Need help regarding slow boottime slow startup and hangs

[Planking]

I bought this Fujitsu laptop for less than a year. Its only for my school work. It takes forever to bootup, startup and it sometime hangs when I open up a program or typing.
For the bootup, it takes very long time on the window logo, after that the black screen, followed by the welcome page with the loading cursor. Each of this process take a long time. For startup, its not so long but its still quite lag. For the opening up of program and typing, everytime I open up my visual studio, it will take a long time to show up and even if it showed up, it will be "not responding". So I will have to open it a second time before I can start using it. When I am typing my codes, it will randomly hang and show that the program is not responding. I am still able to move my cursor though.

My laptop is a Fujitsu, Intel Core i7 2620M CPU @ 2.70 GHz, 4GM memory, 64 bit OS.
If you need more information, please tell me.

Cheers

 

[mickey megabyte]

hi Planking, and welcome to sevenforums,

try typing msconfig into the start-menu search-box, then look at the 'startup' tab. there are probably loads of programs here that auto-start every time you boot up. many of them can probably be disabled without any problems - make sure you keep any that are associated with antivirus/security software.

 

[Planking]

Thanks. I had already remove some unwanted programs with the help of CCleaner and its still quite slow.

 

[cluberti]

Try this:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...-shutdown-sleep-hibernate-reboot-trace-2.html

 

[Planking]

Boot_Trace.7z
Shutdown_Trace.7z
Reboot_Trace.7z

 

[cluberti]

Downloading now - note you really only had to do a boot trace , but I'll look at the others anyway to see if there's anything interesting there as well.

 

[cluberti]

Well, I can see a few things readily problematic:

1. Symantec Antivirus is slowing down disk I/O considerably, causing a VERY large delay from about 50 seconds into the trace until about 140 seconds into the trace - almost no disk I/O happens during this time, and the disk I/O that does takes an incredibly long time to complete (10s of seconds - this should be happening in MILLIseconds).
2. Symantec Antivirus consumes the large portion of disk I/O utilization and thus slows down I/O throughout the trace in very obvious ways, and is also consuming a large portion of the CPU time used in the trace duration - you have a machine that is quite literally being brought to it's knees by the antivirus product in use, given your usage patters are very disk I/O heavy.
3. Because you have a variant of SQL on here, it is also taking a very long time to start the SQL service (557 seconds!!!), which is impacted by Symantec but is not a total victim here. Anytime a system has SQL installed, it will cause a lot of disk I/O when starting, and anything that would interfere with that can cause major problems. If you aren't using the SQL database on startup or boot, you might want to consider changing the SQL services on your machine to Automatic (delayed) startup, rather than Automatic and starting during boot. This would alleviate disk I/O considerably.
4. Windows Error reporting appears to start and attempt to create error reporting data every time your VPN software does something (HssTrayService and openvpntray processes, respectively), appears to be called when the Symantec processes are starting up, and even running when the BlueTooth Headset proxy application starts up. It's also generating dump files for the Server service quite frequently, so I am guessing if you looked in your Application and System event logs, they would contain at least a few warnings and errors every time your system started up. If you don't absolutely need that VPN software, disable or remove it - if you do, find a version that isn't so buggy.
5. Your hard disk falls a bit below the middle of the road performance-wise for mobile hard disks available today as per PassMark, so given that your system causes a LOT of disk I/O, having such a slow hard disk is not helping you.
6. The Still Image Service is installed and takes an awfully long time to start up - if you have an imaging device attached to the system during boot, consider unplugging it (I'd guess USB given the trace), or perhaps moving the service from the Automatic to the Automatic (delayed) startup type to remove this from starting during boot.
7. The LanManServer (Server Service) is taking an incredibly long time to start, and honestly I have no clues from the traces what's causing it - however, it does seem to somewhat dovetail somewhat with the startup of the VPN and Symantec Protection services, and I do see UDP and TCP sends and receives during this time - this isn't a smoking gun, but I've never seen the Server service take that long to start without something else as the culprit, so at least educated guessing (which unfortunately is the best I can do with this line item) would place this in either the VPN software or Symantec camp as well.
8. The disk is moderately fragmented, especially the SQL database, and there's a good amount of head movement during the slowest times of the trace (which mostly fall during the times you would be waiting for explorer to finish loading). Make sure the scheduled defrag task in task manager is enabled for starters, and then you will want to consider defragmenting manually perhaps once a month with a non-inbox defragmenter like Defraggler or Puran Defrag (which are free - if you want to use a non-free defragmentation program, that would be up to you).

