Solved welcome screen ~50 sec load - minimal startup/services

[ottomobile]

Hey guys,

Im experienced a very slow welcome screen after restarts, averaging 50 seconds.

I have tried a few things so far to fix this but not luck

Heres what i have tried:

1. Clean boot
- welcome screen took 45 sec
2. safe mode boot
- welcome screen takes 35 sec

Here are my startup programs
- IDT pc audio
- alps pointing device
- microsoft security
- f.lux
- IAstorIcon
- Microsoft office onenote
- xps2onenote

Services on boot:
- Andrea ST filter service
- Apple mobile device
- intel Rapid storage technology
- audio service

Once the welcome screen disappears load time for the desktop seems to be around 25-30 seconds.

Event Viewer information:
- My last 2 boots clock in at 111 sec and 106 sec
- Both are classified as errors
- Ive removed any programs that give warnings with significant degradation time on startup

Within the last 24 hrs ive run:
- Disk defrag
- Disk cleanup
- MSE full scan
- Malwarebytes full scan
- CCleaner

Finally I have downloaded autoruns to investigate the problem but i have no idea what to look for with the program.

Thanks for any help

edit: wanted to add that after I log off and log back in the welcome screen shows up for about 1.5 seconds

Edit 2: Problem was solved by running chkdsk. Welcome screen now shows for about 12 seconds with a total start time of ~60sec (from event viewer).

I now know i have a hard drive issue as it failed the seatools tests. Are there any programs (similar to chkdsk) that can fix hard drive problems?

Thanks

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hiyya and welcome ottomobile mate would be nice to know your set up but in any case try Brinks tutorial on optimising. I find it on average speeds up the system by 20 - 25%. Plus check to see if your BIOS has a quick boot too.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html?filter[2]=Performance Maintenance

 

[ottomobile]

Thanks for the link. I took a quick look and it seems that most of those tips are for speeding up the computer during normal run time (maybe i missed something). My computer responds fairly fast to everyday tasks but the welcome screen loading confuses me. The only other mention of a slow welcome screen problem had to do with having a solid color background (which i dont have).

Just out of curiosity, what is the average time the welcome screen should appear?

I did a clean install of windows 7 about 2 months ago (followed instructions from this website) and for a while after that it never took longer than 5-10 seconds.

Also I just looked into the quick boot option and it is enabled.

- Just wanted to add that im going through your link and making a few changes. I will report back any changes to the welcome screen loading

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok mate just what are your system specs - briefly CPU speed GB and speed of RAM ?SSD etc

My Sandy Bridge build (Giga board) is about a 30sec to login with a SSD as first boot device - is yours set to boot from HDD or CD check your BIOS.

My tester machine has an Intel board and is much slower at 50 -55 secs with a SSD as primary boot but it does have DDR2 RAM and the Intel post is excruciatingly long which is what your problem sounds like.

Plus I suppose it does really depend on the start up in msconfig I only have the OS and security set in the start up section and have all four cores in the advanced section of Boot.

As a tip I have added regedit / msconfig / and command prompt to my quick start up list - makes for a lot of less typing. Type it in the start box right click on the show window and click pin to the quick start list. I'd show you a snip but it doesn't like being snipped LOL!! Oh the command prompt of course is in Accessories!

 

[ottomobile]

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 @ 2.50Ghz
Memory 4.0Gb DDR2 667mhz
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
hd - Western digital 320gb (212gb free) 5400rpm

Internal HDD is the primary boot option and i have 2 cores set in the advanced section of Boot

Are those boot times you listed from cold to desktop? Or are they strictly when the Welcome screen shows up after password entry to when the desktop first appears? (that was the section of boot that was taking 50 seconds for me)

Thanks!

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well the RAM and slow HDD would probably have a some bearing on the problem otto.

Now I should have asked the machine specs especially the board / chipset mate your CPU seems to more than capable it is just the RAM and HDD speeds I think could e improved on if the board will take it. The CPU does have a 64bit instruction set and a front bus of 800MHz.

Now you can run and keep for reference this alittle app that will give yo all the info on your machine so can you post back with that info. It will also give you licence numbers activation codes etc so very andy to keep. It is free and takes no time at all to download and run.
Speccy - Download < click on the piriform one - keep your eyes out for any annoying ads for search bars etc - they are a pain to get rid of if you download them.

My machines all boot to the login screen mate I never have the set to straight to desktop. Partly because the SSD's "clean themselves" if left at login for a while - the do not need defragging i fact it wears them out faster. But I like t that way for security purposes.

 

[ottomobile]

ok i have attached a file with my comp stats taken from speccy. Looks like a sweet program, i usually struggle trying to find out some of that info.

So the times you quoted on startup were just from cold to the login screen? My time for that is comparable. I average about 30-40 seconds from completely off to login screen. Any idea how long it takes once you input a password until the desktop FIRST shows up (before things start to load)? (Ill refer to this section of the boot as the welcome screen)

Before i did a clean reinstall of the OS and for a short time afterwards i know that the welcome screen section only took a few seconds MAX. Now, out of now where its taking about 50 secs. So I know my system is capable of loading it much faster but something must have gone wrong within the last couple weeks.

Edit: i will repost the file soon but i realized i was posting a lot of activation key information

 

[ottomobile]

Here is the motherboard information:

Motherboard
Manufacturer Dell Inc.
Chipset Vendor Intel
Chipset Model PM965
Chipset Revision C0
Southbridge Vendor Intel
Southbridge Model 82801HBM (ICH8-ME)
Southbridge Revision B0
System Temperature 50 °C
BIOS
Brand Dell Inc.
Version A12
Date 11/19/2008
PCI Data
Slot UNKNOWN
Slot Type UNKNOWN
Slot Usage Available
Bus Width 32 bit
Slot Designation PCMCIA 0
Slot Number 0

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ah I see otto yes mate the login to desktop on mine is about 12secs maybe quicker I have only ever checked the power on to login.

