Start Up

Brian M · #1 April 15th, 2004, 07:28 PM

For some time now, I've been living with an error message during Start Up.
I'm fairly sure it was caused by a virus that has long since been erased.
The message reads :-

Cannot import C:\WINDOWS\sp.dll: error opening the file.
There may be a disk or file system error.

I simply by-pass this by clicking OK
I think the file has been deleted at some time as I'm unable to find it.
Do I need to replace the file or is there some other way to get rid of the error message?

Leroi · #2 April 15th, 2004, 07:52 PM

It may be due to an uninstalled program (or removed virus or malware) still having an existing startup entry in your system configuration utility (msconfig). It is calling upon this missing file and causing the error message.

Start>click run>type "msconfig" exactly and without the quotation marks>hit enter>startup tab, see if you can find anything listed there having to do with removed malware and uncheck its' entry(s) and click apply/okay out of msconfig, reboot. Be sure not to uncheck anything Windows or your security programs need to function.

I found this:

http://www.liutilities.com/products/...dlllibrary/sp/

Brian M · #3 April 15th, 2004, 10:51 PM

Okay, one step at a time. When MSCONFIG is first run this message appears.
Environment variables were found in the legacy files AUTOEXEC.BAT and/or CONFIG.SYS and the variables were moved to the Windows Registry.
Does this make sense so far?

System Resources are down to 52% But I'm not sure what to clean up.

Leroi · #4 April 15th, 2004, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian M

Okay, one step at a time. When MSCONFIG is first run this message appears.
Environment variables were found in the legacy files AUTOEXEC.BAT and/or CONFIG.SYS and the variables were moved to the Windows Registry.
Does this make sense so far?

Found this about that:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;262786

Quote:

System Resources are down to 52% But I'm not sure what to clean up.

Read this:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php

It is best to disable startup programs through their own options before using msconfig to disable the stubborn ones that won't allow you to tell them not to load with Windows. Be careful not to meddle with your antivirus, firewall, Windows processes etc.

Don't uncheck a lot of things at a time and don't uncheck anything you aren't sure about. If you can't find out whether a certain program is required at startup, post back and we'll try to help.

Brian M · #5 April 17th, 2004, 11:34 PM

After downloading Windows Startup Inspector and removing the check mark from numerous files, I now have System Resources up to 76% free. It would seem that I still require a further trim.
Not too sure if I was doing the right thing but with the increased resources, I must have been on the right track. Unfortunately Startup is still extremely slow.

No more error messages though.

Leroi · #6 April 17th, 2004, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian M

After downloading Windows Startup Inspector and removing the check mark from numerous files, I now have System Resources up to 76% free. It would seem that I still require a further trim.
Not too sure if I was doing the right thing but with the increased resources, I must have been on the right track. Unfortunately Startup is still extremely slow.

No more error messages though.

Good that the error messages are gone.

How long does it take for your pc to boot? It takes about 45 seconds for mine, but my startup is very lean. I startup with 96% free resources with both NAV and BOClean loading with Windows.

Brian M · #7 April 18th, 2004, 07:15 AM

It can take anything up to 90 seconds for the task bar to appear, then a further 30 to load the desktop icons. Another 30 seconds before the computer is ready for use. A total of 2 1/2 minutes.

On occasions it will get stuck during the process and I'm forced to press reset, but this doesn't happen as frequent as it used to.

The 76% I had free, has somehow been reduced to 71%

Leroi · #8 April 19th, 2004, 05:48 PM

Sounds like you have a conflict of some kind with a couple (or more) of the programs you have loading at startup. Something must be "fighting" for a place in line when it comes time to load. The only way I know to isolate which ones is by a process of elimination.

As to why the difference in free resources; something must have added itself back into your startup. Programs sometimes do this. You may be able to prevent it by finding the option to load with Windows in this particular program's own options.

Brian M · #9 May 8th, 2004, 09:36 PM

Never did solve the conflict at start up. It's strange how you learn to live with some problems and just put up with them.
This new one is starting to bug me though. Scan disk can sometimes take forever and defrag never gets past 0%. C drive memory is now almost non-existant. I have 2GB in each of C, D, and E
I also have a log file from HijackThis if it is of any use.

From a fully qualified computer dummy.

Leroi · #10 May 8th, 2004, 09:43 PM

I'm not very good at reading those Hijackthis logs. I'd suggest running CWShredder, then install, UPDATE and run Spybot Search and Destroy's check for problems and delete anything it marks red.

It sounds to me like it would be a good time to back up your data and be prepared to format and reinstall soon, unless CWShredder and SSD help a lot. Reboot after running each.

http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html

Brian M · #11 May 9th, 2004, 09:36 AM

Spybot S&D has already been done. I was able to clean out a lot of rubbish that way. I'll try CW Shredder later today.

I'm beginning to think you're right when you say a complete reformat may be in order.

If that's the case, I'll be looking for help with backing up files and programs.

The info I gave in the previous post was a bit incorrect. It's only an 8GB hard drive split between C, D, and E.

**AnnMarie** · #12 May 10th, 2004, 01:22 PM

Hi BrianM - as you have had some problems with spyware, it would be a good idea to now flush your System Restore Points. Before you do this though, check to see how much space is allocated to System Restore. There have been instances reported of System Restore taking up huge amounts of disk space. See here. To flush your Restore points, see instructions here.

I gather that scandisk does complete. Have you tried running defrag in Safe Mode?

Brian M · #13 May 10th, 2004, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnnMarie

I gather that scandisk does complete. Have you tried running defrag in Safe Mode?

My last Scandisk ran for over half an hour and I eventually pressed cancel and close as nothing appeared to be happening apart from the disk animation.
I haven't tried Defrag in Safe Mode but I think it will require a Scandisk first.

**AnnMarie** · #14 May 10th, 2004, 01:56 PM

Let Scandisk run Brian. As long as as "pacman" is running is should be working. I've known Scandisk to take up to 2 hours to finish. Then try defragging in Safe Mode.

Brian M · #15 May 10th, 2004, 03:07 PM

Sorry, didn't see your post until too late.

Went into Safe Mode and all 3 partitions on my hard drive have now had the Defrag treatment. There was no need for Scandisk but I'll run it later.

Not too sure what you meant by flushing Restore? The folder is about 2.5MB
My Windows folder shows properties of 1.1GB, surely this can't be right?

All I know of "pacman" is that it was an arcade game years ago when I first saw a computer. If it's a file or folder on this machine, then I can't find it.