Problem with extremely slow boot

[ICit2lol]

Have a Vista machine that has not been looked after and I have been trying for the last few hours to get it into some sort of shape.

One problem that has got me stumped though is every now and then and getting more frequent is the slow boot. I power on and the little green bars start flicking across the horizontal bar and the stop - wait for a couple of minutes then proceed to inch across th bar at what I can only describe as a stutter.

From power on to password now takes a good hour and I am at a loss as what to do, in fact the boot after the repair install is now into the second hour.

I have booted in safemode - still very slow but acceptable, done a repair install but this most unusual situation carries on.

The only thing I haven't tried is a complete reinstall.

The machine is an Asus P5KPL-VM/V-P5G31/DP MB board based system with Vista SP2 Intel duo core E7500 and 4GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM.

I have the disks including the Asus drives / utilities but if there is an easier fix I would prefer that.

I am also wondering if this is a software or hardware fault.

 

[richc46]

Start with a clean boot. You should boot very quickly. Then slowly put the start up items back to see the cause.
Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup - Windows 7 Forums
This may not lead any where since you already tried in safe mode, but lets go step by step.
When you still have the problem after clean boot, make a system restore point.
90% of those that I have helped with this problme have loved Soluto, but 5% wanted it removed and System Restore is the best way to go with this.
I think you have a driver problem and soluto will tell you which one.
https://www.soluto.com/About/
With and old computer it can be a bad hard drive, etc. These problems cannot be corrected with Soluto, of course.

 

[richc46]

Make sure you are properly maintained. The tutorial, at the end, may be significant.
To maintain your computer

10 Tips on How to Properly Maintain Your Computer
ignore, reg cleaners.

Steps that I did not notice on the guide include:

Running a scan disc before doing a defrag

Using Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes.

Making System Restore points, at least once a week

Makaing a system Image once a month (varies by user)

Not relying on your A/V common sense, should prevail. You know of many sites can cause a problem.

Do not use any reg cleaning or optimizing software.

Download and use Ccleaner about once every two months. Untick any registry entries.
http://www.piriform.com/

Download and use PSI, to to be sure that all of your software is up to date
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

If you follow these instructions, you will be trouble free for a long time to come.

Be sure to back up your hard drive about once a month (varies by user) and to keeep system restore points up to date.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...er-performance

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81176-speed-up-performance-vista.html

 

[ICit2lol]

Start with a clean boot. You should boot very quickly. Then slowly put the start up items back to see the cause.
Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup - Windows 7 Forums
This may not lead any where since you already tried in safe mode, but lets go step by step.
When you still have the problem after clean boot, make a system restore point.
90% of those that I have helped with this problme have loved Soluto, but 5% wanted it removed and System Restore is the best way to go with this.
I think you have a driver problem and soluto will tell you which one.
https://www.soluto.com/About/
With and old computer it can be a bad hard drive, etc. These problems cannot be corrected with Soluto, of course.

Ok rich I might have to try that soluto as I have tried the Seatools but it will not run.

I think you are right though re the drive or drivers because I set the clean startup and am waiting now after it has shut down to even flicker on restart.

 

[richc46]

Either hardware, which we may be able to test or a driver. Ill be out for a while, but will not forget to reply to any of your posts.

 

[ICit2lol]

Make sure you are properly maintained. The tutorial, at the end, may be significant.
To maintain your computer

10 Tips on How to Properly Maintain Your Computer
ignore, reg cleaners.

Steps that I did not notice on the guide include:

Running a scan disc before doing a defrag

Using Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes.

Making System Restore points, at least once a week

Makaing a system Image once a month (varies by user)

Not relying on your A/V common sense, should prevail. You know of many sites can cause a problem.

Do not use any reg cleaning or optimizing software.

Download and use Ccleaner about once every two months. Untick any registry entries.
http://www.piriform.com/

Download and use PSI, to to be sure that all of your software is up to date
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

If you follow these instructions, you will be trouble free for a long time to come.

Be sure to back up your hard drive about once a month (varies by user) and to keeep system restore points up to date.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...er-performance

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81176-speed-up-performance-vista.html

Yep mate this is something I tell them all but like her laptop the kids have had all manner of rubbish on this machine and I had to resort to a factory default that time. There was heaps of P2P stuff and the can't do without Apple rot.

Still at least I have the original Vista disk and the Asus driver disks here. thats one small thing in my favour.

 

[Patonb]

That shutdown hang seems like its a driver issue or stuck application.

I'm leaning toward misconfigured program or bad update install, as apposed to hardware.

 

[ICit2lol]

That shutdown hang seems like its a driver issue or stuck application.

I'm leaning toward misconfigured program or bad update install, as apposed to hardware.

Well have just tried to reinstall it and got as far as the last Asus driver and it froze so I am thinking the drive is probably cactus the Vista CD is and as I can do no more than that tonight.

So I have a spare 32bit 7 and a few used drives I might just ask this girl if she wants to that instead - I can throw the lot in for $100 or a free house clean next time she does it. Anyway I am off the nod land as seven hours at this machine is just about enough I reckon.:sleep:

 

[ICit2lol]

Well have bitten the bullet and hauled the old drive out and put in a spare Spinpoint 500GB and am installing a spare 32bit Windows 7 on the machine.

I have hooked up the old drive to my main machine but it doesn't see it in Computer only in diskpart.

So I am just assuming it was the drive that had become so corrupted or whatever or even just plain dead as it wouldn't even have anything to do with 32bit 7 either!

But thanks to all who chipped in with the advice and help I really do appreciate it and at least for a free house clean - she won't accept it for free she will have a usable machine again and with a better system on board