Slow XP startup because of "Restoring Network Connections"

[bc65]

When starting my home user version of XP, the system stays on the Welcome screen for about 3 minutes with the message "Restoring Network Connections". I'm not on a network of any kind. Just my one computer here at home. Is it hanging up so long because it's looking for a network? I only have a dialup modem to get to the Internet, and that's all. Are there some settings I need to change? Thanks.

 

[prime2515102]

You wouldn't happen to be using AOL would you? If so, it might be the AOL "adapter" (it's in Device Manager under Network Adapters) having a problem. I'd tell you how to repair it but I haven't used AOL in a very long time so I'm not sure how to do it off the top of my head (there's some kind of AOL diagnostics in the AOL Start Menu Programs folder or something).

If you're not using AOL then I don't know. Check your network connection folder and see if anything is listed besides any dial-up adapters. If you have one of those modems that doubles as a phone line ethernet card then that could be the problem also. You can disable that (if you don't use it) in device manager as well (or just disable it's network connection in the network connections folder and it will disable the hardware for it automatically).

There could also be a problem with your XP install. If you don't end up getting a fix for it I'd try 2 things: 1) go to Start and Run, and type "sfc /scannow" (wichout the quotes). This is the system file checker (you'll probably need your XP CD). if that doesn't help (I'm guessing it won't, but it's worth a shot) then I'd try a repair installation.

Wish I could be of more help...

Prime

 

[bc65]

Thanks for the reply Prime. No, I'm not using AOL, and the only thing that shows under Network Adaptors, is the network card which is disabled since I'm not on a network. In the Network Connections folder besides the dial-up adaptor is the LAN network adaptor, but it is disabled and nothing within it has a check mark that would permit network connections. Also my modem does not double as a phone line ethernet card. And you're right, the System File Checker did not find any problems.
I'm wondering if there could be some seeming innocent piece of software installed on my system that could be the culprit? Anyway, thanks for all your suggestions. I appreciate the attempt to help.

 

[Didou]

Right-Click on the MyComputer icon & choose Manage.

Or do Start Menu -> Run -> compmgmt.msc /s.

Go in the Log Viewer in the Applicatin & System sections & see if there are any error messages in there.

Post back if you find anything.

PS. Welcome to the forums. :wave:

 

[bc65]

Thanks for the welcome to the forums.

I found four errors, two in Application, and two in System, all from boot time.
The 1st one, in Application, Source: Perflib, says,

The timeout waiting for the performance data collected function ".NET CLR Data" in the
"C:\WINDOWS\System32\netfxperf.dll" Libary to finish has expired. There may be a problem with this
extensible counter or the service it is collecting data from or the syatem may have been very busy when this
call was attempted.

The next one in Application, 7 seconds later, Source: PerfNet, says, Unable to open the Server service.
Server performance data will not be returned. Error code returned is in data DWORD 0.

The next error in System, Source: Service Control Manager says,

The Alerter service depends on the Workstation service which failed to start because of the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated
with it.

The next error in System, Source: Service Control Manager, started at the same time, says,

The mrtRate service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the file specified.

Does any of this help? Thanks.

 

[Didou]

Originally posted by bc65
The mrtRate service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the file specified.

Have you installed QuickBooks Pro 2002 by any chance or any Intuit products ?

This page seems to indicate that the problem comes from a "Background Downloading" service.

At least that's why I figured when the name mrtRate popped up.

 

[bc65]

I've recently upgraded to Quicken 2004, and it's quite possible that is about the time the startup problem started, although I don't remember exactly... The instructions on the page you referenced for disabling Quicken's Background Downloading, don't seem to apply. As a matter of fact, I can't seem to find anything that refers to Background Downloading...
That's the only Intuit software I have installed.

 

[Didou]

Start Menu -> Run -> compmgmt.msc /s again.

Go to the "Services & Applications" -> Services.

See if you can find something there.

What you can do is ask to sort the services on the "Startup Type". See if there are any services where the startup type is "Automatic" but that aren't in the "Started" state ( check the Status column ).

 

[bc65]

I've got a few Automatic that aren't started, and some Manual that are started.

