Probably virus in bootup routine causing very long boot

dougmack · 28 Sep 2013

System: Windows 7-64, with whatever upgrades MS sent over the internet over the years; MOBO: Gigabyte P45T-ES3G;
CPU:Intel Core Duo E8400 @ 3.00GHz; 8GB ram; Award BIOS dated 02/23/2011. Anti Virus: Avast, Malware-Bytes--added
SparkTrust PC-Cleaner Plus after problem noted. Ethernet connects to router and two computers and 2 printers. System will take about 4 minutes to boot up, with most of the time taken after "Welcome" with blank background screen (not black screen) with just mouse cursor showing. During boot up, especially in this last period, the modem lights flash as if data is being sent or received. Just booted machine with network disconnected and it booted much faster. I have the original installation disk. This problem started about a week ago. Also found conduit virus. Paid a company to repair, which seems to have squashed conduit, but boot problem not fixed.(Since "repair" I found some other files labeled conduit and erased them via admin command line.) I will not reinstall Windows: there is a program that was very difficult to install, and I have forgotten how, so if the problem cannot be fixed, I may have to abandon Windows altogether.
For what it may matter to the repair, the system is multi-booted using GRUB (not GRUB 2). The Linux system boots fine, and if the repair bypasses GRUB, I can always put it back.
What I expect is to learn how to replace the files in the boot sector, or whatever else is used in the boot process, using the original installation disk, but preserving all the application programs and files.
Thanx for your interest and assistance. --doug

mitchell65 · 28 Sep 2013

Looks to me like the need here is for a Clean Install of Windows 7 but I see you are not prepred to do that so not sure what to advise you. I think ther are lots of avenues to go down to try to solve the problem but they could still lead to a Clean install as the final solution. What is this program that is so difficult to install?
You might like to start with this:
Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

gregrocker · 28 Sep 2013

Establish a clean boot, check the logs, system resources and other Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

If this fails to help the problem then you can determine the cause of slow boot with certainty by Gathering a Startup, Shutdown, Sleep, Hibernate, or Reboot Trace
or installing Soluto – Anti-Frustration Software .

As far as the GRUB goes I would want the Dual Boot to be set up as shown in Dual boot Ubuntu-Win7 and Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux - Windows 7 Forums

Compare the install you have with these same steps for a perfect Clean Reinstall based on what works best in tens of thousands of installs we've helped with here.