Some xp clients very slow to boot (near to solution....)

Problem abstract:
-sbs 2003 premium R2 running on vmware ESX 3.5 (virtual side of things
is OK, deeply checked with vmware support)
-15 windows XP clients, with similar/identical sw config (patch
revision, antivirus, etc)
-half of them booting very slowly (3 minutes stuck on "applying
computer settings")

-ipconfigs on clients are OK
-DNS/DHCP settings on sbs checked and OK
-no old network printers, no nonexistant shared to wich PC try to
connect
-network layer (switches, cables, NICs, drivers) checked and OK

Troubleshoot the clients that boot slowly:
-selectively disabled services (on client) and rebooted -> tracked
down services causing problems: NETLOGON
if netlogon is disabled, clients boot in 35 seconds
re-enabling it causes a 4 minutes long boot

Apparently there's no difference in applications an patch level
between clients that work well (half) and those that don't.

Could you please give me any advice for troubleshooting NETLOGON and
its influences in slow booting?

Well looking at one of the posts
it was asked for you to post the IPCONFIG /all

Please post the IPCONFIG /all from the SBS server
and a PC

here it is ipconfigs (again)

SERVER
------
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : hostname
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : domainname
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domainname
Ethernet adapter eth0:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . :

VMware Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0C-29-B3-EB-F3
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No I
P Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.144.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.144.254
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.144.2
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.144.2

CLIENT
------
Configurazione IP di Windows
Nome host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Clientname
Suffisso DNS primario . . . . . . . : domainname
Tipo nodo . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
Routing IP abilitato. . . . . . . . . : No
Proxy WINS abilitato . . . . . . . . : No
Elenco di ricerca suffissi DNS. . . . : domainname

Scheda Ethernet Ethernet:

Suffisso DNS specifico per connessione:
Descrizione . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme
57xx Gigabit
Indirizzo fisico. . . . . . . . . . . : 00-14-22-55-14-7D
DHCP abilitato. . . . . . . . . . . . : No
Indirizzo IP. . . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.144.130
Subnet mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Gateway predefinito . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.144.254
Server DNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.144.2

you did get rid of the third NIC? right?
and all the DNS pointers that are bad?

Have you tried a new profile?
Login to a slow PC as the Domain administrator
have a new profile created for them
log out. and log back in.

if it's quick on that slow PC
then it could be corrupt profiles...

then go to a PC
and run msconfig.exe
and remove all Startup apps
and see if that helps
if it starts better
then it's an application that you have on each PC
that is causing issues

Event logs - any errors in the workstation event logs?

Yes, I did get rid of the second NIC on server (there's one NIC only
now). All clients have one nic only as well.
I checked all DNS records and they look good and clean (including the
_msdcs, _gc etc folders)

Aren't user profiles loaded *after* pressing ctrl-alt-del and keying-
in username, password and domain?

Our clients are slow in the "applying computer settings" phase, which
is before "ctrl.-alt-del" screen appears.

I'll try that tomorrow when I'll be in office.

But in my understanding startup apps are also processed and executed
after *after* pressing ctrl-alt-del and keying-
in username/password/domain...

I did a long troubleshooting to find that this slow boot issue (PC
stuck for 3 minutes on "applying computer settings") is caused by the
NETLOGON service, which is loaded way before the "press ctrl-alt-del"
window appears.

So I'm my opinion we should focus the investigation on that service
and in general on what's happening *before* "press ctrl-alt-del"
appears...

No errors in event logs

[osa2]

Did you ever found the solution?
I'm expierincing the same issue at the moment.