Weird problem with Dell laptop

[Azimuth]

Since the backlight in my old Gateway exploded and died, my sister gave me her old Dell Inspiron E1505 notebook.

I totally reformatted the hard disk, and reinstalled Windows. Everything was running perfectly. Then I started installing the drivers, service packs, and .NET Framework files. Only this stuff, no apps or anything.

Since I was installing these in a batch, I wasn't restarting in between installations. So basically I don't know what's caused this - something is causing Windows to load really slowly, and in a really bizarre way.

It hangs on the Welcome screen for about 30 seconds, with no hard disk activity. Then it switches over to my desktop background, but doesn't load Explorer. So I stare at my desktop background for another 40 seconds or so, also with no hard disk activity, before the Windows Startup chime comes in, and Windows loads up properly. Once Windows has loaded, there are no issues or performance anomalies whatsoever.

I've checked msconfig, and there's - as expected, given the very basic installation I'm using - nothing's loading at startup that should cause this. There's absolutely no way it's malware of any kind either.

I've Googled around, and turned up some other links describing similar issues (one of which was also on a Dell), but no resolution. Some nerd suggested checking the power options to see if some custom config is sparing battery life or some ****, but it's nothing like that.

I've reformatted and reinstalled Windows more times over the years than I could possibly count. I've never encountered anything like this.

[Wesley]

Since the backlight in my old Gateway exploded and died, my sister gave me her old Dell Inspiron E1505 notebook.

I totally reformatted the hard disk, and reinstalled Windows. Everything was running perfectly. Then I started installing the drivers, service packs, and .NET Framework files. Only this stuff, no apps or anything.

Since I was installing these in a batch, I wasn't restarting in between installations. So basically I don't know what's caused this - something is causing Windows to load really slowly, and in a really bizarre way.

It hangs on the Welcome screen for about 30 seconds, with no hard disk activity. Then it switches over to my desktop background, but doesn't load Explorer. So I stare at my desktop background for another 40 seconds or so, also with no hard disk activity, before the Windows Startup chime comes in, and Windows loads up properly. Once Windows has loaded, there are no issues or performance anomalies whatsoever.

I've checked msconfig, and there's - as expected, given the very basic installation I'm using - nothing's loading at startup that should cause this. There's absolutely no way it's malware of any kind either.

I've Googled around, and turned up some other links describing similar issues (one of which was also on a Dell), but no resolution. Some nerd suggested checking the power options to see if some custom config is sparing battery life or some ****, but it's nothing like that.

I've reformatted and reinstalled Windows more times over the years than I could possibly count. I've never encountered anything like this.

You're running all the drivers, service packs and stuff from one batch file? I assume you're using the right switches because more than half the users who I know that know how to use batch files dont know the switches offhand ;-)

The only thing I can think of is that in between writing the new copies of files to the windows installation, some critical file got mashed up and is causing either a memory leak or a very severe processor drainage. You might want to check out the logs to figure out what's not being loaded, because a system hang like that would definitely indicate an error.

Does it also do this in safe mode? If it doesn't you can reasonably assume that its either from installing one service pack or hotfix, or installing them all together using the batch file and not re-starting, not a driver and certainly not a power management setting. In that case, you can either uninstall them one-by-one to figure out when the problem disappears, or you can re-format and take the slow and steady route. I've only experienced something similar once with a 32-bit system running 4gigs of memory and it had a weird memory leak that'd suck it all up in seconds, which turned out to be a bug in a recently-installed program that'd start on start-up.

If you have XP Pro or Vista Home Premium/Business, then there will be another, more accurate way to figure out what's going wrong by using a performance logger hidden in Windows. If you need help with this, just say the word :-)

[Azimuth]

Heh, nah, not using a batch file. I simply meant I was installing them one after the other without rebooting in between.

Groan. I suppose I'd best start uninstalling stuff. I'll start with SP3. Stupid SP3.

[Wesley]

Heh, nah, not using a batch file. I simply meant I was installing them one after the other without rebooting in between.

Groan. I suppose I'd best start uninstalling stuff. I'll start with SP3. Stupid SP3.

Maybe you should also make a slipstreamed disc with all the service packs and stuff using nLite for future use. Then you'll never have to do this again ;-) What version of XP are you using?

[Azimuth]

Ugh, I just reinstalled Windows. That fixed it.

I know about apps like nLite, but frankly, I hate using random software from random places. I use such a barebones Windows installation anyway that reinstalling everything takes less than an hour.

[PersephoneX]

You'd be surprised. Some of that "random" software can save you plenty of time and effort, if you know what you're doing...

[jnonan]

Ugh, I just reinstalled Windows. That fixed it.

I know about apps like nLite, but frankly, I hate using random software from random places. I use such a barebones Windows installation anyway that reinstalling everything takes less than an hour.

I followed what you did even the steps you have mentioned on the beginning of this thread. but reinstalling windows does not fix my problem..