Automatic services not starting at boot up

[ifenelon]

When I start my computer, most of the services I have marked as 'automatiic' do not start when I boot up my PC.
I need to manually start RPC services etc to enable install packages to work.
I also need to start AVG antivirus manually, auto updates etc...

I have tried serveral thing -eg resetting all automatic services to manula, and then back to automatic again, but they dont start automatically on boot up...

I am on SP3.

Any ideas folks?

[Josh780]

Not all services will start when set to automatic. And not all services should be set to automatic either. I'd change all service start settings back to default or BV's safe settings for your version of Windows...There may be a conflict between services with all of them trying to start at the same time.

That may or may not be the case with AVG. I have version 8. There is one entry in the services list labeled "AVG Free8 Watchdog" that should be set to Automatic. There is also an entry in msconfig labeled "avgtray", ensure that has a check mark next to it.

[ifenelon]

Thanks
I'll check this out when I get home.
I haven't "fiddled" around with the manual/automatic settings - only when I got problems (ie when they didnt fire up automatically)!

Problems seemed to happen after going to XP SP3...

The AVG service is set to automatic, but doesnt start up on startup.
I'll go through the recommended settings one by one and see if that makes a difference.

If all else fails, presumably there are some command level commands I can use to start these services and put them in a startup .bat file?

Has anybody got such a .bat file I could "steal" if I need it?

[Black Viper]

Has anybody got such a .bat file I could "steal" if I need it?

You can create your own. On a seperate line, state "net start" then the service name. If the service name has a space in it, you will need to enclose it in quotes.

Code: [Select]

net start Alerter
net start "Computer Browser"
Check your event log after rebooting and see what is the first service that fails. RPC not starting is a bad thing, but the event log could help you narrow down the cause.

[Josh780]

RPC not starting is a bad thing

lol, I found that out on my own a while back when I first started messing around with XP. I disabled it, restarted, and Windows wouldn't boot. I was lucky enough to find out about copying the current hardware profile before making changes and that saved me.

[ifenelon]

I set all of the parameters as per the "safe" settings and the "automatic" services still didnt start on boot up.
I have adopted the workaround of running a .bat file to start the services I need on user logon (startup), but there is obviously something wrong somewhere!

Everything's working - all services are starting when I command them to - I'm just slightly nervous that because AVG antivirus isnt starting until my startup script runs, soemthing might "jump in" between startup and AVG starting.....
 

[Black Viper]

RPC not starting is a bad thing

lol, I found that out on my own a while back when I first started messing around with XP. I disabled it, restarted, and Windows wouldn't boot. I was lucky enough to find out about copying the current hardware profile before making changes and that saved me.

I had the answer with Win2k here:
http://www.blackviper.com/AskBV/2k4.htm

That page has had a lot of hits over the years.

[Josh780]

Everything's working - all services are starting when I command them to

IMO, you shouldn't have to go in and command a service to start when it should be on it's own. You shouldn't have to have a .bat file in place to do it either....We're a ways past the days of DOS.

Have you tried setting all services to their default startup settings? Also, have you tried this without the .bat in place?

If you have and things are still a nogo, I think it's safe to say that something is not right on your system.

It's possible that a file(s) or something in the registry that is needed have been corrupted. Some spyware/malware, viruses, and such are capable of preventing items from working and starting as they should be.

I think the next best step would be to ensure that your computer is free of any nasties(spyware, viruses, etc.) and give the default service settings another go without the .bat file.

Here's some info http://bbs.blackviper.com/index.php/topic,129.0.html in regards to nasties. I use AVG and Spybot. You can download Spybot Search and Destroy at http://www.safer-networking.org