Computer Start Up? [Archive]

Metal Head

6th June 2007, 10:58 AM

Hi,

Of late it takes ages (sometimes 8 minutes) for the computer to fire up so I can start using IE or Mozilla Firefox:((. I am on ASDL and I always clear the history tab in the "internet options" under TOOLS.

I use spybot as well as Ad-Aware SE Personal on a almost daily basis as well as scaning the whole of the computer with the anti-virus (Symatec - Nortons).

Is there anything else I can try that may help alleviate the time it takes to start.

Btw, I loaded Snag It on the computer last week (the above problem was happening prior to this) and it is launched everytime the computer firs up. Is there a way of stopping this?

Thanking all those in advance of their replies.

Cheers
MH

Gumby

6th June 2007, 11:08 AM

Yikes ! Thats way too long so there must be a problem somewhere.

Have you got enough space left on the main drive ? maybe do a disk cleanup/defrag.

Do you have enough memory ? Maybe it needs an upgrade.

martrix

6th June 2007, 11:12 AM

Norton is your problem.

IMHO its garbage and hogs the CPU. Get PCCillin.

Cliff Rogers

6th June 2007, 11:14 AM

1. Try a disk clean up, click My Computer, right click on the C drive & click properties. Click Disk Cleanup & wait. Once it has made the list, check it & tick anything you don't want, do NOT select the compress option.

2. Do you have an older version of MS Office or Outlook loaded? MS Office 97 is the one that causes the most problems even if you don't use Outlook, if it is loaded, the default setting turns on journaling & it journals all the MS products by default. The end result is that the computer becomes slower & slower & slower. To fix it, go into Outlook, find the Journal option, delete the journals & then turn it off.

3. Wipe & reload.

Cliff Rogers

6th June 2007, 11:17 AM

Norton is your problem.

IMHO its garbage and hogs the CPU. Get PCCillin.
Yeah, I hate Norton too but even though PCCillin gets good reviews in the computer mags, I have found lately that it has a big problem with Outlook, in particular, Outlook 2003.
I have been removing it & installing AVG free instead.

Big Shed

6th June 2007, 11:27 AM

Yeah, I hate Norton too but even though PCCillin gets good reviews in the computer mags, I have found lately that it has a big problem with Outlook, in particular, Outlook 2003.
I have been removing it & installing AVG free instead.

I have vowed never to use another Norton/Symantec product again, I also use AVG.

I was in Adelaide recently, using a computer with Norton installed, it also took ages to get going on start-up, but 8 mins seems excessive.

The other problem with Norton products is that they are almost impossible to uninstall.

Cliffs suggestion of a wipe and re-install could well be your best option.

Barry_White

6th June 2007, 11:35 AM

I would be going to Start, Run and type in msconfig and go to the Start Tab and have a look at what programs are loading into memory. Untick all the ones you don't use or that you can access via Start, All Programs.

Just be careful of disarming a couple of important ones

Barry_White

6th June 2007, 11:40 AM

Just as Cliff says I think the free AVG is the best since sliced bread.

My grandson who is a systems engineer tested all the virus programs and reckons that the best purchased virus program is Kaspersky and the next best of all is AVG.

silentC

6th June 2007, 11:52 AM

Get PCCillin
We upgraded to the latest version. What a memory hog. There are two processes that consume about half of the available RAM and run up the CPU pretty high. We tried to get help from Trend to sort it out but they weren't much use. I might give AVG a go. Does it have a firewall?

Cliff Rogers

6th June 2007, 11:55 AM

.... I might give AVG a go. Does it have a firewall?
Not sure about the Firewall, it does have some sort of anti-spyware but I don't use it.
I use the free versions of all of these,
AVG for Anti-virus
Zonealarm for a firewall
Spybot Search & Destroy V1.4 for spyware

silentC

6th June 2007, 11:59 AM

Can't find the free Zonealarm. Wheredyageddit?

