The slowest startup ever...

D

damocci

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Hi guys,

Before I decide to sacrifice 5 hours of my life uninstalling and reinstalling Windows and all my games and applications, I'm hoping someone can help me.

OK, here's the problem: it takes literally 7 or 8 minutes from the time that I type in my Windows password to the time that all the startup programs finish loading and my PC is ready to use. I'm not exaggerating, literally 7 or 8 minutes.

I've reinstalled WIndows 3 or 4 times in the last year and a half, and this speeds things up, but always after a while it starts taking longer to log on.

I have a Pentium IV, 3.0MHz CPU, 1GB RAM, plenty of hard disk space available, Windows XP SP2. I have Norton Internet Security which is up to date, and I have anti-spyware software which is also up to date.

What's the problem? How do I fix this so that even if I uninstall Windows, the same thing doesn't eventually happen?
 
Short answer, uninstall norton!

I also have this same problem at work. updated norton antivirus to 2007 and it bacame as slow as hell.
 
Kicks Nortons out and invite AVG in. That would be the main problem, you can also clear out stuff from your startup by running "msconfig" in "Run" and unticking things you think might be unnecesary (dont worry, it wont break anything if you just untick something)...
 
Check the Windows Event log for errors and warning. (Right click My Computer, select Manage, find Event Log)
 
As supersunbird said run"msconfig" + go to "services" and disable things like "IPSEC" ,terminal services , telnet , IIS admin , Web publishing , automatic updates , print spooler (if you dont print" , remote registry , messenger , wireless zero configuration , windows firewall/ics
 
ubercal said:
As supersunbird said run"msconfig" + go to "services" and disable things like "IPSEC" ,terminal services , telnet , IIS admin , Web publishing , automatic updates , print spooler (if you dont print" , remote registry , messenger , wireless zero configuration , windows firewall/ics
Click to expand...

Unless of course you use a wireless adaptor that doesn't have third party software...

A few other obvious ones you might not want to disable, and probably a few more, but services aren't huge resource hogs, it's actual applications that insist they need to run with Windows even though probably never use them. :(
 
You can also clean your prefetch folder. Windows "prefetches" a bunch of stuff at startup it thinks you're gonna use.

find it here: c:\windows\prefetch

Maybe that will speed things up , and remember, always do some research before deleting stuff and killing off random services.
 
Last edited:
Check the drive(s) are not running on PIO mode (devmgmt > ide controllers > hdd channel > properties > Advanced settings > "PIO only" change to "DMA" )

Download bootvis and perform an analysis on the boot up behaviour of the machine (can see what's slowing things down) and "optimise" the boot process.

Download sysinternal's autoruns (more advanced than msconfig) and pick apart what's auto-running

clean out %temp% and prefetch.

Failing that, try memtest, seatools (hdd and cable diagnostic) and a burn-in test.
 
I went to Matrix Computer Warehouse a little while ago and they said the same thing some of you are saying ie. Norton's the source of the problem. That ticks me off because I paid 500 bucks for the damn thing.

I've been told also that you can't just uninstall Norton, you need a Norton remover tool. Where do I get that?

And is AVG just an antivirus, or does it come with a firewall, spyware and adware protection?
 
Norton does chew resources, but not to the point where it will take 6 minutes on a 3ghz pc. I think there is some wrong with a setting or the general setup of the pc (you been installing a lot of programs lately? The "OOO! that looks useful/gimmicky" programs especially)
 
repitah said:
Norton does chew resources, but not to the point where it will take 6 minutes on a 3ghz pc. I think there is some wrong with a setting or the general setup of the pc (you been installing a lot of programs lately? The "OOO! that looks useful/gimmicky" programs especially)
Click to expand...

Dude Norton is the problem, it does **** to keep virusses of ur pc, norton makes it slow + the virus that norton did not stop makes it more slow :D :D :D
 
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