Windows XP Pro (SP3) sluggish start-up

Maidhci

I have noticed that Windows XP start-up has become very sluggish indeed. It is a relatively fresh installation - replaced HD and re-installed OS approx 7 months ago. Also, MS Outlook takes quite a while to start up on occasions - it should be instantaneous? Don't know if the two issues are related. Was considering running XP Repair from OS CD but not sure if this will help. Additionally, I presume that SP2 and SP3 together with all updates will have to be re-installed? Regularly do housekeeping as in CCleaner and check for viruses etc. etc. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

yoyo

What are the system specs? SP3 did bloat XP up a bit more, and these days web browsers and the likes are more resource hungry so older machines tend to run slower. Hard disks also get less efficient over time generally

Nick

Maidhci

yoyo wrote: »

What are the system specs? SP3 did bloat XP up a bit more, and these days web browsers and the likes are more resource hungry so older machines tend to run slower. Hard disks also get less efficient over time generally

Nick

Thanks Nick. The laptop is a Dell Latitude D830. Specification as follows: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz, 800 MHz, 4 MB) with nVidia Quadro NVS 140 M. Memory 1024 MB (1x1024MB) 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM. Hard Drive 320 WD Serial ATA. Laptop is primarily used for MS user-end applications - MS Office Professional 2003, principally Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Internet browsing and Adobe Photoshop. I would have thought that the HD should not be affected after approx. 7 months running - 26GB of 320GB used etc. etc.

one man clappin

It looks like you need more RAM.
Go to crucial.com and run the system scanner. That will tell you, how much more RAM you can install.

bonzodog2

Some more ram wouldn't hurt, it will take up to 4GB.
Check your auto-startups with msconfig

Maidhci

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Some more ram wouldn't hurt, it will take up to 4GB.
Check your auto-startups with msconfig

Not sure what you mean by 'Check your auto-startups with msconfig'. How do I check this? Are you suggesting that there are too many applications in start-up etc. etc.?

Dravokivich

Maidhci wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by 'Check your auto-startups with msconfig'. How do I check this? Are you suggesting that there are too many applications in start-up etc. etc.?

That he is. CCleaner is able to do it easier than through MSConfig for someone not use to it. Just look through the advanced options for "Startup."

bonzodog2

Start->Run
type msconfig in the box
startup tab

auto-starts are a possible contributory factor to a slow startup.

Maidhci

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Start->Run
type msconfig in the box
startup tab

auto-starts are a possible contributory factor to a slow startup.

Thanks bonzodog2,

The following applications are ticked in the start-up tab:
NvCpl;nwig;rundll32;NvMcTray;ZcfgSvc;iFramewrk;stsystra;Apoint;mcagent;
AdobeARM;DVD Launcher;hpztsb04;SSBkgdupdate;pptd4UNT;IndexSearch;
BrMfcWnd;brctrcen;UpdaterStartupUlility;jusched;mcagent;ctfmon;msmsgs;
ISUSPM;netsession_win;PC Suite;Service Manager;WinZip Quickpick.

How does one establish which of these are necessary and which are not? If you can see some obvious unnecessary applications, please let me know. Thanks.

bonzodog2

Maidhci wrote: »

Thanks bonzodog2,

The following applications are ticked in the start-up tab:
NvCpl;nwig;rundll32;NvMcTray;ZcfgSvc;iFramewrk;stsystra;Apoint;mcagent;
AdobeARM;DVD Launcher;hpztsb04;SSBkgdupdate;pptd4UNT;IndexSearch;
BrMfcWnd;brctrcen;UpdaterStartupUlility;jusched;mcagent;ctfmon;msmsgs;
ISUSPM;netsession_win;PC Suite;Service Manager;WinZip Quickpick.

How does one establish which of these are necessary and which are not? If you can see some obvious unnecessary applications, please let me know. Thanks.

The ones I've bolded look non-vital for starters
IF you suspend them from msconfig, they're not deleted or uninstalled, you can restore them thru msconfig later

Maidhci

bonzodog2 wrote: »

The ones I've bolded look non-vital for starters

Thanks, your help much appreciated. Will try this and see if there is any improvement. In the event that I decide to add more RAM, I presume that it will be necessary to take laptop to a PC specialist? Any idea of approx. cost of adding another 1GB of RAM or should I go for 2 more in case I decide to migrate this laptop to Win 7 etc.? Thanks again.

bonzodog2

Its easy to fit RAM if you're careful. If you're unsure, there's probably video tutorials on youtube. It would have 2 slots, so if you wanted 4GB, you'd need 2 x 2GB sticks instead of your 1GB stick. But 3GB should be fine, adding 1 x 2GB stick to your existing one

Dale Parish

On a fresh installs I've found often that Windows Update (showing in process list as svchost) uses quite a bit of CPU power.

Might be worth looking at...