slow loading windows xp

[bc9737]

windows xp takes 3m 50s to load I have reformatted and re-installed windows painfully slow to load with just windows video & sound drivers installed any ideas please

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Hello BC

 

Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help

 

How big is the CPU in that system and how much memory do you have?

 

Right clicking on My Computer and choosing Properties will provide that information.

 

Like so;

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z144/Wolfeymoles-Pics/FPCH%20files/specs.png

[AdvancedSetup]

Well unless it is a recently new PC then that load time may not be that slow for an old system.

 

How old is the unit and as Wolfey asked what are the hardware specs on it?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I run a Celeron 2.4mhz with 512mb of ram and including log in it takes 75 seconds to load from a cold boot.

[AdvancedSetup]

Try it with an 800MHz Celeron that is running on a hard drive that is 8 years old and 128MB of RAM and let's see if you have those load times :D

 

Point is that even if you have newer faster hardware, if the hard drive itself is old and slow then it will be an important factor as well.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Hey AS I have run XP on a 266mhz with 128 before today mate. :)

[Tony D]

bc9737 - is this something new or did it always take this long to start?

 

I've seen where a failing hard drive will cause a longer than normal startup time.

[bc9737]

system details - fujitsu siemens scaleo T

pentium4 3.4GHz (2 CPUs) - 2048 MB ram - 230 GB HDD - GE Force 7600GS Video

Creative XFI Extreme Gamer sound - Windows XP Home Edition (5.1) SP2

Problem has got worse in last 2 months

[Seth]

With those specs, the system should boot and be ready to run in about 1 minute.

 

What security software are you running?

[bc9737]

Norton supplied by BT. The problem is present with just Windows XP installed no security loaded. With certain game software running system seems slow to respond

[RandyL]

Hi bc;

Certain game software causes the machine to be slow to respond you say.

This is a clue. What is “certain games”? Details would help.

 

With your computer specs being relatively good I suspect too many startup items running.

Without knowing ALL of the software you have and what is running at startup it's hard to say but I think you might have too much running from the second you turn your computer on. Note that Norton is a resource hog.

 

Look at the notification area (lower right in the taskbar area). Anything there is loading at startup. See if you can safely disable any of those programs from starting at bootup from the program options.

 

Next look at msconfig to see what might be running that you don't need and to turn off the programs that can't be disabled via the program options itself.

 

If you suspect any particular software as being an issue let us know.

If you need more help with startup issues and msconfig let us know.

 

Also note that even though you have an antivirus program malware or programs bundled with malware can cause such issues.

 

Also as kelly stated a failing hard drive can cause slow bootups and a sluggish computer. You should run a hard drive test too.

 

RandyL

[bc9737]

Admitted defeat and decided to reformat and reinstall windows problem sorted total time including boot-up 34secs

thanks for all suggestions

[maynardvdm]

Thanks for letting know. That is quick.

Cheers

[RandyL]

Hi bc;

Sorry you had to start over. If you need any advice on how to keep it working good now or in the future let us know.

 

Startup items and malware are the usuall culprits.

RandyL

[Monkey_Puncher]

I've got a similar problem - XP taking 3+ minutes to boot on a 2.4Ghz Celeron w/ 512RAM. Startup loads sophos auto updater, zone alarm, and broadband connection software. So nothing much. The laptop was fitted with a new HD in October, but is otherwise 3 1/2 years old.

 

Oh, and I get a message saying my mousepad drivers are not synaptics approved, even though I've rolled them back to factory settings. Is there anyway to get rid of this?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Please make a new post with regard to your issue even though it is very similar to the ones posted.