Windows 7 - Extremely slow boot up

Hello, new to the forums and I have a really big problem that has been with me for a year. I've learned to just ignore it but recently it almost caused me to miss turning in some homework.

My laptop has been having extremely slow boot up mainly at the "Starting Windows" screen.

I did some googling and found some useful posts. Some of the things I have tried are:

-Disabling non-essential startup apps and services
-Running CCleaner
-Checking for viruses and malware with Microsoft Security Essentials and MalwareBytes
-Checking my HD for bad sectors
-Testing with Memtest86+

So, I did some more googling and found that I can check my boot-up time through event viewer.

Attached below is my eventlog.

As you can see, it took me 8 minutes to boot up which is really ridiculous. This averages from 3-8 minutes all the time regardless if it's a cold or hot boot.

[Off-topic] Aside from the rebooting problem, sometimes my laptop freezes. The freezes occur very randomly. I could be closing a tab on Chrome and it'll freeze. I could be typing a message to a friend on Digsby and it'll freeze.

The weird thing is that I can move my mouse and click on stuff until everything becomes... (Not responding). I'll be able to roll over Desktop icons but as soon as I try to click on one, it freezes and won't open. This all happens in one phase and 3-4 minutes later it will continue like nothing happened but will do whatever I've done during the frozen phase such as opening an app, closing an app, typing, clicking, etc. When this happens I just don't touch the laptop until it's finishing with its business.

Thanks for reading my post and helping me. I'll try to update you guys with any additional info.

[edit] Added Memtest86+ to things I've tried

I'd download and run Memtest86+. It sounds like you might have some RAM issues.

I would also download and run HDTune and test the hard drive.

You said you have disabled not needed programs. When you check in msconfig how many check marks do you have?

Hello, sorry for the late reply but I finished testing with Memtest86+ and nothing came up. I also scanned with HDTune and nothing as well.

I have 9 check boxes, this is a fresh copy of Windows with CCleaner, MalwareBytes, Microsoft Security Essentials, Dropbox, and Digsby. Some are drivers and updates: RealTek, Nvidia, Java, and Google update.

Your case is a very common symptom of conflicting antivirus software. If you have two antivirus software installed at the same time and are both set to start automatically when you open the computer, the startup usually becomes very slow so you might as well remove one of the two antivirus software and just leave one installed and running at once. If you have Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials set to start and run automatically together, you must try to remove or at least disable one of them.


You can also try to perform a clean boot:
How to Troubleshoot a Problem by Performing a Clean Startup in Windows 7 or Vista

Good luck.

Way more than I would have checked. I have 3, Blue ray mouse and keyboard and of course my anti virus. IMHO the rest you don't need at startup.

Yeah, things like Google Update and Java are not needed on startup. In my case, I only have 2, my antivirus and Windows Sidebar.

I have disabled all services and startup. This is what my services and startup looks like after I disabled them all and rebooted. It is attached below. It improved my reboot speed to 2-3 minutes but definitely not 8 minutes. We'll see how this goes in the next few days or so.

[edit] I found this Trace Windows 7 boot/shutdown/hibernate/standby/resume issues - MSFN Forum

The part which is the slowest is the MainPathBoot. It is ridiculously slow at that part. I can get out of sleep super fast and my desktop loads in under 10 seconds. It is only the "Starting Windows" part that is the slowest.

Please note. When you uncheck those items doesn't mean you can't use them. After you get to your desktop all you have to do is tick on them. It doesn't matter where you keep them, desktop, start menu, all programs ect. When you have them check in msconfig they start and run in the background whether you use them or not. Any program you have set in that program to check for updates auto will normally do that on start up. The only things I have set to check for updates auto is my anti virus and Windows updates. Check back and let us know how things have improved.