Win 7 takes over 4 min to get past splash screen.

I must have been exposed to malware as I got a win 7 notice about an RPC virus. I scanned with malwarebytes and avast but no cigar. I downloaded Microsoft essentials, ran it and found a possible hack tool in an old keygen but not in the C drive. No search found RPC virus on the computer.

After running essentials I checked the MS updates and now there were 25 or so updates for office 2003 available. I installed them and when I rebooted it, it took forever to get past the splash screen and I'm using a SSD for the C drive. It now without fail takes over 5 minutes to get to the desktop from cold start.

I tried uninstalling everything I updated today (an office service-pack will not uninstall) and unstalling what I could made no change, I went back to an earlier system restore and no change. I timed it and the windows 7 splash screen now takes 4 minutes and 35 seconds to disappear.

Once the desktop appears everything runs just fine and as fast as ever but it seems like there is some kind of checking sequence that is going on that takes that long to process during startup and before today, when I would start the computer, the splash screen was present for maybe 4-6 seconds and then the desktop would appear.

Before I have to go through the hassle of reformatting and reinstalling everything, any ideas what I might look into to find out what is slowing the startup and undo the problem?

Thanks!

Jacee said:

Please download (free version) Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop
Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware removes malware including viruses, spyware, worms and trojans, plus it protects your computer
* Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.Right click to run as Administrator, using Windows 7 or Vista.
* At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish.
* If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
* Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan.
* When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
* Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
* When completed, a log will open in Notepad. Please save it to a convenient location. Copy and Paste that log into your next reply.

Hi Jacee,

Thanks for the reply. I already had Malwarebytes installed. I updated & ran the scan and here goes;

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.75.0.1300
Malwarebytes : Free anti-malware download

Database version: v2013.06.17.05

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 x64 NTFS
Internet Explorer 10.0.9200.16618
Gary :: Kowabunga [administrator]

6/18/2013 7:40:11 AM
mbam-log-2013-06-18 (07-40-11).txt

Scan type: Full scan (C:\|I:\|)
Scan options enabled: Memory | Startup | Registry | File System | Heuristics/Extra | Heuristics/Shuriken | PUP | PUM
Scan options disabled: P2P
Objects scanned: 375455
Time elapsed: 9 minute(s), 18 second(s)

Memory Processes Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Memory Modules Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Keys Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Values Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Data Items Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Folders Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Files Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

(end)

Thanks for the replies,

I ran safe mode and it took a very long time to get to the desktop; the monitor displayed the list of drivers for a long time and then immediately went to the safe mode desktop. I was expecting a window to pop up and ask me if I wanted to be in safe more or go onto restore (something like that) it was a yes/no option & yes goes to safe mode. I did not get that message though, it went straight to the desktop after close to 5 min of waiting.

However... Upon rebooting the normal boot is back to normal!

The only thing I did differently was while tapping F8 to get to the safe mode option, I pressed too early and the drive selection option came up and I had to select the boot drive in bios. Even though slow, it was booting up in the right drive. The only other thing was running the safe mode sequence.

I can't see how either of these would have rectified the problem but everything is normal now. I'm glad for me because my problem is gone but I'd liked to have found the problem/solution so others can find it with a search and get the solution.

Thanks for taking the time to help!

If you have a lot of USB drives connected, or, certain USB Printers, it will do this, I usually disconnect those until I find the one that causes it, then I only disconnect that one during boot, reconnect it after it says "starting Windows"