[beau3039]

I am running on an HP touchsmart on windows 7. It takes forever to shut down and start up. How can I fix this?/ Where do I see which programs are at startup. Also how do I know which ones arent necessary. It seems like there is a lot of random junk from microsoft from when I first got this computer.

Any help is appreciated,

thanks

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Hello,

First up the "random junk" is most likely what HP would have put on the computer, not Microsoft. Feel free to go to your Control Panel > Programs and Features and uninstall programs that you don't need. If you don't know what a program is, chances are you don't need it - but research it before removing it just to be sure, as sometimes hardware drivers have entries in that list (which are needed).

Next we come to the Startups. You can open your Start menu > All Programs > Startup folder. Anything in here will be run as soon as you log in to Windows. You can delete anything you want out of there as they are just shortcuts to the program itself, so the program will still be there if you decide you want to run it later.

We can drill down a bit further but let's start with that. A really good read is the How-To located here: http://www.geekstogo...g-your-machine/

Get started on that link and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Regards,

Troy

[Troy]

Hello,

First up the "random junk" is most likely what HP would have put on the computer, not Microsoft. Feel free to go to your Control Panel > Programs and Features and uninstall programs that you don't need. If you don't know what a program is, chances are you don't need it - but research it before removing it just to be sure, as sometimes hardware drivers have entries in that list (which are needed).

Next we come to the Startups. You can open your Start menu > All Programs > Startup folder. Anything in here will be run as soon as you log in to Windows. You can delete anything you want out of there as they are just shortcuts to the program itself, so the program will still be there if you decide you want to run it later.

We can drill down a bit further but let's start with that. A really good read is the How-To located here: http://www.geekstogo...g-your-machine/

Get started on that link and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Regards,

Troy

[beau3039]

Ok, I did all that. The home screen loads a little quicker. But the boot up and shut down process could be quicker.

[Troy]

I think a full defrag on the hard drive may improve this - have you followed through the tutorial link also?

If the drive itself is having any problems that won't help. From an elevated CMD prompt can you please run CHKDSK /R. It should say it is unable to lock the drive, run on reboot? Hit Y and Enter to complete. Then exit the CMD prompt, restart your computer and upon startup it should begin the Check Disk. The /R switch will tell it to repair any errors it finds, and it will also scan all sectors on the drive for free space or unallocated files - caution - this may take a few hours and is completely normal.

Also, what are the hardware specifications of the computer please?

[beau3039]

Hp Touchsmart 300-1020
AMD Athlon™ II X2 235e Processor 2.70

I think I need more RAM. I have 4gb installed but i tend to play pretty large games on this computer. Over time the games have become laggy. Does RAM have anything to do with the start up?

[Troy]

Sorry for the wait, I have been busy and don't get much chance to login these days.

First up have you tried any of the instructions I gave you in Post #4?

Next I have looked up your system and it seems 4GB is the max your system can take. This is your computer = http://h20000.www2.h...rodTypeId=12454

If you scroll down a bit you will find the following quote:

At the time of this publication HP has not qualified SO-DIMMs larger than 2.0 GB for use with this motherboard

Seeing as there are only 2 SO-DIMM (memory) slots you can only have 2x 2GB (4GB) of RAM as your maximum. RAM has plenty to do with startup and also with the ongoing operation of the computer. I'd be tempted not to look at RAM as a problem at this stage.

Once you have completed my instructions in Post #4, if it's still too slow, you can try using MSCONFIG to disable more startup items. This can be a potentially dangerous exercise so proceed with caution. I have found a nice little writeup to help you along, however if you have any concerns or questions please feel free to ask and confirm here first!

http://www.netsquirr...onfig_win7.html

Lastly if you really wanted to, you could consider starting again from scratch. Recover they system to factory defaults and then set it up again from there. Obviously you would want to backup your data first and make sure you have all the programs ready to install again first.

Cheers

Troy