Cliff Rogers

6th June 2007, 12:01 PM

Barry_White

6th June 2007, 12:02 PM

I just use the Windows XP Firewall and it has never let me down and Lavasoft Adaware for Spyware.

silentC

6th June 2007, 12:06 PM

That's OK if you're running Windows XP :)

I could probably install ISA but that would be overkill for a home PC I think.

silentC

6th June 2007, 12:09 PM

Zonelabs
www.zonealarm.com (http://www.zonealarm.com)

Hmmmm..... I can't find the free one either now. :? :? :?

Found it.... here (http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en)
I'm not the most patient person around when trying to find things on people's web sites, but all I can see is the free 15-day trial. Maybe they don't give it away any more...

silentC

6th June 2007, 12:10 PM

Zonelabs
www.zonealarm.com
That was a good trick. You added that last bit after I quoted you, but it shows up in the quote anyway. OK, got it. Ta!

Cliff Rogers

6th June 2007, 12:11 PM

It only works for 2000 & XP, I may have an older version in my junk that will work with 98SE if that is what you are still running.

silentC

6th June 2007, 12:29 PM

Nah it's running 2000 at the moment. Was going to upgrade to 2003 when I get around to it.

Big Shed

6th June 2007, 12:34 PM

I'm not the most patient person around when trying to find things on people's web sites, but all I can see is the free 15-day trial. Maybe they don't give it away any more...

Have you looked here?:

http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10039884.html

silentC

6th June 2007, 12:36 PM

Thanks Big Shed, already got it from Cliff's edit to his earlier post.

chrisb691

6th June 2007, 01:16 PM

HI MH,

Try doing a registry clean with RegScrubXP (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048). It's freeware, and does an incredible job. I have been having mega problems with PC-Cillin 2007, and IE7, for since installing them a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't find a solution anywhere that would fix them. I ran RegscrubXP last night, followed by a reboot, and ALL my problems went away. As an added bonus, the laptop now runs at twice (guesstimate) the speed.

Before I actually tried the program, I spent 2 hours checking out user comments/reviews, and couldn't find a negative comment. :2tsup:

mrstevo

6th June 2007, 06:27 PM

Hi,

Btw, I loaded Snag It on the computer last week (the above problem was happening prior to this) and it is launched everytime the computer firs up. Is there a way of stopping this?

Try going to Tools >> Program Preferences >> Program Options tab and unselect the option 'Run SnagIt when Windows starts'

Ianab

6th June 2007, 07:21 PM

I'm not the most patient person around when trying to find things on people's web sites, but all I can see is the free 15-day trial. Maybe they don't give it away any more...

When you go to download the Trial version you will see a list of different versions.. the last one is the Free Firewall version - no extra bells and whistles, just a free basic firewall program. If you download that it doesn't expire after 15 days.

Cheers

Ian

Ianab

6th June 2007, 07:28 PM

Metalhead... how much Ram does your PC have?

I've seen similar things with 256mb PCs trying to run Internet security type programs. By the time they get everything loaded they have used 400mb of ram and EVERY operation need to access the hard disk swap file. SLOW!!!

Either get more Ram.. or look for un-needed programs that run at startup and just take up resources. Preferably do both. I run my PCs with AVG antivirus and just windows firewall (I'm behind a hardware firewall though).

But software companies will sell you so much software your PC wont work any more :C

Cheers

Ian

Wood Butcher

6th June 2007, 08:08 PM

Another one to try is to go into windows explorer and go to c: drive -> windows -> prefetch. I have been told that if you delete the files in this "Prefetch" directory that speeds up the boot sequence.

Barry_White

6th June 2007, 08:26 PM

Barry_White

6th June 2007, 08:45 PM

Before you do this read this.

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=743

Just as another point on this is that my Prefetch folder has 72 files in it for a total of 3.2meg. Probably insignificant in the whole scheme of things.

Metal Head

7th June 2007, 11:10 AM

Hi Everyone,

Thanks very much for the fanastic feedback. I have tried a couple of the things mentioned so far and it has definetly sped things up:2tsup:. Chris thanks for the free download address :wink:. Thanks Cliff for your properties suggestion.

