welcome screen ~50 sec load - minimal startup/services

Hey guys,

Im experienced a very slow welcome screen after restarts, averaging 50 seconds.

I have tried a few things so far to fix this but not luck

Heres what i have tried:

1. Clean boot
- welcome screen took 45 sec
2. safe mode boot
- welcome screen takes 35 sec

Here are my startup programs
- IDT pc audio
- alps pointing device
- microsoft security
- f.lux
- IAstorIcon
- Microsoft office onenote
- xps2onenote

Services on boot:
- Andrea ST filter service
- Apple mobile device
- intel Rapid storage technology
- audio service

Once the welcome screen disappears load time for the desktop seems to be around 25-30 seconds.

Event Viewer information:
- My last 2 boots clock in at 111 sec and 106 sec
- Both are classified as errors
- Ive removed any programs that give warnings with significant degradation time on startup

Within the last 24 hrs ive run:
- Disk defrag
- Disk cleanup
- MSE full scan
- Malwarebytes full scan
- CCleaner

Finally I have downloaded autoruns to investigate the problem but i have no idea what to look for with the program.

Thanks for any help

edit: wanted to add that after I log off and log back in the welcome screen shows up for about 1.5 seconds

Edit 2: Problem was solved by running chkdsk. Welcome screen now shows for about 12 seconds with a total start time of ~60sec (from event viewer).

I now know i have a hard drive issue as it failed the seatools tests. Are there any programs (similar to chkdsk) that can fix hard drive problems?

Thanks

Hiyya and welcome ottomobile mate would be nice to know your set up but in any case try Brinks tutorial on optimising. I find it on average speeds up the system by 20 - 25%. Plus check to see if your BIOS has a quick boot too. :)

Optimize Windows 7[2]=Performance Maintenance

Ok mate just what are your system specs - briefly CPU speed GB and speed of RAM ?SSD etc

My Sandy Bridge build (Giga board) is about a 30sec to login with a SSD as first boot device - is yours set to boot from HDD or CD check your BIOS.

My tester machine has an Intel board and is much slower at 50 -55 secs with a SSD as primary boot but it does have DDR2 RAM and the Intel post is excruciatingly long which is what your problem sounds like.

Plus I suppose it does really depend on the start up in msconfig I only have the OS and security set in the start up section and have all four cores in the advanced section of Boot.

As a tip I have added regedit / msconfig / and command prompt to my quick start up list - makes for a lot of less typing. Type it in the start box right click on the show window and click pin to the quick start list. I'd show you a snip but it doesn't like being snipped LOL!! Oh the command prompt of course is in Accessories!

Well the RAM and slow HDD would probably have a some bearing on the problem otto.

Now I should have asked the machine specs especially the board / chipset mate your CPU seems to more than capable it is just the RAM and HDD speeds I think could e improved on if the board will take it. The CPU does have a 64bit instruction set and a front bus of 800MHz.

Now you can run and keep for reference this alittle app that will give yo all the info on your machine so can you post back with that info. It will also give you licence numbers activation codes etc so very andy to keep. It is free and takes no time at all to download and run.
Speccy - Download < click on the piriform one - keep your eyes out for any annoying ads for search bars etc - they are a pain to get rid of if you download them.

My machines all boot to the login screen mate I never have the set to straight to desktop. Partly because the SSD's "clean themselves" if left at login for a while - the do not need defragging i fact it wears them out faster. But I like t that way for security purposes.

Ah I see otto yes mate the login to desktop on mine is about 12secs maybe quicker I have only ever checked the power on to login.

Now the board can only take 667MHz RAM so at DDR rates that is double data reads it is running at 333MHz whereas my 1333MHz runs at something like 669MHz. The HDD like I aid is what is considered a slow reader by todays standards at 5400rpm the usual HDD for a desky now is 72000RPM and the real fast ones I think are 10000rpm.

The problem is that you are getting substantially slower speeds than you were before and I am now wondering if your HDD is getting a bit long in the tooth or the RAM is somehow degrading - unusual but possible.

Two more tests you can try are memtest and use the Seatools for the HDD

RAM - Test with Memtest86+

SeaTools | Seagate < choose the OS and download the tool and run. Once ready it will let you pick the drive and just select what test you want form the Basic test list you want I choose short generic to start with - doesn't take long.

Another tool is the mini tool Partition Wizard which allows you to run a surface (physical) test of the drive and is invaluable when you want to do things with partitions name create format etc etc
Partition Manager Server, server partition manager and partition magic server for Windows Server 2000/2003/2008. Server Partition software for Windows Server and None-Server partitions < get the freeware version.

If all this turns up nothing then maybe a clean install would be the way to go. Did you do a disk prep before you clean installed? if not if you do this again then do the install follow the first page of this tutorial to make sure the disk / drive is ready SSD Alignment you should have all USB drives removed to save confusion and it should only shwo your HDD as say disk 0 or 1

But try the Seatools first then the memtest - remember it will take some time as it makes several passes over the RAM to check if they are holding up.Any errors of course just replace mate.