Windows 7 Search 30 Second Delay / Internet Explorer 30 Second Delay
Problem:
You click Start and type something in the search box. The results are blank and the Start menu stalls for 30 seconds…then the results appear.
You launch Internet Explorer (8 or 9 in this particular case). The window opens within a second (thanks to my new SSD). It starts loading the home page. The circle is spinning for 30 seconds while the window is blank. If you click the window it says Not Responding. After waiting 30 seconds the page loads. You can use it normally for a while and then it will stall again for 30 seconds. You also get the stall when loading a new site or tab after IE is already open.
There are other symptoms of stalls in Windows Explorer and elsewhere but the 2 examples above are the easiest to reproduce.
Testing Done:
Virus Scans are clean
SFC /scannnow found an error and fixed it
CHKDSK is clean
Problem appears in Safe Mode with Networking but NOT in Safe Mode – of course you can’t open a website without networking but it is worth noting that IE opens quickly and does not stall. Also, booting normally and disconnecting the network yields the same result as Safe Mode.
So it is a network-related problem.
Disabled bluetooth devices. Reinstalled network drivers for WIFI and wired NIC. The problem persists on either network card.
Spent a lot of time playing with Process Explorer and Process Monitor (Systernals tools) and trying to watch IE load but did not find anything useful. Google searches were useless (which is why I am writing this).
Opened up Services.msc and started killing services like crazy and testing after each one. Finally got to Workstation…the problem went away. I didn’t quite believe it yet. I rebooted and the problem was there – killed only the Workstation service and the problem was gone.
So it is related to the Workstation service.
But I need that service so I can’t stop here. Google lead me all round the registry but didn’t help much. I decided to check out the Workstation service in the registry.
The Bind key contained all this:
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip_{51772292-7A75-4756-BEF4-28D89B8B36A4}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip_{4D48CAAA-5708-4D9E-9D55-31EDAFB05290}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{4DC276C9-1FA7-4D59-BAA2-CAD0F5A2CC5F}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{D533411C-75EC-4BA6-9E6D-DB53C8BF5273}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{E510BC76-F7BD-429D-8D99-AA567F4DD092}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{51772292-7A75-4756-BEF4-28D89B8B36A4}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{4D48CAAA-5708-4D9E-9D55-31EDAFB05290}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{A2E7422E-C735-412F-9496-9A18656D6B93}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{4DC276C9-1FA7-4D59-BAA2-CAD0F5A2CC5F}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{D533411C-75EC-4BA6-9E6D-DB53C8BF5273}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{E510BC76-F7BD-429D-8D99-AA567F4DD092}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{51772292-7A75-4756-BEF4-28D89B8B36A4}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{4D48CAAA-5708-4D9E-9D55-31EDAFB05290}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{A2E7422E-C735-412F-9496-9A18656D6B93}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip_{51772292-7A75-4756-BEF4-28D89B8B36A4}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip_{4D48CAAA-5708-4D9E-9D55-31EDAFB05290}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceTcpip_{51772292-7A75-4756-BEF4-28D89B8B36A4}
DeviceTcpip_{4D48CAAA-5708-4D9E-9D55-31EDAFB05290}
DeviceTcpip_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceTcpip_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceTcpip6_{4DC276C9-1FA7-4D59-BAA2-CAD0F5A2CC5F}
DeviceTcpip6_{D533411C-75EC-4BA6-9E6D-DB53C8BF5273}
DeviceTcpip6_{E510BC76-F7BD-429D-8D99-AA567F4DD092}
DeviceTcpip6_{51772292-7A75-4756-BEF4-28D89B8B36A4}
DeviceTcpip6_{4D48CAAA-5708-4D9E-9D55-31EDAFB05290}
DeviceTcpip6_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceTcpip6_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceTcpip6_{A2E7422E-C735-412F-9496-9A18656D6B93}
DeviceNetbiosSmb
Solution:
It seemed like a lot of bindings. I compared it to my other computer and it had even more. But still, I figured some of these could go away. I made a copy of the information and then deleted it all from the key. My problem was solved. The 30 second delay did not occur no matter how much I tested.
I pasted the data back in and the problem returned. Then I started deleting the bindings one at a time and testing each time. In analyzing the data I realized there are actually only 4 different strings but they are repeated 6 times for all of the NetBT, SMB, and TCPIP/TCPIP6 strings. I deleted the first set and it did not solve the problem. I deleted the second set and the problem was solved. I pasted back the first set and the problem returned. So in the end I deleted the first 2 sets of strings. Here is the final working result for my Bind key.
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{4DC276C9-1FA7-4D59-BAA2-CAD0F5A2CC5F}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{D533411C-75EC-4BA6-9E6D-DB53C8BF5273}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{E510BC76-F7BD-429D-8D99-AA567F4DD092}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceNetBT_Tcpip6_{A2E7422E-C735-412F-9496-9A18656D6B93}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{4DC276C9-1FA7-4D59-BAA2-CAD0F5A2CC5F}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{D533411C-75EC-4BA6-9E6D-DB53C8BF5273}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{E510BC76-F7BD-429D-8D99-AA567F4DD092}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip6_{A2E7422E-C735-412F-9496-9A18656D6B93}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceSmb_Tcpip_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceTcpip_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceTcpip_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceTcpip6_{4DC276C9-1FA7-4D59-BAA2-CAD0F5A2CC5F}
DeviceTcpip6_{D533411C-75EC-4BA6-9E6D-DB53C8BF5273}
DeviceTcpip6_{E510BC76-F7BD-429D-8D99-AA567F4DD092}
DeviceTcpip6_{B51A2EA1-44D6-4F4F-BE6D-02F3518EA855}
DeviceTcpip6_{5F72866C-265C-44DC-A093-54B86F31456B}
DeviceTcpip6_{A2E7422E-C735-412F-9496-9A18656D6B93}
DeviceNetbiosSmb
I have to assume that the strings above correspond to my network devices and if I knew where to look I could have located the strings for my devices and known which ones to keep without having to guess. It is worth noting that the exact same Bind keys appeared in the lanmanserver key but I did not touch them since they were not related to the problem.
In the likely event that you know more about bindings than me, please comment.