Problem with slower startup of XP windows SP3

D

Dean

Hello,
I have problem with start up when turn on the computer. The start up
sometimes works much slower than before, e.g. a couple days ago. It takes
even up to 10 min to finish, BUT sometimes works without problem. This is
for me unusual and without any logic. What is wrong?

I did several tasks to eliminate this, but uselless. I did as follows:
- scaning all computer with Panda AV Pro 2009 and also with Panda Activescan
2.0 several times,
- defragmentation of c with windows tool,
- scaning with ccleaner - erase all unneeded files (cca 800MB) and cleaning
the register.

As far as I know, the ccleaner tool is tested tool, perfect for home users
and without any problems.

Any advice would be very appreciated!

Thanks and regards,
Dean
 
S

Shenan Stanley

Dean said:
I have problem with start up when turn on the computer. The start up
sometimes works much slower than before, e.g. a couple days ago. It
takes even up to 10 min to finish, BUT sometimes works without
problem. This is for me unusual and without any logic. What is
wrong?

I did several tasks to eliminate this, but uselless. I did as
follows: - scaning all computer with Panda AV Pro 2009 and also
with Panda Activescan
2.0 several times,
- defragmentation of c with windows tool,
- scaning with ccleaner - erase all unneeded files (cca 800MB) and
cleaning the register.

As far as I know, the ccleaner tool is tested tool, perfect for
home users and without any problems.

Any advice would be very appreciated!
Click to expand...

Don't clean the registry unless you know what you are doing.
(register vs. registry - incorrect vs. correct name - tells me you did not.)

Did you save the 'backup' it asked you to before cleaning it? I suggest
putting that backup back in (find the file, double-click - merge it back
in.) CCleaner is generally harmless - but why take the chance?

Try the following:

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately) with the
following two applications (freeware versions are the ones to use for this):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and removing
whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall these products,
if you wish.

Reboot.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net stop wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\wups2.dll
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net start wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here (x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
.... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to the root
of the C:\ drive, do the following:

Close all Internet Explorer windows and other applications.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.

(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and click on
NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...

Reboot.

Download/Install the latest Windows Installer:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/...6F-60B6-4412-95B9-54D056D6F9F4&displaylang=en

Reboot.

Log on as an user with administrative rights and open Internet Explorer and
visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and select to do a CUSTOM scan...
(Every time you are about to click on something while at these web pages -
first press and hold down the CTRL key while you click on it. You can
release the CTRL key after clicking each time.)

Once the scan is done, select just _ONE_ of the high priority updates
(deselect any others) and install it.

Reboot again.

If it did work - try the web page again - selecting no more than 3-5 at a
time.

The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although I recommend
against the "Windows Search" one. I would completely avoid the Optional
Hardware updates.

Visit your hardware manufacturer's web page (Have a Dell? Got to Dell's
Support web page - downloads and drivers and enter in your machine's service
tag/serial number. Same for the other third-tier vendors like HP, Lenovo,
Gateway, etc.) and get the latest hardware drivers for each hardware
component: motherboard chipset, video card, network card(s), sound cards,
etc.

Free up space:

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to copy *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.

After you have done the malware scans and cleanup, the Windows Updates,
updated hardware drivers and freed up space - redo your defragmentation and
perform a CHKDSK as well.

Then return here and give the specifications for your machine. What type of
processor (brand and # of cores and speed) do you have? What size hard disk
drive do you have and how much free space on how many partitions? How much
system memory do you have and is is being shared with your video card? What
type of video card do you have and how much memory on it? (www.belarc.com
<-- download the free advisor, install and run it to help you get these
answers and more.)
 
D

Daave

Dean said:
Hello,
I have problem with start up when turn on the computer. The start up
sometimes works much slower than before, e.g. a couple days ago. It
takes
even up to 10 min to finish, BUT sometimes works without problem.
This is
for me unusual and without any logic. What is wrong?

I did several tasks to eliminate this, but uselless. I did as follows:
- scaning all computer with Panda AV Pro 2009 and also with Panda
Activescan
2.0 several times,
- defragmentation of c with windows tool,
- scaning with ccleaner - erase all unneeded files (cca 800MB) and
cleaning
the register.

As far as I know, the ccleaner tool is tested tool, perfect for home
users
and without any problems.
Click to expand...

Shenan and PA Bear gave you good advice about the registry.

Assuming that once the initial ten minutes pass, your performance is
good, my guess is that you have one or more programs scanning your hard
drive automatically each time you boot up. You mentioned you run Panda.
The first thing I would do is go into its preferences to see if this is
so.
 
