Solved Slow boot up and extra unknown tab

vivkom · Oct 20, 2010

Hi
I have HP Pavilion DV7 2170 US.
Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo P7550
4GB RAM
Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit
ATI Radeon 1GB

There was some problem in my hard disk and heat sync.
HP Replaced both the hard disk and heat sync.
But now the problem is after installing new hard disk my system has become very slow. It takes quite long to boot up and opening any application also takes long.
But when run continuously after a while it becomes normal and works fine. but I still feel it is slow. My lenovo laptop bought 6 years ago seems to be much faster than this new machine. I have removed unnecessarry programs from startup (by going into msconfig). Is there a way to measure to the performance of my system?

There is another problem, when I press ALT+TAB to switch between windows I see a unknown tab, I dont know what it is.Pls look at the image below

Please help me out.

vivkom · Oct 20, 2010

Anyone please help!!

Flavius · Oct 21, 2010

Question

In safe mode boot time is also very long?

check it

It takes quite long to boot up and opening any application also takes long.

Such kind of issues usally cause 3p security software,please uninstall pernamently all 3p security software.

vivkom · Oct 21, 2010

I just have Norton Internet security on my system

Any idea about the ALT+TAB issue??

Lorien · Oct 21, 2010

Hi vivkom,

Please don't use the PM service to request assistance - someone will get to your request in due time. This is not like a chat room where responses are almost immediate. Plus whoever responds needs to understand enough to be able to assist you. I don't know what that tab is either, but perhaps the following will tell us. What security software are you using (all of them, names and versions)?

Please download Process Monitor Process Monitor and run it and then copy the report and paste it to your next reply.

Please download Autoruns Autoruns for Windows and run it and go to the Everything Tab and the copy what is there and paste it to your next reply.

To improve your speed and space, do Disk Cleanup using: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76073-disk-cleanup.html. Delete as much as you feel comfortable doing – nothing deleted there will harm your system in any way. This includes deleting the Temporary Internet Files. If you want to keep this from building, go to Tools / Internet Options / Advanced and check the box Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder whenever browser is closed and then that folder will always stay empty (except when you're using the program).

Also do an Optimization: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Optimize-Windows-Vista-for-better-performance. Do all of the options (or at the very least, consider them - many can help a great deal).

Run CCleaner http://www.piriform.com/ with as many options as you choose to delete (but be careful because this program if not used properly and with caution and with you paying attention to what you are doing can delete important and even critical files that could cause a great deal of trouble)

Let's check some of your system files:

Go to Start / All Programs / Accessories / Command prompt and right click on command prompt and click run as Administrator.

Type sfc /scannow and enter and let it run. It will scan and try to fix some of your system files. Hopefully it will complete with no corruption it could not repair (if there is such corruption post back here or try to analyze it to find the problem file(s) using http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928228. Try to attach the report (you may need to copy it to your desktop before it will permit you to attach it) here so we can see if they can be repaired with good copies from the installation disk (unless there are too many).

While in Command Prompt, type chkdsk /f /r and enter and let it run. It will want to schedule itself to run at the next restart. Answer yes and then reboot to run the program. It will scan and try to fix any corruption or bad sectors on your hard drive and mostly remove that as a potential cause.

If that doesn't work, then please post any repeating error messages from the Event Viewer (Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer). Here's how to use Event Viewer: http://www.petri.co.il/vista-event-viewer.htm. Look in the System section and the Application Section.

You may be infected with malware. Try to run the following anti-malware programs (in safe mode with networking if necessary). I realize this is a lot, but we want to be sure to eliminate this as the cause and no one or two programs can catch everything. To fix this problem (if it is a problem) download, install, and run the following two programs: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php and http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html. You may also want to try the new, free Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Microsoft-Security-Essentials-Download-131683.html (with the caveat that only ONE AV program can be installed and running on your system at any one time). Use removal tools when appropriate http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2009/05/05/comprehensive-list-of-uninstallers-or-removal-tools-for-antivirus-software/. You may also want to try the free Avira at: http://www.free-av.com/ and Avast at: http://www.avast.com/index. Reboot after completing all the scans. You may also want to try the free OneCare at http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/whatsnew.htm and let it run all the options (except the registry cleaner) because that’s good maintenance (it will take some time to complete but can be done in the background).

If that doesn't work, try a clean boot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135. If the problem goes away then it's just a matter of tracking down the culprit causing the problem. Follow the procedures in the article. Once found, delete, remove, deactivate, or uninstall it. Once done be sure to reset Vista back to normal status as explained in the procedures. If the problem occurs in clean mode then just restore the system to normal status and reboot - this solution is not going to work.

Boot into Safe Mode with Networking and see if the problem occurs there as well. Either way can help us narrow down the cause.

