Laptop takes 15 mins after boot up before I can do anything!!

mommacache · 05 Jan 2011

I am at my wits end! Toshiba Satellite A500 laptop with 4 GB RAM running Win 7 64 bit. I haven't installed anything new, but suddenly, when I boot it up, it takes 15 -20 mins before a can do anything. The desktop comes up and the network connects and everything looks fine except the hard drive light is solid! If I click on anything at all nothing happens or it locks up. I try Task Manager and sometimes it opens (takes 5 mins) and sometimes I get an error saying it can't open and to restart. When it does open there are no processes running that shouldn't be and no applications running.

I setup Selective startup to load system services and disabled every startup program I could. I've run a memory checker, two diff virus scans (AVG and MS Security Essentials) and no viruses found.

Once the machine starts to run the way it should its fine, but I can't go through this every time I start up or reboot my system. I've been at this for 3 days and I'm starting to get crazy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

logicearth · 05 Jan 2011

Just to check, Solid color background?

whs · 05 Jan 2011

Did you have a look in the reliability history ( Control Panel\System and Security\Action Center\Reliability Monitor ) whether there is a clue. It sounds like something is keeping your disk busy.

Also look into the scheduled tasks (run the command schtasks in an elevated Command Prompt). Maybe there is a disk defrag or something alike scheduled at boot time.

Questions? - just post back !!

mommacache · 05 Jan 2011

To Logicearth ... background is my normal background (Windows themes) completely normal

WHS, I will try your suggestions

Thanks to both of you. I'll let you know.

Inixi Noisse · 05 Jan 2011

whs said:

Did you have a look in the reliability history ( Control Panel\System and Security\Action Center\Reliability Monitor ) whether there is a clue. It sounds like something is keeping your disk busy.

Also look into the scheduled tasks (run the command schtasks in an elevated Command Prompt). Maybe there is a disk defrag or something alike scheduled at boot time.

Questions? - just post back !!

like said above, but for me it is always good to look back and check system in log, maybe there is something interesting besides known startup applications.

in start menu type eventvwr.msc and there check if there are some errors, mostly in system and application logs.

**cluberti** · 05 Jan 2011

Have you considered using Process Monitor (boot logging) to figure out what kinds of disk accesses are happening, by which process, and to which files?

Download Process Monitor to a temporary directory
Run procmon.exe (accept EULA if prompted)
Click File > Capture Events to uncheck and stop the current capture of data
Click Options > Enable Boot Logging, and then click the "OK" button
Reboot

Once you finally get access to your desktop and can use it again, run procmon.exe and click File > Save, select "All events", and click the "OK" button to save the file as Logfile.pml (you can see the location the file will be saved to in the "Path" box). ZIP or RAR that file and upload it somewhere and we can analyze it for you if you'd like, or you can then open that file in the procmon window yourself (file > open) and uncheck the Registry, Network, and Process activity buttons on the toolbar so that only the File System events are displayed, and analyze it yourself. If you do upload it for analysis, you should note the time that you are actually able to use your desktop, so we will know approximately the time frame in the procmon log that you cannot - it will make it easier to analyze.

Inixi Noisse · 05 Jan 2011

well, for system works I always DO NOT use external applications and so I recommend it also to others.

whs · 05 Jan 2011

Inixi Noisse said:

well, for system works I always DO NOT use external applications and so I recommend it also to others.

That is very shortsighted. Especially Process Monitor which is a MS application from Mark Russinovich who is probably one of the most knowlegeable Windows Gurus on this planet. With your approach, I would not get a lot of system work done.

Inixi Noisse · 05 Jan 2011

whs said:

Inixi Noisse said:

well, for system works I always DO NOT use external applications and so I recommend it also to others.

That is very shortsighted. Especially Process Monitor which is a MS application from Mark Russinovich who is probably one of the most knowlegeable Windows Gurus on this planet. With your approach, I would not get a lot of system work done.

Well, I got my other system (Windows Server 2008 R2) working all the time with standard tools i get. You can also get the same results in event viewer if you just check enough audit options.

**cluberti** · 05 Jan 2011

Your choice of tools is up to you, but you are making it difficult on yourself. The other way would be to configure the system and your paging file for a complete dump, reboot, have the problem, manually crash the system with the keyboard during the hang, reboot, and then open the resulting .dmp file in the \Windows directory with windbg and hope you can find something. That would require you to install the debugging tools for windows though, which would run afoul of your "no external tools" mantra, but those are your options (well, other than guessing, of course).

Please understand that responding to what would be considered a very sound suggestion and approach to handling your issue with some sort of retort that you don't use tools (which is part of the reason you're at your wits' end right now - thiink about it...) isn't exactly the way to win friends and influence people here at sevenforums. It appears that my suggestion was not, indeed, "greatly appreciated". Good luck to you in resolving this issue without additional tools, but be prepared for more frustration in the interim.