Re: Anomalous startup behavior

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"Curt Christianson" <curtchristnsn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:%23ZGVml54HHA.3400@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I would start by doing a check for "malware". Here are some
guidelines:

Malware Removal
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

THE PARASITE FIGHT
Finding, Removing & Protecting Yourself From Scumware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

Richard Harper's Guide to Cleaning Pests
http://rgharper.mvps.org/cleanit.htm

--
HTH,
Curt

Windows Support Center
www.aumha.org
Practically Nerded,...
http://dundats.mvps.org/Index.htm

"Bill's News" <billsnews@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46ca43b3$0$24100$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
|A friend has just dropped off his computer for me to either
find
| his problem or reinstall xp.
|
| The situation is that, after power on the user selections
(there
| are 4 users of this machine) appear in reasonable time.
| However, when selecting a user it takes about 7 minutes (no
| sweep second on my wall clock), during which time only an
empty
| desktop shows, before the application icons appear on the
desk
| top. If we press Ctrl-Alt-Del immediately, the Task manager
| appears about 20 seconds or so later with virtually no
programs
| running (about 10 MS modules) none of which is consuming any
CPU
| cycles. Only Sys-idle is counting cycles. Just about when
the
| 7 minutes expires, Task Manager shows the rest of the apps,
| etc., loading and the desk top icons appear.
|
| Alternatively, if I start the system and let it sit at the
user
| choice screen for 7 minutes, when I click on a user, that
| desktop appears almost immediately with all app icons in
place.
|
| I've never seen this sort of behavior before.
|
| Although I've not connected the PC to my router as yet, my
| friend says this is the behavior whether or not he has
internet
| access available.
|
| I'm going to spend up to 4 hours poking at this tomorrow
morning
| and was wondering if any who might be here have encountered
this
| before and have a clue I might pursue?
|
| Many thanks for your consideration.
|
|



Thanks Curt. What I did, this AM, before coming here was:

using MSCONFIG disable all services.
Boot then worked perfectly.

I then enabled 10 MS ONLY services at a time until the boot
misbehaved. I was convinced it was an MS service because Task
Manager, when it appeared, listed nothing but a smattering of MS
services during the timeout.

Among the last ten, I then did 5 and subsequently one at a time
until pinpointing
"Shell Hardware detection" as the culprit.

This leads me to conclude that a UPnP device, or its driver, is
malfunctioning and that PnP services have an inordinate time out
when this occurs. I tried booting with a boot log but I find no
text file containing the word "boot" created in the past 20
minutes. So, if you happen to know where MS stores the boot log
and how it's named, that would be immensely helpful.

I suspect that it's a wireless device, which he did not bring
along, as one is listed as being disconnected. I'll disable it
or remove it, if necessary, to check that out.

All that inhibiting "Shell Hardware detection" from the start up
activity accomplishes is to the shift the 7 minute timeout from
boot time to after the desktop appears - when some other service
needs i/o validation. I'm immediately able to interact with
MSConfig, because it launches automatically when used to reboot.
But little else will respond for about 7 minutes after the icon
filled desktop appears.

I'll report back with more, and hopefully the final answer, in
case any others encounter this.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Blank Desktop
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    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)
  • Re: [A Bonus ?] Re: Shared/moved Font Folder
    ... > shell cache and dll cache? ... so last icons get cached. ... with another one and boot, the drive letters will not be "notched" onwards. ... > create a FAT partition for DOS as I've described above? ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.file_system)
  • Re: [A Bonus ?] Re: Shared/moved Font Folder
    ... > shell cache and dll cache? ... so last icons get cached. ... with another one and boot, the drive letters will not be "notched" onwards. ... > create a FAT partition for DOS as I've described above? ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.registry)
  • Re: Anomalous startup behavior
    ... loading and the desk top icons appear. ... Boot then worked perfectly. ... I tried booting with a boot log ... Tried a DELL restore disc "repair" op first. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Desktop Icons
    ... refreshing the cache cleared up the problem. ... boot a computer in 8 or 9 seconds I'd be ... ALL my desktop shortcuts appeared ... icons. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)