Totally stumped - Windows 7 pc EXTREMELY SLOW 1+hour boot time.

[Thaco]

Hey guys, i am an IT professional by trade so i know most of the tricks, i have my inlaws PC to fix up here, but this one's got me stumped, need a little help, here's the situation.

Gateway pc
i5 3.2ghz processor
6gb ram
1tb hdd
dvd drive (not sure what)
windows 7 64 bit

The thing runs VERY slow, like an hour to boot, 3 minutes to open a windows explorer window, dont even think about multitasking...

things i have tried:
System restore - Fails something about cant read the files and possible corruption, suggests chkdsk /r
chkdsk /r - no errors
ram check - no errors
cc cleaner to clean up the registry
combofix from safemode for known hardcore viruses
physically removed all but one stick of ram
mbrfix


i would really like to avoid re-imaging if possible. any suggestions would be great.

[adam c]

do you have a network cable plugged in while booting?

i had a similar issue after disabling IPV6, took an hour and a half to boot, unplugged the cable and it was fine, then re-enabled IPV6

[Thaco]

tried both ways

[GQBalla]

virus and malware/spyware scan?

ive never had a slower boot time than 20 minutes but that was because of IPV6 issue.

[Thaco]

i ran combofix to remove any known baddies, the computer did previously have AVG installed, but i read that may be the problem, so i removed it, i intend to reinstall it next and run a scan, but i really dont think that's it because it's even slow pre windows.

[SmAcKpOo]

What brand is the HDD?

[Thaco]

i dont think that's really relevant, since any hdd can crater, but it's a WD green drive, the pc is only like 6 months old, its a 1tb drive that's only got about 80gb on it, so it's not been used at all really.

[Mibz]

At what point does the boot become slow? Is it before/after POST? Before/after Windows splash screen? Before/after login?

[Seth1968]

Sounds like the hdd is failing, or a driver is hanging.

Check the former with the manufacturers hdd diagnostics. The latter can be determined by checking if the system is still slow in Safe Mode.

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by Seth1968
Sounds like the hdd is failing, or a driver is hanging.

Check the former with the manufacturers hdd diagnostics. The latter can be determined by checking if the system is still slow in Safe Mode.

I forgot to mention to check Task Manager for CPU/Memory usage.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by Mibz
At what point does the boot become slow? Is it before/after POST? Before/after Windows splash screen? Before/after login?

Seems like right from boot... its about a minute just to get to the splash screen, which is just the words for probably 10 minutes, then the logo appears, then probably 30 minutes later its at the user login screen... in safemode it hangs at classpnp.sys for about a half hour before it boots in.

Originally posted by Seth1968
Sounds like the hdd is failing, or a driver is hanging.

Check the former with the manufacturers hdd diagnostics. The latter can be determined by checking if the system is still slow in Safe Mode.

It is still slow in safe mode.

Originally posted by Seth1968


I forgot to mention to check Task Manager for CPU/Memory usage.

I have checked that, the usage looks minimal.

[HyperZell]

I'm surprised you even had the patience to let it boot. I would have assumed after a few minutes that the system was down for good.

You could try pulling the hard drive and sticking it another PC and seeing how it performs there? If it's slow to access even as a secondary drive you have your problem right there.

[Seth1968]

I still say it's the hdd. Probably a failure that's causing a very low spin.

I'd reset the bios to default, and if that doesn't help, run diagnostics on the drive.

[Khyron]

I'm betting motherboard/Ram. Unplug the HD, and boot it with a windows cd/dvd - don't actually install but see if the system is snappy with it. If it's taking 10 mins to get to the OS load, that's not drive.

[arian_ma]

This is a long shot, but I had a problem once with an auxiliary device I plugged into my PC. Anytime the device was plugged in while booting up the computer, it would take a ridiculously long time to boot.

So maybe try unplugging everything but the absolute essentials.

[alloroc]

Power supply under voltage?

Maybe try booting from the USB using a linux setup.

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

See option 2 and select the radior button 'i would like to create a usb stick'

Run the usb stick on a good computer for a benchmark
Run the usb stib on the slow machine.

Cheers.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by arian_ma
This is a long shot, but I had a problem once with an auxiliary device I plugged into my PC. Anytime the device was plugged in while booting up the computer, it would take a ridiculously long time to boot.

So maybe try unplugging everything but the absolute essentials.

This was actually going to be my first suggestion and it's why I asked when the hang happens. I'd have a 5-20 minute hang during/after POST when my WD MyBook was plugged in to eSATA or USB.

It's slow and tedious, but unplug everything you can and see what happens.

[revelations]

OP you can use products like SPEEDFAN (freeware) to see what voltages and temperatures are being pushed out by the BIOS.

Thermal throttling? (though even with that, it shouldnt take an HOUR to finish loading Windows).

[revelations]

Apparently you can also run SEATOOLS HDD diagnostic tools on non-seagate drives.... might see things different than CHKDSK?

Note than CHKDSK does not catch all errors - especially low level or firmware problems - which can be intermittent.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by Khyron
I'm betting motherboard/Ram. Unplug the HD, and boot it with a windows cd/dvd - don't actually install but see if the system is snappy with it. If it's taking 10 mins to get to the OS load, that's not drive.

Problem with the new computers is, i don't have an OS CD...

Originally posted by arian_ma
This is a long shot, but I had a problem once with an auxiliary device I plugged into my PC. Anytime the device was plugged in while booting up the computer, it would take a ridiculously long time to boot.

So maybe try unplugging everything but the absolute essentials.

cant be that, i relocated the PC entirely from my inlaws place to mine, everything is completely different

Originally posted by alloroc
Power supply under voltage?

Maybe try booting from the USB using a linux setup.

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

See option 2 and select the radior button 'i would like to create a usb stick'

Run the usb stick on a good computer for a benchmark
Run the usb stib on the slow machine.

Cheers.

i have Hiren's boot cd (on usb) i can boot in to mini xp with that, and it seems to run reasonably well, considering it's on a thumb drive

Originally posted by Mibz
This was actually going to be my first suggestion and it's why I asked when the hang happens. I'd have a 5-20 minute hang during/after POST when my WD MyBook was plugged in to eSATA or USB.

It's slow and tedious, but unplug everything you can and see what happens.

they actually have an external drive (a WD) which they back up photos on to) but since relocating the PC, they did give me that drive, but i never hooked it up.

Originally posted by revelations
OP you can use products like SPEEDFAN (freeware) to see what voltages and temperatures are being pushed out by the BIOS.

Thermal throttling? (though even with that, it shouldnt take an HOUR to finish loading Windows).

i will look in to that, but i have the side of the case open, in my cool basement, and can see the cpu fan spinning no porblem... i'll check the bios for the temps, but i think that's a bit of a long shot

Originally posted by revelations
Apparently you can also run SEATOOLS HDD diagnostic tools on non-seagate drives.... might see things different than CHKDSK?

Note than CHKDSK does not catch all errors - especially low level or firmware problems - which can be intermittent.

Thanks everybody got the suggestions, i am at work right now, but will do more checking when i get home, i think first thing is to run a more thorough HDD check.... i'll post up here if i end up solving this.