Slow start up Win 7

[viking33]

I've been trying to identify what is causing a very slow start up, either cold boot or restart. There is HD LED activity during the boot time. I have checked MS Essentials and Malwarebytes for optional virus or malware and don't see any mention of a scheduled or start time check. I disabled one at a time to see if they were running at start. No difference. I've run Autorun to look for any obvious start program that would be rthe cause.
Haven't improved the time at all.
Think I can't see the forest for the trees? Ideas?
This has been happenibg before the power outages, so don't think it has anything to do with it.

[HansV]

If you're willing to experiment: https://helgeklein.com/blog/2013/07/ana ... -analyzer/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[viking33]

If you're willing to experiment: https://helgeklein.com/blog/2013/07/ana ... -analyzer/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks, Hans.
I don't know if I want or could be that detailed in my analytics. Lots of info there that may give me the 100 yard stare. I am hoping for a little less tech numbers that I probably would respond to by saying: "HUH?"
I may just DL it just to see what comes of it though.

[Rudi]

Try running scandisk and do a defrag? Maybe these pick up and correct sectors on the HDD that cause a slow read.
Also check for an update any drivers.

Just my

[stuck]

My
Have a look at how much CPU / RAM is being used by MS Essentials. In the past it has been known to eat a lot of resources for no apparent reason. Do a Google search on 'mse high cpu' and see if any of those hits give you some clues.

Ken

[John Gray]

You could always clone your [mechanical] hard drive to an SSD drive. Can work wonders (but costs...)!

[StuartR]

I no longer have ANY PCs that boot from mechanical hard drives. SSDs are so much faster, quieter, cooler, ...

[John Gray]

Ah, but do they last as long...?

[stuck]

Ah, but do they last as long...?

Well I've got a HDD that I installed in my Win 98 machine that I built in 1998 and it still works, so if the SSD in my Win 10 box is still OK in 20 years time I'll be able to answer your question.

Ken

[HansV]

SSDs, especially newer ones, appear to have a very decent lifespan. See for example How Long Do Solid State Drives Really Last?

[viking33]

SSD would be fine if I just wanted to update my system drive(s) but this is a new problem that appears to hog resources & CPU at start up. Once booted it runs at satisfactory speed. My prime suspect is still MS Essentials but I can't swear to it, as yet. I think I'll just uninstall it temporarily and stay off line to see what happens. You would think there would be an opttion to have it do a scan at every start up?

[BobH]

The real beauty of an SSD is the speed with which it boots a system. Although it might improve performance after start up, I don't think that can be easily detected.

I vote for the SSD, too.

In times past I was infected with a Rootkit virus that my AV and malware detectors missed. IIRC - and I've slept more than twice since then - one of the indicators of the problem was very slow booting. This was in the days before I installed an SSD and loaded Win7 on it. It might be worth a little 'Net searching to learn about rootkits and ways to detect and remove them.

[viking33]

The real beauty of an SSD is the speed with which it boots a system. Although it might improve performance after start up, I don't think that can be easily detected.

I vote for the SSD, too.

In times past I was infected with a Rootkit virus that my AV and malware detectors missed. IIRC - and I've slept more than twice since then - one of the indicators of the problem was very slow booting. This was in the days before I installed an SSD and loaded Win7 on it. It might be worth a little 'Net searching to learn about rootkits and ways to detect and remove them.

I agree that an SSD drive would be faster and more up to date, But before this all started, my boot time was pretty acceptable at under a minute most times and that was fine with me. This is a recent annoyance, so I'm treating it as a problem not the need for an upgrase.
i did DL a copy of Malwarebytes new Anti Rootkit Beta and ran it without it finding any rootkits.
If interested you can get it HERE FREE
Meanwhile, I'm still digging.

[JoeP]

Have you installed any of the Spectre/Meltdown fixes? For some chipsets and workloads a significant impact is incurred.

[viking33]

Have you installed any of the Spectre/Meltdown fixes? For some chipsets and workloads a significant impact is incurred.

No, I haven't, Joe. In fact the little I have heard of these patches is that they are rather "buggy" in themselves.
Do you know of any details or locations as to weather these would appy to my particular CPU?

[JoeP]

Lots to read at Facts About the New Security Research Findings and Intel® Products.

[stuck]

...My prime suspect is still MS Essentials but I can't swear to it...

I'm with you on that. I have a little netbook that runs Win 7 Starter Ed. and uses MSE. It's never been speedy but everynow and then it really grinds and if I look in Task Manager, MSE is the thing that's hogging CPU time. Some times the slow down is worse than others but I can't see a pattern Since I don't use the netbook much I just live with it.

Ken

[DaveA]

Of all of the disks that I have had to replace, the earlier signs were the boot up time taking longer and longer.
I would find a very good disk checking program and put it (the hard drive) under a lot of stress, BUT, do a good backup before doing this.

There are many free programs out there, just do a Google on "hard disk checking software free" without the quotes.
I would download and run 3 or more and compare what each of them find.

[Argus]

I've been trying to identify what is causing a very slow start up, either cold boot or restart.

I would look at changes etc. When, what etc.* And since it's a HDD, I agree that it would be a good idea to check it with some disk software. Anything unusual in the Event logs, Bob? Any hardware changes? Any difference when booting online or offline (i.e. connected or not to the router)?

As for SSDs, even though it doesn't have anything to do with Bob's question, or rather, it would be an odd way of solving things - buying something else; yes, they are great as system drives; then you wonder why it takes so long to open your data on the other drives. Made Win 7 match later OS in startup time, more or less, 14-20 s, but the benefit is there when running software.

Lifespan for SSDs? I think it's enough, certainly for a system drive ... And I think it depends a bit on the tech (TLC, MLC etc.) and how you use it, as with HDDs. On the other hand it's write cycles that tear down SSDs, and if you (almost) only read from a (data) drive it will last longer in that scenario as well. So, it depends a lot on what you do with the drive (and tech & quality), but I think 20-50-100+ years is fine for a system drive.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is this with MSE? Is it scanning the drive during startup? Never seen.

* But I'd be the first to agree that some changes can come slowly and go unnoticed for a while, if you have a lot of other things to do. It took some time before I noticed CBS logs in CAB files filling the system drive (going from 50-60 % free to 10 % ); and on one computer the SSD started to slow down, a problem with the firmware, and even if I knew about the issue, waiting for the update, it took some time to notice, and later on it was obvious, especially the backup and startup times.

[stuck]

...but what is this with MSE? Is it scanning the drive during startup?...

Maybe or it's taking an age to get through to the MS servers in order to download the latest virus definitions.

Ken