Running startup scripts...

[robert213]

My GF's Dell Latitude D620 takes over 8 minutes for Windows XP Pro to startup.

It spends over 5 minutes displaying "Running startup scripts..."

She teaches at a local college and her local IT staff keeps giving her the run-around. Yes, there is a problem - Keeps her machine for over a week - Then, returns her machine without correcting the problem.

Since she watched me reload all of my software on a new HD on my laptop last week, she thinks that I am an expert.

Of course, watching my six-year-old P4 T30 start up and browse the internet faster than her Core Duo D620, irritates her to no end.

I checked...
MSCONFIG [Startup]
the only item checked is qttask (QuickTime\attask.exe - atboottime

MSCONFIG [Services]
only Microsoft services are running

TaskManager [Processes]
nothing much different than my T30

Documents & Settings/user/Start Menu/Programs/Startup
no short cuts (empty folder)

It's a Dell, so I don't expect many replies, but anyone have any thoughts???

P.S. She has already bought a new Hitachi SATA 7K200 100GB drive, so I guess that I better obtain Recovery CD's and Microsoft's SP3 CD to be ready to get started on fresh software install this weekend.

[jdhurst]

Is it running a script (or scripts) from C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\User\Scripts\Logon? You can look there for scripts and look in Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) to see if it has been set to run scripts. Maybe it is trying to logon to some network or some other process that it can no longer connect to. Maybe also it is trying to restore network folders that do not exist. ... JDH

[robert213]

Maybe it is trying to logon to some network or some other process that it can no longer connect to.

Thank you. That explains a lot of things.

While waiting for her machine to start up -- Running startup scripts going on 15 minutes now -- I ran gpedit.msc on my T30. I see all kinds of configuration settings that I've never seen before.

This explains why the user account running does not match the user account listed in Windows/Control Panel/User Accounts screen. When the screen-saver appears, an unfamiliar user id asks for a password -- my GF is forced to power-off and power-on (waiting another 10 minutes) to re-use her machine.

There is no "switch user" button after start/log off.

The Windows/Control Panel/User Accounts screen appears nothing like mine.

I've paid more attention to start up messages:
Preparing network connections...
Running startup scripts...

Perhaps, I can set up a user account for work (which runs network logon scripts) and another user account for home use.

Perhaps, I can duplicate these scripts on the fresh software install HD, such that my GF can click-on a desktop shortcut to access the network while she is at work.

Still waiting for her machine to finish Windows startup.

[robert213]

On my machine, I have three folders: Adm, Machine, and User under
WINDOWS\system32\GroupPolicy directory. On her machine, she only has Adm.

Only file in WINDOWS\system32\GroupPolicy\Adm is Search.adm.

Browsing in WordPad, what kind of language is this?

CLASS MACHINE
CATEGORY !!WindowsComponents
CATEGORY !!Search
KEYNAME
POLICY
END POLICY
END CATEGORY

CLASS USER

[strings]

followed by
variablename="string of words"

I guess that these are variables set by GPEDIT.MSC diaglog screen.