I will work through the other suggestions later on tonight - too busy atm. However, I do agree that it might be the Nortons software that will still continue to slow it down a bit. It was only about 3 months ago when we renewed our licence but when it runs out, I will go for the AVG software that appears very popular with other members here.

I will let you know how things have gone once I have tried all the advice out:wink:.

Cheers
MH

Metal Head

11th June 2007, 12:01 AM

Try going to Tools >> Program Preferences >> Program Options tab and unselect the option 'Run SnagIt when Windows starts'

Hi Mr Stevo,

It appears the advice you kindly left on the thread does not work on XP. I followed what Barry White suggested (please see attachments) and I got a box to come up that had "Start Up" as a header. this showed several items - many I didn't know what they meant but 4 I did (including SNAG IT that I unticked). Thanks for your help but i thought i would add this should someone else using XP have my problem:wink:.

Cheers once again to you and Barry White.

MH

mutanti

11th June 2007, 12:29 AM

Download hijackthis.exe and check whats running on bootup.
When Servicing many Computers i often give the startup a good pruning using this program.
Ram will most likley be your other issue once you have removed Norton.

Another great little program is ccleaner.exe.
your computer may be looking for things that dont exist causing your comp to take longer on bootup.

Cheers
Mutanti

K_S

11th June 2007, 11:08 PM

FWIW - I use spybot search and destroy - advanced mode - tools - to control what I want to start on startup.
Never had a prob with it

Metal Head

16th June 2007, 09:16 PM

Well i did what Barry said and unfortunately I have had nothing but problems since. I am not blaming Barry as he was kind enough to help but it mabe that it coincideded with something else that as put me in the situation I find myself now.

Before I get into my problems I was speaking to a IT technician at AAPT (Who are our internet provider) and she said you should never touch msconfig unless who are fully aware of what you are doing. She also commented on AVG being their anti-virus supplier after too many problems with Nortons. So once I am back on track i will give Nortons the flick:wink:.

Anyway back to my problems when I fire the computer up now - btw I have lost all mine and the wifes:- (folders and bookmarks) and don't I know it - when the computer is fired up now I get a box come up with a blue header with the words "USER ENVIROMENT". In the box below it says "insufficient security rights- corrupt local profile. Windows cannot load the locally stored file and loging you on with a temporary profile".

I have attached an image of the system configuration utility - is this set up correctly?

I would really appreciate some feedback as what the problem is and how to rectify it?

I just tried uploading the image but GOGGLE would not allow me too X/Yf:(( :(( :((

Cheers
MH

Barry_White

16th June 2007, 10:01 PM

Hi MH

You may have unticked something that you shoudn't have as I said be careful on what you untick. You could go back into msconfig and retick the boxes one at a time and see if it restores what you had.

The other thing you could do is go into "Start", "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools" then "Restore System" and find a restore point prior to the changes.

Metal Head

16th June 2007, 10:20 PM

Hi MH

You may have unticked something that you shoudn't have as I said be careful on what you untick. You could go back into msconfig and retick the boxes one at a time and see if it restores what you had.

Hi Barry,

Thanks for the quick reply - it wasn't because your ears were burning was it:wink: :D?. I have now got it set at "normal start up" under the general tab in the System Configuration Untility and all the boxes are ticked under the start up tab

The other thing you could do is go into "Start", "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools" then "Restore System" and find a restore point prior to the changes.

I have already tried that this arvo from the advice given by the AAPT technician but that didn't help either:(.

Cheers
MH

Cliff Rogers

16th June 2007, 10:29 PM

Long shot but worth a try...
In your c:\windows\repair folder you will find a file called SAM.
Copy it to your c:\windows\system32\config folder & see if that fixes it.

The problem is that it may not let you do it while you are booted up on that HDD.
You may need to use a Boot CD (Bart PE disk) to do it or you may have to put your HDD into another working system as a second drive to be able to copy it over.