slow startup

nickc

could anyone help me. it take my computer 8 min to startup before i can use it I am using windows xp.

Effluo

This sounds like a problem with the hard-drive.
Boot in safemode and see if it's any quicker!

Could be a virus/a number of them? I'd say it'll just end up being a reinstall of windows to save the day! Do you still have the cd's that came with your pc?

Would be nice if you could tell us how much ram you have too.

nickc

I have Norton I S and 2 gb ram

Leman_Russ

nickc wrote: »

I have Norton

I see your problem.

Have you tried Defragmenting the drive?

Effluo

The ram you have is fine.
Did this happen all of a sudden?
If so it could be just a driver update that went wrong, a bad update of xp or new hardware "disagreeing" with xp...

You should really boot into safe mode and see if it runs faster!

Solitaire

Sounds like software/malware, so moved to Windows forum (although it might get shuttled to Computers or Malware depending on how things turn out...)

Out of interest... what CPU do you have in there? And how old is this XP installation anyway? Could have a ton of junk wedged in Startup. Or Norton's found something to give itself indigestion! :rolleyes:

Overheal

Norton is up to date?

You can also try Defraggler, or (if you wanna drop the cash or run the 30 day full trial) PerfectDisk, which is a bit better, due to the Boot Time defrag: This takes care of OS files that may be fragmented. Any defragmenter running inside of the OS environment is locked out from moving these files. PD gets around it, and it does help a fair bit.

You also should really see what you're running. Go to start > Run > "Msconfig" and see how many services you have enabled. Disable anything you Know you dont need. This will account for the bulk of startup issues.

You should really boot into safe mode and see if it runs faster!

You can do this from msconfig too. Safe mode starts upo with only the most essential services and startup items. If you are still taking 8 minutes to load into Safe Mode, it could be a hardware issue.

nickc

I think i will buy a new computer thanks all for your help

steps_3314

nickc wrote: »

I think i will buy a new computer thanks all for your help

Are you mad?

This can be fixed.

At worst it will cost you 70 or 80 euros if u take it to a shop and ask them to check for viruses and re-install windows.

tmdsurvey

steps_3314 wrote: »

Are you mad?

This can be fixed.

At worst it will cost you 70 or 80 euros if u take it to a shop and ask them to check for viruses and re-install windows.

goin off on a bit of a branch here.. but if you reinstall windows does that automatically 'clean' your system of viruses? as my system is running a bit slow and I think it could be viruses

Fysh

nickc wrote: »

I have Norton I S and 2 gb ram

It's not much information, given the nature of the problem you report. To get a better idea of your situation, it would be helpful to know:

• Processor speed & L2 cache
• Processor type (single core, dual core etc)
• Total RAM & clock speed (ie 2gb @ 333MHz, etc)
• Graphics adapter
• Size and speed of primary hard drive (eg 40GB HDD @ 5400rpm)
• OS version and service pack (eg XP Pro SP3 etc)

Beyond that, using msconfig to check what programs and services are running automatically on startup might help you pare things down significantly. Hell, getting rid of Norton is probably going to be the first step you should be trying - if removing Norton halves your boot time, you should seriously consider using something else.

nickc wrote: »

I think i will buy a new computer thanks all for your help

Or, of course, you could just flounce off and perpetuate the problem by buying a new computer (that will probably fall foul of the same issue your current one does) instead of learning how to diagnose & resolve problems on these expensive and complex machines that we've all convinced ourselves are really just simple magic boxes because they have a pretty GUI :rolleyes:

steps_3314

tmdsurvey wrote: »

goin off on a bit of a branch here.. but if you reinstall windows does that automatically 'clean' your system of viruses? as my system is running a bit slow and I think it could be viruses

well the virus is at the file level so if u format the hard drive and remove all volumes from it then you should remove the virus also

Capt'n Midnight

steps_3314 wrote: »

well the virus is at the file level so if u format the hard drive and remove all volumes from it then you should remove the virus also

probably best to wipe the partition table too

steps_3314

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

probably best to wipe the partition table too

everything. delete all the partitions, only one may exist

be careful though if it s afairly new machine it may have a recovery partition

check your user manual.

if it does it will save you alot of time and effort

the software will restore your machine to the factory settings but remember when you bought the machine it did not have your photos and files etc on it so back them up first

so dont delete any partition labelled recovery

Capt'n Midnight

tmdsurvey wrote: »

goin off on a bit of a branch here.. but if you reinstall windows does that automatically 'clean' your system of viruses? as my system is running a bit slow and I think it could be viruses

A reinstall inherits current settings , so it's hit or miss that it would remove the virus

a CLEAN install is where you inherit no settings, means you have to reinstall all programs and restore the data you had previously backed up and done a virus scan on


Slowness can be lots of things, dying hard drive, malware, or just too much bloat
without error messages it's hard to tell which.


use hdtune or the pc's diags to verify the HDD is OK

use AV / Antimalware to give it a good clean to verify no nasties

apply the Vista speedup tips from the sticky , that should help a little too, don't forget to do a system restore snap shot first.


XP will startup on 64MB ram, and will be painfully slow, adding ram up to 256MB will show visible benefits in startup speed. More ram will help programs when it's up and running, but won't make it start much faster.


A machine shipped with XP could be up to 8 years old, an upgrade could have be done on an older one, so the machine could be up to 10 years old, or if it's a very new one that has XP because the owner hates vista. This means that it's not that unlikely to find XP being installed on a computer with 100 times the processor power of another XP machine ! Of course it won't run 100times faster due to timeouts and stuff.

Solitaire

nickc wrote: »

I think i will buy a new computer thanks all for your help

What?!? :eek:

And just to remind y'all... remember the magic of MSConfig! Go to the Startup tab, find out what all the entries mean and the programs they pertain to, and take a scalpel to the (many, many) entries that you simply don't need. "Quick starters" (surely the most self-defeating oxymoron in the English language? :P) for stuff like Acrobat and Office, program autostarts for stuff you rarely use, don't use every time you turn on the PC, or don't use at all, junk entries for rubbish or even malware, all of it in the Startup tab will insist on starting themselves or their linked applications before Windows is even in a useable state and can add minutes to every startup. And the bulk of it is unneccessary in the first place! Very common problem in almost every ageing Windows install or PCs used by kids or teens!