XP Stalls at startup, then works fine

[DaveNC]

Yesterday I found the Welchia worm on my harddrive. So I downloaded Symantecs worm killer for this particular worm, disabled System Restore and killed it. Now when I load up my windows stalls on the explorer bar for about a full minute before I can do anything on the computer. I have a Dell Dimension L733r, 733 mhz P3 processor, 256 RAM and XP Pro. My graphics are all from Intel(810 to be exact) and sound is by Soundblaster in the PCI slot. The speaker icon is always the last to load and it takes a couple seconds before it does. The only items in my startup folder are a dial up acclerator, hkcmd and one other small thing, can't remember right now. So not much on this system. I had Norton FW and AV software, but it expired so I deleted it. Downloaded AVG and it found the worm Norton let in.

[Panama Red]

Welcome to PC Mech, Dave. When you say you deleted the Norton software, did you do an Uninstall or just delete a folder? You may have remnants of the Norton still resident on the hard drive. Try a search for anything "Norton" or "Symantec". Then deleted those files too. I'd also run a good registry repair tool like Reg Cleaner and then defrag the hard drive. Be sure to create a restore point in XP before you do anything. That way you can come back to where you are if more problems occur. Good luck

[DaveNC]

No, I used the windows uninstaller to get ride of Norton, so that shouldn't be it, that was my first thought also. Tonight I may just go into msconfig and start each it and unclick them from startup then reboot, see exactly which one is the issue.

I will look into regcleaner Panama, thanks.

[Panama Red]

I'd still do a search for the Norton stuff, Dave. AV software likes to leave things behind.

[DaveNC]

I will. Do I just do a search for "norton" "nav" what exactly do I need to look for?

[Panama Red]

Just go to the Start/Search/files and folders. Then first do a search for "Norton". Do a second search for "Symantec". Empty your Recycle bin first just in case there's anything in there, cuz if you don't the search will find them too. If any files turn up in either search, right click on them and "delete"

[Miz]

If you haven't already, shut down all of XP's unnecessary services. A couple of them are huge security holes and shutting down the unneeded services not only increases online security but also usually yields noticeably better system performance.

[DaveNC]

Tried all that and no go. How will I know which services are ok to turn off.

I did do defrag and it took a full hour to complete!

[Panama Red]

This is a good guide to use for setting XP services. Use the safe mode and you can't go wrong.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

[andyms18a]

some ware in avg anti virus is a option to scan system file at startup if its enabled that may be the reason your computer takes a minute be for you can do anything as this is good security practice i wood leave it alone but if you knead your computer available faster then disable it