PC Gurus, Need some help

[dsa87gn]

I got my dad a USB hard drive to back up all his digital pictures.

Plugged in the drive, the system recognized it, backed up all the pictures no problems. Stopped the drive with the remove external hardware icon. thought all was well.

The problem is now the PC boots painfully slow for some reason. The external drive is not plugged in, and the PC runs normally once it is booted up. I cant figure what the problem might be. The OS is XP. Any ideas ??

 

[klrv6]

What brand/model was the drive? I NEVER EVER install any of the software that comes with them. Most external USB drives now come with large appplications like google desktop or a sudo google desktop that they have skinned appear to be something they wrote. Check to see if google desktop is installed and uninstall it and anything the drive installed.

The first thing I always do with those things is format them. No risk of the software ever installing.

 

[dsa87gn]

ITs a Western Digital 120GB drive.

It didnt come with a CD or anything, just the drive. I just plugged it in his system and the new hardware found popped up and we transferred the pics over.

There is a bunch of stuff on his pc that Im not exaclty sure what it is, but I look like the bad guy now. When it boots it get to the point of showing his desktop with no icons and then sits for like a good minute+.

Thanks for the tip, I will check out what you mentioned.

 

[klrv6]

What Anti Virus is he running? Did this happen exactly when the drive was put in or was it the first time it had been rebooted in a while?

 

[dsa87gn]

What Anti Virus is he running? Did this happen exactly when the drive was put in or was it the first time it had been rebooted in a while?

Running AVG free.

The next reboot was very slow after backing up the pics.

 

[JoeNational]

What is the boot sequence? Make sure the boot sequence has not been changed. Sounds like it might be trying to boot to the USB device and cannot find it which is causing the very slow startup.

 

[klrv6]

If the desktop is loading slow, create another user and see if it's slow for that user. We can then look into what program is slowing the user profile or machine down.

 

[JoeNational]

Ok, at exactly what point is it slow? I read your first post and it states at startup, then your second reply is when it starts to load the desktop. Those two descriptions are entirely different.

 

[klrv6]

Setup a livemessenger (hotmail) account and I will remote in and fix it. It beats you having to look up all kinds of different things and report back. I should be free for an hour or so this evening.

If you want to go that route, I'll pm my hotmail info.

 

[dsa87gn]

Ok, at exactly what point is it slow? I read your first post and it states at startup, then your second reply is when it starts to load the desktop. Those two descriptions are entirely different.

Sorry...it loads the desktop background, no icons, and thats where it hangs for a good minute or so. when it loads up it then runs fine.

Setup a livemessenger (hotmail) account and I will remote in and fix it. It beats you having to look up all kinds of different things and report back. I should be free for an hour or so this evening.

If you want to go that route, I'll pm my hotmail info.

Thanks for the offer. I may go there tommrrow to check it out further.
He doesnt have any google desktop or other loading.

 

[klrv6]

Service pack 2 or 3? Three is out now and I have noticed a slight improvement in performance.

 

[JoeNational]

Sorry...it loads the desktop background, no icons, and thats where it hangs for a good minute or so. when it loads up it then runs fine.

.

No worries, it just makes it a little hard to help with out knowing what exactly is goin on. What you need to do is check MSconfig and see what is running on startup.

Start>Run>type msconfig>startup tab.

You will of course check this after the desktop finally loads. Something in there is hanging most likely. If you could report back what software you see or better yet take a screen shot.

 

[klrv6]

One thing about msconfig. I always uncheck any entry that does not have a description and path next to it.

 

[Butchman]

Also check the Programs | Startup and see if anything unusual is there. Also not that this solves your problem, but these days most users leave there computers running all the time. I have been doing this for years. I only shut it down when we have a bad storm. Otherwise its up 24/7. In my opinion theres nothing worse than wanting to check something on the computer quickly and you can't because you have to boot it up first. Like Joenational said its probably searching for the USB drive thats not there. I have an external usb drive I keep it attached. No real reason to unplug it.