computer start up and shut down slow

[slowstart]

My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the years.
What should I be doing to alleviate this? Would grouping my numerous files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

 

[Malke]

My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the years.
What should I be doing to alleviate this? Would grouping my numerous
files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

Organizing your files and folders will not help. You need to manage your
Startup and Shutdown. See below for general information about this.

I. Manage the Startup:

Start>Run>msconfig [enter]

This brings up the System Configuration Utility. Look on the Startup tab and
find the probable culprit. Uncheck the box next to its name, Apply and OK
out. You don't need to restart immediately, but the next time you do you'll
get a dialog saying you've used the Utility. Just tick the box that says in
effect, "don't bother me about this again".

Important - Do not use the System Configuration Utility to stop processes.
Instead, use Start>Run>services.msc [enter] and do not stop any services
unless you really, really know what you're doing.

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560
The free Autoruns program is very useful for managing your Startup -
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx - Autoruns

II. Shutdown information:

Shutdown issues are generally caused by a program and/or process that is
refusing to exit gracefully. The program and/or process can be from malware
or can be legitimate (such as an invasive antivirus like Norton or McAfee).
If you are using a Norton or McAfee product, uninstall it and replace with
a better program such as NOD32, Kasperksy, or Avast (free). The Windows
Firewall is adequate for most people. With Vista, shutdown issues can also
be caused by old/poorly written drivers so make sure all drivers are
updated. See Step B. below for general driver directions.

A.The first step is always to make sure your computer is virus/malware free.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

B. Drivers - The First Law of Driver Updates is "if it ain't broke, don't
fix it". Normally if everything is working you want to leave things as they
are. The exception is that heavy-duty gamers will usually want to update
their video and sound drivers to squeeze every last bit of performance out
of the hardware to get the fastest frame rates. If you're not one of those
people, you don't need to update your drivers if there are no problems you
are trying to solve.

Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM computer
(HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific model
machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc
Advisor or System Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows

C. If the computer is virus/malware-free, drivers are current, and no Norton
or McAfee programs are installed, then do clean-boot troubleshooting to see
which program/process is the culprit:

How to perform a clean boot in Vista and XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

D. If you need more information, here is an excellent shutdown
troubleshooter:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Standard caveat: If troubleshooting the issue is too difficult - and there
is absolutely no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea - take the
machine to a computer repair shop. This will not be your local
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place. Get recommendations from family,
friends, colleagues.

Malke

 

[Gerry]

Have you installed the SP3 update?

How much RAM memory? What CPU processor speed?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report. Open Disk
Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?


--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the years.
What should I be doing to alleviate this?

Is its speed otherwise satisfactory? Read below:

Would grouping my numerous files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

It wouldn't make any difference at all. That's completely irrelevant.

My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it
takes to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is
otherwise satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most
people start their computers once a day or even less frequently. In
the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up isn't
very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the
morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it's done booting. I
don't know how long it took to boot and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what
programs start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them
from starting that way. On each program you don't want to start
automatically, check its Options to see if it has the choice not to
start (make sure you actually choose the option not to run it, not
just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily and best be stopped
that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run
line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want to
start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get
more information about these at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,
try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

 

[mikeyhsd]

my usual suggestion is to delete the CONTENTS of the PREFETCH folder.

and reboot.

it is none destructive as windows will begin to populate it at the boot.

it is another bug in windows since when you install program an entry is made in the prefetch folder.
but if you uninstall it, the entry is not removed.
so xp chases it tale at boot up looking for it.

he folder is a sub folder under windows.




(e-mail address removed)



My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the years.
What should I be doing to alleviate this? Would grouping my numerous files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

 

[Twayne]

My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the
years. What should I be doing to alleviate this? Would grouping my
numerous files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

Organizing your files and folders will not help. You need to manage
your Startup and Shutdown. See below for general information about
this.

I. Manage the Startup:

Start>Run>msconfig [enter] ....
tick the box that says in effect, "don't bother me about this again".

