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Slow Boot
robinj66 - 17/5/07 at 11:24 PM

Yesterday I finally decided to install some of the programs that have been sitting on my desktop. This included Avast anti-virus. I didn't Restart last night but this morning it took a literal 10 mins to get to the screen where it tells you XP is opening. Prior to that it just sits with the Packard Bell front page and options F2 [BIOS], F3 [BOOT MENU] & F8{I forget}.

I have deleted the Avast and tried using Restore Points but nothing seems to make any difference.

At one stage i did get into the F2 menu but don't think i actually changed anything.

Can anyone suggest what I do to get rid of this problem?

Plain language please cos I'm an old git

nitram38 - 18/5/07 at 04:34 AM

Packard Bell is your problem!
They probably gave you repair discs instead of a full copy of XP?
Packard bell are a law unto themselves when it comes to forcing software on you and this has probably caused a conflict with your anti-virus.
My only suggestion is pretty drastic.
Save all of your important stuff to a cdr and buy your own copy of XP and do a re-install.
Warning: You may lose some programs if you do not have the original discs plus you may need to download drivers from the web to get your pc to work properly, such as graphics drivers.

peterriley2 - 18/5/07 at 07:26 AM

im no computer expert, but ive had a similar problem in the past, and if you want to try a less drastic option, id download spybot, and also ad-aware (both free) just to check if a virus is doing it. would take a lot less time than re-installing, so its probably worth a try first.

RazMan - 18/5/07 at 07:53 AM

Anti virus progs always slow down the boot time, especially on the first time after the intitial installation. It has to scan your entire system to make sure there isn't a virus in there, after that it will only do a 'top-up' scan when you boot up, which will be much quicker.

ecosse - 18/5/07 at 08:08 AM

Sounds like it is sticking at post rather than system load, which would indicate a hardware problem rather than a software one.
It might be worth giving the inside of the case a good clean and reseating any add in cards and memory sticks before starting on the reinstall routine

Cheers

Alex

flak monkey - 18/5/07 at 08:11 AM

Avast does a system scan on boot the first time you restart, unless you tell it not to. Hence your first slow boot. Normally you can see the scanner, but because of the PB logo you can't. You can turn that logo off in the bios somewhere. Have a rummage around. If you can turn it off you can see what its doing. I know if it finds a virus it will sit there and wait for you to tell it what to do.

Run startuplist and hijackthis (both available from the same site) and copy the results on here and I'll have a look.

Oh and to boot in safe mode, press F8 and select 'safe mode' and see if that cures it.

David

[Edited on 18/5/07 by flak monkey]

Keith Weiland - 18/5/07 at 12:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by peterriley2
im no computer expert, but ive had a similar problem in the past, and if you want to try a less drastic option, id download spybot, and also ad-aware (both free) just to check if a virus is doing it. would take a lot less time than re-installing, so its probably worth a try first.


Don't mean to but in here but neither Spybot nor ad-aware check for virii and hes just installed Avast which is a decent anti virus software. If a reboot or 2 doesnt fix it I would check to see how much space you have left on your hard drive after all the installs, you might have used up too much and dont have room for enough swap file space. I would say uninstall all the programs you installed, do a defrag and see what you have then. If it doesn't help then the suggestion of saving important files and getting a new copy of XP instead of the Packard Bell restore disk is a good one.

britishtrident - 18/5/07 at 03:27 PM

Did you run restore from safe mode ?