Help: Booting into Windows takes 10 minutes

[mr_vampy]

Hi,
Hoping someone on here can help me out. My pc is an Athlon XP 2000+ with 768 DDR Ram, running XP with service pack 3. Last night i upgraded my Internet explorer from version 6 to version 8. When it asked me to restart my computer, it took 10 minutes for it to go from the POST screen to my Windows desktop. I found that for me, IE8 was alot slower than 6, so decided to uninstall it. Unfortunately, it is still taking 10 minutes or so to boot up. I have tried booting up into safe mode and choosing last known configuration, but no joy. Wish I had left it alone now.
Please help. Would really appreciate it.
Thank you in advance

mr_vampy

 

[Spark123]

Can you do a system restore to an earlier date?

 

[mr_vampy]

Thanks spark123. To be honest, I haven't actually tried that. I will do it tonight when I get back to my pc, and report back here.
Thanks again

 

[mr_vampy]

Have tried to do a system restore to an earlier date, but won't allow me. Have scanned computer for viruses, malware and spyware and it comes up clean. Any other suggestions? Thanks

 

[mr_vampy]

I think I've just fixed it!!!! I was doing a search on google, and someone had a similar problem. Apparently they had a problem with their hardware. So I check Device Manager, and there were 2 exclamation marks showing, one on an old PCI Parallel port card and the other on a USB controller for my external hard drive. I changed the USB cable for the external hd and that removed the exclamation mark, and since I was no longer using the Parallel Port card, I removed it completely. I've restarted the computer 3 or 4 times now, and it works fine. No more exclamation marks on any of the devices, and more importantly, no more waiting for 10 minutes.

Thank you all for your suggestions and help.

 

[dave.m]

As you have solved the slow startup, great, but as your system restore did not go back, may I suggest that you make a new restore point as everything is working fine, then remove all except this newest restore point.

To set a new Restore Point:
Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore -> Create a restore point.
Give it a name and click Next.


Then remove all but the last Restore Point:
Go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup -> select the drive -> OK -> click on More Options Tab -> then under the System Restore heading click on the Cleanup button -> Confirm that you want to remove all but the last point.

That way you can revert back to today if anything else goes wrong and you know all was working fine.

dave