Let's test your hard drive and RAM for hardware problems:

To test your hard drive, check the manufacturer and then get the diagnostic utility from: http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/hard-drive-support/302602-hard-drive-diagnostic-utilities.html (and/or get one from your hard drive or computer manufacturer if they have one available – it wouldn’t hurt to try both). If it fails the tests, replace it. If it passes the tests, then there's probably nothing wrong with it.

You can also test your RAM at http://www.memtest.org/. If it fails, test each chip individually to find those that are bad and replace them. If it passes, RAM is probably OK.

If that doesn't work, we'll need to do a system repair/upgrade using the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk (one you own or one you can borrow from ANYONE). To do this you have to also be able to boot normally. Here's the procedure: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html. Although this will not affect your data, settings, or programs, you should still backup your data before starting just to be on the safe side. You may have a lot of updates to re-install (including any service packs you had to remove). If the version on the system came with SP1 or SP2 pre-installed and the disk is an earlier version, then you'll need to make a slipstream disk as follows: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/151606-vista-sp1-slipstream-installation-dvd.html. Please reply before doing the next step as it is a radical option and I’d like to make sure we’ve ruled out all other options before taking that step.

If that doesn't work (or you don’t have the disk), then I'm afraid the only option is a clean install. You can use Knoppix http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html with a good ISO copier like: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm along with a blank CD. This should give you enough access to the system (if you can't get in any other way) to backup your important data. If that doesn’t work, try slaving the drive to another computer and recovering the data using that other computer to access the disk. Once done, you can do a clean install either using the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk or the Recovery Disk or the Recovery Partition (whatever process is dictated by your computer manufacturer – you may need to contact them for the procedure and perhaps to get recovery disks). To do a clean install proceed as follows: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_install_03.asp (adapted as necessary by the procedures of your computer manufacturer). Then you will need to re-install all your programs, reset all your preferences, reconfigure your network and email settings, restore your backed up data, run Windows Update with possibly nearly 150 updates pending,...

Hopefully one of these procedures will resolve or at least identify the cause of your problem.

Good luck!

niemiro · Oct 21, 2010

As Flavius asked, please check out Safe Mode for us. http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/123496-safe-mode.html

Otherwise, I might suspect some poorly written malware.

Oh, and BTW, do not under any circumstances use msconfig to get into Safe Mode. Only use Advanced Boot - Method 1.

vivkom · Oct 21, 2010

Hello Lorien
Sorry for bothering you through PM. Actually I bought this machine last year and from the first day it has some or the other problem and hence I just haven't used it yet, earlier there was problem with hard drive and heat sync. When I got it repaired now the problem is slow boot up.So I got bit restless.
Sorry again.
Please accept my apologies.

I did some of the steps mentioned by you
1. I did disk cleanup.
2. Then I measured boot time for normal boot up and safe mode boot up. I used boot timer application to do that. I hope it is OK to use this application.
In normal mode it says boot time of 63 seconds and in safe mode it says 48 seconds.
During reboot the windows light bar (the bar that come before login screen when windows is starting) scrolls for 7.5 times and then my screen goes blank for about 10-20 seconds. And then windows load sound comes and login screen appear.
But still after disk cleanup I feel windows boot has improved a bit. I think after windows boot up the startup programs takes bit long to load. There are not many programs I have selected in startup options

3. I run sfc /scannow command in cmd. It says
Verification 100% Complete
Windows Resource Protection found Corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Details are incuded in CBS.log
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS

There are two files in above directory
CBS.Log & CBS.persist.
I am attaching CBS.log for your reference.

Lorien · Oct 21, 2010

Thanks, but that version is much too long to read and contains too much information. There's a way to produce a smaller .txt file that gives us what we need to see. Here's that procedure:

Click Start

, type cmd in the Start Search box, right-click cmd in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.
Type the following command exactly as written (you can copy it), and then press ENTER: findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >sfcdetails.txt

Then copy the much smaller .txt file to your desktop and attach it from there to your next reply (it's also much easier to read).

Thanks for the update and Good luck with that and the other procedures as well!

Flavius · Oct 21, 2010

Lorien said:
Thanks, but that version is much too long to read and contains too much information. There's a way to produce a smaller .txt file that gives us what we need to see.

...and you can generate it yourself from his CBS.log,how to do that practically you have already answered in your own post.This is only filtering logs,you can do that on each machine or even on another system e.g on linux.

Sfc report only issue with settings.ini -you can safely ignore this error The SFC.exe command reports Settings.ini file errors in the CBS.log file after you add gadgets to the Windows Vista Sidebar by using the Sysprep tool and an Autounattend.xml file

remains CBS.log also doesn't contain any interesting things.

