slow startup / frozen taskbar

[CraigMan]

I'm running Windows XP SP2 Home edition.

I've been working on this problem on and off for several weeks:

The boot process works fine to a point. I get a fully functional desktop. However, the taskbar hangs for a minimum of 15 minutes. The Start button is not functional and neither is right click for taskbar properties. Most times I get the hourglass when I hover over the taskbar. Sometimes I retain the arrow cursor - but the taskbar still hangs up.

There is very little that I haven't done - sfc /scannnow, Windows repair installation, ashampoo startup tuner, ccleaner, dial-a-fix, BootLog XP, uninstalled unused programs, removed all but TCP/IP on network connections, uninstalled ? and x devices in device manager, etc. All of these solutions really improved my startup time and improved operating performance. In fact, there are nothing but info messages in my event viewer.

However, the 15-minute wait for the taskbar to come to life remains!

Any ideas from the heavy hittere?





Craig Meyers, BSNucE, PE

 

[linney]

iandoreeninvan,

When checking the Event Viewer, basically all you can do is investigate any error or warning messages and attempt to find solutions for them.

I like this site as a starting place for deciphering and solving Event Viewer errors.

http://www.eventid.net/search.asp

Google is handy too.

The PC Decrapifier (originally titled, Introducing the Dell De-Crapifier…)

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

 

[iandoreeninvan]

CraigMan & linney,

ta for the heads up.
i've just spent the weekend reinstalling rules for kerio firewall.

A few more details in case rings a bell somewhere...

1. timing.
Shutting down.
( with a stopwatch)
took 28 secs after last clik to shutdown.

From Boot.
from power on took 50 secs to win Xp logon ( but pc keeps
on without stopping for a few secs ).

after entry of login/pw it took about 1min 15 secs for the 1st icons to appear & by 1 min 45 secs all icons & desktop
were showing.

2. taskbar
i have 7 icons showing on the task bar ( for my convenience)
but i have no idea what - if any - impact that has on
load times. I assume it is not the same/equivalent of having them in the startup folder.

3. i've largely unchecked most of the items
| Msconfig | start programs.
The items are still in the list [ but i hope not activated]

4. i've done a bit of maintenance/backup for a friend with a
JVC digital movie camera. He's been using it for over two
years - overseas trips etc but absolutely no backup. He has
a removable "battery" ? "memory stick"? (i've forgotten).
And he's very much non computer literate.

I downloaded movie info from the camera to my computer, then
found computer couldn't read the video [ as different to
my wife's digital camera which takes jpg's & wmv or whatever).
Apparently, JVC has a proprietary movie format & to decipher / view etc the downloaded video i had to install
whatever software. He wanted particular movies to send to
Sri Lanka in a week's time.

I made the Sri Lanka movie Dvd's & backup dvd's of the raw files.

There were over thirty 4.4 GB movie & Backup data DVD's.

I told him i would give him a chance to check the movies before i deleted the movie data & uninstalled the program - Powerlink cinema Everio ?

Ta agen for your suggestions & i'll have a look over the
next coupla days.

Ian C

incidentally ianDoreenInVan
is short for Ian & Doreen in caraVan ( R.V. for US users)
a hotmail id we use when we're travelling.

 

[linney]

I'm not sure if you are asking a question or not with your last post? But what stood out to me was that all that DVD and Movie conversion work might have made a mess of your drive from a fragmenting aspect, which might be corrected and improve times by running the Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup tools.