Now the board can only take 667MHz RAM so at DDR rates that is double data reads it is running at 333MHz whereas my 1333MHz runs at something like 669MHz. The HDD like I aid is what is considered a slow reader by todays standards at 5400rpm the usual HDD for a desky now is 72000RPM and the real fast ones I think are 10000rpm.

The problem is that you are getting substantially slower speeds than you were before and I am now wondering if your HDD is getting a bit long in the tooth or the RAM is somehow degrading - unusual but possible.

Two more tests you can try are memtest and use the Seatools for the HDD

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

SeaTools | Seagate < choose the OS and download the tool and run. Once ready it will let you pick the drive and just select what test you want form the Basic test list you want I choose short generic to start with - doesn't take long.

Another tool is the mini tool Partition Wizard which allows you to run a surface (physical) test of the drive and is invaluable when you want to do things with partitions name create format etc etc
Partition Manager Server, server partition manager and partition magic server for Windows Server 2000/2003/2008. Server Partition software for Windows Server and None-Server partitions < get the freeware version.

If all this turns up nothing then maybe a clean install would be the way to go. Did you do a disk prep before you clean installed? if not if you do this again then do the install follow the first page of this tutorial to make sure the disk / drive is ready http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html you should have all USB drives removed to save confusion and it should only shwo your HDD as say disk 0 or 1

But try the Seatools first then the memtest - remember it will take some time as it makes several passes over the RAM to check if they are holding up.Any errors of course just replace mate.

 

[ottomobile]

Awesome, thanks again for the help. Ill try and post the results as soon as I can (most likely a day or two)

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Awesome, thanks again for the help. Ill try and post the results as soon as I can (most likely a day or two)

No probs otto it will take some time mate and once you get used to using these apps and that diskpart stuff it makes for some real easy computing my friend. There are a few other really useful ones but those will keep you at it for a while LOL!!

But please let us know how you get on.

Oh don't forget to add the msconfig and stuff to your quick start list mate it will save you a lot of time.

 

[01101001]

I wonder if this MS article might be relevant to your situation?

The Welcome screen may be displayed for 30 seconds during the logon process after you set a solid color as the desktop background in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

 

[ottomobile]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have managed to solve the issue.

For now I WONT mark this solved because I would still love some advice from you guys.

I ran the seatools for windows program and my hard drive failed all the tests. So I saw somewhere that running the chkdsk program would be a good idea. I let it search and repair bad sectors and now the welcome screen struggle has gone from 50 seconds to 12 seconds.

My total boot time (according to windows event viewer) has been hovering around 60 seconds (from cold to fully loaded desktop).

Very happy about this, thanks again for the help guys.

So my only concern now is that obviously there is something wrong with my harddrive. As it still fails the tests in seatools. Aside from buying a new one, are there any programs (like chkdsk) that can repair hard drives in any way?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hiyya otto well mate as Seatools is coming with a faulty drive mate I reckon (depending on your budget of course) a new drive would be the go and if you usage is reasonably small a SSD mate (you can always use an external for super loads of data anyway.
If you do go a SSD then refer back to that tutorial I mentioned re the DISKPART method tutorial to set one up.
Many good brands around - personally I like the Samsung 830 & Crucial M4 and the prices are getting quite reasonable now and in Oz are not much more than a plain 2.5" HDD.

By the way did you run a surface test with the Partition Wizard it will test the surface of the physical disk if that comes up with any problems then well it is a no brainer eh?

With defrag and other drive wiping apps I am with some of the pro's in here and still lie to use the Windows system to that as several have told me that Windows likes to have files and folders for that matter in the order that it is meant to be and to me that makes sense.

I did not mention chkdsk by the way as well I stupidly thought perhaps you might have known about that one - sorry my friend.

Still am glad it has turned out so well for you. By the same token it maybe a timely thing for you to keep half an eye on your hard drives health.

 

[ottomobile]

Hey,

So I ran the partition wizard and it came up with 4 errors. Im assuming these errors are bad sectors. Not super clear what that test looks for though. Anyways, i ran chkdsk again and it added 6 clusters to the bad sector list.

I think an SSD is out of my price range right now but im considering a new HDD. Im going to wait and see how mine works for the next little while. If my startup times maintain then I should be good for a bit.

I think im gonna run the memtest just for fun in the next while and see what happens

Once again, thanks for your help. Im sure I never would have suspected a hard drive problem if you didnt suggest trying seatools

 

[ICIT2LOL]

No probs otto glad I could have been of some assistance mate.

Those bad sectors if they were in the surface test maybe a manufacturing flaw perhaps?

Now SSD's are reasonably expensive mate my last Samsung 120GB ws $105 out here ans we usually pay more than elsewhere. It is good to keep as the boot drive as it is so quick but if you are going for an HDD then I would personally stick to a slightly smaller one like 500GB one again I prefer Seagate "Blue" Barracuda's out here $65. My reasoning is that get a 1TB an it goes bung - expensive to replace get two 500GB and clone the installed one to the spare and if No1 goes byes byes then slap the clone straight in - up and running minus a few updates perhaps but thats just me others don't like my method but that's just me LOL!!

Now the chkdsk if you look at the tutorial you can specify to correct errors by
chkdsk /f

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html < Brink is brilliant mate
John the Screwloose

Hey don't forget to let us know re the memtest! if you can leave it overnight it can get a whole lot of passes in.