Solved Laptop taking ~10 minutes to load a user profile

[Howlin1]

When I turn on my laptop it will load fine until the user profile screen. If I click my profile first (it's password protected) then it just hangs there and loads nothing (not even the password prompt box). If I load a user profile without a password first it will load, but that takes about 10 minutes to load, when it is loaded I can log out of that profile and log into mine.
It started about a month ago. The only thing I installed then was a flash player update, but I uninstalled that...
I was told by a friend that "the fix to that is reformatting the laptop, as the Registry and OS files are badly damaged."

Is that true and if so could it be fixed without needing to reformat the laptop?

 

[seavixen32]

Uninstalling a Flash update shouldn't corrupt your computer to that degree.

You may have malware on your computer.

Try a full scan with Malwarebytes.

Failing that, your user profile may be corrupted so you could try creating a new one.

If you still have a restore point available at a time before you installed Flash, you could try a system restore to that point.

 

[Howlin1]

I was meaning that was the only thing I installed around that time. I have scanned my laptop a few times since then and nothing shows up. I have did a boot scan as well and found nothing.

 

[Petey7]

It sounds like it could be malware as Seavixen suggest. It could also be some file curruption as your friend suggested. You could try the System File Schecker to see if that finds any currupted files. If there are files it can't fix, I would try a repair install next. Tutorials for both linked below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

EDIT: Almost forgot the simplest solution of all. See if you have a system restore point for before the problem started.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

 

[seavixen32]

Did you try a new user profile?

I was also going to suggest a repair install, but Petey has already mentioned it and posted the link for you.

 

[Thorsen]

Slow startup can also be caused by driver issues.

A good quick test is to see if the hang still happens in Safe-Mode: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html

If it does, You can use Driver Verifier to test your system for any problems: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html

In case its software related, there is a tutorial on the win7 SFC Scannow : http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[Howlin1]

I am doing the sfc scan now and will report back on that. I did create a new profile and now it seems to only take a minute or two for the user profile (any of them) to load...why has the time decreased so much?

 

[Howlin1]

The scan has finished and it says
"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

 

[M1GU31]

Have alot of applications at startup?Could be that there's to many startup items. Type msconfig in the search bar in the windows start button window and open it up.Then check in the tab called startup and see what's there and list what's in it,could be some apps you don't necessarily need to run at start up that could be causing slow downs.Once you decided what you don't need you can take of the check next to the application that you don't need starting at system boot.

 

[Howlin1]

I have 9 applications starting:
Winstron Hotkey APP
Intel(R) Common User Interface
Intel(R) Common User Interface
avast! Antivirus
Microsoft Security Client
Microsoft Windows Operating System
Gadwin PrintScreen
Skype
DAEMON Tools Pro

 

[Trinty]

I have 9 applications starting:
Winstron Hotkey APP
Intel(R) Common User Interface
Intel(R) Common User Interface
avast! Antivirus
Microsoft Security Client
Microsoft Windows Operating System
Gadwin PrintScreen
Skype
DAEMON Tools Pro

Hello Howlin1.

That is not a lot of applications.
Try with disabling avast! Antivirus (A/V software can slow your computer) , Gadwin PrintScreen , Skype , and Daemon Tools Pro (Daemon Tools , slowed my computer too and I uinstalled this).

And one small question : Do you have MSE with avast! ? I think Microsoft Security Client is for MSE. ONLY If you have this 2 or more A/V software , uinstall all of this and try again. Then back only one software of that type !

Good luck.
Trinty

 

[windude99]

Remove Avast and leave security Essentials. After that, disable everything that is running at startup except Microsoft security Essentials.

 

[Petey7]

I recall reading before that Daemon Tools and Windows 7 don't get along very well. Try windude99's advice. That should, if nothing else, determine of it is something running at startup causing the problem.

 

[gregrocker]

Try everything that has been suggested so far which are excellent suggestions. Then work through the other suggestions given in these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

 

[Howlin1]

I left my laptop off all night and turned it on not too long ago and it didn't take near as long to load a user profile as it use to. The only things I did last night was run the sfc /verifyonly and make a new user profile. When I went to log on today to my user profile it loaded up pretty much straight away I didn't need to log into any other profile first....So all I needed to do was to make a new user profile?

 

[gregrocker]

Why did you run sfc /verifyonly? Run SFC -SCANNOW Command

Remove Daemon Tools which is not compatible with Win7.

Use Microsoft Security Essentials with Windows firewall and no other AV. Keep Windows Updates current, especially any drivers in optional Updates.

Run a Clean boot as shown in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7