Long Delay During Startup; Win Xp

[WebUser]

Compaq 2596US, WinXPHome, SP2

On startup, it gets as far as the DeskTop with Icons showing, then stalls. Mouse works, can left-click Icons and title highlight will change, but hovering mouse over taskbar changes to hourglass. No icons appear in Taskbar and Start button does not respond. (If the Start button is clicked during this time, the Start Menu will appear later as if the button click is held in suspension)

CTRL-ALT-Del brings up Task Manager immediately, but nothing unusual appears there, CPU percentage flucuates below 20%. Using File-New Task, I can start Process Explorer which shows the same as Task Manager -- nothing out of the ordinary and low CPU usage.

Once TaskManager and ProcExplorer are running, their Icons show on the TaskBar with the Clock, but the clock is static holding the time it first appeared, doesn't run until later.

wmiprvse.exe is highlighted in a rust color, but that doesn't appear to be an error. At some point cidaemon.exe comes alive, but still nothing happens. There are three instances of GoogleUpdate (apparently related to GoogleEarth) showing, but no CPU activity on any of them.

About 15 minutes later (yes, minutes), everything will break loose and the system starts normally. Everything works fine from there on until the next StartUp.

All scans (AdAware, SpyBot, AVG, MalwareBytes, MS SE, Avanquest SystemSuite) come up empty, no threats found. I run each individually to double check each other, not simultaneously.

[WebUser]

No ideas?

Running SFC now.

[rushonbye]

No ideas?

Running SFC now.

chkdsk -r

[mudmanc4]

Well yes, how old is the HDD ?

What about the very last program you installed, or the very last download ?

I would also be leery of the RAM, if you have an extra DIMM or two, replace it and see.

Something out of left field, if the system is a bit older or the thermal compound is failing, the CPU temp can cause symptoms like this. Even the same for the video card (assuming it isn't on board ) but it could still fail, and cause issues.

One more thing to check, poor cabling if it's IDE

A few things for you to look for starters .

[WebUser]

Laptop, so no cabling or videocard.

CPU overheat would cause problems while running, no? Runs fine and fairly quick for a 5+ year old notebook once it starts up fully.

I think I ran the chkdsk not too long ago and Smart shows good disk health. HDD was replaced once a few years back.

[mudmanc4]

Ok so you have all but eliminated the hard drive ok.

If you do a little research I think you'll find that as soon as the CPU gets power , it becomes very hot, that second, I'm not saying this is what it is, (the heat sink) just cant rule it out yet.

What about the memory ?

Seriously though, it may be some sort of malware that gets crammed into memory on startup.

CAn you start in safemode (or did I miss that you said that already lol )and do all the scans, and do them with other programs then what you have, too many times as you know, a program will not find something that it should, and then another will.

Or boot from a linux distro cd and find out what you can find out there.

Laptop, so no cabling or videocard.

CPU overheat would cause problems while running, no? Runs fine and fairly quick for a 5+ year old notebook once it starts up fully.

I think I ran the chkdsk not too long ago and Smart shows good disk health. HDD was replaced once a few years back.

[zalternate]

Is there any exclamation marks(during startup) in the Windows error logs?

In Admin tools, Event viewer.

[WebUser]

I'll have to look in the logs. Haven't checked there yet.

It will boot into SafeMode (no significant delay if I remember right), but I haven't run any scans there. I removed AdAware, SpyBot and AVG, installed MS SE, rebooted and ran a scan. Nothing. Then reinstalled new versions of the three. I also installed Avanquest System Suite 10, but later removed it. There are a few artifacts in the registry, but just things like the registration information and CD key.

In all the scans I've run over the years on this notebook, I can't remember ever finding any malware or other 'positives' except the eicore test file ( I think that's what it's called. Fuzzy memory right now).

The notebook does run a bit hotter than I remember after it's been on for an hour or so, but there is nothing obstructing the vents. I keep threatening to open the case, but I hate to get into that. I tend not to remember where everything goes and end up with spare screws.

I'll try pulling and reinserting the RAM when I get a chance later. Machine is not handy right now. Can that be done while in Hibernate? Or does it need a full power down?

[WebUser]

Event Viewer:

System:

Information 04/02/10 22:22:51 Service Control Manager None 7036 Error 04/02/10 22:22:49 Service Control Manager None 7001 The Computer Browser service depends on the Server service which failed to start because of the following error: After starting, the service hung in a start-pending state. Error 04/02/10 22:22:49 Service Control Manager None 7022 The Server service hung on starting. Error 04/02/10 22:08:30 Service Control Manager None 7000 The mrtRate service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the file specified. Error 04/02/10 22:08:30 Service Control Manager None 7000 The LogMeIn Kernel Information Provider service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the path specified. Error 04/02/10 22:08:30 Service Control Manager None 7023 The Human Interface Device Access service terminated with the following error: The specified module could not be found. Information 04/02/10 22:07:26 Tcpip None 4201

Application:

Information 04/02/10 22:22:52 SecurityCenter None 1800 The Windows Security Center Service has started. Information 04/02/10 22:14:31 Ci CI Service 4137 CI has started for catalog c:\system volume information\catalog.wci. Information 04/02/10 22:11:34 LoadPerf None 1000 Performance counters for the WmiApRpl (WmiApRpl) service were loaded successfully. The Record Data contains the new index values assigned to this service. Information 04/02/10 22:11:33 LoadPerf None 1001 Performance counters for the WmiApRpl (WmiApRpl) service were removed successfully. The Record Data contains the new values of the system Last Counter and Last Help registry entries.