Hi,

I have done a repair install on a laptop because when trying to boot, it was showing a message about a folder "system32/SYSTEM" being missing.

I now have windows back, but it takes a really long time (about 1-2 mins) to get past the welcome screen. When it does, the taskbar is all grey and old school for another 30secs until it finishes loading.

If I plug in a network cable it is forever acquiring an IP.
If I start in safe mode without networking, it loads much quicker. Loading it with networking gives the same slow pause.

I've done a malware and virus scan. They found and removed couple.

Not sure what else to try. Any suggestions?

I suggest opening the start menu, click on run, type in cmd, & then type sfc /scannow in the black box and hit enter. You might be prompted for you windows installation disk so have it handy.

I also strongly suggest that you read this first and post a new thread here.

I've tried the system file checker, it didn't help unfortunately.

Here's the HJT logs
http://www.d-a-l.com/help/spyware-ad...slow-boot.html

Well that turned out to be a waste of time.

Any suggestions at all?

Originally Posted by rpmorrow

Well that turned out to be a waste of time.

No, that most certainly wasn't. You had found some malware and we had to make sure that it was gone & not the source of your problem(s).

Originally Posted by rpmorrow

If I start in safe mode without networking, it loads much quicker. Loading it with networking gives the same slow pause.

That seems to indicate that the networking services and/or the drivers have problems; malware might have damaged either. Since SFC & a repair didn't work I'm leaning more towards the driver so I suggest that you open up device manager & under network adapters uninstall anything ethernet controller related, reboot, & then reinstall. You first need to download the drivers for it. You will need your computer's chip set drivers. I suppose if I have more info about you computer, I might be able to help locate them. First though if you are trying to connect through a wireless device, I suggest that you disable it and try a wired connection to your router or modem. Do you have any other computers using the same internet connection? If so how are they performing?