Going forward, here would be the recommendations to try and combat this performance issue:

• I'd recommend adding the MSIExec service to your "safe mode" services list with the following command (this must be run from an elevated cmd prompt):

  REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\MSIServer" /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D "Service"

• Next, I would suggest downloading/installing one of the aforementioned defragmentation products.
• Third, reboot into safe mode (repeatedly and quickly press F8 right after the BIOS screen, but before the Windows starting "splash screen" to bring up the Windows boot menu).
• Once booted into safe mode, perform a manual defragmentation pass using whichever defragmenter you installed previously.
• Remove that VPN software if it isn't needed for your day-to-day usage, and if you do need something, either find and install a version of this software that isn't as buggy, or use something else in it's place that isn't. If you don't need it, remove it now while booted in safe mode. If you remove the VPN software at this point and if you are prompted to do so, don't reboot yet.
• After that, remove Symantec from the system - again, if prompted, don't reboot yet.
• Lastly, go into services (services.msc) and change any SQL services, and the Microsoft Still Image Service, from Automatic to delayed start.

Once you have done all that, you should be able to reboot back into Windows normally and see an improvement. Next on your list would be to find an antivirus product that was (much) lighter than Symantec Antivirus, and as is usually recommended around here, Microsoft Security Essentials is a good choice.

 

[gregrocker]

You are hearing from the world's top expert on these issues above. I'd follow his steps exactly.

In addition for others who have factory preinstall, here are tips to Clean up factory bloatware.

 

[Planking]

Do i need to do the defrag even if I already did it before posting in this forum?

Edit : Heres what I did so far. ( Please tell me if I did something wrongly )
I uninstalled my Symantec.
I removed my VPN by going to network and sharing centre, change adapter setting.
I also changed my SQL setting to automatic ( delayed ) by services.msc. I couldnt find Microsoft still image service though. Heres the image for the SQL.

I havent defrag my laptop though. Still waiting for the answer for my first question.

@Gregrocker I dont think I want to reinstall my win7. As I have quite alot of school works and quite a number of programs needed. It will take alot of time I guess.

 

[cluberti]

To remove the VPN software, you'd have to uninstall it - the problem isn't the network adapter, it's the software that goes along with it.

As to the Still Image Service, go into the registry (HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\stisvc) and change the "Start" value to 4 (which is disabled). That will disable it for now. To make it delayed long-term (if you actually need it), you have to add a new REG_DWORD value in here called "DelayedAutostart" with a value of 1 and set the Start value back to 2.

If you defragmented it before taking this trace, it didn't do a good job - you will need to defrag in safe mode to properly defragment the SQL database files and some of the other files that would otherwise have been in-use (and not movable with VSS easily).

 

[gregrocker]

I like Puran Defragger in Boot Mode, with the Intelligent Optimizer engaged on its Additional Operations tab.

 

[Planking]

I dont know which software is with VPN. I did the registry and now doing a defrag with Puran Defragger in boot mode.

Edit: After doing all those except the VPN, the boot time for the window logo is faster than before. Not so fast though, but faster. The load time at the welcome screen to my desktop is still slow or slower... and still theres a lag in typing. not as much as before though

 

[gregrocker]

Work through these troubleshooting steps.

Try changing to Microsoft Security Essentials to see the difference.

 

[Planking]

It didnt help..

 

[Corazon]

Did you follow the steps to download one of the free defragmentation apps and run a defrag while booted into Safe Mode?

You might take a screenshot of your maximized Programs and Features window so we can help you identify your installed VPN software. Then you'll know what to uninstall.
Alternatively, download CCleaner (not a bad idea to have anyway) and use its Tools/Uninstall menu for another way of listing your installed software.

 

[Planking]

I did CCleaner. Defrag in boot safe mode and did the boot time defrag.

 

[torre]

After you delete your current VPN software, if you need a VPN, check vpnsecureme.com. Download of software is optional. You will be provided a proxy by changing browser settings. Cost is $7-$9 per month.

 

[gregrocker]

I gave you a list of troubleshooting steps with multiple steps.

Are you running a clean boot?