T

Tim Meddick

Hi Shenan Stanley,
The CCleaner program is recommended by PC World
Magazine, is this not a good endorsement then?
--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

P.S. Personally, I find RegClean.exe for Win95 does the job for me but I
wouldn't recommend it for new users.
 
U

Unknown

Absolutely not.
Tim Meddick said:
Hi Shenan Stanley,
The CCleaner program is recommended by PC World
Magazine, is this not a good endorsement then?
--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

P.S. Personally, I find RegClean.exe for Win95 does the job for me but I
wouldn't recommend it for new users.
Click to expand...
 
S

Shenan Stanley

Dean said:
I have problem with start up when turn on the computer. The start up
sometimes works much slower than before, e.g. a couple days ago. It
takes even up to 10 min to finish, BUT sometimes works without
problem. This is for me unusual and without any logic. What is
wrong?

I did several tasks to eliminate this, but uselless. I did as
follows: - scaning all computer with Panda AV Pro 2009 and also
with Panda Activescan
2.0 several times,
- defragmentation of c with windows tool,
- scaning with ccleaner - erase all unneeded files (cca 800MB) and
cleaning the register.

As far as I know, the ccleaner tool is tested tool, perfect for
home users and without any problems.

Any advice would be very appreciated!
Click to expand...

Shenan said:
Don't clean the registry unless you know what you are doing.
(register vs. registry - incorrect vs. correct name - tells me you
did not.)
Did you save the 'backup' it asked you to before cleaning it? I
suggest putting that backup back in (find the file, double-click -
merge it back in.) CCleaner is generally harmless - but why take
the chance?
Try the following:

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately)
with the following two applications (freeware versions are the ones
to use for this):
SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and
removing whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall
these products, if you wish.

Reboot.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net stop wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\wups2.dll
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net start wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here
(x86): http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to
the root of the C:\ drive, do the following:

Close all Internet Explorer windows and other applications.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.

(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and
click on NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...

Reboot.

Download/Install the latest Windows Installer:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/...6F-60B6-4412-95B9-54D056D6F9F4&displaylang=en

Reboot.

Log on as an user with administrative rights and open Internet
Explorer and visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and select
to do a CUSTOM scan... (Every time you are about to click on
something while at these web pages - first press and hold down the
CTRL key while you click on it. You can release the CTRL key after
clicking each time.)
Once the scan is done, select just _ONE_ of the high priority
updates (deselect any others) and install it.

Reboot again.

If it did work - try the web page again - selecting no more than
3-5 at a time.

The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although I
recommend against the "Windows Search" one. I would completely
avoid the Optional Hardware updates.

Visit your hardware manufacturer's web page (Have a Dell? Got to
Dell's Support web page - downloads and drivers and enter in your
machine's service tag/serial number. Same for the other third-tier
vendors like HP, Lenovo, Gateway, etc.) and get the latest hardware
drivers for each hardware component: motherboard chipset, video
card, network card(s), sound cards, etc.

Free up space:

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can
delete the uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has
installed... http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but
your latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the
system's memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of
the hiberfil.sys file will always equal the amount of physical
memory in your system. If you don't use the hibernate feature and
want to recapture the space that Windows uses for the hiberfil.sys
file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start,
Settings, Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check
box, then click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting
Never under the "System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab
doesn't delete the hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power
Schemes tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and
click on the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I
suggest moving the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or
close to that...) 5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can
utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores
to a size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section,
do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:"
to something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline
contents" (the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this
could take 2-10 minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open
Internet Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being
used.
In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of
extras will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you
have more space than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most
of it seems to be used - likely you need to copy *your stuff* off
and/or find a better way to manage it.

After you have done the malware scans and cleanup, the Windows
Updates, updated hardware drivers and freed up space - redo your
defragmentation and perform a CHKDSK as well.

Then return here and give the specifications for your machine. What type
of processor (brand and # of cores and speed) do you
have? What size hard disk drive do you have and how much free
space on how many partitions? How much system memory do you have
and is is being shared with your video card? What type of video
card do you have and how much memory on it? (www.belarc.com <--
download the free advisor, install and run it to help you get these
answers and more.)
Click to expand...

Tim said:
Shenan Stanley,
The CCleaner program is recommended by
PC World Magazine, is this not a good endorsement then?
Click to expand...

PC magazines (all of them that sell in convenient stores and grocery stores
in particular) in general - are not very good sources of accurate and
up-to-date information.

In any case - I did not say *not* to use CCleaner. I said, "CCleaner is
generally harmless" in reference to some of its features - notably the
registry cleaning features.

