PC Boot up times...

[pixi]

I am still wanting to get another computer but havn't got around to it yet. I really want a lap top and to go wireless. My computer is very old now I suppose and the one thing that frustrates me is how long it takes from switching it on until it's actually ready to use. I think I was sad enough to time it once and it took about fifteen minutes, is this usual or unthinkably slow?

Also, what is it that I need to be concentrating on to make sure the new one has a faster boot up time?

Thanks

[Dr Zoidberg]

That's utterly shagged if it takes 15 minutes.
Even a very old PC with a clean install of windows will be useable in three or four. You'd see a big improvement by buying some more memory and re-installing windows.

If you are buying new , you want something with a fast hard drive (7200rpm instead of 5400) and plenty of memory (2gb+) and a dual core processor.

I don't know what your budget is , but you could do a lot worse than these Dells

Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop Deals and Coupon Codes | dmXdimension

[Old Blue]

As the good Dr. says.
Dell have some good kit at reasonable but definetly get 2gb of memory. Your present one has probably got the start up file jammed with programmes up coupled with lack of memory you have your problem. Possibly other bits as well slowing it down!!

[ric04vrs]

my laptop is soooooo much quicker now i have ditched the Norton av , down from about 5 minutes to round about 1 minute now

[Chris_Argyle]

15 Minutes! ... have you tried winding your computer up again!

As said above, reasonable processor and minimum of 1gb ram (depending on OS) should have you up n running in no time!

[Octygone]

Hi Pixi

Just pop over the water to Portsmouth and try here ....all these prices do not include a monitor as you probably already have one

PC Ranges : Novatech

[cheezemonkhai]

Hmm, while they are not bad for parts, I somewhat dubious about some of their own brand components.

[pixi]

I knew mine was slow but it's good to know just how slow, I think

[Lady Elanore]

Oh dear that does sound a little slow!! Even my Laptop is up and running in just over a minute and that is with Vista OS and Norton Full Security. Does it take ages to switch off too?

[gillywibble]

15 second boot here.

9 times out of 10, it's not just the age of the PC. You can do loads of things to speed it up, although saying that, you are most likely due for an upgrade anyway.

[pixi]

I am well overdue an upgrade, I first got this one in 2002 but it has since had another processor added. I couldn't tell you if it was better, sorry. I'm not sure how long it takes to switch off but it's certainly not instant!

When I say it takes 15 minutes I mean that that is when it's fully useable as in I can select firfox without it taking ages to load. Everything appears pretty quickly when i switch it on but you can still hear everything loading by the noise it's making and if I selected firefox prematurely it would still take a little while before it loaded.

Ho hum, in the dark ages as usual

[Dr Zoidberg]

in the mean time , as a quick tune up click start - run , then type msconfig and press enter.

You'll be able to disable a load of the stuff that runs on startup that you don't actually need

[Robshaw]

Originally Posted by gillywibble

15 second boot here.

9 times out of 10, it's not just the age of the PC. You can do loads of things to speed it up, although saying that, you are most likely due for an upgrade anyway.

15 Seconds here

Pixi - You could try:

10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows XP | Connected Internet

That works most of the time however it does sound like you need to upgrade yoru system

Hope that helps,
Rob

[pittVRS]

Women and Technology!

Pix, if you want a better computer than the current Fisher Price one that you are struggling to operate, then why not upgrade to a Speak n Spell?

You will find it to be a hell of a lot quicker and easier to operate.

HTH.

[pixi]

So Vasey, you call that being nice do you? That's fighting talk where I come from, you're lucky I've moved

[Aspman]

Your PC is almost certainly full of crapware if it's taking that long.

As suggested a clean reinstall will put it back to being as fast as it was when new (PCs don't get slow with age).

If you're running Norton or McAfee it would be worth removing them and installing AVG or Avast. Also download and run Adaware from Lavasoft. It'll give you an idea if you have lots of junk.

Plus just uninstall anything you don't need. Lots of programs will put in additional services that run in the background sucking up power and increasing boot times.

[Lady Elanore]

This morning when I powered up my laptop, I had forgotten to remove my ‘readyboost’ USB flash drive from it and WOW!!!!! Around 10 seconds to load up to the Password window and once that was entered around 5 seconds or less to the whole shebang being up and running. This is only a laptop and it’s running Vista Premium and Norton Full Internet Security plus quite a few other start-up programmes (it also has 2 HDDs of 160gb each, but I don’t know whether this is a hindrance or benefit when booting up…..probably neither?). What a difference that stick makes.

So I reckon that’s about 15 seconds to boot up fully from cold!!!

[anonymouse]

Pixi
Download the following

Download Autoruns 9.12 - filehippo.com

Download CCleaner 2.04.543 - filehippo.com
Just use default options for time being - and, from the 'Advanced (bottom section)' just select (tick) the HotFix Uninstallers, Old prefetch data, IIS logs. For the time being do not use the other stuff CCLeaner offers until you know what you're doing (c. 2050 springs to mind )

Run them (and then make sure Recycle Bin is empty)- then do a defrag
Should speed things up.

Autoruns lets you see what is being run at start up (lots of stuff probably which is not needed, al ot of programs install bootup programs which are not strictly neccessary and take up resources and also slow up the bootup process).

[pixi]

But if I fix this one I won't have an excuse to buy a laptop

[Lady Elanore]

Originally Posted by pixi

But if I fix this one I won't have an excuse to buy a laptop

You see, another example of how Female logic is superior to Male logic