Help computer taking too long to load.

[celia]

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 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

[carol80]

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

[Essex export]

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

[carol80]

I have just used ccleaner.  The computer now loads in 7 mins.    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

[downside]

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

[erin21]

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

[downside]

I had to double check the date on this thread.

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.

[pjbuk007]

I think the OP's real problem was a VERY low spec (256k?), but I expect the computer has been ditched by now.