XP Machine takes long time (3 mins) to logon

Cleanup the startup process.

In the Run Window type msconfig go to the startup tab and clean it out of anything that is not needed.

You might compare the time the boot-up requires on the notebook when it's not connected to the LAN; your sysadmin may have anti-virus or other steps in the LAN startup.

Look in the control panel for PC scheduled tasks upon startup.  If the client is slow even when offline, look for the startup jobs in the user's local startup profile.

Look at your swapfile allocation and sizing -- should be sized to the OS recommendation and preferably on a dedicated partition.

Sorry forgot to mention I have done that already.
I systematically went through all the startup objects and disabled them in turn, to no avail.

Thanks anways

Dvz,

I am the sysadmin, so yes we do have Antivirus but doesn't run on startup.
Is using a network AV solution managed from the server for all machines, others work fine.

I looked and there are no scheduled tasks at startup.

The swapfile is the standard Windows settings (dynamic) which is 1.5 times the RAM.

Question - how old is the Win Xp machine?

I had this problem before and the only way round it was to wipe & rebuild the machine but before you do that:

Try this - manually enter the dns settings (your server first then whatever your ISP dns settings are) and see if it helps....and also check group policy settings on the SBS and see if something there is causing it to take forever to turn on eg window firewall

Here are some suggestions to try from a previous thread.  Their symptom was not quite the same as yours but several of the comments still apply>

"XP takes a long time to login, but only on first login after a reboot":
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21838200/XP-takes-a-long-time-to-login-but-only-on-first-login-after-a-reboot.html

More useful ideas here>

"Windows XP Takes a Long Time to Start":
http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/78783/jsi-tip-7008-windows-xp-takes-a-long-time-to-start.html

Ok where to start...

I set the IP address manually including the DNS settings previously. No change.

The XP firewall is totally disabled. No change.

Jonvee - I tried the link you posted which suggested turning off firewall and pinging DC by IP and name. This worked but still no change to startup hang.

Also your second link related to Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) which is used by Scanners and Imaging devices. I tried disabling this as suggested and also the Plug and Play service, but no change!

I can't seem to find a difference between this machine and another, they both use the same software and the other has no problems. Admittedly this did seem to develop later on, and did not occur when the machine was new.
I was hoping not to have to do a reinstall as it would take a lot to get this machine back to the stage it is, but may have to. This is the reason for the question ,trying to find a way around this!

Thanks for the substantial report!  A few more ideas to try and prevent that reinstall>

Although the other XP Pros' use the same software, are they running Norton/Symantec?  
Suggest you temporary disable it if you are, then retest.

In fact with internet disconnected you could try temporarily disabling any anti-virus &/or anti-Malware scanners.

You could also install and run Trend HijackThis 2.02:
http://majorgeeks.com/Trend_Micro_HijackThis_d5554.html

The technique is to create a folder where you would like the HijackThis file to reside, and run it from there, not from the Desktop or a temporary folder.
Run the scan & save the logfile.  Then click the "Attach File" box, paste the logfile into the "Add File" page & there i can take a look.  We're looking for possible rootkits & other nasties.

You could also try running Process Explorer version 11.13:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Use it to see if there's any increase in CPU usage just after boot.  Double click the file that appears to be the cause of the problem.  Is it a svchost.exe file?   If yes, select the Services tab which should list the services that are running in svchost.exe.

Finally, you may wish to cast your eye over this article, although we'll have covered much of it>
"Optimise XP":
http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html

Thanks again for advice so far!

We use Sophos Antivirus, which runs also scans for Malware/Spyware. It runs a scheduled full scan on all workstations every Friday. I will check what happens if I disable this on the machine in question.

Will run HijackThis and post the results.

The problem with monitoring CPU usage using something like ProcessExplorer is that the problem occurs BEFORE the login screen, meaning I am unable to show the task manager or check any CPU activity!

Cheers,
Chris

Only other thought right now is that is there any difference between which account the user logs in on?   For example could we have a bloated 'profile'!

Yes i appreciate the problem using Process Explorer, but just wondered if there may have been something suspicious just after bootup.

