Solved Windows 7 Ultimate Boot

[Scottyboy99]

Hi,

I find my boot into Windows 7 Ultimate (SP1) Alienware laptop is quite slow. Granted I don't have an SSD, my hard drive is a single 750 gig 7,200 drive but it still alarms me. From cold boot to login screen is quite quick (25 secs) but when I login the 'welcome' screen lingers from between 20 and 35 secs. Once the desktop finally shows everything then proceeds to load pretty quick and become usable & the laptop is blazing quick. It's not as if it's hanging at the welcome screen due to no activity or timing out because I can see that there is hard disk activity.

If I wait a while before logging in (say about 25 secs) then the welcome screen passes much quicker. Checking the event log tends to give an overall boot time average of 120 seconds. I know all about the various quirks, such as the solid colour background bug (which doesn't apply as I use my own jpeg) & have downloaded a couple of hotfixes associated with boot time improvement. However nothing makes a difference. I tried a cold boot disabling all start up programs and all non microsoft services and it was no different. However, Safe mode does boot in much quicker.

I have even tried Soluto (which is a good way of trimming start up programs). What is clear to me from this is 3rd party programs are not the problem. I think it's the Microsoft services slowing things down. There are about 50-60 of them running at start up & they take up probably 90% of the boot time. Now I know it's fine to try and disable 3rd party stuff but disabling MS services seems like a bad idea especially as I use a home network (I have no domains) set up. It's unclear what services are critical or not. Is it the nature of Windows 7 Ultimate to be a bit of a slow booter? As far as I know my laptop has always been this way from the minute I received it from Alienware. I'm sure people with netbooks have a faster boot than me! Although they do prob run 7 home rather than 7 ultimate. My wife's laptop running 7 home is similar slow & this is a dell laptop. Seeing as Dell & Alienware are one and the same maybe it is down to their design and the included stock HDD is a bit sub par.

I thought Windows 7 should be a bit faster at boot. My Vista Home Premium laptop doesn't have the Welcome screen delay. Although looking at the event log it clocks a similar overall boot time of about 120 secs. Do I have an issue with my machine?

Many thanks,
Wayne

 

[seavixen32]

Plenty of good advice from Microsoft here:

Optimize Windows 7 for better performance

 

[speedgamer01]

What if you would disable paging files on the hdd?

 

[Golden]

Hi,

There might be a variety of reasons for slow bootup, but I wouldn't tinker with any services at this stage. I would also certainly not mess with page files either - this isn't the cause of a slow boot.

The best thing to do is post a list of your startup programs here so we can have a look at this for you. What anti-virus software/services do you have running at the moment? Are they the same on your wife's laptop and your PC?

Regards,
Golden

 

[Scottyboy99]

Hi Golden,

Many thanks for the reply. We both use McAfee. Unfortunately I have posted this whilst away from home so cannot provide a list yet. I would naturally blame McAfee but seeing as I still have the slight delay doing a clean boot makes me think it is not to blame?

Thanks,
Wayne

 

[Golden]

Hi Wayne,

What do you mean by clean boot? Do you mean you have tried uninstalling McAfee and then rebooting?

Regards,
Golden

EDIT: I'll ask cluberti if he has some time to look at this for you - he is one of the best in the business. He will probably ask you to downlaod and install a set of tools to generate a file that he can analyse in detail.

In the meantime, can you follow this tutorial to load your hardware specifications as he might need that:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

 

[Corazon]

Even if you start with a minimal set of startup entries, there are other ways for services and drivers installed by 3rd-party software to start up with the system even when not needed. However that's not likely to cause the long boot times you're experiencing.

It could even be superfluous tasks in Task Scheduler that are set to run at boot time (or at user login) but aren't really necessary.

When was the last time you defragged your HD? I could imagine that Superfetch/Prefetch have trouble keeping up if there's too much fragmentation around.

McAfee is another possible candidate...if you haven't disabled/uninstalled it, maybe it's a good idea to try. I know other forum members will be happy to recommend other security software such as Microsoft Security Essentials to you, so that's probably the best thing to try for now.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Hi all,

Again thanks for the responses. What I mean by clean boot is I went into Msconfig and disabled all start up items and then disabled all services apart from the Microsoft ones. So I'd imagine doing this squashed McAfee unless it still manages to squeeze processes in despite the clean boot. But yes, I would really appreciate it if Cluberti can help me out. I will ensure I am ready with the requisite file with regards hardware specs.

I'll check task scheduler and the defrag (although I already did that and am 100% defragmented). Maybe McAfee is the culprit. Just sods law that I am paid up on another years subscription (did an 18 month tenure when I first got the machine).

Many thanks,
Wayne

 

[Golden]

Hi,

I've dropped cluberti a message so look out for his reply here.

