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My computer takes too long to boot
- Thread starter likensb
- Start date
electronicsfreak
Technical User
Go to start, run, then type msconfig and hit enter. Click the startup tab. Search each one of those items and uncheck the ones you dont need. This is a way of doing it. If your on 98 leave the system files checked and i only reccomend leaving antivirs/firewall running. On like 2kpro and windows xp just leave antivirus and or any software firewall you have running. Turn off programs such as msn mesenger, aol messenger or things like that. Also run scandisc and defrag on your computer as well. These things will help speed it up.
also,
is it running scandisk or virus check everytime you boot up? I doubt that as it would probably take even longer but if it is you can disable that by editing the autoexec.bat file (START>RUN>then type in SYSEDIT or at the command prompt c:\>edit and then open the autoexec.bat file) and rem the lines that initiate scandisk and/or anti-virus check during system bootup.
is it running scandisk or virus check everytime you boot up? I doubt that as it would probably take even longer but if it is you can disable that by editing the autoexec.bat file (START>RUN>then type in SYSEDIT or at the command prompt c:\>edit and then open the autoexec.bat file) and rem the lines that initiate scandisk and/or anti-virus check during system bootup.
If machine's hardware is ok, almost certainly virus and/or spyware. You need to run full system scan with good AV (AVG is good free one if you need one) and several (no one app gets them all) anti-spyware apps (spybot & adaware good free ones - as is Microsoft Antispyware, but that only runs on 2k/xp/2k3).
If there are some tricky nasties on, you may need to individually troubleshoot them.
Advice about msconfig above is also good.
If still very slow after this, you may have a hardware problem.
If there are some tricky nasties on, you may need to individually troubleshoot them.
Advice about msconfig above is also good.
If still very slow after this, you may have a hardware problem.
if it is a XP Machine, there also could be several Services aswell as the TCP/IP stack/Network probs that come into play...
1.) the WIA (Windows Imaging Assistant) Service searches for Scanners and Cameras upon boot up... Set this Service to Manual...
2.) if you have the TCP/IP stack set to search for a Dynamic IP adress, this will take some time, as Windows searches for a Domain, and when it does not find one will assign an IP adress... if you aren't on one, think about giving the NIC cards a STATIC IP adress (192.168.xxx.xxx Subnet 255.255.255.0, where XXX is any 3 digit number below 256 you choose)...
3.) Windows also attempts to search for any Network Drives upon boot... this also can be turned off, through the Folder settings...
4.) Prefetching and Indexing, probably has gone too far... turning off Prefetching and the Index Service can alleviate some problems, until you clear out the cache etc...
and
5.) I suggest you clean also the TEMP files (Temporary Internet Files aswell), use a program like CCleaner...
There is also a possibility that the REGISTRY is just bogged down with unecessary stuff, which in fact slows down the PC...
the above should be seen as an add-on to the advice already given...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
1.) the WIA (Windows Imaging Assistant) Service searches for Scanners and Cameras upon boot up... Set this Service to Manual...
2.) if you have the TCP/IP stack set to search for a Dynamic IP adress, this will take some time, as Windows searches for a Domain, and when it does not find one will assign an IP adress... if you aren't on one, think about giving the NIC cards a STATIC IP adress (192.168.xxx.xxx Subnet 255.255.255.0, where XXX is any 3 digit number below 256 you choose)...
3.) Windows also attempts to search for any Network Drives upon boot... this also can be turned off, through the Folder settings...
4.) Prefetching and Indexing, probably has gone too far... turning off Prefetching and the Index Service can alleviate some problems, until you clear out the cache etc...
and
5.) I suggest you clean also the TEMP files (Temporary Internet Files aswell), use a program like CCleaner...
There is also a possibility that the REGISTRY is just bogged down with unecessary stuff, which in fact slows down the PC...
the above should be seen as an add-on to the advice already given...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
I find, working with others pc's, that, of the fixes suggested here, they are all good ones except that I dont find that scandisk and defrag help much with newer systems.
Im not looking for an argument, its only my opinion, but i have read that others do share this opinion.
If you have gone thru the above list and still have problems with bootup times, then i suggest you head over to trend-micro and do a scan for virus \trojans\worms. They give you a choice of 3 scans, only use the first, never use the third choice for obvious reasons.
Win 98 used to be bad for hanging up on nic cards. It could be that win xp, if thats what you are running, is choking on a piece of hardware. Check your event manager and see if you can find any clues there.
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
Im not looking for an argument, its only my opinion, but i have read that others do share this opinion.
If you have gone thru the above list and still have problems with bootup times, then i suggest you head over to trend-micro and do a scan for virus \trojans\worms. They give you a choice of 3 scans, only use the first, never use the third choice for obvious reasons.
