PART TWO Re: My Experiences with long, slow boot or startup (long)

From: PopRivet (r91658_at_usadatanet.net)
Date: 03/17/04 

Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:38:51 -0500

PART TWO: TOP POSTED, FIRST POST IS AFTER THIS
POSTING.
17 March 2004, Wednesday AM:

------------------

Cold Boot, first of the day.

Both Printers off:

2 minutes 16 seconds, but things are "funny" - task bar
hides OK, but not any menu brought up while task bar is
visible; they stay on screen. Lasted for several
minutes - wasn't measuring time. Eventually worked
correctly.

Only 5 icons in System Tray; there should be 13 

---
At 4+ minutes, NAV AutoProtect and LAN icons loaded
into system tray. That seemed to end boot/setup
activity.
Now there are 7 items in the sys tray: Top to bottom:
NAV, LAN, Quikzip, CD, Video, Real, & Net Adapt Card.
There should be 13.
MISSING Icons: UPS (usually very last thing to load);
Volume; RealPlayer; Milleneum Keyboard; on AC Pwr
Indicator; SpamPal.
---------------------------------------
The SNMP Service is ignoring extension agent key
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\IPXMibAgent\CurrentVersion because
it is missing or misconfigured.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
0000: 02 00 00 00
>From MS:
ID: 1101 Source: SNMP We're sorry There is no
additional information about this issue in the Error
and Event Log Messages or Knowledge Base databases at
this time. You can use the links in the Support area to
determine whether any additional information might be
available elsewhere.
---------------------------
Event Viewer:
The SNMP Service has started successfully.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
>From MS Link:
ID: 1001 Source: SNMP We're sorry There is no
additional information about this issue in the Error
and Event Log Messages or Knowledge Base databases at
this time. You can use the links in the Support area to
determine whether any additional information might be
available elsewhere.
------------------
Error Message: The Event Log File is Corrupt: After the
displayed table immediately cleared to empty. There
were no other errors or warnings left in the Event
Viewer though, so all present are listed.
Disconnected dialup connection. System View is blank;
no entries, red on System icon in Computer Management
menu.
>From the APPLICATON LOG:
Hanging application HelpCtr.exe, version 5.1.2600.1106,
hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address
0x00000000.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
----
Fault bucket 21949569.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Since the Event Viewer corrupted, there are no links
given to go to MS site.
Will Reboot now.
Note: NAV AutoProtect is ON & I left it on.
-----------------
REESTART: Abt 50 Seconds
EPSON ERROR MESSAGE AGAIN: Title: EPSON PrinterPort
Msg: At least one service or driver failed during
system startup. Use Event Viewer to examine the event
log for detials. Button = OK
12 icons in System Tray, not 13. Didn’t catch which one
was missing.
NAV AutoProtect was turned OFF somehow!
-- Same two SNMP messages as above, plus:
Adapter Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection: Adapter
Link Up
The Eplpdx02 service could not be started.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
>From MS:
      ID:
     3523
      Source:
     Eplpdx02
      We're sorry
      There is no additional information about this
issue in the Error and Event Log Messages or Knowledge
Base databases at this time. You can use the links in
the Support area to determine whether any additional
information might be available elsewhere.
Remaining 10 events were successful Service Control
Manager events.
NAV AutoProtect manually enabled OK. All seems OK.
Seems all is working.
Shutting down and will leave powered down for > ten
minutes while I go do somethings.
-----------------------------
Power down (power bar turned off; no power to computer
or monitor at all) for over an hour. No peripherals are
powered on.
COLD BOOT: Took 50 Seconds, just about exactly.
ALL 13 ICONS ARE PRESENT!
Norton AutoProtect is OFF again! Why? Manually enabled
from System Tray.
Turned on HP LaserJet. Pinnacle TV Rx box turns on with
it; both on same power bar. FAILED TO PRINT; Must press
FF to get data out of it. Printed one page when I
pressed FF:
BRJN"COOOGNV"NcsgrJgv"6R
BRJN"SGV"RCGGRROVGCV?OFF
BRJN"SGV"RCGGRROVGCV?CWVD
BRJN
Have seen that before: It must be meaningful. Should
ask HP if it’s interpretable.
Switched to Epson Ink Jet C82, turned it on HP Off:
PRINTING MUCH GARBAGE! Will not allow me to Purge
printer. Pulled paper from it to stop it. Killed it
with Task Manager after a CAD. Sent the Error Message
as requested – no link returned to check for fixes.
Just said I could close my connection to the ‘net.
Powered Epson printer off/on. Doing a Restart now.
Oops! Printer started printing again! There IS NOTHING
to indicate the printer is printing! Status is "ready",
no pending docs, no spooler, nothing?!?!
Doing a Shut Down instead of Restart, but will have
printer on before power is reapplied to computer.
