windows slow to load up,as are the apps for a few mins.tried everyinting

fguihen

windows is slow to start up from when i press the on button. when i do get logged in, and click on an app such as internet explorer, it takes ages for that to load. shutdown time is dreadfull also. i have turned off any un-necessary services, defraged, scaned disk, ran virus scanner, scanned for spyware and what not, deleted contents of the prefetch folder, disabled any un-necessary apps from loading on startup. what else can i try??

Ruu_Old

Hmm you could try removing unwanted icons from the desktop, how much memory have you got?

kippy

What operating system (including service packs)are you using, what RAM/Processor and free hard disk space have you?
Have you always had this issue or has it only started recently? Did you make any changes to the machine (hardware/software) just before the issue started occuring if it only started recently?
Are there any errors or warnings in the event viewer (Right click my computer,manage, event viewer, system and application {should work for XP and 2000})
If you are running XP have you ticked "adjust for best performance" in the performance tab after right clicking my computer,manage?

fguihen

i have a dell insprion 8500 laptop, with 768 mb of ram, a 2ghz pentium 4 m processor ( not pentium mobile), an 80gb 5400rpm hardisk ( faster model). Im running windows XP Pro with service pack 2 installed. dont have many icons on the desktop, i feel they clutter things up.
I run zone alarm ( could be the culprit) and norton anti virus( never caused a problem before).
i have adjusted it for better performance, and turned off many of the things in there that are not needed.
In event viewer, sql server was causing an error, so i turned off that service. also there was a problem with user profiles not being unloaded, but i got a download from microsoft to sort that.

it could be zone alarm, as i upgraded that recently. il try stopping that from loading up and see if i get a speed boost. anyone got any other suggestions though?

**Timbuk2**

Try Crap Cleaner (CCleaner)

wingnut

A fresh vanilla install of windows works wonders for Dells. If you haven't wiped and reinstalled your OS now may be the time. Don't install any of the dell crap (DO install drivers, DVD & CD burning software, quickset and intel pro/wiress)

kippy

Did you have any luck disabling zone alarm?
Might also be worth disabling the antivirus to see if it makes any difference.
Even if it hasnt caused issues before I have seen issue occur with this particuliar AV from time to time needing a reinstall to sort them out.
Zone Alarm has also been known to cause problems....

MunsterCycling

NORTON is most likely the culprit here, causes problems all the time so thats why I make sure its removed from any PC I have to deal with.

fguihen

to be honest, ive never had a problem with norton. and ive had it on my pc since i got it over 3 years ago so i dont think norton is the problem

kippy

An update to Norton may have caused the problem..andy feedback about disabling the firewall?

Just on Norton-some people have had issues with the amount of system resources it hogs and hence would switch to a free solution such as AVG to both save money and improve system performance-it may not be the root cause of your issue though.

5uspect

Maybe its a hardware problem,
I've seen similar problems on my girlfriends Acer laptop.
The solution:
Get a vacuum cleaner and suck and dust debris from the heat exhausts/inlets.
I know Dells had some heat sink fouling issues in the past. This really gave the Acer a new lease of life (similar specs to your Dell) and is mush less drastic than a complete format.

CCleaner is a good idea too but mostly frees uo disk space

Also try going to Start/Run/msconfig
go to the startup tab and disable everything that you don't want to be loaded when you boot e.g. things like qttask etc which preload quicktime and other apps so they load a little faster when needed later on. There's lots of things here you can disable, but google each of them before you decide what to turn off. If you turn off these thats less work for the machine when booting.

blackviper.com has a handy tweak guide to tuning up Windows to squeeze that extra bit of performance out of your hardware if you want to fiddle with lots of settings.

A spyware scan is also another must. Install adaware personal SE (freeware), update the definitions (just like norton) and scan for nasty little infections on your machine and remove everything it finds.

If you do get a lot of sypware problems you really should consider moving to another internet browser. Join the Firefox revolution and rediscover the web!!!

Hope some of this helps
good luck

cormie

**Timbuk2** wrote:

Try Crap Cleaner (CCleaner)

what's better, that or this do you think?

5uspect

cormie wrote:

what's better, that or this do you think?

Much the same I'd say, I've found CCleaner to be excellent so I would recommend that over something else that may possibly be a bit dodgy.
CCLEANER works fine.

cormie

5uspect wrote:

Much the same I'd say, I've found CCleaner to be excellent so I would recommend that over something else that may possibly be a bit dodgy.
CCLEANER works fine.

