Network icon and connection slow at boot

Hi All ,

I've just done a clean install of XP3 on my ol' Dell L400 labtop . Had W2K on it . The only thing I've loaded so far are all the windows updates as of today . I have no programs , antivirus loaded as yet .

The problem is that the network icon doesn't initally appear in the bottom right hand tray and the internet connection is unavailable during this time . After about 90 seconds of nothing (no disk activity) , the icon suddenly appears and the connection returns .

I've done a quick search on here and on Google . There's a few people with the same problem :

_http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/34056936/xp-network-icon-slow-to-start-on-boot.aspx

Unfortunately , no-one seems to have posted a solution . The only thing I've tried is disabling the "automatically search for network folders and printers" in explorer . Also I've nothing to disable in the startup of msconfig .

Any help would be appreciated .

Paul

Considering age and specs of the Dell in question, not unusual.
Unless you've upgraded the hardware on the laptop.

The specs of the PC meet the minimum requirements for XP .

I've just done another clean install and it works fine before any othe updates are loaded so it's definetely software related . I'll try loading the updates in batches to see if I can find where the problem is .

Sammy

Hi Again . I still haven't loaded any updates but I have loaded the drivers for my conceptronic wi-fi card and now that connection is doing the same thing . Definetely network related .

Sammy

I am having the same problem on a more recent Dell Latitude 5400.

Here's what I did before the problem arose:

Removed DCP (dell bloatware)
Removed Avast antivirus 4.8
Installed Avast antivirus 5.0
Windows Update: root certificates and latest .net frame work. There were 2 .nets.
Installed latest driver for Intel 5100 wifi adapter

Somewhere after that list of things, the network icons take ~ 2 minutes to come up. It did not do this prior to my changes, the network booted instantly.

Here's what I tried with no success:

Completely removed the wireless drivers and connection and installed the original drivers.
Reinstalled an even later driver Intel had on their site dated 9/10/2010
Removed AV program and reinstalled
Checked event viewer - nothing related to network hiccups or hangs
Spent about 3 hours googling to find a few similar posts with no solutions.

My conclusion:

If it were the nic drivers that caused the issue, wouldn't completely removing them (and manually checking the files are deleted) and reinstalling the original solve the problem? Does not appear to be the drivers even though the effect is network related.

I'm almost leaning towards the removal of the Dell bloatware or windows updates. I'll have to check exactly which updates I got tomorrow since I'm out of time today. I will try rolling back those updates. I think there were only 4 optional updates to choose from. I'm not really planning on re-installing the dell bloatware.

My guess is Avast maybe the culprit. Check the settings of it.

It's a weird one . I still haven't been able to isolate the problem . I've just been letting it boot up . There seems to be a few people having this same problem on various forums but I haven't found a solution yet .

Paul

It takes my computers about 3 minutes to completely boot up.
I just get a cup of coffee while waiting.

Yeah , but it's not even booting . It just sits there frozen . No hdd activity , nothing for exactly the same amount of time , every time . It's right after a clean install so there's nothing in the startup either . It's no big deal . I'm only using the PC to do my guitar course on-line .

I have avast professional installed on about 15 client computers ranging from laptops to desktops within the company, including my own. None of them exhibit the same problem.

This laptop boots up normally, I can open a browser but I get the page not found error since the network has not initialized. Nothing else is frozen except for the fact the icons in the taskbar and the net is not loaded.

The user of the laptop made like it's not a big deal but it's frustrating to have done something and not know what caused it.

Did you check in device manager to see if there is a 1 or ? mark on the nic?

I don't have any visible h/w issues in Device Manager . One thing I have noticed is that during my 90 second "frozen" period my mouse still works . It will let me navigate through the Start menu but if I try to open a program it doesn't open immediately . What happens is that any programs seemed to get buffered in the queue and all open at once once the 90 second period has finished .

During that 90 seconds your "Intel Mobile Pentium III" with "Maximum RAM" of "256 MB" system is thinking, (processing boot up information). For a faster bootup you would need to start with a faster processor and more RAM, or, a less complicated operating system.

Thanks , but I don't think that's it . With the internal NIC or conceptronic wi-fi card removed the PC takes about 60 seconds to boot up completely with no freezing . It's definitely network related .

I am surprised it boots in anything less 5 minutes.

Doc called it correctly, that is a 98 machine and W2K is about the most complicated OS it can run. with any speed we would like.

Starting at $400 here, one can get a pretty fair laptop.
Examples:
http://www.walmart.com/search/search...revTerm=laptop

Check the boot order in the BIOS/CMOS Setup and make sure it is attempting to boot from the hard drive before the network card.

Fine . I've just timed it . It took 45 seconds to get to the desktop , and another 20 for the hdd to finish . I'm not doubting the fact that the hardware is old but the PC runs fine with XP . The only time there's a problem is with the network connection . As I've already stated there are MANY people with this exact same problem . A quick search for "network icon slow" will reveal that . I doubt very much if all these people are using a dell L400 labtop . Anyway , we seem to be drifting off the subject . I appreciate the help . I'll keep investigating .

Switch to a newer nic.

... and the PCMCIA Wi-Fi card that does the same ?

@SpywareDr . Thanks for that . I've double checked the BIOS and the hdd is first in the list .

If anyone comes across any possible software fixes then please let me know .

Paul

Would like to chip in here if you don't mind, I'm running the same OS and service pack and have the exact same problem.
Specs: Pentium 4 3.0ghz, 2gb Ram

This is on a fresh install XP that boots pretty quickly it's definitely a software issue, the OS boots in no time but hangs for a few minutes before I get the network icon, it does the same thing whether on the wireless USB dongle or built in NIC

:(

All the computers I've ever used load a ton of stuff at boot up... My main office and my main home pc load MSN Messeger.. Once its loaded and has made a connection I know I'm ready to rcok n roll.

Having networked drives and or printers can slow the process...but simply put, you have to wait for the machine to finish booting before you can use it;)

I never did find a solution . During some of the initial XP updates (after SP3 clean install) it would start to work normally but after installing all updates then it reverted back to the 90 second delay . It happens with both the internal NIC and a PCMCIA Wi-Fi card . I gave up looking for a fix .

Sammy

I know people think it's just the computer booting all the processes but it's a definite 'hang' there is no HDD usage or high CPU load then after a couple of mins the network icon instantly appears. I've only had this issue with SP3
Oh well, I can live with it :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ssjenkins

I never did find a solution . During some of the initial XP updates (after SP3 clean install) it would start to work normally but after installing all updates then it reverted back to the 90 second delay . It happens with both the internal NIC and a PCMCIA Wi-Fi card . I gave up looking for a fix .

Sammy

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I've had the same problem, and I've registered on this site to tell you how I fixed mine.
I had to wait about 90 seconds for the icon to appear and just before it did a message about the firewall not being connected flashed up. (It was set to 'on'.)
So I turned off the firewall, then rebooted.
The network icon appeared about 2 seconds after the speaker icon.
Back to normal operation!
So I looked into the firewall's exeption list and there were 3 entries whereas before I turned it off there were many more.
I turned the firewall back on and the icon still appears within 2 seconds ??
I don't know how I fixed it but it's fixed.
Hope this helps somebody!

Hi There .

Thanks for posting . I'm still getting the same problem with Windows firewall disabled but thanks anyway .

Sammy

I've now reactivated Windows firewall and the problem has gone . Strange ? So basically I had the problem initially with WF enabled . I then disabled it and still had it . I then reenabled it and now my network icon and subsequent connection is almost immediate . Looks like you were on the right track Dave-UK . Thanks !

Sammy