Win 98 used to be bad for hanging up on nic cards. It could be that win xp, if thats what you are running, is choking on a piece of hardware. Check your event manager and see if you can find any clues there.
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
I agree garebo, but running scandisk and defraging won't hurt anything either (unless you have a power failure when defragging!). But it can take forever with a super large capacity hard disk to scandisk and defrag. Used to do it in minutes in the old days when 540MB was king! ![[wink]](/data/assets/smilies/wink.gif "[wink] [wink]")
To each his own, but i disagree, and i have read where others have also disagreed.
When i first started with pcs, i used to run scandisk, defrag, norton systemworks (fix shortcuts, fix registry, etc), on and on. I had lots of probs, especially hard drive probs (lost data, drive having to be reformatted). Knowledge and experience alone didnt help me.
Now i rarely have any major problems. I feel that i can honestly say its because i dont run scandisk or defrag, i dont use norton sysworks and i do manual edits to my registry after uninstalling hardware and software. Its these things that are responsible for 75% or more of my troubles in the past. I firmly believe it. Sure, knowledge and experience helps, so does a firewall,a\virus, other antispyware progs. But, to me, the biggest help is not running scandisk especially! Thats just my opinion.
I have to say i shouldnt have posted that, this isnt the place, and i apologize. This thread is to help likensb with his problem. Its just that i see scandisk especially as causing more trouble than its worth. But we should debate that somewhere else. Again, my apology.
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
When i first started with pcs, i used to run scandisk, defrag, norton systemworks (fix shortcuts, fix registry, etc), on and on. I had lots of probs, especially hard drive probs (lost data, drive having to be reformatted). Knowledge and experience alone didnt help me.
Now i rarely have any major problems. I feel that i can honestly say its because i dont run scandisk or defrag, i dont use norton sysworks and i do manual edits to my registry after uninstalling hardware and software. Its these things that are responsible for 75% or more of my troubles in the past. I firmly believe it. Sure, knowledge and experience helps, so does a firewall,a\virus, other antispyware progs. But, to me, the biggest help is not running scandisk especially! Thats just my opinion.
I have to say i shouldnt have posted that, this isnt the place, and i apologize. This thread is to help likensb with his problem. Its just that i see scandisk especially as causing more trouble than its worth. But we should debate that somewhere else. Again, my apology.
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
continuing the sideline -
I agree with Garebo about scandisk (on win9x/ME machines - completely knackers the file system sometimes), but I find chkdsk, particularly with ntfs filestore very useful tool.
I also find no real use for defragging with ntfs partitions - run machines for years with no obvious degradation of performance (have occasionally run it on test machine to see if any difference - but none I can detect). The most common job I have with my clients is machines running very slowly, and its nearly always virus/spyware (with some help from bloat merchants Norton and McAfee AV or worse the whole security centre). My approach never includes defragging, and I've sorted every machine I've looked at so far.
Also apologies for off topic, but I feel its worth mentioning as defrag can take hours.
I agree with Garebo about scandisk (on win9x/ME machines - completely knackers the file system sometimes), but I find chkdsk, particularly with ntfs filestore very useful tool.
I also find no real use for defragging with ntfs partitions - run machines for years with no obvious degradation of performance (have occasionally run it on test machine to see if any difference - but none I can detect). The most common job I have with my clients is machines running very slowly, and its nearly always virus/spyware (with some help from bloat merchants Norton and McAfee AV or worse the whole security centre). My approach never includes defragging, and I've sorted every machine I've looked at so far.
Also apologies for off topic, but I feel its worth mentioning as defrag can take hours.
Right on, wolluf!
I didnt mention chkdsk but it was in error as i really like chkdsk and i dont see that it causes any problems at all.
I wasnt going to also mention that so many people bring their pcs in for service, tell me it wont boot. I ask them what they were doing. Too many times i hear they ran scandisk and scandisk told them it had to fix something, they gave the ok and now they have nothing! I hear that a lot. But my best customers dont see me as much since i told them dont run scandisk or norton (except for the norton a\virus). So i really do feel I know what i am talking about.
Also, to prove my point, my pc runs fast and i have had the same win xp pro for about 4 yrs now, i live on this machine, probably my 4 yrs years is another persons 10 yrs or more! And all is well, in my opinion, because i dont run scandisk\defrag or any of the nortons sysworks winfix progs. I put most of the registry fix programs in the same boat too! A controlled manual delete is better, and thats only after an uninstall, which makes it easy. Just search for the name or specific words from the program name or mfgr and delete only those items.
Norton goback is great, so is ghost and a couple others, the rest are junk in my opinion, and cause more problems than they fix.
Like you, wolluf, i feel so strongly about this that i do this rant, hoping at least one person will save having their hard drive trashed by scandisk! Or not spend hours defragging their drive for little to no gain.
