Slow boot time

[julie]

I just installed avast 4.5 Home on a clean PC - newly installed Windows XP with svc. pack 2.  When restarting the computer, after the desktop appears, my PC is locked up for 3 minutes and 30 seconds.  Is there some kind of setting I need to change?  System info - AMD athlon 1050 MHz, 256 mb RAM.

I have no other antivirus software installed, besides the firewall, etc. that comes in XP.

Help!

[techie101]

julie,

Is the computer new?  Does it have Tech Support?  It is hard for me to determine exactly what could be causing the freeze.
Usually when a system freezes, it is a program that "hangs" and holds up booting.

If you are computer savy somewhat, you can start your system in safe mode, and disable a program at a time until you find the one that hangs it up.

Did the computer hang prior to Avast install, or is this the first time it is being used?
More information is necessary in order for me or anyone else here to offer help.

Thanks

[julie]

This is a home made computer - no tech support.  I reformatted and reinstalled Windows and I have never had this problem until I installed this software.  I thought there might be some kind of boot scan setting or something I missed.  I will try troubleshooting in safe mode.

[inthewildteam]

You could try start/run/msconfig and stop avast under the start-up tab there.  Disconnect the machine from the net and reboot to see if it stops the "hang"

[S.Z.Craftec]

Julie wrote:

When restarting the computer, after the desktop appears, my PC is locked up for 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

Is your system really completely frozen for 3 minutes and 30 seconds or is it booting that long ? Is there any hard drive actiivity at all (watch your hard drive led light activity). There is a huge difference in between situation when SYSTEM completely hangs and when boot time is prolonged...

Also, always keep in mind that Windows XP requires fast machine with as much as it's possible RAM. 256 Mb of RAM is not enough for any serious job on Windows XP. Especially not on 1050 MHz. My wife has Athlon Sempron 2200+, with only 256 Mb of DDRAM and boot time is still much slower than on my PC (XP 3100+). GUI (Graphical User Interface) in XP requires a lot more memory than any other previous version of Windows. Recommended amount of RAM is at least 512 Mb, and for some jobs (like in my profession) I found it insufficient. That's why I upgraded my machine to 1 Gb.

[Lisandro]

Julie wrote:

When restarting the computer, after the desktop appears, my PC is locked up for 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

Is your system really completely frozen for 3 minutes and 30 seconds or is it booting that long ? Is there any hard drive actiivity at all (watch your hard drive led light activity). There is a huge difference in between situation when SYSTEM completely hangs and when boot time is prolonged...

I think Sasha is right 
If you have a slow boot time, take a look into Startup Delayer.
It's the only freeware I've found that controls the windows startup (Windows 98\Me\2k\XP) that does not follow a strict order. You can set some applications to start very after the boot (logon) itself.