Help debugging Slow-loading User Profile?

Guys I have a problem that is not leaving many clues other than the obvious and aggravating one: the main User profile on a HP desktop [Win7 Home Prem x64, 4GB, SSD, i5 quad-core] is intolerably slow, and somewhat erratic to load. This looked to the user like a boot-up problem but it actually seems to be the User profile. I see no Events in the Windows System log that identify an unusual problem, though one can see via the time stamp the gaps that are taking up 1.5 minutes, 4 minutes, 2 minutes - add it all up and I've seen personally delays of 6 minutes, although it is somewhat erratic. The way the system has been used it had only one User profile setup, no password, booted directly to the desktop.

One clue [which I can't make sense of] is that, when I added a second user/Admin profile for me to test on, both the troubled user profile and the new one load at something close to normal speed. So, Windows boots to the login screen, select user, then the troubled profile seems to load OK most of the time. The New Profile loads faster, but by seconds not minutes.

I have run a boot log and now wish it too had time sequence stamps but I have no way of knowing which, if any, of those items is a problem. I bet not, as it should only be tracking up to the point of the Login Screen display, right?

I know the workaround would be to setup a whole new user profile and ditch the old, but just out of curiosity to learn I would love to find the real culprit here. Should I be looking at all "Automatic"-loading Services and changing some to "Delayed" or "Manual"? There are very few [2] startup items/apps loading - the others I have stopped/disabled but it didn't solve the issue.

Hi zapp22

I have seen sluggish User profile logon when the computer had two anti-virus programs running in the background. But you say second user profile does not have this delay.

Next, check how many desktop icons/files/folders you have saved on the troublesome User profile. Too many desktop icons can lead to sluggish start times.

Check the RAM also. You say there is 4GB installed. Is all 4GB still available to the computer?

Delays of up to 6 minutes sounds abnormal, especially if the computer has SSD. Might be worth trying a Clean Boot (Clean Startup) .

Thank you both.. I hadn’t given a thought to the desktop clutter. It is.
I’m working another angle as well. I’m wondering if the delay has something to do with the way the ethernet works on this particular older HP model. It keeps alive even when the system is off, which is somewhat normal I guess but I’m not sure that the service they have which I think is from spectrum is dropping that IP address and on boot up there is a delay acquiring ip?
With a wifi USB adapter I’m not seeing the long delay with a half dozen test restarts & “cold” boot ups

Hi Zapp22,

check the settings in Device manager
Advanced - wake on - none
Power Management - uncheck both.


Roy

Do the basic first.
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
chkdsk c:
If it find any problems, type:
chkdsk C: /f
It will say the disk is in use and if you want to schedule to next start = Yes
Restart

Then do a system file check:
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
sfc /scannow
report

This turned out to be an odd one. I still think there may be some user profile corruption but the net is that after the user invokes her user profile [there are 2 profiles now as I setup a new one to test], sometimes, not all times, the network link [via ethernet cable to a ISP-provided cable modem] is slow to establish connection and the MS Security Essentials times out, apparently, but hangs the profile waiting for a connection. This occurs sporadically and the 'wait' varies somewhat, from 15 seconds or so to a minute. This never occurs with the new profile, which has no real setup on it and no use.


On WIFI I could never produce the long delay with either profile. With a good ethernet connection on my own equipment in testing, the user profiles both loaded about 4 seconds slower, with No WIFI, only Ethernet. On WIFI that delay was absent - either profile loaded in about 15 seconds.


Both chkdsk /r and sfc came up clean. No fixes, no files replaced



I marked 'solved'. I wish I could just remove MSE but the user believes....