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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: carol80 on Sunday 18 March 07 03:33 GMT (UK)
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The kids are ready to throw my computer out.
My problem is that it takes about Half an hour to load from the time i switch it on.
My computer is so slow.Is there any way i can speed it up.
Help Please
Carol
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Hi Carol
Do you do regular cleanups of your hard disk (c: drive)? Disk Cleanup helps free up space on your hard drive. Disk Cleanup searches your drive, and then shows you temporary files, Internet cache files, and unnecessary program files that you can safely delete. You can direct Disk Cleanup to delete some or all of those files.
To open Disk Cleanup, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to
System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
You should do this every few days. If you already do it, then I can't think of anything else that might speed up your computer.
Rex
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Hi Carol,
I guess that the techo people might like to know more details about your computer e.g. whether it's a PC or a Mac, and - assuming that it is a PC - what version of Windows you are using, what the capacity of your computer is, etc.
I certainly hope you get some good answers!
This is for the selfish reason that my daughter's computer is now taking forever and a day to load! She has a very new computer with Windows XP and huge capacity. She is a beginner and complained to her Broadband provider; they assured her that it is a Windows problem. Her aged mother (moi!) is not exactly a Luddite but I certainly don't live in an up-to-date computer world. You will appreciate this when I tell you that I'm sending this on an old IBM ThinkPad cobbled together out of bits and pieces of 3 old ThinkPads and running Windows 98 ::) - and which doesn't even have a sound card :o.
The slowness seems to have developed for my daughter since she started using the WebCam and Skype; I think she might also have inadvertently downloaded a couple of programs (an HP - games - one and an AOL one).
I've just been checking the Web and found the following sites which seem interesting:
http://asknerd.net/slowcomputer.html
http://fix-pc-errors.com/slow-computer.htm
But I wouldn't be game to try anything!
Let's hope good answers are forthcoming.
JAP
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Use a cleaner program like nCleaner, its free, this will clean out all the old temp and orphaned files. BUT BE CAREFUL, the cleaner side of the program is safe enough, but don't use the Registry Cleaner UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY what you are doing otherwise you could end up having a PC which no longer works at all. Youngsters download a lot of junk to us, jewels to them!
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I use Ccleaner every day or so.
You can download it here:-
http://www.ccleaner.com/
I have used it for at least a year, and I just let it find and delete everything it wants to. No problems and it seems safe.
If you do this (which is strongly advised), you will have lost your cookies and have to log in again to sites like this. Which I really do not mind having to do, and is much safer anyway.
if you use XP and have different users set up you have to run ccleaner logged on as each one.
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Sorry to ask!
But are these 'solutions' relevant for a woefully slow-loading computer which is brand new, running XP, and with heaps and heaps of capacity on its hard disk? I know that there are things like Disk Cleaner (or something similar) which I am regularly asked to run because I have ancient computers with little capacity which tend to run out of space; they certainly need regular cleaning out in order to provide more space (whether that's hard disk space or whatever I don't know). But when it comes to a new computer with almost limitless amounts of hard disk space ... ???
Over to the experts ;D
JAP
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Something must have happened to the new computer, this is why I suggest using ccleaner. As far as I can tell you have nothing to lose.
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Sometimes when you install programs, they ask to be included in your "start-up" list ie they load into the working area when you start your computer up. Often you don't need those until you need them, and therefore can just launch them as and when you want.
I use spybot search and destroy to check for trojans, spyware and this also has a useful utility for looking at your start-up list, giving comments against the relevance of various items (in most cases). You can get spy-bot at http://www.spybot.info/en/spybotsd/index.html Spy-bot is freeware (but donations can be given). It is recognised as one of the best utilities around.
JULIAN
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Forget about lots of files on a PC, it has nothing to do with how fast a computer boots up. If your PC takes 30 Minutes (literally) before you can start using it then there must be something seriously wrong.