@vivkom
Have you removed NIS as I recommended?Use Norton Removal Tool to do that ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

(it was also in any previous @Lorien post)

Lorien · Oct 21, 2010

Flavius;1294399...and you can generate it yourself from his CBS.log said:
Thanks, Flavius! I hadn't considered creating the file myself from the log - I wasn't aware it could be done but now that you mention it, it makes all the sense in the world. I appreciate the advice.

vivkom · Oct 22, 2010

Hello Sir
I ran chkdsk command. Everything was fine.
Uninstall the NIS. Boot up was improved a bit.
But the most affecting program was HP Wireless Assitant.exe. I disbled it from start up (by going into msconfig). Now things seems to have improved. Doing so has also solved the ALt+TAB problem. Now I dont see extra tab anymore.
I will run the scan from the links you have give to check any more malware.
I am not able to understand how to test RAM from mmtest.org.

Sir did you find anything serious in CBS.log?

vivkom · Oct 22, 2010

Sir I need one more suggestion.
I have been reading the forums and there are views saying that Norton is very bulky and not of much use.
Do you suggest that I should use some other antivirus. Please advise.

Thanks

Lorien · Oct 22, 2010

Your CBS.LOG was fine - your system files are in great shape - no problems at all. I'm glad you found the primary source of the slowdown, the ALT-TAB issue, and the extra tabs - it was no doubt installed by HP as they thought it would be helpful (and it probably also did some useful things in the background, but unless you notice something missing or wrong as a result of removing, leave it off as that seems to work better for you).

I don't think you need to run the memtest.org test if things have improved because you discovered and removed what was the true cause of the slowdown. Congratulations on that, BTW. Chances that it is a RAM problem are now considerably reduced. If you still want to test memory, you can use a somewhat easier method described in the following: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/65361-memory-diagnostics-tool.html?ltr=M.

Now that you have uninstalled NIS, have you installed a replacement AV/AM software tool yet? You don't want to be without that protection - especially on the internet. I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials as the primary real-time system along with updating, scanning, and removing anything found with Malwarebytes every couple of weeks to catch anything MSE missed. The links to them are in my original post here.

I hope this helps and thanks for the update. If you have any questions as you proceed, want to provide further updates, or note anything you think we should know, please don't hesitate to post anytime.

Good luck!

defos89 · Jan 2, 2011

Hi there,

Well I come offering no solutions, but can say I have experienced a similar problem. Once my vista x64 loads to explorer it takes more than a minute to load Norton Internet Security and for the network to connect. During this time the OS might as well be frozen. I believe it was a Windows diagnostic that told me a program (Norton Internet Security) was taking 60 seconds to load at start up and was effecting system performance and that i should shut this program down. I have tried the updates and patches from symantec but no luck. So it seems I will be booting and walking away from the pc for a couple of minutes until my subscription runs out... :rolleyes:

(for the record though, Norton is not a bad program. It has always performed well for me before this and is ranked in top ten in most lists of av programs)

Shadowjk · Jan 2, 2011

vivkom said:
Hi
I have HP Pavilion DV7 2170 US.
Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo P7550
4GB RAM
Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit
ATI Radeon 1GB

There was some problem in my hard disk and heat sync.
HP Replaced both the hard disk and heat sync.
But now the problem is after installing new hard disk my system has become very slow. It takes quite long to boot up and opening any application also takes long.
But when run continuously after a while it becomes normal and works fine. but I still feel it is slow. My lenovo laptop bought 6 years ago seems to be much faster than this new machine. I have removed unnecessarry programs from startup (by going into msconfig). Is there a way to measure to the performance of my system?

There is another problem, when I press ALT+TAB to switch between windows I see a unknown tab, I dont know what it is.Pls look at the image below

Please help me out.

As for the attached image do you have any Background Programs running? for this is a Visual Basic script running (I think not certain) and could be run from a 3p Software

vivkom · Jan 2, 2011

Hi Guys
My problem is solved. The extra tab was coz of some HP software running in background. After turning it off and removing it from startup list that extra tab is no more there. It has also improved my boot up time. The bootup time improved more after I updated my system to SP2 vista. It is working fine now.

Lorien · Jan 2, 2011

Hi vivkom,

Congrats on finding and correcting the problem.

Thank for the feedback - it is appreciated.

I will request that this thread be marked solved.

Good luck and best wishes!

Shadowjk · Jan 3, 2011

vivkom said:
Hi Guys
My problem is solved. The extra tab was coz of some HP software running in background. After turning it off and removing it from startup list that extra tab is no more there. It has also improved my boot up time. The bootup time improved more after I updated my system to SP2 vista. It is working fine now.

That is what I thought I have had this Before

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