--------------------
Cold Boot:
Took 55 seconds: I might have missed when it was
ready – forgot for a moment. Tired of waiting for
bootups.
Test Epson Print: PRINTING SAME GARBAGE! Tried to print
same thing as the previous two times, from the same
app: Word 2k2. Again, cannot stop the printing from the
Epson CP. Printer Properties however did let me pause
and then Cancel everything, which allowed the printer
CP to close. Going to Restart now.
RESTART: 49 Seconds. Only 12 icons; On AC Pwr is
missing, but UPS is there & with no error messages.
NAV AutoProtect is OFF again.
Epson still prints GARBAGE!
Cannot purge, cancel, or otherwise stop the printer
again!. Used Task Manager to kill it finally.
Going to the Event Viewer:
-- NO printer error messages in the last three boots
though printers are screwed up.
-- The SNMP Service is ignoring extension agent key
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\IPXMibAgent\CurrentVersion because
it is missing or misconfigured.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Followed immediately by:
-- The SNMP Service has started successfully.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
-- And this after an attempt to purge my printer
documents:
The attempt to reboot SERVER failed
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
That might be OK: A reboot did fail because I left this
document open and unsaved when I tried to boot at that
point.
BUT, NO ERROR MESSAGES! ONLY THOSE WARNINGS. ALL ELSE
LOOKS FINE DURING THE ENTIRE LAST THREE BOOTS.
-- During the second boot, the Application Log shows:
Hanging application E_S10RN1.EXE, version 3.0.1.0, hang
module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address
0x00000000.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Fault bucket 17976389.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Nothing there for the first and third boots.
---
NEXT: Time to dispense with NAV and BOTH printers -
Will remove/uninstall as appropriate and see what
happens next. Looks like it'll be Sneakernet to the
Laptop from here on. Disconnecting LAN, phone line, all
peripherals, etc. etc..
----------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
------
...
| I've fixed (found sort of a workaround) the long boot
time, but at the cost
| of my antivirus protection and having to use the ICF.
I've also contained,
| apparently, the Epson printer error message described
below, but not
| permanently.
==  NOT TRUE ANYMORE:  NEITHER PRINTER WORKS AGAIN NOW.
|    Throughout all of this, I have a non-functioning
LAN:  It's disabled
| throughout all of this and will not function.
|    So, the overall symptoms are:
| --  Very long boot time  (need fixed soon)
| --  Neither printer will function  (need fixed soon),
but have one working
| good enough "for now"
| --  No LAN (not bothering with that  right now).
|    Is there a way to DELETE the LAN configuration?  I
can only find Disable.
|
|
| 1.  I am NOT a guru or expert by any means.  I have
great respect for the
| MVP's and others who have helped me along here, and
wish to say THANKS!!
| You know who you are.
|
| 2.  Length of boot times:
|   --  originally about a minute or so, never measured
it prior to this..
|   --  Worst:  4 MINUTES and 48 seconds measured
recently!
|   --  Present time:  abt 51 seconds, but I can now
reproduce an almost 4
| minute boot time upon demand.  So far.
|
| Terms:
| --  Cold Boot = Power On = Shut Down/power-up.
| --  Warm Boot = Restart
| --  Power Down = power to PC OFF for > 1 minute
| --  Boot time:  The time from the beginning of the
boot (used floppy drive
| access as indicator) until machine was operable, all
desktop icons
| displayed, and an app could be started.  This
included the little bullets
| crossing the screen after POST and the second or so
to enter a
| single-character password.
|
| Configuration:
| --  Pent 4;  2.6 GHz, two 80 Gig hd's, 512 RAM, XP
Pro, NTFS, Desktop as
| Server on 10/100 wired ethernet, self installed.
| --  Dial up 'net connection 56k.  Usually connect at
53.2, sometimes 50.0k.
| --  Celeron 2.2 GHz, 40 Gig hd laptop as client on
wired ethernet, XP Home.
| --  ICS used.
| --  ICF not used.
| --  Sygate Personal firewall, Adaware & SpyBot,
Norton 2003 NAV, XP, Office,
| etc. kept up to date with frequent updates or where
available Live Updates.
| --  HP LaserJet 6P B&W laser and Epson C82 Stylus
color printers.
| --  Misc others including video capture/edit
| --  Time in service:  abt 9 months, both machines.
|
| Initial Problem not known to be related to long boot
times, but:
| --  A low-risk worm, acquired while a foster child
was on machine.  Same
| child caught visiting sites like rotten.com, etc..
|    Fixed & removed something-9910-something.exe, part
of a
| something-oag-something virus.  Seemed fixed for a
week or so.
|
| --  Boots & restarts seemed long, but I didn't boot
often, so just figured I
| felt like it was a long time.
| --  Don't use Epson a lot; usually use the HP
printer.
| --  One day, powered on Epson, only printed garbage.
Rebooted.
| --  Got an Epson Driver Load failure / Epson printer
