Tag Archives: “Slow Windows Boot”

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

A Virtual Machine, Laptop or Computer running Windows XP is Slow to Startup and/or Applications take a long time to load

These two issues can occur for two different reasons, a corrupt file in the Windows Prefetch Folder or it could be that the Prefetch Folder is cluttered.

To resolve these issues you need to delete the contents of the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder and then restart your computer.

The Prefetch folder is just a cache of recently used application executables and will be recreated based upon the applications you use most frequently.  Over time the folder becomes cluttered with rarely used and prefetched applications hence the launch of applications becomes slower.

You may find following the clear down of the Prefetch folder and reboot that the first time you open each application it is still a little slow, ths is because Windows will automatically re-add the application on its first launch to the prefetch folder.  After your first use of the common applications everything should now be much faster and you should find startup times have been reduced.

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.