Assuming you have a reasonable amount of RAM and a relatively modern processor and your hard drive is less than 90% full then you should be able to do something productive after a couple of minutes. If not then you need to check what processes are running:
Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to bring up Task Manager as soon as the desktop appears after the boot process and then click on the Processes tab.
Look down the CPU column for any intense activity. If you discover a specific process that is hogging your resources then check whether it can be prevented from starting up during the boot process. Many processes do not need to run at start up. I always have less than 30 processes running at any one time, so if you have more than that and you have an old PC then it is likely to be slow.
REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PROCESSES THAT ARE RUNNING.
downside
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Carol
Once you have cleaned your disk up,it will have lots of empty spaces.Like a bookshelf where the books have been taken of the shelf ;D So you will need to defrag the disk to make more room.I often forget to do that,when I do, its like being on broadband;D
Celia
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Thank you for all your replies. I do defrag every couple of months.
I am using a Compaq Presario PC
Memory 256 MB
Hard Drive 40 GB
We have just timed it from turn on till every thing is loaded ( 40 min )
I will get my Son down to read your replies and see what he can do.
I have deleted all their music and music sites as youngest son now has laptop he can fill up.
Carol
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JAP
I agree with downside. It sounds like an application is running at start up and hogging the processor until it is done. I recently splashed out on a better pc and had the same problem until I uninstalled Norton Anti Virus. (Why companies insist on using Norton I don't know. I have had nothing but trouble with it on any computer I've ever had). Personally I prefer Grisoft AVG.
There is a way of stopping applications from automatically starting at start up by running a program called something like 'sysconfig' but I'll have to dig out my notes to find it. Hopefully some one else will know more about it.
Good luck
Andy
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I have just used ccleaner. The computer now loads in 7 mins. ;D I forgot to say my computer is only 18 mths old.
REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PROCESSES THAT ARE RUNNING.
downside
I think this is my problem as once everything is loaded i have no problem.
Maybe i just have too much Family History. ???
Carol
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Hi Carol
You can prevent processes from loading at startup:
Start->Run and type msconfig and click on OK.
When the msconfig window appears click on the Startup tab.
It will display a list of programs that are loaded at startup time.
What do you actually need to run at startup time? Possibly these items if you have them.
Antivirus software?
Firewall?
Windows Defender?
Most of the other things probably do not need to be loaded or partially loaded at startup time. Try unchecking some of those other programs and see if you can manage without them. If you find that something is not working then go back and check them.
downside
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Forget about lots of files on a PC, it has nothing to do with how fast a computer boots up. If your PC takes 30 Minutes (literally) before you can start using it then there must be something seriously wrong.
Assuming you have a reasonable amount of RAM and a relatively modern processor and your hard drive is less than 90% full then you should be able to do something productive after a couple of minutes. If not then you need to check what processes are running:
Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to bring up Task Manager as soon as the desktop appears after the boot process and then click on the Processes tab.
Look down the CPU column for any intense activity. If you discover a specific process that is hogging your resources then check whether it can be prevented from starting up during the boot process. Many processes do not need to run at start up. I always have less than 30 processes running at any one time, so if you have more than that and you have an old PC then it is likely to be slow.
REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PROCESSES THAT ARE RUNNING.
downside
Downside
How does one reduce the No of Processes running please?
Erin
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I had to double check the date on this thread. :D
By using msconfig to reduce unnecessary processes loading at startup.
Have a look in the startup tab and there will be a a list of processes.
There may be things like:-
messenger - msgnr.exe
quicktime - qttask.exe
Do a Google search on the process name to learn what it is and whether it really needs to load at boot time. If it is an anti-virus program then it probably does need to be left alone but many of the other items probably do not need to be there.
Also have a look using Task Manager at the processes that are currently running. Ignore the Windows processes as they must run otherwise Windows will become unstable. These are processes that have the names:-
SYSTEM
LOCAL SERVICE
NETWORK SERVICE
in the User column.
Do a Google search on the non-Windows processes and see what they do and whether they need to be running.
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I think the OP's real problem was a VERY low spec (256k?), but I expect the computer has been ditched by now.