Again, chkdsk is another matter, a good program, and so is fdisk.
I dont want to start a war, its just my opinion.
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
I didnt mention chkdsk but it was in error as i really like chkdsk and i dont see that it causes any problems at all.
I wasnt going to also mention that so many people bring their pcs in for service, tell me it wont boot. I ask them what they were doing. Too many times i hear they ran scandisk and scandisk told them it had to fix something, they gave the ok and now they have nothing! I hear that a lot. But my best customers dont see me as much since i told them dont run scandisk or norton (except for the norton a\virus). So i really do feel I know what i am talking about.
Also, to prove my point, my pc runs fast and i have had the same win xp pro for about 4 yrs now, i live on this machine, probably my 4 yrs years is another persons 10 yrs or more! And all is well, in my opinion, because i dont run scandisk\defrag or any of the nortons sysworks winfix progs. I put most of the registry fix programs in the same boat too! A controlled manual delete is better, and thats only after an uninstall, which makes it easy. Just search for the name or specific words from the program name or mfgr and delete only those items.
Norton goback is great, so is ghost and a couple others, the rest are junk in my opinion, and cause more problems than they fix.
Like you, wolluf, i feel so strongly about this that i do this rant, hoping at least one person will save having their hard drive trashed by scandisk! Or not spend hours defragging their drive for little to no gain.
Again, chkdsk is another matter, a good program, and so is fdisk.
I dont want to start a war, its just my opinion.
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
I've never had a problem with scandisk myself. It's never damaged the FAT, boot sector, or data sectors using it over the years. Not to say it can't do those things, but I haven't heard much if any complaints associated with using scandisk. But like was said before, this is not the proper forum for discussion about scandisk so I'll respectfully leave it at that.
He He He I love these "Everyone knows" vs "yes but I've actually tried it" debates. I always learn something from them too and defrag a lot less now than once I used to. (ducks)
As far as the initial question is concerned first get back to basics, unplug your cameras, scanners, USB hubs, hardrives, Routers tooters and radio controlled bluetooth keyboard vacuum cleaners. Oh and USB printers and joysticks and whatever else you have.
Now: Practical comparisons, Windwos XP, on something like a typical Athlon 2400 to 3000, 333Mhz RAM and a 7200 rpm hard drive system should now boot to desktop in around 30 seconds or 40 with network/router connected. That includes having antivirus which adds at least 10 seconds of that. I prefer to measure time to a usable google page which is nearer 1 minute 30 as benchmark.
If you are far away from this (and 98SE if you had that will be faster BTW) then there is something that needs fixing and we can help you find it.
Otherwise plug your gizmo's back in 1 by one over the next few days and see when it starts to crawl again. I find a USB burner, USB scanner USB phone cradle and USB joystick add 20 seconds to the above startup times.
And DONT run scandisk, or BootVIS optimise(don't ask if you don't know but you will read it elsewhere) or dump your prefetch files unless you know exactly what you are doing and why and have already backed up your system !!
They can both make a small problem into an unmanageably large heap although I have resolved problems occasionally using each . Certainly they are worth a try before reinstalling but re-installing does tend to have more certainly.
As far as the initial question is concerned first get back to basics, unplug your cameras, scanners, USB hubs, hardrives, Routers tooters and radio controlled bluetooth keyboard vacuum cleaners. Oh and USB printers and joysticks and whatever else you have.
Now: Practical comparisons, Windwos XP, on something like a typical Athlon 2400 to 3000, 333Mhz RAM and a 7200 rpm hard drive system should now boot to desktop in around 30 seconds or 40 with network/router connected. That includes having antivirus which adds at least 10 seconds of that. I prefer to measure time to a usable google page which is nearer 1 minute 30 as benchmark.
If you are far away from this (and 98SE if you had that will be faster BTW) then there is something that needs fixing and we can help you find it.
Otherwise plug your gizmo's back in 1 by one over the next few days and see when it starts to crawl again. I find a USB burner, USB scanner USB phone cradle and USB joystick add 20 seconds to the above startup times.
And DONT run scandisk, or BootVIS optimise(don't ask if you don't know but you will read it elsewhere) or dump your prefetch files unless you know exactly what you are doing and why and have already backed up your system !!
They can both make a small problem into an unmanageably large heap although I have resolved problems occasionally using each . Certainly they are worth a try before reinstalling but re-installing does tend to have more certainly.
It could also be your A/V software causing this as it's doing on access scans during boot.
At what point does it seem to hang?
If it's on Applying Network connections, remove the network cable and see if it's still doing it.
Stu..
Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
At what point does it seem to hang?
If it's on Applying Network connections, remove the network cable and see if it's still doing it.
Stu..
Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
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