driver not loaded
| message.  Machine seemed to churn forever before the
error message.
| Successive boots same problem, same error message,
etc..
| --  Timed bootup; looked  like almost 5 minutes!
| --  No hint in Event Viewer, just an error about the
print driver failure.
| Link to MS only said they were "working on it".  No
help.
| --  Switched back to HP laser, figured I'd take the
B&W print.  It only
| printed garbage too!
| --  Reinstalled HP drivers; no help.
| --  Tried Have Disk option:  XP refused to install
them.
| --  Downloaded most recent drivers, marked as for XP
on the HP site.
|   --  No help.  XP complained they weren't
compatible.  Install worked
| though.
|   --  No help.  No changes.
| By now I'm almost bald from the long boot times.
| --  Reinstalled Epson drivers.  N O help.
| --  Reinstalled Epson drivers again - wasn't sure I
checked all the right
| boxes.
| --  IT WORKED!  BOTH PRINTERS WORKED.  Still long
boot time though.
| --  Next morning, it all came back:  Epson error,
longest boot time, no
| printer operation.  Fiddled around, got Epson to
work.  Can keep it working.
| HP will not work no matter what settings I make
though.
| --  Got out stopwatch:  4 MINUTES 46 seconds to boot!
|
| Lots of fussing, including another reinstall and a
Recovery Console
| operation.  All succeeded, but no change in printer
error msg or boot times.
|
| --  Prepped to repartition/reformat.  I really wanted
that 80 Gig drive
| re-partitioned anyway, so it wasn 't a completely
wasteful plan.
|
| --  Finally came up with a plan to do a clean
install, but to the Slave
| drive instead of the C: drive.  That way I didn't
have to lose all my
| settings and everything and the original drive would
become my backup.
| Decided this AFTER I had already backed everything up
to D:, by the way!
| ------------------------
| Preps to clean install:
| --  Checked all BIOS settings, etc..  All OK.  Set
boot sequence to:
|   --  Floppy
|   --  CD DVD Drive
|   --  Hard Drive
| --  Set Slave drive to be Boot Drive instead of the
Master.
|   --  Also disabled the Silent Boot while I was
there.
| --  Restart:
|   -- Error Message - Load Error:  Press a Key to
Continue.  Pressed a key
| and it went ahead and booted.  Pressed a key, booted
OK.
|    BUT IT WAS A FAST BOOT!  THERE WAS NO 4 MINUTE
DELAY!!
| --  Measured boot time was abt 50 seconds!
| --  Repeatable, same every time.  Little bullets make
8 passes on Welcome
| screen.
| --------------------------
| --  Put Master drive back as boot drive
|   --  BOOTED IN ABOUT 48 SECONDS!
| --  Did a Cold Boot:  50 seconds!  Great!  Dunno WHY
it's only 50S, but
| great!
| ---------------------
| --  Noticed Norton AV AutoProtect was disabled.
Shouldn't have been.  It
| refuses to be enabled.
|   --  Firewall is still Allow All, as it was all
along so far in this
| troubleshooting session.
|   --  Refuses to be enabled from the System Tray
option.
|   --  At about the 4 + MINUTE time point, AutoProtect
turned on!  Dunno if
| it's because I'd tried to enable it or if it just had
to wait the 4 minutes.
| 4 minutes is a feeling, not a measured time; didn't
know it was going to
| enable.
| ---------------------
| --  Set Firewall to Normal.  Auto Protect is still ON
| --  Restart took 2 minutes and 12 seconds!!  Say,
what?
| ------------------------
| --  Turn OFF Auto Protect; Reboot.
| --  Took 48 seconds!  Huh?  But, Norton Auto Protect
switched itself OFF
| again and refuses to be enabled.
|        Hmm, are Sygate's Firewall and Norton fighting
each other?
|
| ---------------------------
|
| Turned ON Internet Connection Firewall (ICF).
| Removed Sygate Personal Firewall.
| Boot = 50S.
| --  AutoProtect is still OFF though.  Refuses to be
enabled from system
| tray.  BUT, this time, I was able to Enable it from
within NAV!  Left it
| enabled.
|
| Did a Restart:
| --  Got Epson Printer Driver failure error msg again!
| --  Boot time - 2 MINUTES 20 SECONDS!!   Huh?
| --  And Auto Protect had been turned OFF again!?  It
should have been ON!
| Cannot enable it from the system tray.  But, at
around the 4 or 5 minute
| time, it came ON again!  So, eventually Auto Protect
DID come on!!  NOW I
| can enable/disable it at will from the system tray
icon.  Huh.
| ----------
| Disabled AutoProtect.
| Rebooted:
| --  Got the Epson error msg again!
| BUT, boot time: 50 S measured.  Sheesh!
| AND, Norton Auto Protect had been disabled again!
And this time didn't come
| back on by itself.  So,
| -------------------------
|
| Enabled Auto Protect.
| Reboot:  49 Seconds measured.
| It enabled OK from the system tray though.
| Reboot:  50 S measured.
|   Auto Protect turned itself OFF again!
| But can enable/disable it at will from system tray.
| ----------------
| What do YOU think?
| Man, I am SO confused.  I think my next move is:
|
| --  Find another antivirus software to use.
| --  Keep ICF for now - it's enough functionality for
now.
| And continue with more analysis.    Tomorrow.
|
| Or, but the bullet, but this is getting curiouser and
curiouser all the
| time!
|
| Comments/advice welcome!  Flames?  Nah, please don't.
|
| Pop
|