I utilize and recommend it here all the time (I even said to use it in this
very conversation to help cleanup stale/unnecessary files.)

However - the registry cleaning part is more of an advanced feature in my
opinion. Although I have used it many times - I understand the registry
fairly well and don't necessarily have to research every single entry it
recommends removal of. A novice *should* in my opinion.
 
G

Gerry

Dean

Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for
Errors and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any more than 48
hours ago.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
H

HeyBub

Dean said:
Hello,
I have problem with start up when turn on the computer. The start up
sometimes works much slower than before, e.g. a couple days ago. It
takes even up to 10 min to finish, BUT sometimes works without
problem. This is for me unusual and without any logic. What is wrong?

I did several tasks to eliminate this, but uselless. I did as follows:
- scaning all computer with Panda AV Pro 2009 and also with Panda
Activescan
2.0 several times,
- defragmentation of c with windows tool,
- scaning with ccleaner - erase all unneeded files (cca 800MB) and
cleaning the register.

As far as I know, the ccleaner tool is tested tool, perfect for home
users and without any problems.

Any advice would be very appreciated!
Click to expand...

Don't turn the computer off. Put it in "Hibernate" instead.

No more slow start-ups.
 
T

Terry R.

The date and time was Saturday, April 04, 2009 11:35:30 AM, and on a
whim, Tim Meddick pounded out on the keyboard:
Hi Shenan Stanley,
The CCleaner program is recommended by PC World
Magazine, is this not a good endorsement then?
Click to expand...

Tim,

Your "P.S" line is NOT recommended for XP. I wouldn't recommend that
for ANYONE, regardless if they were a "new user" or not.


Terry R.
 
T

Tim Meddick

Shenan,
Maybe in your country, you don't get PCWorld? Have you ever
read it? I think it really is of a standard that you might approve of...
 
P

PA Bear [MS MVP]

[Not that I have a dog in this fight, but I'd take any recommendation in a
mag that derives the bulk of its revenue from adverts with a 5# box of salt
IIWY.]

Tim said:
Shenan,
Maybe in your country, you don't get PCWorld? Have you ever
read it? I think it really is of a standard that you might approve of...
Click to expand...
 
D

Daave

Tim Meddick said:
Shenan,
Maybe in your country, you don't get PCWorld? Have you
ever
read it? I think it really is of a standard that you might approve
of...
Click to expand...

I am sure PCWorld is for sale in the country where Shenan lives!
Although PCWorld might contain quality articles, one should always be
"media literate" however, and understand the concept that objectivity
often takes a back seat to advertising revenue.

In case you missed the rest of his post, Shenan recommends Ccleaner,
too! However, he is correctly questioning the usefulness of its registry
cleaning component. To date, no one (including PCWorld) has demonstrated
that "cleaning" the registry significantly improves a PC's performance.
While it's true that sometimes certain registry keys need to be modified
or deleted to fix *a specific problem*, it still doesn't follow that the
leftover keys need to be touched. It's also true that sometimes when one
mucks around with the registry (either manually or by using a
"cleaner"), a situation results where the OS is no longer bootable.
Admittedly, I am not aware of anyone having such a problem *specifically
with Ccleaner*, but the point remains that if it's not necessary in the
first place, then it's wise not to touch it (i.e, the registry) anyway.

But by all means, use Ccleaner for its other functions. It is quite a
good program!
 
T

Tim Meddick

Daave,
The reduction in speed a new XP installation suffers as a result
of more registry bulk is a fact. For instance, when you try to open the
"File Types" dialogue it has to go read all the registered file types in
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and you can simply "feel" it doing so; its MUCH quicker in
a new OS installation. This is but one example.
 
M

Mike Torello

Tim Meddick said:
Daave,
The reduction in speed a new XP installation suffers as a result
of more registry bulk is a fact. For instance, when you try to open the
"File Types" dialogue it has to go read all the registered file types in
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and you can simply "feel" it doing so; its MUCH quicker in
a new OS installation. This is but one example.
Click to expand...

Oddly enough, not ONE professional writer has come up with that, or
anything close to it..

Not ONE web site has posted benchmarks showing an increase in speed
after using a registry cleaner.

You're dreaming.
 
T

Tim Meddick

Mike,
You're saying that what I wrote isn't true? I wonder how many
people have experienced what I was talking about, notwithstanding reviews on
registry cleaners, which vary in how much they clean. But the question is
not "do registry cleaners work?" (although I admit it actually WAS the
question) but my point is: "is a large registry responsible for slowing down
the system?" - and it is!
 

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