RE: Help? Really slow bootup - a lot of HDD activity before WinXP is u

From: FFP Pat (Pat_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 11/20/04 

Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 06:39:03 -0800

I had the same problem with my computer, the HD grinded constantly and slowed
down my computer to the point of total frustration. Tried 4 different
AdWare/Spyware programs which found many suspicious files, but nothing fixed
the problem. Finally found out I had Virtumonde malware which "reruns" files
at start up over and over, so the computer is constantly looking to run these
programs (which really don't exist). Check out this link

www.computerforums.org/showthread.php?t-4214

and see reply #14 regarding HijackThis and Killbox. Follow directions (quite
simple - I am not real computer savvy and was able to do it) and you'll be
amazed.

This totally cured my problem.

Pat

"William Cheng" wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've been noticing a problem get progressively worst - the time after bootup
> which I can start using WinXP. The actual boot up is not that bad, and I
> get my desktop quite quickly, however, the HDD activity light is going like
> crazy, and I can hear my HDD working overtime for a while before I can
> actually use WinXP. I have checked all the usual suspects like
> Spy/Ad/wares, or virus and I perform regular mantenances such as disk
> defrags on my HDDs. The most noticable jump in time to wait came when I
> switched my system HDD to a secondary VIA RAID controller (which isn't being
> used as a RAID) - to use my Intel ICH5 controller to control my ATAPI
> optical drives (which my VIA controller doesn't support). This was
> unfortunately the only way I can get all 3 of my optical drives running at
> the same time. I checked that the VIA controller is transferring in UDMA5.
> Once everything is running, everything seems fine - just the bootup time.
>
> I am still on WinXP SP1a and my system specs are:
>
> Intel P4 2.4Ghz HT enabled
> Asus P4P800 Deluxe (w/2x 512Mb dual channel =1Gb)
> Intel IDE:
> Primary: Sony DVD-RW (DRU-530A) -master
> Secondary: LiteOn CD-RW -master
> Secondary: Pioneer DVD-A05 -slave
> VIA IDE:
> Primary: WD 120Gb (System) -master
> Primary: WD 120Gb -slave
> Secondary: Quantum 6.4Gb -master
> SCSI:
> IBM 4Gb HDD
> Iomega ZIP removeable
> SyQuest 200Mb removeable
> ATI Radeon 9000
> ATI TV-Wonder
>
> p.s. I heard something a while back that the VIA controller might be the
> cause?
> Thanks,
> Wm
>
>
>