Slow start up

muffler

Hope this hasn't been posted before but I would appreciate a bit of advice on this issue.
My own PC has gone back to Dell for repair and I am now using the kids PC. It was not connected to the internet until now so I installed a couple of antispyware and antivirus programmes (mcAfee Internet security suite, Spybot, adaware, Spyware blaster etc) but it is going at a snails pace at startup and even a bit slow when fully booted. Takes about 3 - 4 minutes to fully boot up.

Are there any programmes I can disable at startup without causing any problems anywhere else. Is there anywhere I can find out what the list of items are for ie. When I open the task manager I see there are 54 running processes but I dont know what they are. Can any of these be safely disabled and if so which ones.

I am using windows XP. 256mb RAM Pent 4 - 2.53GHz

In a nutshell what can I do to speed up the PC at startup and also when fully booted. Thanks in advance

is_that_so

Main probelm with XP is its need for memory . 256MB will let it run but it crawls. . CLick Start->Run and type in msconfig to see what is starting up. You can also turn stuff off here. Also consider defrag of the hard drive. If you are not sure what you can safely turn off just post here.

**Timbuk2**

I find this site great for telling you whether you can disable startup processes and services... all you do is type in the name of the service and it will give you a brief description of the service and tell you whether it is safe to stop from starting up

http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

Check it out, it is really good

mordeith

Go to Start [HTML][/HTML]Run and type msconfig
This will bring up the configuration dialog box. Click in the Startup tab and deselect any programs that you don't need at bootup.

Ozzy

Hey muffler. Check out Startupinspector it's pretty handy and it's free. Had to use it recently, works well.

kippy

256 meg is grand to run XP. Its been on my laptop with a 1 gig processor for ages now without any problems.....(that said it wouldnt want to be running too much more)

Are you sure its running with the lates service packs and updates from MS and that the antivirus and spyware scanners are completely up to date?
Also, have they a lot of software installed?
Are you running more than one Antivirus?
Have you tried checking the eventlog for any start up warnings or errors? (Right click my computer, manage, event viewer-there may be some warnings related to errors on your harddrive or connections missing....)
There were some good sites mentioned already but also worth a look here for services:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/windows_xp_services.php

Also, Might be worth running a defrag on the hard drive.....(Right click my computer, manage, Disk Defragmenter)

groundedplane

The problem is simply all the process that are running on startup and when start up has completed its sequence. 50 or so process running on 256mb of ram will not leave much for anything else to run.

When the system has finished its slow startup go to task manager and choose the performance tab. Now take a look at Physical Memory (k). You will see total, available and system cache. I will bet you a euro that your available memory is very low, thus leaving the system without memory to run any more applications. That is why your system is running slow and starting up slow.

If you want your computer that protected from spy ware and virus, increase the memory in your system by at least 256mb more ram. Personally, I will not have less than 1 gig of ram in my system.

I have more than you have starting up and running on my system and it has a 2.4 gig processor and 1012 mb ram and it takes it 8 seconds to load up to my desktop and allow me to start running applications. NIS 2006 is on my system and everyone knows how much of a resource hogger that is, but it does a great job in protecting my system.

PS What size is the page file on your system? I would suggest moving the page file to another partition while keeping the orginal page file. Set the original page file to a size of 2-50 and on the new one with a max of 512 and a min of 512.

Moving the page file away from the OS helps windows manage swapping memory much better. Keeping the original page file at a small value lets windows keep its original settings, thus working much better. Page File size is generally 1.5 times the size of ram installed.

muffler

Thanks a million lads for all the replies. I will check out the links given a little later.
on the advice from replies to a previous post I had about installing Dell compatable memory I took the advice of the majority and ordered a 512mb module on Tuesday night from shop4memory.ie and it arrived in todays post. That should help things a bit.

Groundedplane - performance is showing this: total 261124, available 51384 and system cache 68968. Size of page file? Sorry not sure what that is or how to find it.

Kippy - I think i downloaded and installed all required updates. There is a couple of big games installed but not too many. The anti virus I have is the maAfee internet suite, AVG and windows defender. The antispyware is as previously stated. The event viewer IS showing a couple of errors and warnings (is that normal) but most of the entries seem to be OK.

Will post back when I get a chance to check out the links.

Thanks again

gamer

you can switch off 5or 6 services in,winxp to make it run faster,do google search,winxp services disable,make sure you have at least 2gig free space on hardrive,rightclick, drive c: ,in My Computer,click propertys.you cant, run 2 antivirus progs at the same time,just leave avg on, switch off mcAFEE antivirus.or avg , AVG is better at stopping virus,s though.you may wanna leave on macafee suite if it has an internet filter ,to block certain websites.

groundedplane

muffler wrote:

Groundedplane - performance is showing this: total 261124, available 51384 and system cache 68968. Size of page file? Sorry not sure what that is or how to find it.



Thanks again

Well is there is on 51284 left, that mean out of your 256mb ram you have after startup on 51mb left to do what you need to do which is feck all really.

Page File

Right click on my computer choose advanced tab and then on preformence click settings. On the preformence options window choose advance and then down the bottom where virtual memory is located choose change.

When you get to this window you will see where the page file is located on the c:\ . You will also see if you have any other addition drives installed on the hard drive. If you only see the c:\ drive click on custom and set initial size to 1152mb and maxium size to 1152mb. We use these sizes because you will be adding 512mb to 256mb which = 768 and 1152mb is 768mb x 1.5 which is the recommeded size of the page file for windows to run good on.

