Slow bootup (XP SP2)

Hello!!! ( Alas, I can't defrag drive C:\, 'cause there isn't enough free space. )
This could be your problem, no hard drive for system to work with. Get rid of all the stuff you can or get a bigger hard drive
Also how much ram do you have, and your system is out of date ,SP3 ,ie 7, . and it looks like you have every anti virus program in the world with left over junk. Me thinks you will be better off reformatting and starting from scratch with a fresh install.

 

Hey,

Thanks for the advice. Actually, I have defraged drive C:\ in the meantime. Drive space has nothing to do with slow startup. I have 600 megs free, I know it's not much, but the OS has been "as is" for at least 2 years now with no issues. I agree there might be too much junk left behind. Also, no problems with RAM, as I have 2 gigs. Can't update the OS or IE, as my copy of Windows is not entirely... *legit*.

Might end up reformatting, although I'd really hate to.

 

I wasn't advertising. I was merely stating a sad fact.

Anyway, I've been tinkering with the system tools and shut down/disabled some components I thought to be unnecessary. Bootup still takes quite a while, but ever since I disabled CounterSpy (which seems liek a fine tool regardless) running in the background, applications have been launching a lot faster. There might yet be another solution for me apart from formatting.

 

You do know that you are not supposed to have more than one anti virus program and one firewall installed at once,they will cause problems.Just wondering??
Go here and read the user review about counter spy, very heavy on resources http://www.afterdawn.com/software/desktop_software/desktop_security/counterspy.cfm

 

Yeah, I do have only one anti virus software installed. All the reg keys you an see in the HjT log are those of online scanners. And I use the built-in Windows firewall only -- yeah, I know, it's utter crap.

I've figured myself that CounterSpy is rather heavy on resources, but thanks for the info and link regardless. I've completely stopped it from running at startup, but can still launch it manually if I opt to do so.

 

Okay, things have been getting even more FUBAR today...

I got a blue screen of death roughly 6 times today; 3 of them within the past 2 hours. The error message is always the same: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

I figure this has something to do with conflicting drivers, but I haven't been tinkering with them for quite some time. And anyway, the only thing I normally update is my display drivers, seeing as I've been unable to get a decent update for my on-board sound chip.

 

Bump.

It seems I have managed to get rid of the BSOD issue by reinstalling my VGA drivers. However, bootup is still rather slow. Numerous anitvirus and anti-malware applications indicate that my system is clean of pests. I have defraged drive C:\ and maintain the registry. Is there anything else I could do to improve the situation?

 

Hi again,

Sorry I haven't come back for awhile I've been out of town. I read everything you've posted since and I have to think that there may still be some infection lingering. Although you apparently have angered some things! How did you go about removing? Did you do this manually in safe mode and edit registry keys? And my next thought is you really need some patches. Now I know you said things weren't exactly legit and that's why you don't have updates; however there are other things you can do to get these. Do you have a friend that will maybe help you with that? Or do you know anybody with bitorrent file sharing setup? You should try to update your computer with the latest stuff. And unless you manually remove any registry entries that where made there could still be stuff hanging around. Here I think you should take a look at this. I found it at the online virus catalog from Symantec

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2007-071711-3132-99&tabid=2

Check these keys to see if fact there are any alterations that have slipped notice. And pay close attention to the tech details sheet it contained a lot of info. Keep us posted on what you find. Good luck.

 

Hello Lilith,

Thanks for getting back to me. Let me start answering your questions in order. First off, I only tinkered with the registry using CCleaner; I did not manually modify or edit any registry items. I'll see what I can do about updating my OS. I do have bittorent capability installed - I wonder what you mean by that, though.

Next, I checked out the Symantec link you provided, and have none of the symptoms/files/folders/registry entries mentioned there.

Strange thing is that apart from the slow bootup, everything else works fine. Well, IE crashes quite often, so there is definitely a problem there. I'll check right away if it's possible for me to update it. All other applications start up fast as usual, with CounterSpy now disabled, which was holding back performance.

I run daily system checks using the up-to-date versions of AVG 8.0 free, CounterSpy and Malwarebytes' Anti-MAlware, but all I get is some harmless tracking cookies. Even Webroot's online audit reports that my machine is clean. There used to be some trojans present, but those have been eliminated and cleaned.

 

Update: I am downloading and applying the OS updates right now - some 93 of them. I may also download and install IE 7 as well and see whether all this makes any difference.

My question is: after the installation of Windows updates, can I delete the files from the folder C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\ ? The downloaded files take up quite a lot of space and would like to delete them if they are unnecessary.

 

Ok, yeah we'll keep our fingers crossed that this works. You should be able to delete the files as long as their not important. Once you install the updates you probably shouldn't need them. And I guess you figured out what I meant about the bitorrent? I didn't want to spell it out in some many words but...there are ways around getting the needed patches if your version of Windows isn't genuine. And I'm glad that after looking at that link you didn't see anything like that on your comp. After this, in the virus and spyware section of this forum is 2Oldgeek and you may wish to post any logs there he really seems to know his stuff. But that may not be necessary after you apply the patches and update everything. We'll see how this goes. Good luck!

 

Yeah, I did manage to find a workaround for the WGA stuff after all. Unfortunately however, even after applying all patches/updates/whatnot, bootup is still as slow as a week before. I reserve my initial suspicion that Spybot fouled up the system upon removal. Thanks for the tips and all the advice though, I'm gonna PM 2OldGeek and ask for further insight.

Cheers,
laputomi

 

Excellent. Hope you get it figured it out. Good luck and take care!