John said:
Bill,
I'm no expert, just an end-user, so forgive me if none of this applies....
1) I have a firewire external card reader. When it is plugged into my XP
Home PC, Windows takes an extra minute or two to shut down. At first, I
thought the system had frozen because it just sat there. I discovered that
if the firewire device was unplugged, XP shutdown very quickly. Now, I
leave the reader unplugged. (I don't remember if the card reader had an
effect on startup time.)
2) I recently switched from DSL to cable. The DSL used fixed IP addresses.
Cable uses dynamic IP addresses. I may be imagining this, but it seems like
XP now takes longer to load -- stopping longer on the logo screen with the
progress bar -- now that my network needs to assign an IP address every time
I boot up.
3) Again, this may be my imagination, but when I boot with one of my Epson
USB printers turned on, booting seems to take longer (than if I boot with
the printers turned off.)
I'd certainly try null's suggestion of updating all device drivers. Since
you already have SP2, it sounds like Windows is in good shape.
John
John,
Where did you get the idea DSL has a fixed IP? That is an extra cost
service.
I was on DSL 5 years, and now on cable. Here is what I have learned:
If you have a router,
or not on a router and leave your PC on all the time
your dynamic IP will not change except for unusual circumstances. It
has nothing to do with Cable or DSL.
Firewire affecting shutdown times means the Firewire driver does not
respond to the Windows Shutdown command, so Windows waits for it to time
out (usually 60 seconds) before Windows goes on to process the next
device. Driver defect.
...about 6 seconds into loading it slows down to a crawl.
Sounds like a hardware problem... something is sending Windows spurious
service requests. Most likely guess would be mouse, then keyboard.
Swap out is best way to test.
Another thing that affects startup time is how many:
- objects you have on your desktop.
- How many FILES you saved to the desktop. Files need to be saved in a
folder that is not on the desktop. (My Documents is the obvious choice).
Did you know that My Documents can easily be moved to another drive?
RMB on My Documents and pick the Move button.
Windows spends a LOT of horsepower rebuilding your desktop.
If none of those fix you up, I am still betting on a process starting
up. Programs do NOT have to show up in your Task List. For example,
you don't see services in the processes list. A programmer chooses to
allow or deny visibility when he creates a module. Default is to show it.
Carl
