XP User Logon Slow

[granddemon]

I have done a search of this forum and google for slow XP logons and found a lot of information. None of it applies to me, however.

Whenever I log on to my computer (it is a local account, there is no domains setup or anything) it takes about 2-3 minutes after entering the password before it even goes to the desktop. The weird thing is when I let it sit at the XP welcome screen and don't login to anything for about 3 minutes, and then go to logon to my account, it goes right in. I suspected then that is was something loading with the computer, and giving it that three minutes let it load. The only thing is that I recently made a clean account to test it, and if I go into that it just goes straight in, even if I don't wait at the welcome screen. I then suspected it was something loading with my user account, but HKCU and Startup (User) is blank on both accounts, yet the one is faster than the other.

What could cause an account to get slow logging in like this? I have a pretty typical home user setup... using a static 192.168.1.x IP to connect to my router, and all of those network settings are correct (that is what most of the other posts on the forum had problems with... network or domain settings). It has to be something with my user account, but I just can't figure out what it could be. Any input on what this could be would be greatly appreciated... Thanks infinitely in advance,

Grand Demon

 

[linney]

Check in your Event viewer for any clues.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

Take any event error I.D. number and search for it on these sites.
.

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

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr.../prodtechnol/winxppro/support/EE_winxppro.asp

816873 - Windows XP Welcome Screen Appears to Stop Responding (Hang) During Logon

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;816873&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

329457 - Computer Seems to Hang When You Log On

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329457&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP (Q310560)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q310/5/60.asp

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

Removing adware & spyware
Before Posting a Hijack log file - Best Practices
faq608-4650

Try Safe Mode (Do you have this problem in Safe Mode?).

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.


811151 - How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

Error Message: Windows Cannot Load Your Profile Because It May Be Corrupted (Q318011)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q318/0/11.asp

 

[markdmac]

Another thing you can do is to click Start, Run. Type Prefetch and click OK. Delete everything in that folder. (it rebuilds dynamically).

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[granddemon]

Thanks for the quick response! I will try all of this when I get home from work and let you know any results.

 

[minxca]

Try download and install bootvis

 

[granddemon]

There were no errors or warnings in Event Viewer in either System or Applications pertaining to my recent login (which was indeed slow).

816873 doesn't apply to me as I have no network devices mapped. I tried to "Disconnect Network Drives" in My Computer's Tool menu before posting this topic (as I saw network drives not resolving at login time was a common problem), and it says there are no network drives to
disconnect.

329457 doesn't apply as I am not involved in domain logons.

I know for a fact that I have no spyware or adware. I run Ad-Aware, Spybot, and MS Antispyware at least three times a week, and use Firefox as my browser. I also have up-to-date McAffe virus descriptions and run a full system scan around once or twice a month.

Chkdsk found no disk errors and did not improve performance at all. Clearing prefetch also did not make any difference. Running Sfc /Scannow did not come up with any errors.

Logging into my account with safe mode does not make a difference; it still takes very long to get into the account. I copied my user profile to the alternate account that logs in quickly by following 811151. The account, even with my slow user's profile, still logs in quickly. That basically means that my profile is not the problem. The
fact that the problem persists in Safe mode means nothing that is starting up, services or otherwise, are affecting the login.

Using the sigverif tool to find unsigned drivers, it seems the majority of my drivers are unsigned. I figure this cannot be a cause of the problem because it should be a system-wide effect, no? If you want to see the log of the tool, I'll post it, though I don't believe it has anything to do with this.

Any other ideas?

It may be important to note that when I updated from Windows SP1 to SP2, the slow logon temporarily went away (I have been having this problem for quite a long time). It came back shortly, however. I don't know what the SP2 install may do that would affect the speed of logins, but that could produce a solution...

Grand Demon

 

[cmeagan656]

What anti-virus are you running?

With CA eTrust Antivirus I had to exempt winlogon.exe from being scanned.

Our delay wasn't as long as yours though, only about 40 seconds. But when a user was logging on everyone else's TS session froze for the 40 seconds as well. Neeedless to say that didn't cut it between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning.

Cheers.

 

[linney]

A point on the sigverif tool, you should limit its search to the System32 or System32/drivers folder, otherwise it will produce a large list of results.


" I copied my user profile to the alternate account that logs in quickly by following 811151. The account, even with my slow user's profile, still logs in quickly. That basically means that my profile is not the problem."

To my way of thinking if this has fixed the slow logon then there is something wrong with your profile. If you have a copy of all your username data why not delete your old profile and go forward with the new profile?

As far as virus scans and the like are concerned, these threads are sprinkled with people who were surprised to see a second opinion by a different virus scanner finding things missed by their own virus scanner. Believe me it is a common occurrence.

Try a second opinion by one of the online scanners linked to in this thread.

Removing adware & spyware
faq608-4650

 

[cmeagan656]

An addendum to my post above.

Our problem was also occurring mainly on W2K3 terminal services, although I did have one XP Pro workstation where it was happening and excempting winlogon.exe resolved the issue with that workstation as well.

Cheers.

 

[granddemon]

To my way of thinking if this has fixed the slow logon then there is something wrong with your profile. If you have a copy of all your username data why not delete your old profile and go forward with the new profile?"

Wow... I don't know where my head was when I said something must not be wrong with my profile. I really don't want to migrate to the new account because I don't trust the copy process... I had to do a lot of extraneous things to copy the entire directory, as some files simply wouldn't go over. An example is in Home folder/Application Data/SecuROM/Userdata there were two files with abnormal names that wouldn't copy. Anyways, now that I am aware of the problem... my user profile... I am going to take a different approach. I'm going to create a clean user and copy their profile to my account, but leaving my actual files such as Desktop, My Documents, etc. in tact. There are also some select settings that I will want to keep, such as Mozilla Firefox's settings. I will report back with my success or lack thereof.

As for the anti-virus thing, I am using McAffe antivirus. I will move into the solutions you suggested if the above does not work.

 

[granddemon]

OK, it appears that you were right. There's no way I'm fixing this unless I move to another account. It must be that NTUSER.dat file that is messed up in this case. But at least I got a good cleaning by going through Application Data and the other folders. It's amazing the things uninstallers leave behind! Anyways, I'm going to migrate to a new account now... should all go well, if my suspicions are correct.

 

[granddemon]

I moved the account over. There are a few bugs, but nothing I can't iron out. What I am most concerned with, however, if only for cosmetic reasons, is the My Documents folder. That is only shown if you are the first user (the one created with WinXP setup), and not a second account. So, my new account says Granddemon's Documents instead of My Documents in my home folder... I don't really like this. Is there any way to change this without killing everything? Or is there any way to convince XP the account you are in is the original admin account?

 

[linney]

What user account were you in when you created this (your) new user profile? Were you in the dodgy user profile?

How to Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310147&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

322014 - HOW TO: Change the Default Location of User Profiles and Program Settings

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;322014&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

236621 - Cannot Move or Rename the Documents and Settings Folder

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;236621&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[granddemon]

Nevermind about what I asked. When I rebooted my computer, it set my current account's Documents folder to "My Documents". That's strange, but it does what I want now. The login is extremely fast. I can get from the computer not on at all to my desktop in under 30 seconds... the way it should be on my quick computer.

Thanks for all the help! I'm going to be keeping the old account around for about a week in case I need something from it, then it's going to Hell ;-)

 

[jstuer]

After putting in your password, try hitting ctrl+alt+del see if that speeds things up. I have the same problem.