Startup Problem

[NewMonarch]

Out of the blue my custom PC slowed to a crawl at startup. For starters, I've scanned for viruses and spyware and we're clean.

At startup, between the XP boot screen and the user login screen, there is a 5+ minute pause. The screen is black and the HDD is idle.That is, the drive is making no noise and there and the light has no activity. Then after the long pause, the system just decides to start moving again and it loads the user login screen.

This is followed by an equally painful startup of the account once one has been chosen. About a minute of silence, the background appears but without any icons or taskbar. Then 4 or 5 minutes later, the taskbar and icons will appear. The OS continues to be moderately undstable during all the use.

Now, I've been on computers suffering from adware, but they typically have a constantly moving HDD. My problem is that the HDD completely stops.

I did a repair installation of Windows and nothing changed.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Could it be hardware related? I'm a web designer and this computer is my livelihood so please help!

Thanks,

!jon

[Murf]

Welcome to CTH

Normally what you described is Malware/Trojan/Spyware

What did you use for the spyware? I would do the following:

1. Download and run Spybot here

2. Download and run AdWare
Choose a download location for Ad-Aware SE from here. When you have installed it, make sure that you go online and update it before you run it.

To configure Ad-Aware, click on the Configuration button (second from left in the top righthand corner) and follow the below instructions:

Click on the General button on the left hand side.

Make sure the following items under "Safety" have a green check in them. If they do not, click once on the circle next to them to put a checkmark in it.

Automatically save logfile
Automatically quarantine objects prior to removal
Safe Mode (always request confirmation)

Next click on the Advanced button on the left hand side.

Make sure the following items under "Logfile Detail Level" have a green check in them. If they do not, click once on the circle next to them to put a checkmark in it.

Include additional object information
Include negligible objects information
Include environment information

Next click on the Tweak button on the left hand side.

Click on the + (plus) sign next "Scanning Engine". Make sure the following items under "Scanning Engine" have a green check in them. If they do not, click once on the circle next to them to put a checkmark in it.

Unload recognized processes & modules during scan
Scan registry for all users instead of current user only

Next click on the + (plus) sign next to "Cleaning Engine". Make sure the following items under "Cleaning Engine" have a green check in them. If they do not, click once on the circle next to them to put a checkmark in it.

Always try to unload modules before deletion
During removal, unload Explorer and IE if necessary
Let Windows remove files in use at next reboot
Delete quarantined objects after restoring

Click on the + (plus) sign next to "Log Files". Make sure the following items under "Log Files" have a green check in them. If they do not, click once on the circle next to them to put a checkmark in it.

Include basic Ad-Aware settings in logfile
Include additional Ad-Aware settings in logfile

Once these settings have been completed, click on the Proceed button.

Now click on Scan Now, click on "Select" to choose which drive to scan and click on "Perform a full system scan". Uncheck the Search for negligible risk entries. Click on "Next" to begin scanning.

NB, to remove spyware objects found, rightclick on one and choose "Select All Objects"

Reboot afterwards.
Even though you did a repair install, if there is any adware/spyware it would not of been removed.

Now if this doesn't help, then it's time to look at Hardware.

Easiest way is to remove cover, unhook floppy, cdrom, cdrw ect... only leave the video card and hard drive hooked up. Take out your cards. Now boot, if it is OK, then next hook up the floppy, same thing this will narrow down which piece of hardware is causing the conflict.