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Thread: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

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    Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    Hello,

    I'm running 2x WD 500gb hdd's, one for my OS and the other for games/software primarily.

    I put my Page File on my Gaming HDD and turned the Page File off for my OS HDD as I heard this helps reduce fragmenting... does anyone think that is a bad idea, let me hear your opinion

    I'm currently experiencing rather slow shutdown and boot times... It takes maybe 40-60 seconds to shutdown from the time I click the button and 70-120 seconds to boot...

    The main length of time is spent sitting and staring at the black screen with the Vista loading bar (the green bar that keeps shooting across from left to right)... and this green loading block moves across the bar over 40 times before it moves onto the next stage, that's over a minute!

    However, once I read the Windows Orb and hear that startup sound, it instantly shows my desktop and starts loading, it doesn't even show the "Welcome" screen, at all. That I am very happy about. But it is the loading time before that, and the restart time that I want to figure out why is taking so long...

    Thanks again, looking forward to getting this sped up

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    set a 100mb page file on the windows drive, it will make a small one regardless of any setting. best to set a fixed one of 100mb and be done with, the rest will be on the other drive.

    chance is its a driver causing the problem, maybe worth using the msconfig tool and disabling everything then adding stuff back until it slows down, also check the event viewer and performance monitor.

    Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    Quote Originally Posted by GoNz0 View Post
    set a 100mb page file on the windows drive, it will make a small one regardless of any setting. best to set a fixed one of 100mb and be done with, the rest will be on the other drive.

    chance is its a driver causing the problem, maybe worth using the msconfig tool and disabling everything then adding stuff back until it slows down, also check the event viewer and performance monitor.
    Yeah I did that already, I haven't been able to locate an issue with any drivers though.

    I just recently reformatted, so I'm thinking it might be windows index and whatever else that requires a few days of running before it speeds up?

    Are there any gentle tweaks (I don't like changing things too much that will cause me more harm than good) which can/should be applied to a new Vista installation? I'm practically running at default with the exception of turning off windows firewall and windows defender, because I'm using the following:

    ZoneAlarm firewall
    AVG
    SuperAntiSpyware
    Malwarebytes

    I'll keep messing around until I figure this out... Are there any BIOS settings that people normally modify to improve startup/shutdown that I may be unaware of?

    Thank you Gonz0

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    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    You may find this article of use

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/237740 (it concerns win 2003 server - but the principles hold true)

    Ideally you want to minimise the use of the page (or swap) file completely - disk read/writes are MUCH slower than the equivalent RAM operations. If you are using a 64 bit version of Vista (and your mobo supports it) adding more RAM is preferable to tinkering with the pagefile size.

    However I agree with Gonz0' s comment that there may be a driver or other issue during the windows start up process. It may be that it is waiting for some process to start and doesn't continue until that process times out. The system logs may give you a clue.

    Alternatively, you could regard Vista as the Windows 7 beta - Win 7 is altogether more 'polished' than Vista, and you would probably notice a significant performance improvement.
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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    does safe mode work ok ?

    Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    Quote Originally Posted by peterb View Post
    You may find this article of use

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/237740 (it concerns win 2003 server - but the principles hold true)

    Ideally you want to minimise the use of the page (or swap) file completely - disk read/writes are MUCH slower than the equivalent RAM operations. If you are using a 64 bit version of Vista (and your mobo supports it) adding more RAM is preferable to tinkering with the pagefile size.

    However I agree with Gonz0' s comment that there may be a driver or other issue during the windows start up process. It may be that it is waiting for some process to start and doesn't continue until that process times out. The system logs may give you a clue.

    Alternatively, you could regard Vista as the Windows 7 beta - Win 7 is altogether more 'polished' than Vista, and you would probably notice a significant performance improvement.
    So I've read before... I know there are varying opinions regarding page file... I currently placed my C:\ page file at 256 mb and my D:\ at 6141... would you recommend changing that? If so, what to?

    Regarding Safe Mode, I believe it takes similar time.... I'll restart in safe mode right now to verify this.

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    [cut 'n' paste]

    Control Panel
    System Maintenance
    Performance Information and Tools
    in the left pane, Advanced tools
    cause of long startup/shutdown should be near the top under performance
    issues.

    Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    After shutting down my PC (which took 40 seconds of watching the "Shutting Down" screen), I opened up my case and checked some things, then turned it back on and it booted in under a minute, faster than ever, in fact I would love to see it boot like this everytime, it was really quick.

    Quote Originally Posted by GoNz0 View Post
    [cut 'n' paste]

    Control Panel
    System Maintenance
    Performance Information and Tools
    in the left pane, Advanced tools
    cause of long startup/shutdown should be near the top under performance
    issues.
    I have a lot of Warnings and Errors but none of them are dated from today, they're all from the 4th and earlier... that's odd, isn't it? Is this what you wanted?

    Paste of the first Warning in event viewer "Diagnostics-Performance" > "Operational":

    Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational
    Source: Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance
    Date: 04/11/2010 13:03:04
    Event ID: 100
    Task Category: Boot Performance Monitoring
    Level: Warning
    Keywords: Event Log
    User: LOCAL SERVICE
    Computer: Home-PC
    Description:
    Windows has started up:
    Boot Duration : 64309ms
    IsDegradation : false
    Incident Time (UTC) : 04/11/2010 13:00:45
    Event Xml:
    <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
    <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance" Guid="{cfc18ec0-96b1-4eba-961b-622caee05b0a}" />
    <EventID>100</EventID>
    <Version>1</Version>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>4002</Task>
    <Opcode>34</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000010000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-11-04T13:03:04.011Z" />
    <EventRecordID>107</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation ActivityID="{00000001-0000-0001-AE39-764B207CCB01}" />
    <Execution ProcessID="1376" ThreadID="2744" />
    <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational</Channel>
    <Computer>Robert-PC</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-19" />
    </System>
    <EventData>
    <Data Name="BootTsVersion">2</Data>
    <Data Name="BootStartTime">2010-11-04T13:00:45.702Z</Data>
    <Data Name="BootEndTime">2010-11-04T13:03:00.969Z</Data>
    <Data Name="SystemBootInstance">29</Data>
    <Data Name="UserBootInstance">23</Data>
    <Data Name="BootTime">64309</Data>
    <Data Name="MainPathBootTime">45009</Data>
    <Data Name="BootKernelInitTime">17</Data>
    <Data Name="BootDriverInitTime">3125</Data>
    <Data Name="BootDevicesInitTime">16124</Data>
    <Data Name="BootPrefetchInitTime">50752</Data>
    <Data Name="BootPrefetchBytes">775593984</Data>
    <Data Name="BootAutoChkTime">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootSmssInitTime">4050</Data>
    <Data Name="BootCriticalServicesInitTime">635</Data>
    <Data Name="BootUserProfileProcessingTime">365</Data>
    <Data Name="BootMachineProfileProcessingTime">2</Data>
    <Data Name="BootExplorerInitTime">16870</Data>
    <Data Name="BootNumStartupApps">6</Data>
    <Data Name="BootPostBootTime">19300</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsRebootAfterInstall">false</Data>
    <Data Name="BootRootCauseStepImprovementBits">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootRootCauseGradualImprovementBits">8388608</Data>
    <Data Name="BootRootCauseStepDegradationBits">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootRootCauseGradualDegradationBits">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsDegradation">false</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsStepDegradation">false</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsGradualDegradation">false</Data>
    <Data Name="BootImprovementDelta">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootDegradationDelta">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsRootCauseIdentified">true</Data>
    </EventData>
    </Event>

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    IsDegradation : true



    thats what you need to look for, clear the logs and if it happens again it will help point out whats taking its time

    Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    Quote Originally Posted by GoNz0 View Post
    IsDegradation : true



    thats what you need to look for, clear the logs and if it happens again it will help point out whats taking its time
    Hmm logically "IsDegradation: True" sounds like a bad thing, but that Error I pasted says "IsDegradation: False" which should be good, right?

    I cleared the log...

    Is that all I can do for now?

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    yeh it puts a new entry each boot (not sure about shutdown) with the boot time and if its was classed as degraded or not.

    Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack
    off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    Quote Originally Posted by GoNz0 View Post
    yeh it puts a new entry each boot (not sure about shutdown) with the boot time and if its was classed as degraded or not.
    When I booted in Safe Mode the time was pretty much the same...

