Is There A Way To Trace Activity During Boot Up?

[Savage1701]

Is there a way to examine what has happened during a boot of a computer? Does XP keep a "boot log" ?

I know my CPU is looking for some sort of driver or trying to start a service because all of a sudden boots take forever, and in the middle of them the floppy and CD-ROM drives come on as if WinXP Pro ( 32 bit) is looking for a driver or can't start a service correctly, but I can't figure out what the problem is.

Thanks for any help.

 

[strategic]

This may be the log you're looking for?
Follow these steps


Type MSINFO32.EXE in Start, Run dialog
Click the (+) sign in Software Environment category
Select Startup Programs. System Information will now generate the list of startup entries.
Once the right-pane is populated, click the File menu and choose Export
Type-in a file name (example: startuplog.txt) and choose a location to save the file.
Close MSINFO32 utility.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

You can trace XP's boot with BootVis or Process Monitor.

 

[LookinAround]

You can also turn on Boot Logging feature. Logs startup between power up and Windows startup.

 

[Savage1701]

Thanks. I've got some driver that is taking my boots up into the minutes from what used to be about 45 seconds. I am assuming winidows is attempting to load something because the floppy and CD lights come on multiple times during the boots as though it is looking for something.

 

[gguerra]

Don't forget the Event Viewer under administrative tools in control panel. That will tell you if any driver failed to load or service failed to start.

 

[Savage1701]

Thanks to all. Traced it to a parallel port driver or service (can't remember which) issue, which I disabled since my computer does not have a parallel port, but also have the dreaded -126 HID error. So 2 things messing everything up. I think the -126 HID error is the real hold-up during the boot cycle. Unfortunately, I have a USB mouse and only one PS/2 port. I never should have moved away from server-grade boards.

Anyone know a quick fix on the -126 HID error?

 

[gbhall]

126 HiD error - try this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975367