Windows starts very slowly, when it starts

[accordeoniste]

I was trying to remove Windows Defender this morning as I'm running MS Security Essentials. I thought the two programs might be conflicting with each other. MsMpEng.exe was using over 260K of physical RAM which I thought was excessive. At one point I suspended the MsMpEng.exe process while in Resource Monitor. My system immediately crashed. After rebooting, I discovered that I couldn't start Windows (7) again.

Thinking that I damaged one or more critical system files when I suspended MsMpEng.exe, I booted to Safe Mode with networking and restored Windows using a system restore point from yesterday. I was able to log into my user account after the system restored. Everything worked fine. However, my relief was short-lived: I wasn't able to log in again to my user account after re-booting without waiting fifteen minutes or longer. There are no earlier restore points I can use. Starting with the last known good configuration didn't work. I tried rebooting and running Startup repair. That didn't work either. The message it gave was that my problem booting was probably due to a change in configuration.

Shortly before the crash I ran Malware Anti-Malware Bytes and AdwCleaner. All instances of malware and adware were removed. After the crash I ran MS Security Essentials. No viruses were found.

Please advise if I need to upload a system configuration file, and if so, what program I can use to capture it to a file. I haven't done this for a while since before today, my system has been running smoothly, so please bear with me. I'd much appreciate any help. I'll do a repair installation but only if absolutely necessary. I'm typing this from within Windows in Normal mode.

 

[event3horizon]

Well you can't really 'remove' windows defender per se, but you can disable it. Also, windows defender is not an antivirus, but anti spyware. Essentials is anti virus.

1) open windows defender

2) Click Tools, and then click Options.

3) Click Administrator, select or clear the Use this program check box, and then click Save. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

also uninstall essentials after this. See if there's any improvement.

 

[accordeoniste]

Well you can't really 'remove' windows defender per se, but you can disable it. Also, windows defender is not an antivirus, but anti spyware. Essentials is anti virus.

1) open windows defender

2) Click Tools, and then click Options.

3) Click Administrator, select or clear the Use this program check box, and then click Save. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

also uninstall essentials after this. See if there's any improvement.

I tried this and saw no improvement, so I reinstalled MS Sec Essentials and disabled Win Defender.

I see that Essentials is also a malware program per the license terms. I've also run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware lately. Could there have been a conflict when I ran it, since Essentials was running in the background?

Next I'll run sfc / scannow and report the results here.

If that doesn't work I'll run a full scan using Essentials in Safe Mode, and report the results.

Please send other suggestions if you think of any.

 

[torchwood]

Hi,
Can you post a copy of your startup files.
Controlpanel>Admintools>systemConfig>boot/services(check hide MS) and startup.

Roy

 

[event3horizon]

I highly doubt terminating a processes would damage anything. It's looking more coincidental at this point. Try creating and logging into a newly created windows profile and see if you experience the slowness.

The primary problem you are having is slow logging into your profile or pc startup time in general??

 

[whs]

You may want to check out Soluto.. And here is some more detail: What's the Best Startup Manager for Windows?

 

[torchwood]

He said it was taking 15 mins to boot, thats why i asked for those SS's, even before login, read posts.

Roy

 

[Layback Bear]

Your specs show this.

GoFlex External 1 TB
Antivirus Advanced System Care
Browser MS IE, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari

Please explain Advanced System Care by IObits.

 

[accordeoniste]

Now I need help just getting my system running again. After last posting to this forum, I rebooted again to test a boot option in msconfig. I planned to upload the boot/services/startup copy here. I didn't have the chance. My Registry was reported as being corrupt and I can no longer boot. Startup Repair reported the corruption but could do nothing to fix it.

I have the Win 7 recovery disks I made when I purchased the computer. It didn't come with the Win installation disk. I also have two Win x64 images I made last year so that I could do a repair installation. I want to replace my corrupt registry with one that isn't corrupt, but I don't know where to find one on the three recovery disks. I don't think I have a backup on my system. I think it's premature to do a repair install. I don't know if I can do it anyway. I can't even log into Safe mode.

Again, any suggestions for how I can get up and running again will be very much appreciated.

I'm writing this on my iPOD.

 

[torchwood]

Have a look at this HP link,

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...867418&usg=AFQjCNEPQ6OR3HbXtONU6civRGg8c_1lkA

Roy

 

[Layback Bear]

If you have ever used Advanced System Care by IObit on this system I recommend completing this tutorial by Brink.
It will save you a ton of work and headaches.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

If you have a method of getting your system back to the way it was when you first got it, (Factory Recovery) that should work also.

 

[accordeoniste]

Torchwood, thanks for the HP link, but I'd rather repair my system some other way than by using HP's recovery program. The last time I used it after my system crashed I lost more than half my data files because HP's backup program was defective. I'm referring to the one that's part of the Recovery program. Can I simply replace the corrupt registry file from my recovery disks, or do I need a Win installation CD? Will a repair install work?

 

[accordeoniste]

Layback bear, I'm not interested in doing a clean Windows install. I want to keep my data. Thanks anyway.

 

[Layback Bear]

You could if you desire back up your data to a external drive and then do a Clean Install.

The reason I didn't recommend a Repair Install is because I don't know if it will repair all the damage that IObit products do.

Using a Factory Recovery will also require you to backup your data to a external drive for safe keeping.

 

[accordeoniste]

Does Windows offer a way to replace a corrupted registry without having to do a clean install? I understand a repair install isn't possible outside Win 7. I'm trying to avoid having to copy all those files to an external HD and then re-install them. The HP recovery program is inadequate.

 

[whs]

When the registry is corrupted, that's pretty much the end of the line.

 

[event3horizon]

He said it was taking 15 mins to boot, thats why i asked for those SS's, even before login, read posts.

Roy

I'm guessing that was directed to me. If you have a problem with me asking questions, we can take it outside.

 

[accordeoniste]

When the registry is corrupted, that's pretty much the end of the line.

You're right, it was. I hired a computer consultant who identified the problem as a failing boot drive. I brought my notebook to him, he backed up all my files, ordered a replacement HD, made a backup image with which he restored all the files to the new HD, and reinstalled Win 7 Pro. After getting the old HD back, I temporarily replaced the new one with the old one and ran chkdsk /f on the old one. Everything looked okay until I saw index entries being repeated or updated in an unending loop. Then I knew it was time to quit that exercise. Additionally, the long HD diagnostic test in my computer's BIOS stopped while testing the HD.

Before bringing the system in for repair, and while in recovery mode at the command prompt, I copied the contents of c:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack to c:\Windows\System32\config. That accomplished nothing as the registry restore files in RegBack were too recent. Only after having the computer repaired did I notice a backed-up registry from 2013 among the restored files. I don't yet know how I could've used this to repair the system and restart Windows. Would it have been possible to, by restoring that backup?

The system runs fine now that Windows has been reinstalled. Does anyone have a suggestion for the best program for creating a recovery backup image? Is it Macrium Reflect or Acronis?

 

[whs]

I prefer Macrium. But that may be just me.