Automatic, NOT started:
Alerter
Script Blocking Service
Shell Hardware Detection

Manual, STARTED:
COM+ Event System
Network Connections
Network Location Awareness
NISUM
Remote Access Connection Manager

 

[Didou]

Try disabling the alerter service or switching it to manual. According to your previous error message, it might be one of the services giving trouble. I know it doesn't really fix the problem but it might help you log in faster.

The Alerter service depends on the Workstation service which failed to start because of the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated
with it.

 

[bc65]

Disabling the Alerter Service didn't make any difference either. I guess I'm just stuck with a slow logon... I appreciate your efforts.

 

[Crazy]

Maybe a strainge question but are you using the logon screen, if you boot up do you log in automaticaly?

I'm not using XP myself but my nephew had the same problem.
If your using the screen where you have to click the user, change it to the network login.
You can switch to it by pressing "ctrl + alt + del" and try loging in that way, this does in fact make a hole lot of diference it changed the time to log in from 5min to 2sec!!!!
Note: this was on a WinXp Home Sp1

To change it permenatly to network login change it in control panel under users(or something)

Hope this helps


Greets Crazy

PS: Sorry for my bad discriptions, gues my english ist that good

 

[bc65]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I log in automatically. The system does not respond to Ctl-Alt-Del, or Alt-Tab while on the Welcome screen. I did change to the Classic Windows logon, so it paused and waited for me to logon manually. After I did that, it immediately went to my desktop, and I thought that fixed it. However the destop was essentially frozen for 3 minutes until it finsihed doing whatever it's doing until the logon process was finished. Does anyone have any more ideas?

 

[rkitover]

re: mrtRate

see bottom of the thread at:

http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=7000&eventno=108

HTH

 

[MZicari]

Did any of these suggestions work? I had a similar problem with the mrtRate service. I also had just done a clean install of Win XP Pro but this error didn't show up until Quicken 2004 Premiere was installed. I went into Registry and found 3 or 4 references of mrtRate and changed the values of the Start Data in all instances. If you don't know how to use Regedit, DON'T. Find someone that can help. If any of these other suggestions worked, please let us know.

 

[vegascoug]

Think this might help

I found this on google...Intuit site for disabling Background

http://www.intuit.com/support/quicken/2004/win/6173.html Downloading in Quicken 2004

To disable Quicken's Background Downloading driver:

From the Quicken Edit menu, choose Preferences, and then choose Customize Online Updates.
Click the Connection tab, and then press Alt+Shift+4.
Click Yes when asked if you want to disable the Quicken Background Download Manager driver.
Click OK at the Customize Online Updates window.
Close Quicken, and then restart your computer.
Note: The Background Downloading driver set and/or the Background Downloading Qagent.exe are not installed with Quicken 2004. However, if you have recently upgraded to 2004 from a previous version of Quicken, the driver and/or the Qagent.exe file may still be on your system. The steps to disable the Background Downloading driver will still work in Quicken 2004, in case the driver set was not uninstalled properly when the earlier product was uninstalled.



If the above steps do not resolve the issue, more information can be found on Microsoft's support Web site. Search for knowledge base article # 810905.

 

[Jimbo420]

Ok so I know this is a really old thread but I am having the problem where I am seeing these errors in the event manager. Although I seem to have a new twist on it. My computer seems to randomly reboot. That is when I started looking at what was going on. I am getting this error popping up right around the same time that I have the reboot occur.

The mrtRate service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

When you click on that l gives me this information.

User Action
Do one or all of the following:

Review the error information displayed in the message.
Verify that the service password has not expired.
Verify that the service is in the correct location.
Verify that the service is not infected with a virus.
To display the WIN32_EXIT_CODE error that SCM encountered when trying to start the program, at the command prompt, type
sc query service name
The information displayed can help you troubleshoot possible causes for the error.

If the WIN32_EXIT_CODE is zero, then SCM did not attempt to start the service because the error was detected first.

I tried all of these actions to no prevail. When I went to more related articles I got this page on microsoft's website. I followed the instructions there and still seemed to have that problem. It wasn't until after I finally did a search for that mrtrate service that I found this site and thoght I would see if anyone else had and luck with getting this fixed.

The weird thing about this whole thing is that I only have Quicken Basic on my machine not the Primere talked about above, and I haven't used the software for months. Really looking foward to any help that anyone can send my way.