Hi All

Twice I have posted in a day I must get a life!

This is an old chesnut but whilst I was on the marvellous GTG forum I thought I would ask. We have 4 PCs which are networked (I think!) or at least have access to the internet. One of them (mine) is directly connected to the router, my daughter's was wi-fi but I recently changed that to using the gadget that uses the wiring in the house (and the download speeds are better) and my son's is wi-fi as is my wife's. All run on XP except my wife's which is Vista.

My question is why, when they are all reasonable machines, do they take so long to boot up? My daughter's is the worst, it can take 5 minutes before you can use anything, and trying anything before that results in 50 screens of IE or Excel or whatever (this is called irritated Dad). I did download Mike Lin's startup monitor but don't recall seeing anything odd on there.

It sounds as if it runs some big programme to start with and then once that is finished it will run okay.

They have a lot of games installed (Sims for example) is that the problem? (Can't see that that needs to be part of the boot up?).

Sorry to be thick!!

MTIA

Louise's Dad

go to START..RUN...type in MSCONFIG...then click on OK or press ENTER..
click on START UP TAB...uncheck everything EXCEPT your AV and firewall...if its a laptop you have to be careful about what you uncheck or your touch pad and wireless and things like that will not function for you..
google each start up item to decide if you need it to load with windows...unchecking them does not remove them ..they are still available to use...

the next thing we are going to do is turn off indexing ....its a resource hog and if you aren't searching for things on your computer 10 times a day it will only slow down your system....

click on start...my computer...right click on C: drive....properties...on the general tab..uncheck ...allow indexing on this drive....if you do not have the box on your system...

then START...RUN...type in SERVICES.MSC...then OK...scroll down until you find INDEXING SERVICE...click on it and in the general tab set it to DISABLED...then exit

To clean your temp folder, recycle bin, index.dat etc..please download this free tool...

CCleaner

Don't install any Toolbars, or other programs, should it ask you...Just
uncheck the option of installing the Yahoo toolbar....if you get
the slim version it does not have the toolbar
thats the one I recommend...
It will put a shortcut on your Desktop.

Click on CCleaner to start it....
Before first use...
Select Options then Advanced.
UNCHECK "Only delete files in Windows Temp folder older than 48 hours"
The rest of the standard settings are fine...

Then click "Run Cleaner"

DO NOT USE ANY OF THE OTHER TOOLS...RUNNING THEM MAY CAUSE OTHER PROBLEMS

next get diskeeper lite here...

after installing it...click on the icon...close the "nag" screen...click on your c drive to select it ...then down towards the bottom ...click on defragment now...first time you use it it may take 15 to 30 minutes to complete...do it about every two weeks and it will complete in about 7 minutes...
reboot and tell me hows its running...


you do not have to defrag in safe mode with diskeeper lite and its 10 times as fast than the defragger that comes with windows

still slow...you probably have malware...

you need to go to the malware forum...start here...if your still having problems after those steps...post a hijackthis log here...

Many thanks for that - I will try and run it tomorrow (in the UK) when she is at school. There was some malware about 18 months ago but you wonderful people sorted that out for me via the Hijackthis etc.

Will report back.

Thanks

L's D

that was 18 months ago...in teenager years...that was a lifetime ago or 200k text messages or downloaded 1500 songs or any combination thereof... at least run a malware online free scan to make sure your tools are doing their job...like BITDEFENDER here...

Hi

Did the cclean and the defrag and the result was that it took about 2 hours to defrag and on reboot it was either the same or possibly a bit slower!

Even after we removed the virus 18 months ago it was still slow so perhaps it is permanently damaged?

What should I do now - the malware bit?

Regards

L's D

yep on bitdefender scan...
did you do the msconfig thing or turn off indexing

Hi

Yes I did exactly as you said but it doesn't seem to have done anything. I looked at that bitdefender thing do I just download and it will then do a scan? Didn't seem to do much when I clicked on it!

Regards


L's D

Hi

Can't download bit defender, says it cannot find something 'msi package btds.msi'

Regards

L's D

the malware guys get bent out of shape if us mere mortals give advice on anything related to malware...

you need to go to the malware forum...start here...if your still having problems after those steps...post a hijackthis log here...

After my success today with getting AVG 8 free to run on all 4 computers with the automatic updates I am now going to have a go with running all those programs. Also I have been given some other advice outside of this forum (sorry!!!) so hopefully something will work.

If not then I will have to lump it! (Or rather my daughter will)!

Thanks as always

Louise's Dad

(Just realised L'sD might have another connotation)

There are plenty of good reasons why we do happyrck. Your tone is insulting to all of us considering all the hard work the malware and tech people do here.

Guys come on don't argue.

All of you do a great job.

Regards

Louise's Dad

Hello Louise's Dad...

In reading over this topic, it would appear that the first thing to do is have the machine checked for malware. It sure exhibits the symptoms.

happyrck has addressed Startups, Services, Temp Files, and suggested that a trip through the malware forum is needed. I think he's given sound advice. Skip the bit defender and start a topic in malware for the cleanup.

That said, is the machine starting faster? There are hardware issues that can also cause slow starts. We can look at a couple things there if things are not improving.

Hi

This morning I am going to embark on the list of stuff that happyrck put the link to and will report back then.

Thanks

Louise's Dad

Hi Wannabe1

Well this morning I went through the whole shebang of scans and did it by the book, the only thing I couldn't get was a report from the Panda thing (the screens seem to be different to what you describe but it did scan).

The Malware removed 160 infections, the Super Anti Spyware found nothing and the Panda found some stuff too and got rid of some of it but the rest was subscription.

So I then rebooted and it took approximately 10 minutes to be able to use (in this example) Excel. I then thought 'ah' I have everything ticked in 'msconfg' so went in there and unchecked it all and this time it booted in about 6 minutes.

There is no doubt that it is getting slower and slower though, I am sure this cannot be true, but it seems as if it has got slower since running all these scans (probably me!).

Two other things which are probably irrelevant but anyway:

1) When I was trying to get it to route into the Orange LiveBox the other day it was recommended I turn the Firewall off. If I go into Control Panel Firewall I get a message saying 'Would you like to run the Windows firewall / internet connection sharing (ICS) service'. If I then click 'Yes' it tells me it cannot display the Firewall settings.

2) When I switch off the PC (apart from it taking an age to switch off) it does not turn the monitor off but leaves it on with the screen going Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Light Blue, White and Blue in that sequence (I am sure that is not important but it is annoying!).

Basically I think the PC is f**ked and to be honest so am I - perhaps it would be easier to bin it and buy a new one, but it is (or should be a good machine) and is not that old.

Really disappointed - is it terminal?!!!!

Regards and thanks as usual.

Louise's Dad

PS I have a log for the Malware and Super Spyware things - oh and the Windows updates are up to date.