Very slow Windows 7 RC startup

[ijwcomp]

Hello.

This problem really makes me irritated. My Windows 7 takes like ages. Simply ages to get to the desktop.

Starting the computer is fine. Starting Windows takes about 5 seconds. But after I type my password, the Aero Busy cursor with Welcome just keeps on spinning for ages.

The computer is responding as Num Lock, Caps Lock, Scroll Lock lights an be turned on and off.

After the Welcome screen however, everything is fast and zippy

Computer Specs:

Gigabyte ga-ep45-ds3 Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.33GHz

4GB RAM DDR2 667MHz

nVidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB Graphics Card

640GB Seagate 7200RPM SATA2 HDD

Windows 7 RC x64 Ultimate (Build 7100)

So, it is very unlikely that it is the hardware.

Also, I scan my system with ESET and MBAM everyday, so it is also unlikely that it is a virus infection.

MSConfig Startup items:

ESET Smart Security, HD Audio Control Panel, Realtek Voice Manager, 2x Mediafour MacDrive, AnyDVD, Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Operating System (sidebar.exe), Lightscribe, NetWorx, Adobe CS4 Service Manager, Adobe Acrobat, AcroTray - Adobe Acrobat Distiller helper application, Adobe Version Cue CS4, GrooveMonitor Utility, Java (TM) Platform SE U15, VMWare Workstation, QuickTime, iTunes, PowerMenu, FileBox eXtender

Event Viewer Errors:

5/10/2009 8:05:49 p.m.
Service Control Manager:
The ScRegSetValueExW call failed for Type with the following error: 
Access is denied.

5/10/2009 8:05:51 p.m.
Service Control Manager:
The ScRegSetValueExW call failed for Type with the following error: 
Access is denied.

5/10/2009 8:05:54 p.m.
Service Control Manager:
The ScRegSetValueExW call failed for Type with the following error: 
Access is denied.

6X 5/10/2009 8:06:14 p.m.
atapi:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort4.

5/10/2009 8:09:24 p.m.
Service Control Manager:
A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the Windows Defender service to connect.

The Windows Defender service failed to start due to the following error: 
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

5/10/2009 8:14:45 p.m.
Service Control Manager:
A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service service to connect.

The Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service service failed to start due to the following error: 
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

5/10/2009 8:16:50 p.m.
Service Control Manager:
The Windows Update service hung on starting.

5/10/2009 8:20:10 p.m.
PNRPSvc:
The Peer Name Resolution Protocol cloud did not start because the creation of the default identity failed with error code: 0x80630801.

Service Control Manager:
The Peer Name Resolution Protocol service terminated with the following error: 
%%-2140993535

The Peer Networking Grouping service depends on the Peer Name Resolution Protocol service which failed to start because of the following error: 
%%-2140993535

Thanks

Edited October 5, 2009 by ijwcomp

[bledd]

just format..

this may be bad though..

6X 5/10/2009 8:06:14 p.m.

atapi:

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort4.

[MagicAndre1981]

look at this guide and use the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT) to analyze the boot process:

http://www.msfn.org/board/trace-vista-boot...es-t117154.html

But you have to use the Version 4.6 from WPT, which is now part of the Windows 7 SDK! use the Web installer and select the Win32 Tools to install.

When you finished the trace run the following command:

xperf -i [i]trace.etl[/i] -o summary.xml -a boot

to get an xml with a summary of the boot. Replace trace.etl with the name of your etl File.

Now open the xml file and look for duration. So you can find which part of the boot process takes too much time.

If you're unsure upload it and we will take a look at it.

Edited October 5, 2009 by MagicAndre1981

[ijwcomp]

I got the Windows 7 SDK and installed "Install Windows Performance Tool Kit (x64)"

After that, I have tried:

xbootmgr -trace boot -noPrepReboot -traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER -resultPath C:\TEMP

from the link you gave me.

When I used it however it said:

Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Performance Analyzer Version 4.6.7231
(C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
'-noPrepReboot': This option can only be used with shutdown and rebootCycle traces.
See 'xbootmgr.exe -help' for more information.

So I typed the command without the -noPrepReboot option.

And then it rebooted my system and saved three files in C:\TEMP

boot_BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER_1.cab
boot_BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER_1.etl
xbootmgr.log

After that, I typed this in Command Prompt (Run as Administrator)

xperf -i "C:\TEMP\boot_BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER_1.etl" -o "C:\TEMP\summary.xml" -a boot

It said:

Warning: Applying restriction of access for trace processing 31987 Events were lost in trace. Data may be unreliable. This is usually caused by insufficient disk bandwidth for ETW logging. Please try increasing the minimm and maximum number of buffers and/or the buffer size. Doubling these values would be a good first attempt. Please note, though, that this action increases the amount of memory reserved for ETW buffers, increasing memory pressure on your scenario. See "xperf -help start" for the associated command line options.

Not sure what that meant.

Also, a summary.xml did come up in C:\TEMP but it is 0kb meaning that there's probably nothing inside.

Edited October 6, 2009 by ijwcomp

[MagicAndre1981]

Which size does your pagefile have? Please increase the size and run the trace of the boot again.

[ijwcomp]

Right now, my paging file size is 4094MB which was automatically set by Windows.

I've now set the initial size to 6141MB and the maximum size to 12282MB

EDIT: Ok, that didn't work. Crashed my system. Fortunately I made a system restore before attempting it.

Edited October 6, 2009 by ijwcomp

[cluberti]

Can you put those files somewhere for us to download? Perhaps we'd have better luck with the data...

[ijwcomp]

The system now seems to be starting faster since increasing the pagefile size.