Hope this helps.

kippy

The extra RAM should help but you still shouldnt be having as many issues as you are even with the 256Meg.50 megs left after boot up is feck all but should be sufficient to surf the net etc and this also shows that the lack of RAM is not what is causing the slow startup....As I said I use a far lesser speced laptop without any problems......
One gig of RAM is nice, and perhaps needed for what you use the machine for but for many people 256/512 is more than adequate with XP but the more you can afford obviously the better performance.

What do the errors refer to? Some errors are to be expected but some can point to problems with hardware/software or config.

Did you run a defrag as I suggested?


I would not recommend using McAffee at all unless you need it for website filtering. I am not sure if you are using the Antivirus part of it but as someone may have suggested above it is not a good idea to run two different AV programmes at the same time.....so you may want to disable one.


One other way to tune performance when running is to, right click on my computer, properties, advances, performance, settings, Tick the "Adjust for best performance"
This wouldnt help with start up times generally however.

Anyway keep us informed.....

is_that_so

Running mutiple AV programs can sometimes mean one detecting the other as a attack .:rolleyes: You only need one of each security program. Anti-spyware, firewall, AV.

muffler

Thanks for all the replies. Here's what I have in relation to antivir and antispyware.
1. McAfee Security Centre containing VirusScan, personal firewall plus and privacy service. The spamkiller is disabled.
2.AVG
3.Spycatcher
4.Spybot
5.Spywareblaster.
6Ad-Aware
7. Windows defender.
I think XP has firewall and is on.

Kippy, I defragged about 5 days ago but will do it again in a wee while. I have now changed the setting to "adjust for best performance" In relation to the errors there hundres of entries (in total) and it wouldnt be possible to list them all here. I did see in the Device Manager that there is a yellow question mark beside "Ethernet Controller". Is this important?

groundedplane, the present page files are set as 384 to 768. I will take your advice and change after i get the additional memory installed. Talking about this i read somewhere that it is very easy to install this memory module. but is there anything to do after its installed or do you simply just boot up again?

gamer, the hard drive is showing 43.3gb free out of 74.4Gb. Inrelation to winxp services do you mean for me to do a google search to see which can be disabled

On a general note I just did a complete reinsatall of the system (if thats the right wording) a few weeks ago. reinstalled everything I could think off. Well it was actually my son done it and he doesnt know a pile more about computers than i do and thats very little.

Thanks lads

DemonOfTheFall

Either disable the virus scan part of McAfee or disable AVG. They're fighting each other for scanning every file and slowing things down a lot.

kippy

No point defragging again so soon.
I didnt relasie you did a reinstall fo everything so recently.....
I would disable/uninstall all but AVG and Windows defender ( That is a personal choice though, one AV and one Spyware is enough)
You dont have the correct drivers installed for your network card hence the exclamation mark.
The errors in the event log could be related to this.
Are there any errors related to the hard drive or "mass storage"?

Mutant_Fruit

The extra ram will help (guarantee you that, especially if you want to run more than 1 app at once with your 50 megs of free ram :P).

Could the slow startup be because the HD is running in PIO mode?

JPA

Disabling the graphical effects in XP will boost it's performance too.

Press windows key and pause/break. Brings up system propeties, go to advanced then performance settings.

You can disable all the effects and should notice the difference.

Mutant_Fruit

The extra ram will help (guarantee you that, especially if you want to run more than 1 app at once with your 50 megs of free ram :P).

Could the slow startup be because the HD is running in PIO mode?

muffler

In the application list under event viewer here are the last 10 "dodgy looking items"
05/04/2006 Error Application Hang
05/04/2006 Warning WinMgmt
05/04/2006 Warning WinMgmt
05/04/2006 Error MsiInstaller
05/04/2006 Error MsiInstaller
05/04/2006 Warning WinMgmt
05/04/2006 Warning WinMgmt
05/04/2006 Warning MsiInstaller
6/04/2006 Error MsiInstaller
06/04/2006 Warning Userenv

kippy, thats the only error/exclamation mark showing in the list in Device Manager. Should I install drivers for network card and if so where do I find them.

Im going to get rid of a couple of these antispyware things etc. It makes sense when i think about it.

DemonOfTheFall

Do what I said about antivirus too. Do not run 2 virus scanners at the same time!

muffler

I am now left with AVG, windows defender and Ad-Aware. rebooted and while there was no difference in time to get as far as user accounts (about 1 min.) there was a massive increase in speed in loading up the personal settings.
that was taking about 3 mins before but just now it loaded up in just over a minute.
I think everyone was right about running 2 antivirus programmes but personally i think the McvAfee antivirus was the main culprit.

I'll check out the start up items and disable a few if I can. hope to get the memory installed tomorrow if its not too difficult so that should help also. I'll post back again after i get this installed

Many thanks for all the replies and if you were up here in Donegal I would buy you all a pint.

PS. As mentioned in OP my own PC has gone to Dell for repair so Im going to start a thread in consumer issues about the problems with them so if any of you have had any experience with this shower feel free to post.

kippy

Good stuff,

You would probably find drivers for the device on either the PC manufacturers website or if you know the make and model of the device on the device manufacturers site.
Alternatively you might have a disc that came with the PC with drivers on it.
I think the slow start up before the log on screen may be related to devices and drivers - perhaps not having the correct drivers.


The errors may be related to you uninstall the applications, as msiinstaller is what windows uses at time to install/uninstall apps.
I dont think there is any thing to worry about there.

At this stage I think you should stick the RAM in and see if it makes any difference, you may not get much extra speed out of startup no matter what you do.


Will be watching with interest the thread in consumer issues.
Kippy