SSD Bootup Slowed Way Down Right After "Fixing" Home Network

[chamlin]

At my home, I had my new Windows 7 Professional PC (with SSD) and Laptop networked by someone a year ago who at the time said he was setting up a WorkGroup instead of a HomeGroup. Over time, that stopped working for some reason.

Then another guy came out and re-did the network. Said he preferred HomeGroup and made changes, but my network sharing still shows Workgroup. I have no idea how this is actually configured at this point due to my limited experience with networks. Trying to get this aspect fixed in my networking sub-forum thread.

After the revised network setup, my desktop SSD takes much longer to fully boot up than the original configuration. I don't know how to diagnose this. I've looked at the Event Viewer and good lord there are lots of errors and warnings, most of which I don't have a clue about.

I measured the boot up time as follows:
00:00 Press start button
00:07 Asus logo on black screen
00:18 Windows boot manager screen with options for Windows; Macrium Recovery; and AX64 Recovery
00:21 Windows logo on black background
00:44 I hear the initiation whirring of my external hard drive
00:47 Light blue Windows Welcome screen
01:17 Purple desktop background, with no icons
01:35 Icons show up
01:45 Popup for which drives were recognized, and I'm ready to go

Prior to the networking change, it took half the time.

Can someone assist me in figuring out what's in the way how to get that sweet speed back?

Thanks,
Chamlin

 

[Golden]

Perform a clean startup and lets see if the speed is better.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

 

[chamlin]

Perform a clean startup and lets see if the speed is better.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

Cool. Will do this in 15 minutes.

 

[chamlin]

Ran the test.

Compared the boot up time as follows ("normal slow" in black, Startups and services off - this color):
00:00 00:00 Press start button
00:07 00:05 Asus logo on black screen
00:18 00:10 Windows boot manager screen with options for Windows; Macrium Recovery; and AX64 Recovery
00:21 00:13 Windows logo on black background
00:44 00:29 I hear the initiation whirring of my external hard drive
00:47 00:37 Light blue Windows Welcome screen
01:17 01:07 Purple desktop background, with no icons
01:35 01:25 Icons show up
01:45 01:31 Popup for which drives were recognized, and I'm ready to go

The 14 seconds isn't the difference maker. But this is helpful to know. What next?

 

[Golden]

Check to see whether the SSD internal alignment is correct:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

What version of firmware is installed?
Intel® High Performance Solid-State Drives — How to Find the SSD Firmware Version

 

[whs]

Have a look into your event viewer. Drill down this chain:

Eventvwr
Applications and Service Logs
Microsoft
Windows
Diagnostics - performance
Operational
Event ID 100, 101, 103, 107

Make the evennt windows big enough so that you see things. Then look at the general tab and the detail tab. Examples:

 

[chamlin]

Check to see whether the SSD internal alignment is correct:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

SSD Partition Alignment Verified.

 

[chamlin]

What version of firmware is installed?
Intel® High Performance Solid-State Drives — How to Find the SSD Firmware Version

Yup, firmware 400i, up to date.

 

[Golden]

In that case, it has to be a service/program in the startup. What items were there during the clean startup? You may also want to check the evenlog as suggested by WHS.

 

[chamlin]

Have a look into your event viewer. Drill down this chain:

Eventvwr
Applications and Service Logs
Microsoft
Windows
Diagnostics - performance
Operational
Event ID 100, 101, 103, 107

Make the evennt windows big enough so that you see things. Then look at the general tab and the detail tab. Examples:

whs, thanks for pitching in! Looked at it and tried to export the results but the txt and csv are really hard to read. Is there a better way? I'll show a screen shot or two.

• Only found 100's and 101's.
• I've had this computer for 500 days.
• There were 33 incidents of 101's, mostly CrashPlan (my online backup service) and Emsisoft Internet Security.
• There were 441 listings of 100's.
  • 110 were "Critical" level;
  • 93 were "Error" level;
  • 238 were "Warning" level.
• Boot times ranged from:
  • 15,000 to 24,000 ms (early in the system's life)
  • 30,000 to 40,000 ms (after I had the first iteration of the network/workgroup set up)
  • 60,000 to 100,000 + ms (beginning in February 2014), but it just happens in spurts, with some periods dropping back to the 30,000 ms levels.
• I cross-referenced the following in search of a cause:
  • Software installation dates;
  • Windows update dates;
    • but did not find anything that jumped out at me.

Is there something in particular that I should be looking for that I might have missed?

 

[chamlin]

In that case, it has to be a service/program in the startup. What items were there during the clean startup? You may also want to check the evenlog as suggested by WHS.

Are you saying that it has to be a service/program in the batch of stuff (technical term) that was still included in the Clean Startup?

 

[Golden]

Possibly, yes, it depends what was in the startup. Anti-virus applications are notorious for that...which are you using? EmiSoft right? Check in eventlog and see if its listed there.

 

[chamlin]

Here are the services screen shots showing what was there for the boot up, what was running and stopped (whatever that means). Emsi was, per instruction for the Clean Boot Up, disabled/unchecked, so only MS stuff was running.

 

[chamlin]

So...if what's mucking things up is a Windows System type thing in the Startup services...what can be done? I know that if I was finding the main culprit in one of my startup programs or services, I could leave 4 on at a time and assess which was the problem, but the sum total of all of my startups shaved 14 seconds off. That might still be worth assessing, but I'd like to see if there is a bigger fish.

• Based on what I reported from the Event Viewer, might a readable report from that help? And if so, how to export it so it's readable by you wonderful chaps?

• And how does one assess which service(s) might be skewed up? Can Windows boot without them?

• And is it normal to have that many warning/error/critical's in the 100's and 101's?

Thanks for considering,
Chamlin

 

[whs]

1. In the event viewer events 101 it tells you which processes are holding things up. But there is apparently nothing in particular that jumps out.

2. For a test, disable all startup programs. You really only need the AV program to start. All the others can stay disabled - unless you have some you started yourself like gadgets (sidebar) or a dock.

 

[chamlin]

Golden, any chance of providing a next step?

 

[Golden]

Sorry, I'm struggling with this problem.

Summary:

1. SSD alignment = OK
2. Firmware = N/A
3. Minimal StartUp = tested

We really need a boot trace, but our expert that deciphers those hasn't been here for 6 months. Lets try the next best thing:

Download Soluto (you will need to register) and get it to run and analyse the system startup times - don't apply any recommended fixes, just get the analysis and post here.

Download Soluto 1.3.1323.0 - FileHippo.com

 

[chamlin]

Golden, I don't expect you to know any/all of this or to solve it. I am just very grateful for the guidance in seeing if we can resolve it. You're doing a great job!

Think I did this right???

 

[chamlin]

Clearly, biggest hogs, Emsisoft, Crashplan, two essential items.

 

[whs]

Did you ever make a test with ALL startups disabled - and what did that yield.