You might try uninstall McAfee and see if that helps - I had a similar problem (with Norton) and cluberti helped track that down for me.

Regards,
Golden

 

[gregrocker]

MucAfee is the worst bloatware AV of all, causing problems we solve here regularly by having users replace it with MSE or Avast6 freeware. That would be the first suspect.

If you are that tuned into the performance of your PC then you should do what most tech enthusiasts do and clean reinstall Win7 in it's lean native state without the factory preinstalled bloatware which weighs it down: Reinstalling Windows 7

Until then you can use these tips to clean up a factory preinstall: Clean up factory bloatware

 

[cluberti]

If you're feeling adventurous, get a startup trace using my tutorial:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...up-shutdown-sleep-hibernate-reboot-trace.html

 

[panais]

McAfee is the worst bloatware AV of all, causing problems we solve here regularly by having users replace it with MSE or Avast6 freeware. That would be the first suspect.

If you are that tuned into the performance of your PC then you should do what most tech enthusiasts do and clean reinstall Win7 in it's lean native state without the factory preinstalled bloatware which weighs it down: Reinstalling Windows 7

Until then you can use these tips to clean up a factory preinstall: Clean up factory bloatware

 

[Scottyboy99]

Many thanks for the guide. I will try and run this in the next couple of days and upload the file. I do see what everyone is saying about McAfee. Only thing that makes me think it is not to blame is because doing a clean boot where all start up items are disabled & all services apart from Microsoft ones are stopped still yields same 'Welcome' screen lag.

Also on my other laptop running Vista it also has McAfee & does not exhibit the same 20 - 30 second delay on the welcome screen. I'm thinking it's the Microsoft services. There seem to be so many of them running. Hopefully the start up trace will shed some light.

Cheers,
Wayne

 

[gregrocker]

The trace will determine it with certainty, Cluberti will help you analyze it if needed.

One interim measure is to clean up the drive using CCleaner Disk and Registry tabs, then defrag using Puran's Boot Time defrag which can defrag System Files since they aren't running at boot. I would also engage Puran's Intelligent Optimizer on the Advanced options tab so it moves most-used files to the outside edge of the HD for faster reads.
CCleaner - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com
Puran Defrag Free Edition - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

 

[DeaconFrost]

Mcafee, as noted, is junk and always causes a slow down on any system I see it installed on.

What if you would disable paging files on the hdd?

Not a good idea, unless you are a fan of instability.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Bsod

Hi guys

Please help. I ran through the tutorial but now I cannot boot at all. It keeps giving the blue screen of death. It's an endless loop full of varying errors but I cannot get out of it. Start up repair will not work at all. It runs through but after about 10 mins does not seem to fix anything.

Thanks
Wayne

 

[gregrocker]

What tutorial were you following and at what step did it stop booting?

The first step with unbootable Win7 needs to be to check for infection even if it isn't indicated. Try booting into Safe Mode with Networking to install, update and run a full scan with Malwarebytes.

If no Safe Mode, download, burn to CD or write to flash stick, boot and run a full scan with Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper

Try tapping the F8 key at boot to access Advanced Boot Options then select Last Known Good Config, reboot to see what happens.

Boot into System Recovery Options preferably on the Win7 DVD or Repair CD to see if it finds an installation to Repair, then click through to Recovery Tools list to try System Restore.

If this fails, boot back in to run Startup Repair but this time let it run as long as it wants, sometimes several hours. You may even need to run it several times.

You can copy out your files using DVD or REpair CD: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console, or use Paragon Rescue CD.

Try running Dell Diagnostics from its partition by tapping the F-key given on first screen after boot. http://techtips.salon.com/run-dell-diagnostics-2649.html

Next test the RAM - Test with Memtest86+ CD for 5-6 passes or overnight, followed by maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.

Then as a last resort run Dell Factory Recovery from its partition: Dell Restoring Your Computer´s Software to the Factory Setting or use Recovery Disks you have or order.

Or use or find a Win7 installation DVD to clean reinstall using the Product Key on COA sticker following these steps to get a Perfect Reinstall.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Thanks man, you are a star. System restore saved me. It blue screened after system rebooted following execution of the elevated command prompt.

 

[cluberti]

If running the command causes a BSOD, re-run the command (after booting back into "Last Known Good" or going through a restore process via System Restore), and omit the "+DRIVERS". This can cause problems with specific drivers in specific situations where one of the function calls for gathering driver data gets confused and causes a crash (and it'll keep crashing until you boot to F8 and select "Last Known Good" or do a system restore...) If you re-run the command without +DRIVERS, it will work without causing a BSOD.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Cheers Cluberti. Will try this again omitting the drivers in the next few days. I appreciate all the help from all you guys on here.

Thanks,
Wayne