Thanks, well the features I'm looking for on the easy clean one are:

Finds invalid registry entries ----> deleting them speeds up your computer!
Finds duplicate files ----> deleting them will free disk space!
Finds all unnecessary files like backups, temps etc. ----> deleting them will free disk space!
Finds all invalid shortcuts ----> deleting them will free disk space and increase usability!
Manage programs starting at Windows startup! ----> who knows, you might even catch a virus before it gets serious!
Manage Windows add/remove software listing!



Does CCleaner have all this too do you know

cormie

do you think them two are enough to go with it?

It says they can't be responsible for damage to the pc, I'm sure it's the same with CCleaner, how likely are problems with programs like this though?

5uspect

i've had no issues with ccleaner, its gives you a mile long list of what it'll delete and you can apply filters to prevent it removing anything from specific folders. If your very worried it lets you back up the registry before you put it on a diet.

kippy

Fguihen,
Any status report?
What have you tried up until this point and has it made any difference....
Kippy

cormie

5uspect wrote:

i've had no issues with ccleaner, its gives you a mile long list of what it'll delete and you can apply filters to prevent it removing anything from specific folders. If your very worried it lets you back up the registry before you put it on a diet.

Ok thanks, is backing up the registry complicated and does it use a lot of space?

So with CCleaner can you use the option of choosing what starts up on windows like you can with Easy Clean?

5uspect

no it asks you if you want to back up before you start deleting problems, file size is tiny, its just a glorified txt file

you can edit start ups in CC but you can also do that by hitting start > run and typing in "msconfig" and go to the startup tab or if you really want to tweak services in XP go to blackviper.com check out his guides.

Edit: oops bv is under "construction", but keep it in mind

cormie

ok cool.

Hmm, both programs seem to have loads of awards. Wonder which I should go for and which is safest.

5uspect

they're probably more or less the same code with different skins! to be honest I've gone into the registry and deleted loads of stuff manually, that said I'd consider myself pretty good at being able to recover from any major fcukups. If you've got your important files backed up just bite the bullet and run which ever downloads first.

cormie

ok thanks for the help:)

5uspect

no bother
the best way to learn how to fix a computer is to break one!

cormie

just installed CCleaner and gave it a go. It removed 800+ MB:eek:

I was a bit nervous about some of the options so chose not to scan them (memory dumps, chkdsk file fragments, windows log files, old prefetch data) and then all of the advances options too. In the applications tab, I didn't want it to ruin anything from open office, regedit and MS management console.

Are these anything to worry about or am I being overly cautious?

But guess what, my Temp Internet Files, even though all the files were removed, is still about 9MB now, and when I type j into the address bar of IE, jesusdressup.com still comes up, when I type b in, bebo comes up, even though it's already cleared the history/cookies etc.

What's that about?

I had a google on CCleaner VS EasyCleaner. Easycleaner is more for the advanced user so I went with CCleaner to be safe.

5uspect

800MB thats a lot of free space!
silly question:
did you analyse and then hit "run cleaner" to delete the selected stuff? because it tells you what it will delete then you click "run cleaner" to confirm the deletion (sorry if I'm stating the obvious)
if your worried about your open office stuff etc thats fine it shouldn't take up much space compared to the internet crap so don't delete it if you don't want to.

Try emptying the Temp internet files manually. just check that hidden files are visible (in explorer hit tools>folder options>view...) and delete everything. nothing bad will happen.

Also, i think i said this before, you should really use firefox or some other alternative browser. IE is a serious security hole. It attracts viruses and spyware like a whore on a submarine due to its huge market share

5uspect

also firefox has easy options to purge all historys, caches and temp files etc
sorry for DP

cormie

I pressed analyse, but it was taking ages and I wanted to hop into the shower, so I cancelled it and just clicked run cleaner and hopped into the shower. Should I be worried about anything being deleted that I didn't want deleted or is that 800MB just from temp folders do you reckon?

5uspect

the 800 MB is everything that if marked upto when you cancelled it
run it again and let it finish analysing, it can take some time the first time around on a system full of junk temp files. nothing important is deleted only files that contain things like lists of recently opened files etc

cormie

ok thanks:) I'll give it a try.