    I noticed that the last two DRIVERS to be loaded were

    DRIVERS / Avgrkx64.sys
    DRIVERS / Avgidseh.sys

    And it took maybe 40 seconds on that screen before it moved on to the windows loading...

    Could these two drivers be causing the slow times?

    Another question, can having an external hard drive connected via USB cause slow boot and shutdown times?

    One more question, I had a keyboard which was plugged into the PS2 port but I removed it and replaced it with a USB one, could this be causing slow times as well?

    In my Device Manager, it shows two keyboards, but I only have one... I have uninstalled them but they both keep reinstalling themselves beyond my contol.

    Keyboards:
    "HID Keyboard Device"
    "HID Keyboard Device"

    There should only be one, correct?

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    I ran

    sfc /SCANNOW

    in CMD prompt...

    It said

    Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
    Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

    C:\Windows\system32>sfc /SCANNOW

    Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

    Beginning verification phase of system scan.
    Verification 100% complete.
    Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of th
    em.
    Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example
    C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

    The system file repair changes will take effect after the next reboot.

    C:\Windows\system32>


    I tried to open CBS.log but it says "Access is denied" no matter what I do, even though I'm administrator... lol windows.

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    Hmm - a Google of those two files indicate that they may be malware

    http://www.bestspywarescanner.net/er...rkx64.sys.html

    http://www.removespywareguides.com/A...to-remove.html

    Have you done an AV sweep of the system, or have an AV program installed? It might be wiorth trying an online AV scanner to be certain.

    Although those files are flagged as p9ossible malware, it isn't conclusive - but I haven't (yet) discovered what their legitimate function might be.

    Also note that those two links are to sites that are offereing software, so be cautious when evaluating what they are saying.

    EDIT:

    Bit more searching shows that the avg files may be a component of tge AVG virus guard - do you have that installed? If that is the case it may well account for the slower boot times if it is doing a scan during the boot process.

    Sorry I can't be more specific, but that might gifve you some pointers to further investigation.
    Last edited by peterb; 07-11-2010 at 02:06 AM.
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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    Quote Originally Posted by peterb View Post
    Hmm - a Google of those two files indicate that they may be malware

    http://www.bestspywarescanner.net/er...rkx64.sys.html

    http://www.removespywareguides.com/A...to-remove.html

    Have you done an AV sweep of the system, or have an AV program installed? It might be wiorth trying an online AV scanner to be certain.

    Although those files are flagged as p9ossible malware, it isn't conclusive - but I haven't (yet) discovered what their legitimate function might be.

    Also note that those two links are to sites that are offereing software, so be cautious when evaluating what they are saying.
    Well I just reformatted and installed AVG/Malwarebytes/ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall/SuperantiSpyware before doing anything else, so I don't see how anything could've gotten on my system. I haven't downloaded from any untrusty sites (only microsoft, ASUS, ccleaner, MSI, well known manufacturers...) and I haven't surfed porn or anything...

    I already ran scans too...

    Hmm

    Good eye, I'll look into them, but I'm surprised they would be loaded in Safe Mode, are they not default drivers for Windows?

    [EDIT] I think they belong to AVG Anti-Virus... You know the program, right? It's well popular.

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    Re: Improving Vista Boot/Shutdown Times?

    Now I just got a Windows Solution message:

    Problem: WindowsWcpOtherFailure3

    "Windows Modular Installer" <--- what is this?

    Problem signature
    Problem Event Name: WindowsWcpOtherFailure3
    OsVersion: 6.0.6002
    File: base\wcp\sil\merged\ntu\ntsystem.cpp
    Function: Windows::Rtl::SystemImplementation:irectFileSystemProvider::SysCreateFile
    Line: 1849
    Status: c0000243
    StackHash: 0x27cb4075
    OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
    Locale ID: 2057

    Files that help describe the problem
    poqexec.log
    Cbs.log
    Cbs.persist.log
    SCM.EVM
    FilterList.log
    memory.hdmp
    minidump.mdmp


    Maybe I do have some sort of virus afterall... damn how the hell would that have gotten on my fresh install of Windows with all of the security measures I've taken and not even done anything yet! lol

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