Ah yes, well I did check the user profile and it is huge. But I have tried logging in as other users and the problem seems to still occur.
It does not occur however in Safe Mode.

I disabled the Antivirus and rebooted, no change im afraid.

Here is the Hijackthis report attached.

Also increased the points to 500, seeing as the rabbit hole is getting deeper!
hijackthis.txt

Thanks for HijackThis logfile.  It seems clean except for the three entries below requiring you to simply confirm you recognise them or not>

O16 - DPF: {96935DBD-3617-4300-B583-3310A5322046} (aspenONE Update Agent) - http://support.aspentech.com/aspenoneupdates/updateagent.cab
O16 - DPF: {AE9DCB17-F804-11D2-A44A-0020182C1446} (IntraLaunch.MainControl) - file://D:\SuperCD\IntraLaunch.CAB
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [EarthWatcher] C:\Program Files\EarthWatcher\EarthWatcher.exe

Is it perhaps convenient to temporarily disable the "EarthWatcher" exe file?  Just a thought.

Thanks for looking.

Well, firstly the aspenONE is a design package we use here and that is fine.
Earthwatcher is a desktop background that syncronizes with a satellite image on startup, I have tried disabling this.

IntraLaunch.MainControl, I have never heard of.

If the machine is older than 2yrs then it really is a good idea to re-install, as I did mention in the 5th post.

Ideally its not the best idea, but given that the amount of time you would  (& have!) spend 'fiddling' around with the system, and in less than 2hours you could have rebuilt the entire system.......

Even microsoft say that you should wipe & rebuild every year to prevent data fragments building up and also to supposedly keep your hard drive 'fresh'

Good Luck!

> IntraLaunch.MainControl <

Done in a hurry but i've put a highlight on the reference below to "IntraLaunch" where there's a recommendation to Fix it!   You may want to give it a try with HijackThis before moving on to a possible reinstall.  
Must admit if it's not IntraLaunch i'm beginning to run out of ideas ..

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:iC2Fx82ogeEJ:www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t189310-spyware-remover.html+IntraLaunch.MainControl&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

Ok another update...

Tried the mentioned "IntraLaunch" Jonvee, but unfortunately no results.

Also I upgraded the Network card drivers, Chipset drivers, Graphics drivers.
Still no change.
This is very frustrating and the main worry I have is reinstalling and ending up with the same problem after all this!

Is there any way to see exactly what is going on BEFORE the login screen in XP, as the task manager is unavailable?
If there was some way to see WHAT is taking so long to start, as even from the Event Log, I cant seem to find out which service is the problem. I have disabled many services but still no joy.
Maybe there is something that can TIME the system service startups ?

Still contemplating & looking for some means of seeing what is going on *before* the login screen ... meanwhile, as you have obviously not reformatted, had you considered that the HD could conceivably be suspect, so i'm wondering how practical it is for you to exchange/swop/test the laptop HD?

Chris  ...  another alternative if you're determined to investigate further, & not yet take TangarineIT's suggestion of a wipe & reinstall, is as follows>>

It is now unlikely that many experts will find this question and respond because it's now slipped far down the list of unanswered questions.  Many questions are asked daily in this XP Topic Area!  
Suggest you therefore create a new (20 point) question in this same XP topic area, which is linked to this question http:Q_23457082.html.   Be sure to quote the address of this question in your new one, and advise everyone to *only reply in this original question*.  You should get an immediate response.
 
Naturally i'll still monitor and periodically investigate this problem.  Thanks.

if you are using roaming user profiles, could you try renaming the local user profile in documents and settings and getting the user to log in again(ths downloading a fresh copy of teh profile?

does this effect other users using that laptop?
administrators?
If your using a domain, try a local logon and see if that helps?

does yoru user work on other workstations? do they have large files on teh desktop (part of teh profile and thus copied everytime the user logs on)?

have you tried booting in safemode with networking support, and logging on. does teh issue still exsist?

Seems like a LOT of effort was made, but I concur we failed to come up with the solution.  I have no objections.