Usually, I start the computer and after eating breakfast it still hasn't loaded but now... it does.

Still done the trace though.

Used: xbootmgr -trace boot -traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER -resultPath C:\TEMP

After the reboot:

xperf -i "C:\TEMP\boot_BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER_1.etl" -o "C:\TEMP\summary.xml" -a

It gave me: summary.xml (121KB)

Attached is the summary.xml file.

MD5: 4D8F7CDB25951B3F4009A8F7E6DDC1F0

summary.xml

Edited October 6, 2009 by ijwcomp

[cluberti]

We're going to need all of the files if you want any real analysis - the xml is nice, but it's hard to use it to say what's actually happening.

[ijwcomp]

This morning when I started my computer, it took a total of 12 minutes starting from the 'Starting Windows'.

However, when I ran the boot trace which restarts my computer, it only took about 4 minutes.

I've uploaded the file to Mediafire - boottrace.rar - MD5: DB33E75DA8A1E6E9C7DD330E883033FB - 71.1MB

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?flwjnnnhjge

It contains:

boot_BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER_1.cab

boot_BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER_1.etl

summary.xml

xbootmgr.log

[MagicAndre1981]

@cluberti

I like the xml. It give you a short overview about all the booting stages and how long it takes.

The MainPathBoot is based on 4 stages

1. PreSMSS Subphase

This take 8 sec for you. During this subphase, the kernel initializes data structures and components. It also starts the PnP manager, which initializes the BOOT_START drivers that were loaded during the OSLoader phase.

2. SMSSInit Subphase

this takes 10sek for you. The SMSSInit subphase begins when the kernel passes control to the session manager process (Smss.exe). During this subphase, the system initializes the registry, loads and starts the devices and drivers that are not marked BOOT_START, and starts the subsystem processes. SMSSInit ends when control is passed to Winlogon.exe.

3. WinLogonInit Subphase

this takes 19 sek for you. The WinLogonInit subphase begins when SMSSInit completes and starts Winlogon.exe. During WinLogonInit, the user logon screen appears, the service control manager starts services, and Group Policy scripts run. WinLogonInit ends when the Explorer process starts.

4. ExplorerInit Subphase

The ExplorerInit subphase begins when Explorer.exe starts. During ExplorerInit, the system creates the desktop window manager (DWM) process, which initializes the desktop and displays it for the first time.

This phase is CPU intensive. The initialization of DWM and desktop occurs in the foreground, while in the background the service control manager (SCM) starts services and the memory manager prefetches code and data. On most systems ExplorerInit is CPU bound, and timing issues are likely the result of a simple resource bottleneck.

This phase takes 14 sec for you.

5. PostExplorerPeriod.

The PostBoot phase includes all background activity that occurs after the desktop is ready. The user can interact with the desktop, but the system might still be starting services, tray icons, and application code in the background. this phase takes 1m27sec.

So here is the first real issue. You are starting too many programs automatically at startup. Run AutoRuns and uncheck all programs that are not needed when you startup your PC.

The key bootDoneViaPostBoot="134792" shown me that you PC needs 2min 11 sec to start.

So, I don't understand why it takes 12 or 30 min if you don't use xperf.

The preSMSS phase is ok, but not very fast.

The SMSSInit has delays maybe because of loading the nvlddmkm.sys (nVidia graphics driver) and RTKVHD64.sys (Realtek HD Audio?).

The WinLogonInit is also a bit long. So some services which depend on each other need a bit time to start.

The ExplorerInit is also a bit too long. Maybe NOD32 causes this delay. Which version do you use?

The PostExplorerPeriod is terrible slow and takes too long. Use the Autoruns tool to disable the programs from startup, that you don't need.

After disabling, try to train your Windows too startup faster.

Open the console and run

xbootmgr -trace boot -prepSystem -verboseReadyBoot

This will optimize the boot process. Windows will be restarted several times and ReadyBoot (NOT Readyboost) will learn in which order it should load all drivers and files and prefetches them while doing other things, so that are loaded when they are needed during later phases. Also the defrag program will be launched to optimize the location of the files on your HDD.

[cluberti]

@cluberti

I like the xml. It give you a short overview about all the booting stages and how long it takes.

I'm well aware of that, but it only shows you what parts are slow, and not any info as to why, hence the guessing. Hopefully the files will give a little more info as to why all phases are slow.

[ijwcomp]

Is it possible to run xbootmgr -trace boot -noPrepReboot -traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER -resultPath C:\TEMP but when it restarts turn the computer off and then try again the following morning?

It is usually with a cold boot that the slow startup happens. The boot process is much faster somehow when I restart instead of shutting down and pressing the power button again.

Also, what paging size should I use, in case the error message in post #4 appears again? (When I made another one that message appeared. Don't know why the the one posted worked but now it won't work)

[cluberti]

Is it possible to run xbootmgr -trace boot -noPrepReboot -traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER -resultPath C:\TEMP but when it restarts turn the computer off and then try again the following morning?

No, unfortunately. Either you prep or you log, but you can't do both.

[epic]

Hmmm, question is have you ever tried to boot into safe mode... how does it perform there? Have you ran msconfig and ran the diagnostic startup then selective startup? Funny no one has mentioned this. Though a lot of these guys have a lot of experience with these OSs' thought I'd shoot that out there since it be my first attempt in troubleshooting

Point in fact... W7 loads everything (process', icons, network connections, gadgets, etc...) in the background during the 'Welcome' screen, unlike previous versions of Windows. It's another one of those flaky features Microsoft claims as an "enhancement" when all they're doing is hiding whats going on in the background, to make it seem .... zippy. However, bigger improvement over Vista.

Edited October 12, 2009 by epic