Vista slow boot - Please wait screen

[HPLovecraft]

Hi All

Today I had to replace my Toshiba laptop L300 with an L350 after an accident involving a glass of wine.

Both machines came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed.

Now, the old machine used to boot in about 40 secs - but this new one gets stuck for ages at a blue screen with a 'please wait' message in the middle of the screen for about 2 mins. Once booted the machine is fine. I'm not really a computer buff but I managed to find the event log which shows a warning but no real details. The timings are as follows

BootStartTime: 20:51:38
BootEndTime: 20:55:14

BootTime: 49437
MainPathBootTime: 25137
BootPostBootTime: 24300
BootPrefetchInitTime: 42481

The funny thing is the software is identical to the package that came with the L300 - when I used to boot that machine I wouldn't get the blue screen at all - it was a black screen with a yellow progress bar that used to do about 8 passes then go straight to the log-on screen and from there immediately into the desktop with little delay. Now, the new machine does the 8 passes on the yellow bar as before, then a windows logo appears with the boop-boop-beep-beep start noise, then the blue screen appears with the please wait message for ages (lots of disk activity) before I get to the log on screen. It concerned me that there is a warning in the event log and the total boot time (BootEndTime-BootStartTime) is about 3 min 56 secs, but I can't see if its one thing imparticular that is causing the delay.

Help!

[Singh400]

Check the BIOS settings, and set it to Fast Boot and skip any/all checks while booting.

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by Singh400

Check the BIOS settings, and set it to Fast Boot and skip any/all checks while booting.

I'll give that a go tonight when I get in.

Thanks for the reply

[HPLovecraft]

Bios settings seem ok

what i really need to know is how to diagnose what is going on during the boot up process - ie is it one particular thing causing the delay or just many things loading in. When I look in the event viewer/applications/microsoft/windows/diagnostics-performance/operational after booting there is always a warning and an error from the boot performane monitor but it doesn't give any real details.

[HPLovecraft]

Just did a boot in Safe Mode and it took 35 secs to get to the log in screen and from there staight to desk top with no delay

[alnwrd]

click on start, run, type in msconfig. select the startup tab which shows which programs are loaded into memory at startup. There are probably a lot of programs which you could disable to improve boot time. You can check what each does if you google each one. After unchecking ones that can be left out click apply then ok. They are loaded into memory so that should you want to run the program they are available without reading from the hard drive which saves time but increases initial boot time

[HPLovecraft]

I disabled everything in the start-up menu using msconfig. Unplugged internet and USB mouse (only external devices that are connected).

Still takes >3 mins to boot up.

Same errors in the performance/diagnostics

Vista Event id 100 critical/warning from the boot performance monitor.

Can't track down whats causing it though.

A bootlog just lists the drivers that were loaded during boot but no times.

Are there any tools out there to solve this issue ?

[Singh400]

I would just nuke it and re-install Vista. Then test out what is causing it.

[Movieman21]

Hi this worked for me untill i restored my Toshiba for a different reason but now im back to slow boot and it dont work anymore.


I think I might have a fix for this, it certainly sorted my issues out
with slow boot and also dealing with slow networking talking to any
domain resource.
A feature of the IP stack in Vista is the ability to auto tune to make
better use of high bandwidth networks. Windows Server 2003 support this
but I have been finding that it can get problematic in certain
circumstances. Needless to say that I managed to find one of them.
To disable this feature on the Vista Client, to see if it affects you,
run the following command as an administrator (you may need to turn UAC
off, or open NETSH with a right click and run as admin selected).
-NETSH INTERFACE TCP GLOBAL set autotuninglevel=disabled-
If it works, it will do so immediately, no reboot required. If it
doesn't you can turn it back on by the following command.
-NETSH INTERFACE TCP GLOBAL set autotuninglevel=normal-

[DaMaGeCaSe]

There is a simple fix for L350 that will resolve this issue.

Click "Start" and type "MSCONFIG" in the search box. Press enter.
Click on the "Services" and untick "Notebook performance tuning service".

This is a part of the Toshiba TEMPRO software and seems to be the culprit. Once untick the "Please Wait" screen should only appear momentarily, if at all

Many thanks to DaMaGeCaSe I have been trying to speed up my L300 1AQ for months without success until his fix worked for me. Instead of 3 minutes its now only 1 minute to boot - comparable with most other laptops. Toshiba themselves (helpdesk) were no use. I now love my laptop a lot more and can boot up quickly when I want to fill in my diary or have a quick look at something on the internet.

[jl9za]

It may be the version of tempro you were using - see see Toshiba - TEMPRO for latest version where it says "if you are using TEMPRO version 1.0 or 1.1 then you may see a quicker boot up time if you upgrade to this version".

[stockyvillage]

you could also click advanced in boot up in system config and make sure that you have two processors running at boot up

[Boostrail]

Originally Posted by DaMaGeCaSe

There is a simple fix for L350 that will resolve this issue.

Click "Start" and type "MSCONFIG" in the search box. Press enter.
Click on the "Services" and untick "Notebook performance tuning service".

This is a part of the Toshiba TEMPRO software and seems to be the culprit. Once untick the "Please Wait" screen should only appear momentarily, if at all

Hi

I came across this thread when viewing my disappearing printer thread. I read with interest as my wifes laptop is a Tosh L350 and takes 2 mins 40 secs to boot up to the login screen.

I switched off the notebook tuning service as suggested but this has made no difference whatsoever.

I also tried stockyvilllages suggestion and yes boot was set to 1 processor - I changed it to 2 and this has improved boot up time to 2 mins 20 secs.

This is IMHO still far too long and about twice that of my sons Acer Vista laptop.

Any further suggestions?

[stockyvillage]

Originally Posted by Boostrail

Hi

I came across this thread when viewing my disappearing printer thread. I read with interest as my wifes laptop is a Tosh L350 and takes 2 mins 40 secs to boot up to the login screen.

I switched off the notebook tuning service as suggested but this has made no difference whatsoever.

I also tried stockyvilllages suggestion and yes boot was set to 1 processor - I changed it to 2 and this has improved boot up time to 2 mins 20 secs.

This is IMHO still far too long and about twice that of my sons Acer Vista laptop.

Any further suggestions?

Can you mail me a screen shot of your start up list in system configuration.

[Boostrail]

Originally Posted by stockyvillage

Can you mail me a screen shot of your start up list in system configuration.

Appreciate your help but why?

[stockyvillage]

Originally Posted by Boostrail

Appreciate your help but why?

I will tell you which start up programs to untick.My daughters MSI which is 2yrs old and has AMD Turion x2 1.6ghz processors.Takes 45 secs to boot.That includes pressing the button to fire up.
You decide whether you want yours speeding up.As I think (but why) was a little ambiguous.Considering ,you ended your previous post with this>>>>>Any further suggestions?

[mrbobc]

slow boot ups can be down to bad/conflicting driver installations.

if you have installed drivers for anything, uninstall them and reboot to rule them out of the equation.

also you can download ccleaner from cnet and clean out your registry both before and after you uninstall any drivers.