Very slow start up

[Guest Ganz Doof]

My laptop (Win XP Pro) has become very slow to start up (more than 5 minutes

before it is ready for business) and shutting down seems to take a long time

too (about 3 minutes). What could I do to speed up the process? I have run

CCleaner and also tried to uninstall unimportant programs - but it does not

appear to help.

[Guest Kayman]

Re: Very slow start up

 

On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:47:24 +1000, Ganz Doof wrote:

> My laptop (Win XP Pro) has become very slow to start up (more than 5 minutes

> before it is ready for business) and shutting down seems to take a long time

> too (about 3 minutes). What could I do to speed up the process? I have run

> CCleaner and also tried to uninstall unimportant programs - but it does not

> appear to help.

 

Usual culprits:

.. Malware (i.e., viruses, worms, trojans, dialers, adware, spyware)

.. Failure to delete temporary files

.. Too many programs running

.. Not enough RAM (memory).

 

Help! My Computer is slow!

http://miekiemoes.blogspot.com/2008/02/help-my-computer-is-slow.html

 

--and/or--

 

From: Shenan Stanley...

#1: A process that's loading down your CPU:

It could be a sub-process or application that's running in the background

and taking all the CPU resources, which could be the cause of your PC

running slow.

To find and display what could be the problem try Process Explorer:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

 

Note: Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:

In the taskbar select View and check 'Show Process Tree' and

'Show Lower Pane' options.

Then expand the process named 'Explorer' (click on the + sign) In the

column on the left named 'CPU', look for any high CPU usage. Next click on

the CPU column to sort the processes by %CPU usage (Highest to Lowest).

Move the mouse cursor over any process, you should see a popup with some

detailed info.

Then mouse over the process that's using most or all the CPU %.

Then click on that process to highlight it.

Now that it's highlighted, right click and from the options listed select:

'Search Online' This should display what out there on the web about that

process. You can also double click on any process to open up a more

detailed 'Properties' window. Note: some entries like Explorer,

System/Services, and Svchost entries may need to be expanded to show the

detail (sub processes), in this case click on the + located to the left of

the entry.

An alternate method using Process Explorer is to double click

on the Graph just below the Menu bar.

This will open the 'System Information' window, which has a larger display

of all three graphs.

Move your mouse over any spike in the CPU Usage graph to see what

process/application or service was the cause of the spike.

 

#2: Stuff that loads during boot or logon and then is always running in the

background:

If you want to list and explore what may be the cause then:

Try Autoruns from the MS Windows SysInternals site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx

 

AutoRuns will show/list all apps/etc. that load/run when you first boot

(Boot Execute tab), when you logon (Logon tab) and other programs that load

(grouped by labeled tabs) for easy viewing.

It also provides the ability to selectively allows you to stop any program

(use with care) that you don't want to load.

You can undo any changes you have made.

Note: To get additional details on an item in the list you may need to

highlight the item (right click) and use the 'Search Online' option to get

the details, especially useful for the more obscure items in the list.

 

#3: To much crap on the hard drive:

Take a look at CCleaner as a tool to remove Internet history info,

cookies, temp files, auto complete and other junk.

Note that when CCleaner is first installed most if not all the options

are checked which is far too aggressive. So I recommend unchecking

all the items listed in 'Applications' tab and in the 'Windows' tab

selectively place a check mark for only those options that are of some

value in increasing the amount of free space on your PC.

 

The 'Analyze' button allows you preview what and how much

hard drive space you will get back.

 

Also available is customization, see Options/Custom to add any

other/additional folders you want files deleted from.

http://www.ccleaner.com/

 

#4: Viruses, Malware

Viruses and malware can also cause your PC to slowdown or malfunction.

Malke has an excellent set of instructions on what to do:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

--and/or--

Kaspersky's AVPTool

http://downloads5.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/AVPTool/

--and/or--

http://ftp.kaspersky.com/devbuilds/AVPTool/

There's no updating involved since the scanning engine is updated

several times a day and you simply download the updated scanner whenever

you want to do a scan.

--and/or--

Dr.Web CureIt!® Utility - FREE

http://www.freedrweb.com/cureit/

--and/or--

Malwarebytes© Corporation - Anti-Malware

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/program/mbam-setup.exe

--and/or--

SuperAntispyware - Free

http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html

 

#5: Defragment your hard drive.

 

Then:

Download and execute HiJack This! (HJT)

http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis/download

Please, do not post HJT logs to this newsgroup.

Fora where you can get expert advice for HiJack This! (HJT) logs.

 

NOTE: Registration is required in any of the below fora before posting

a HJT log and read the 'stickies' (instructions/guidelines) for

the respective HJT forum.

 

http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/index.php?s=2e9ea4e19d3289dd877ab75a8220bff6&showforum=29

http://forums.whatthetech.com/HijackThis_Logs_and_Infections_Removal_f27.html

http://www.5starsupport.com/ipboard/index.php?showforum=18

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum22.html

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/viewforum.php?f=5

http://www.thespykiller.co.uk/index.php?board=3.0

http://castlecops.com/forum67.html

 

Good luck :-)

[Guest Unknown]

Re: Very slow start up

 

Have you run disk cleanup?

"Ganz Doof" <ganz@doof.org> wrote in message

news:OEQIKs%23EJHA.2244@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> My laptop (Win XP Pro) has become very slow to start up (more than 5

> minutes before it is ready for business) and shutting down seems to take a

> long time too (about 3 minutes). What could I do to speed up the process?

> I have run CCleaner and also tried to uninstall unimportant programs - but

> it does not appear to help.

[Guest Plato]

Re: Very slow start up

 

Ganz Doof wrote:

>

> My laptop (Win XP Pro) has become very slow to start up (more than 5 minutes

> before it is ready for business) and shutting down seems to take a long time

> too (about 3 minutes). What could I do to speed up the process? I have run

> CCleaner and also tried to uninstall unimportant programs - but it does not

> appear to help.

 

done a defrag?

 

--

http://www.bootdisk.com/