Hi there, I have a problem with Windows XP since installing SP2. I am pretty certain that is when it started. The issue is that once I have logged in it takes 55 seconds before anything but the mouse pointer appears on the desktop. The mouse pointed appears right away, as does the background colour. The taskbar and desktop icons don't start appearing until 55 seconds has passed. FIXES TRIED SO FAR I took a look in the Event Viewer and found under SYSTEM the following: --------- Event Type: Error Event Source: Service Control Manager Event Category: None Event ID: 7022 Date: 12/07/2006 Time: 11:30:40 a.m. User: N/A Computer: INSPIRED01 Description: The Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) service hung on starting. --------- Reading forums on the net I found other people complaining of the same issue of Windows XP taking 1 minute to load the desktop and taskbar, since installing SP2.... AND that they had found this same error message in the SYSTEM event log. The instruction given in most cases (including on the MS Support KB) was to either set the WIA (Windows Image Aquisition) service to MANUAL or DISABLED. I tried both of these options and it made no difference. Many other people said this fixed the issue for them. I then noticed I was getting the following error in the SYSTEM log: ---------- Event Type: Error Event Source: DCOM Event Category: None Event ID: 10005 Date: 12/07/2006 Time: 1:24:33 p.m. User: INSPIRED01\Jonathan Computer: INSPIRED01 Description: DCOM got error "The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it. " attempting to start the service StiSvc with arguments "" in order to run the server: {A1F4E726-8CF1-11D1-BF92-0060081ED811} ------------ This error appears twice each time I boot up (at exactly the same time or a second or two appart. I found reference on the net (http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1071537) to remove the following registry keys: 1) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{A1F4E726-8CF1-11D1-BF92-0060081ED811} 2) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A1F4E726-8CF1-11D1-BF92-0060081ED811} I removed those (after backing them up) and started to get another error, which led to removing the following two keys also: 1) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WiaDevMgr.reg 2) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WiaDevMgr.1.reg I now don't get any errors regarding WIA. BUT I still get the 1 minute delay when booting up. I have also booted up with NOD32 and OUTPOST (my AV and Firewall progs) completely disabled (i.e. they don't load/run at startup) and that made no difference. I now get to ERRORS. I do get a Warning and have been getting this at startup for as far back as the log goes (just a month, and within the time I stailled SP2) -------------------- Event Type: Warning Event Source: Dhcp Event Category: None Event ID: 1003 Date: 12/07/2006 Time: 2:12:55 p.m. User: N/A Computer: INSPIRED01 Description: Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 0000E2705E8F. The following error occurred: The semaphore timeout period has expired. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server. Data: 0000: 79 00 00 00 y... ------------------------- This occurs 30 seconds after: ------------------------- Event Type: Information Event Source: EventLog Event Category: None Event ID: 6009 Date: 12/07/2006 Time: 2:12:25 p.m. User: N/A Computer: INSPIRED01 Description: Microsoft (R) Windows (R) 5.01. 2600 Service Pack 2 Uniprocessor Free. And the next event entry is logged another 21 seconds after that. This gives me a delay of about the length I am experiencing -- a little over 50 seconds. Does anyone know how I can go about fixing this DHCP issue? With thanks, Jonathan

yep, give your pc a static ip address. go into network connections properties of local area connection properties of tcpip put in 192.168.1.2 (for example) this should speed the boot process a bit

If possible I would like to leave the computer set to DHCP. As it is I have the router set to assign a specific fixed IP to this computer (to make port forwarding easier and consistent whilst DHCP is in place. By having it set to DHCP I can connect to other routers (at client sites etc) without changing my TCP/IP configuration. As I didn't have this delay previously I am hoping I can get rid of it and still leave DHCP in place. Thanks.