Another 'why is my computer doing..." thread - startup delays this time

[Mangetout]

My XP home machine boots up reasonably fast and on selecting the user from the welcome screen, loads the desktop and taskbar quite nicely, plus a couple of the system tray icons, then there's a delay of 30 seconds or more, while nothing much seems to happen, then the floppy drive will give a little whirr, the remaining system tray icons will immediately appear and everything will be fine.

During the delay, IE will not launch at all, Outlook Express will launch, but will be unable to find the POP server (presumably because the internet connection (Ethernet>Cable modem>ISP) hasn't been established at that point).

Some more details:
I've checked the Start>programs>startup folder and there's only one item in there, which is SpamPal - my spam filtering program.
I've checked the various startup stuff in msconfig and there's nothing out of the ordinary there.
Indexing service is enabled, but is only interested in part of the C: drive.
Full scans for spyware and viruses/trojans come up empty-handed.

I'd be tempted to write it off as just some sort of delay associated with assignment of an IP address for the broadband connection, but that little rattle from the floppy drive makes me suspect that there is some program or process that is holding everything up while it is searching for something.

Any ideas?

[GorillaMan]

The floppy rattle suggests that a virus scan is going on....have you got a 'scan at startup' option selected on virus software?

[Mangetout]

I'm using AVG and the only configurable option that looks relevant is the one to check for boot sector viruses, but deselecting this option makes no difference.

I'll try booting without loading AVG at all tonight.

[HugoRed]

When you boot, hold down the Control key until the menu comes up.
Select logged.
The text file bootlog.txt will appear in the root of drive c.
use Bootlog Analyzer (free download) to determine where the delays are.
On mine I had to only select floppy in the cmos setup as a second boot source and it quit.
I was up to nearly 5 minutes per boot.

[Mangetout]

Well, here's a funny thing.

I can't get the boot menu or into the BIOS, as I have a USB keyboard that doesn't spring to life until later on in the boot process.

I tried the /bootlog option in the boot.ini tab of msconfig, but it did not produce a bootlog file.

I've trued booting without the AV software and I still get the delay.

[Eleusis]

I'd be tempted to write it off as just some sort of delay associated with assignment of an IP address for the broadband connection

This could very well be the problem.

My laptop has built in 10/100 NIC and a 1394 port in addition to the wireless PCMCIA card. If I run the network setup wizard, it tends to bridge everything together and treat the 1394 as another network interface. I experience startup delays until I disable the extra stuff I'm not using.

You might look into your network connections and try disabling any connections or bridges that aren't in use and see if that helps.

[Really Not All That Bright]

Can't you borrow a standard keyboard so you can open in logged mode?

[Mangetout]

I'm going to borrow a PS2 keyboad from work today to test the logged mode.

I booted with the network connection (to the cable modem) disabled yesterday and it was indeed faster - the floppy drive still made a little noise, but this was almost immediately after clicking my icon in the welcome screen, so maybe that is just Windows checking for the presence of a drive.

It occurred to me that the problem might lie with ghost network connections; when I was having big trouble with my broadband a couple of months back, the connection would disappear and reappear, sometimes being detected and installed anew by Windows. As a result, the current connection is called 'Network Connection #19' - I can't see them, but I wonder if connections #1 to #18 are still in there somewhere, being checked one startup each time.
A quick browse of the registry seems to confirm this, but reference to network connections #1 to #18 is made in quite a few different places in the registry and I'm reluctant to hack them out manually - is there some way of cleaning up dead connection configurations (they simply aren't visible in the Network Connections dialog.

[Quint Essence]

the most common cause I have found for occassional hangs and otherwise slow or stuttering performance is simply having a dirty (or sometimes just large such as dvd or other multi gigabyte media) cd/dvd in the drive.
Just about every program out there other than games need to access other files so the first thing that happens whether you are just clicking "my computer" or opening paintshop pro is your computer searches your drives.
A dirty or very large disc can slow that considerably and cause a "hang" or pause in your system while the problem is sorted out or a disc is re-read multiple times.

[Mangetout]

An interesting and worthwhile suggestion, Quint Essence; I'm almost certain though that there isn't anything in the removable drives, but I'll certainly check it when I get home tonight.