booted up as normal past the BIOS and windows start screen and then brought me to my login screen.

After logging in, however, the computer sat at the "loading personal preferences" for about 20 seconds and then took another minute or two for windows to load up properly. Before this the whole process never took more than 5-10 seconds.

I have eliminated a ton of startup services and that is clearly not the problem.

Anyone have any idea what might be happening here?

EDIT: Maybe this is better suited for the windows OS forum.....

[Ground Loop]

I just went through a similar issue last week -- boots quickly to the Logon screen, but then after login takes forever just to put up the background, and then another forever to put up the icons and start bar. Very frustrating.

The first thing to find out is if the machine is 'thrashing' or just waiting for something. Is there disk activity? In my case, it was actually parking the drive and doing nothing.

Check your entire environment for any paths that are not on your local machine or on removable media. "set | more" and look over each line.

Second, make sure that if you are in a domain that your computer can connect to the domain server. This was the problem in my case -- the profile was a cached domain profile, but the domain server was inaccessible -- so it would wait a very long time trying to contact it.

Try creating a new logon on the machine -- a local one. Log in as that user and see if it's also slow. If it is not, then there is something about your profile or login that is causing the timeouts.

Check the Event logs, all three of them, and especially note the date/time of the events. Any event after a long pause should be suspicious.

I really really wish Windows gave us more tools to debug something like this.. a timestamped log, something like the "Task Manager" that shows running/waiting/idle status.. anything but the blank screen and no help.

[vliou]

press space bar

[BoostedA4]

Ground... there appears to be no activity going on. The computer seems to just stop for a bit.... just like yours

i don't know much about computers so could u give me a few simplistic files or registry entries that I might look at..

I am 100% sure there is no virus or unwanted process being loaded

EDIT: I tried using another login name and the same problems occur.

[GomJabbar]

Check the Event logs, all three of them, and especially note the date/time of the events. Any event after a long pause should be suspicious.

I agree with Ground Loop here. Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. Here is where you can view the logs.

[pphilipko]

Do you have NAV? Often, that's the root of the problem.

[boofoo]

Could be a network setup problem:

- Could be looking for DHCP or other network setup info (including scanning the Network Neighborhood)

- If you use IBM Access connections, disabling the Wireless Zero Config under XP SP2 can cause this (it didn't under SP1). This happened to my T42 with Intel 2200BG wifi; try re-enabling the WZC service if you're running SP2, it might fix it. This is one "tweak" that doesn't help.

[vu3]

I ran into the same problem wit my T43, but thanks to Wholesomer's tip, I downloaded Software Installer from IBM website and updated my drivers. Especially the driver for wireless card. Afterwards I removed IBM Access Connection program and let XP takes care of the wireless connection. Now everything seems to run smoothly. I hope this help.

[GomJabbar]

Could be a network setup problem:

- Could be looking for DHCP or other network setup info (including scanning the Network Neighborhood)

- If you use IBM Access connections, disabling the Wireless Zero Config under XP SP2 can cause this (it didn't under SP1). This happened to my T42 with Intel 2200BG wifi; try re-enabling the WZC service if you're running SP2, it might fix it. This is one "tweak" that doesn't help.

Yes, this happened to me too. I have the same setup as boofoo. When I disabled Windows Zero Configuration Service, my boot-up time increased considerably.

I can't remember everything I've done since, but here is my setup now. I have WZC service set to manual and stopped. I have the latest version of Access Connections 3.71, and the latest IBM/Lenovo Intel 2200BG ver. 9 drivers. I have my Home (default) profile set not to connect on Windows log-on, and I have the box checked to "Disable this wireless radio when I switch to a different location profile."

[beerak]

Have you tried Lavasoft Ad-aware and some kind of AV ?

[BoostedA4]

Thanks for the help guys....

I checked my event log and sure enough found what was causing the almost 2 minute hold up. For some reason it was "Windows Image Acquisition" I just disabled the service from starting at startup.

The other day I uploaded pics from my camera for the first time. I must have started seeing this delay starting the boot after. Any idea why this might be? it's not a big deal since I don't need that service constantly running at startup.

Thanks again guys-----god I love forums..

[boofoo]

Just a guess ... it might be expecting the camera to be plugged in, and holding everything up while it's scanning for it. You might try turning the WIA service to manual rather than disabled, so that you'll be able to access your camera when you need it (but if you have a TWAIN driver that's generally preferable).