TroubleShooting: windows xp boot

1. Make sure that you have all the Microsoft Security Updates installed.

http://www.windowsupdate.com/

2. Low disk space, make sure that you have at least 10-12% of free disk space.

Delete the entries in %temp%

Delete c:\windows\temp

Delete c:\windows\$NtUninstllKB000000$

Note: Where 000000 is the KB article number

Warning: If you do delete the $NtUninstllKB000000$, you will not be able to uninstall the security hotfixes.

2b. Check the disk for any issues

Start, Run, CMD

ChkDsk.exe /f

2c. Disk fragmentation

Use the built-in Disk Defragmenter utility or Contig (Microsoft SysInternals tool)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx

2d. Most laptops are at a disadvantage compared to desktops if they have 4200 RPM and 5200 RPM disk drives

Get a faster disk disk i.e. 7200 RPM disk, drawback, uses more power.

3. Delete the PreFetch that could have become stale or corrupt

Click on Start, Run, c:\windows\prefetch

Delete the entries

4. Make sure that your antivirus kernel filter driver is up to date.

Note: Not to be confused with the antivirus definition update.

5. Make sure that the hardware drivers are up to date.

Older drivers could be slower to initialize or go thru it’s routine.

6. Make sure that the 3rd party applications are up to date. Check for updates on the ISV (Independent Software Vendor) website.

7. If it is joined to a domain

7a. Check for startup scripts or logon scripts

7b. If you are using Windows Desktop Search (WDS) group policies with WDS 3.01, you will want to upgrade to:

Windows Desktop Search 4.0

7c. If you have are using Group Policy Preference (GPP), you want the following hotfix installed:

974266 Group Policy Preferences Client-Side Extension Hotfix Rollup

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=974266

8.

Tools:

- Safe Mode

- Safe Mode with Networking

- MSConfig

Start, Run, MSConfig

Services tab, Hide All Microsoft Services > Disable All

Startup tab, disable all

Click on Apply

Click on Ok

It will ask you to restart

- BootVis

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/fastboot/default.mspx

Note: For Windows Vista and higher, this tool has been replaced by the XBootMgr.exe Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT)

For more information:

Windows On/Off Transition Performance Analysis

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/On-Off_Transition.mspx

- ProcMon Log Boot

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

- Manual complete memory dump while it seems that is taking a long time or seems to be hung.

972110 How to generate a kernel dump file or a complete memory dump file in Windows Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=972110

Note: The only thing that is different is the hotfixes and “BIOS-level server hardware recovery mechanism” which only server level hardware have.