Avast very, very slow at startup!!

Hello,

I have this new laptop that’s giving a bit of hassle because, in spite of the quite startup of the system itself (25 secs until the welcome screen), Avast takes 2,5 minutes to come on!!!
During this 2,5 min the avast tray icon stays put with that stop sign by it!! And I can’t do anything else with the computer while I wait!!!
Surely this is not normal!!
I read around forums and I’ve been two days in a row studying this one and can’t seem to find the solution. Seen some cases where avast icon is turning and scanning during start up, which is not the case.
Tried disabling the firewall, repairing avast at control panel, to no avail…
I’m a bit of a computer illiterate so your help will be much appreciated…

alvaro

Can you post a list of the programs at startup?
You can control the order of the programs at startup using Startup Delayer. It’s a freeware that controls the windows startup (Windows 98\Me\2k\XP).
By the way, which is your operational system and which firewall are you using?

hi, tech

Im using windws xp and microsoft firewall as well! its probably a good idea using the program you mentioned but maybe theres a problem elsewhere in the system and Id like to see what it s before trying something like that…
Please forgive my ignorance, but how do I get a list of the programs?
In the meanwhile I tried to disable some of the automatic updates (realplayer, quicktime, etc), but nothing, did run, msconfig to check, but couldnt figure whats normal or not…
Do you think unninstall and install again is a good ideia?
thanks for your prompt reply

alvaro

I’m also using WinXP with windows firewall

Yeah my welcome screen doesn’t appaer as fast as yours, but Avast took around 10 seconds to completely load after the welcome screen, definitely there’s something wrong with your Avast or whatever

You can give Bootvis a try, it can boost your startup by optimizing and placing the startup programs together

It can also trace all the program or system driver/core load speed and make a graph report, you might be able to trace the problem from the graph.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/BootVis.shtml

In fact, you’re not an ignorant… you know the answer:

You can see what is starting there…

Take a try to Startup Delayer and you’ll see a list of the programs too.
The idea of Kotrtim is good too. Use Bootvist to see what driver is ‘slowing down’ your boot. Say to us after that. :slight_smile:

Defragmentation of the disk won’t harm 8)

ok, guys

here it goes whats going on in the start up.
got it from startup delayer, hope you guys can see
something there…
I had done two defrags on both partitions today, no good…

WOW…

currently, I have only 2 programs in my startup list
ashdisp - avast taskbar icon
nvcpl - nvidia video driver

i think you can uncheck almost everything in the list

after googling, found a site
http://www.5starsupport.com/info/xpinfo2.htm#services

have a look, disable the unwanted services can also improve perfomance
(don’t disable the services, just change them to manual startup instead of automatic)

besides, do not change these to manual
Print Spooler - leave it automatic or printer won’t print
themes - if you still want to use the XP theme

you can disable this if you have burning programs like Nero
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service

Alfega, can you resize the first column of the Startup Delayer?
We can’t read the name of the programs… But, for sure, you have that much at startup and, of course, boot and login will take a lot to finish…

Alright, the culprits were found, I`m gonna proceed taking a look at that link for more instructions.
You guys are telling me to change the status of some of the services, right?
If so, is it better to do it through msconfig screen or control panel-administrative tools-services?
Here it goes another sartup delayer screenshot.
Thank you guys!

Through services. Also you might like to try winpatrol to disable/remove some of the start up programmes. You will also need to rename realsched.exe to realsched.old 'cos otherwise it will replicate and load itself at every start (part of realplayer tkbell) you also don’t really need quicktime or java update

There are a lot of programs you could remove from startup… You should analyse the ones you don’t want/need.

Came back to tell you guys that all the efforts were fruitless…
Got rid of all programs that i could from msconfig list, disable some services from administrative tolls… Nope.
Tried Startup Delayer, leaving only avast without any delay…Nothing.
Got Botvis, ran Optimize System and traced a boot, have to confess it was awfully confusing, so didnt got far there... Downloaded WinPatrol, messed around with the startup services plenty. Nada. So after some stressing time over the weekend decided for the desperate measure of uninstalling and reinstalling Avast!!! Samey.....Its not Avast at all!!! Even without it in the system I gotta wait
2,5 mins from welcome screen to be able to do anything…
I dont know what to do apart from starting from scratch. Reinstall the whole Windows. To illustrate my desperation Im attaching the graphs from Botvis and the programs that I left at startup…
If anybody has an ideia I would appreciate VERY much, even understanding avast is not :smiley: the problem.
I thank those of you who gave me advice towards a solution anyway!!

have to send thescreens separate, here one goes…

here the other.

;Dhere

OK, the final thing to check, HDD

www.hdtune.com

see whether your HDD drive status is OK…

Compare Current and Worst Values
normally, the values should be the same or have only slight differences such as 1~10

and you can also scan your HDD speed (Benchmark)
the average read speed should be

~30 MBps for 5400rpm drive
~60 MBps for 7200rpm drive

If your drive show any abnormal behaviour, there’s no point formatting and reinstalling Windows

Well, no the HD either.
All healthy and average speed is 31,0 MB/sec - it`s a 5400 rpm.
Thanks anyway, seems like a ghost problem…
xxxx

Well I think your only way out is install a fresh Windows

of course, after installing Windows, you can immediately disable the unwanted services and startup to boost perfomance

I suggest you run Windows with the ‘default’ list of services for some (or long) time.
If the user changes the settings and he/she is not an advanced user, more trouble he/she will have… messing… :-[

VERY GOOD NEWS!!!
Finally I did figure out what was messing up my startup!!!
Not Avast, not services, not HD, not programs at startup!!
Turns out that the Intel internal wireless connection card enabled was the culprit!
Disabling it did the trick. Now after hitting On button, everythings fully operational in 40 secs!! Just a question of enabling it afterwards when thats the case…
I do thank all of you who tried to help, I did learn quite a bit here!!!
xxxxx