Tag Archives: “slow starting”

Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 and SBS 2011 RTM or SP1 – svchost.exe may hold a lock on a service and cause slow Windows startup

You may find that svchost.exe holds a lock on a service whilst all the service libraries are being loaded.  This in turn then prevents any other services in the same instance of svchost.exe from starting up until the call to the function has been returned.

An updated version of svchost.exe that will address the issue is available here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510636

Microsoft Windows based Computers and Laptops – Slow System Startup with Realtek HD Audio Chipset

You may find that Windows based computers and laptops are very slow to startup and in some instances slow to shutdown.  This has been witnessed when out dated drivers are installed for the integrted Realtek HD Audio Chipset.

The Realtek HD Audio drivers offered on Microsoft Update are often dated 2005 and are many years behind those available directly from the Audio Chipset manufacturer.

You can verify your current Audio Chipset and Driver version from “Device Manager”

Please visit http://www.realtek.com/downloads/ to find and download the latest applicable drivers for your Windows system.  They will usually reference the drivers as “High Definition Audio Codecs (Software)” and then under Windows the list Operating System Compatability for each system and provide several download links based upon locations around the world.  Downloads from the Realtek site can be slow at busy times of the day so you may need to be patient and/or download outside peak hours.

As you can see from the table the current drivers from Realtek Support are dated 21st October 2011 and are usually updated every 1-2 months, it would be worth updating to the latest release to resolve your slow startup times and then add updating your audio drivers into your usual computer maintenance schedule.  Once you have updated remember to check Device Manager to ensure that the latest drivers are actually installed and that the device is operating correctly.

Windows 7 RTM or SP1 – Slow System Startup When Your Machine Contains a Large Hard Disk Drive

You may find that when you have a large hard disk drive the number of restore points that are retained causes the Windows 7 boot plan to exceed the file size of 512 kilobytes (KB).  512 KB being the precached limit means that the boot plan is no longer cached and causes the system startup to be slower. This is due to the fact that each restore point needs to be verified during system startup and as a result gets included in the boot plan.

A hotfix is available from Microsoft KB 2555428 that resolves the issue http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2555428

Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2/SBS 2011 RTM or SP1 – Slow System Startup and Login

You may experience very slow system start up on occasion, this is due to Windows carrying out an unnecessary validation of the WMI repository.  This validation is very time consuming and slows the overall start up and login process down.

A Microsoft hotfix is now available KB 2617858 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2617858 and should resolve the slow startup by preventing unnecessary validations of the WMI repository.