[ozzieowl]

I am sure that this issue has been raised before so I apologise in advance. I remember seeing that Compaq Connection Agent is one of those applications that can be disabled without causing problems.

I have a Comaq Presario PC and also a Compaq Presarion laptop, both running Windows XP Home. The time elapsed between log on and being able to usefully do anything is getting on for 20 minutes for the PC and sometimes twice as long for the laptop.

I understand that by going into msconfigure and unchecking Compaq Connection Agent that might contribute to speeding up the process so I tried that on the pc.

I unchecked the box but was then greeted by an error message as follows:

"An Access Denied error was returned while attempting to change a service. You may need to log on using an Administrator account to make the specified changes". Getting rid of the error message forces me to restart the computer which puts me right back to square one!!!!!

I have wireless broadband so that the laptop can be used in another room. Is this likely to be causing an issue i.e. trying to change something in what is effectively a network?

I am a novice so need all the help I can get. By trying to solve one issue I have stumbled on another one. Can anyone out there offer me any advice?

[Advertisements]

Tap the F8 key during the Windows screen at boot and go into Safe Mode, you should be able to get in and you may have administrative privileges in Safe Mode. Have you done a disk cleanup and run the defragmenter lately? I would suggest doing that before taking any more drastic measures. Also you may have installed so many programs and updates that you need to add memory to the system.

[Tyger]

Tap the F8 key during the Windows screen at boot and go into Safe Mode, you should be able to get in and you may have administrative privileges in Safe Mode. Have you done a disk cleanup and run the defragmenter lately? I would suggest doing that before taking any more drastic measures. Also you may have installed so many programs and updates that you need to add memory to the system.

[ozzieowl]

Thanks Tyger. I did a defrag not too long ago but I will do what you advise. I certainly don't want to do anything too drastic. As for adding programs and running low on memory I don't think that is an issue, in terms of what I have added anyway, but when I bought the pc it came loaded with stuff that is never going to get used. Do you think that culling some of that might help?

[ozzieowl]

Well I did a defrag and a disk cleanup and then booted up in safe mode and logged in as administrator. Unfortunately I met with the same problem again. It seems I am being prevented from disabling Compaq Connections Agent regardless of my efforts. Any other ideas very welcome.

In an attempt to cut down on the waiting time on boot up I am leaving the pc on all the time. Even so, every now and then it just refuses to let me do anything while it goes through its routines. There has to be a solution to this but I am afraid I don't have the knowledge for it.

[Doug]

3 1/2 to 5 minutes is not an uncommon amount of time for the XP boot sequence.
What you describe is cause for concern.

Your situation "could" be related to excessive StartUp applications and processes, but your time description sounds "way" more than a startup loading problem.

Please give us a better overview of your machine, starting with the laptop.
________________________________________________________________________________
________

Please Run the PCPitstop Full Tests, here:
http://www.pcpitstop.com
Register and create a password
Accept the ActiveX component to allow your machine to run the Full Tests
Registering and accepting the ActiveX are both SAFE and FREE.
Full Tests is the first item in the left hand column of that page.

The Full Tests take less than 5 minutes for most machines.
Once you have your Results, please post the TechExpress Link back here into this thread for review.
TechExpress is the last item on the list in the yellow box in upper right area of any Results page.
Post the entire URL link information back here into this Forum thread.

Caution: During the testing of Video Adapter, a variety of patterns, shapes, colors and text are “flashed” onto the users monitor screen. In the many thousands of daily uses of the PCPitstop Full Tests over several years, two individuals who suffer epilepsy experienced discomfort and temporary dizziness when viewing the flashing patterns.
If you know that you are susceptible to photo driven seizure, look away from your screen during the Video Adapter testing sequence.

Best Regards