BETTER move is to "live with" the notices it generates until you can
properly get the service/s stopped. Then you can put msconfig back to
where it belongs and not fear 6 months from now having forgotten you
used it to skew the system somehow.

Important - Do not use the System Configuration Utility to stop
processes. Instead, use Start>Run>services.msc [enter] and do not
stop any services unless you really, really know what you're doing.

Definitely: Then you can go back to msconfig and set it back to normal.

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560
The free Autoruns program is very useful for managing your Startup -
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx - Autoruns

II. Shutdown information:

....
If you are using a Norton or McAfee product,

uninstall it and replace with a better program such as NOD32,
Kasperksy, or Avast (free).

That's the advice of a closed mind. He will have you removing them
without even knowing whether they had anything to do with the problem at
hand or not. On top of that, I have NEVER had shutdown issues caused by
those programs nor have I ever seen it on a client's machine. It's
always been something else, usually file corruption followed by poorly
coded apps downloaded from the 'net, and then fallout from a
virus/worm/trojan/etc. removal.
If the problems started suddenly, and you had installed/uninstalled
etc., then you already have a good idea who the culprit may be. If not,
it's more difficult to track down.

The Windows Firewall is adequate for most

people. With Vista, shutdown issues can also be caused by old/poorly
written drivers so make sure all drivers are updated. See Step B.
below for general driver directions.

As is also true for XP, 98, 95, 3.1, 3.0, etc.. I don't recall your
mentioning that you were running VISTA?

A.The first step is always to make sure your computer is
virus/malware free.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

That's an OK procedure; at least I've never noted anything very wrong
in/about it.

B. Drivers - The First Law of Driver Updates is "if it ain't broke,
don't fix it". Normally if everything is working you want to leave
things as they are. The exception is that heavy-duty gamers will
usually want to update their video and sound drivers to squeeze every
last bit of performance out of the hardware to get the fastest frame
rates. If you're not one of those people, you don't need to update
your drivers if there are no problems you are trying to solve.

Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM
computer (HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the
drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific
model machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the
drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like
Belarc Advisor or System Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows

BelArc is good. SIW is even better and much more inclusive.

C. If the computer is virus/malware-free, drivers are current, and no
Norton or McAfee programs are installed, then do clean-boot
troubleshooting to see which program/process is the culprit:

There's that closed mind again. He's freakishly fanatical about Norton
and McAfee, completely without substantiation or even minimal
experience, apparently.

How to perform a clean boot in Vista and XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

D. If you need more information, here is an excellent shutdown
troubleshooter:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Standard caveat: If troubleshooting the issue is too difficult - and
there is absolutely no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea
- take the machine to a computer repair shop. This will not be your
local BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place. Get recommendations
from family, friends, colleagues.

Malke

There is one more piece of the picture our closed-minded friend left
out:
Very often, the important question is whether you want to "fix" the
problem for your own learning benefit even though it may take a
substantial length of time, or, would it be better, if learning isn't
the driving force, to simply go back to square one and rebuild the
system?

Personally, when I experience a serious problem, I like to find the
"fix" on my own so I can know for sure, if possible, how to avoid it
happening again. BUT ... depending on the amount of time that takes, I
may instead opt to re-image my hard drive and start fresh. IFF you are
prepared, that's a minor task that takes only a couple of hours where
the troubleshooting and researching of a problem could take days or
weeks even. It's a balance one should consider.

The third option of course, is to take it to a professional. If your
expertise level is minimal and you're totally uncomfortable with some of
the things it takes to troubleshoot and/or rebuild a system, then a shop
is going to be your best bet most, not all, of the time, because that
again depends on locating a reputable shop to bring your machine to.
If you do bring it to a shop, the very first thing to do after
getting the machine back is to make absolutely certain that your COA
keycode number is still valid. It may not be! BelArc, SIW, etc. will
assist you with that task and make it easy to do.

Here's what I think should happen:

1. BACKUP all important data! Including Favorites folder and e-mails,
plus any file you e ver created or downloaded that you consider
valuable.
2. If you already have imagine apps like Norton's Ghost or Acronis True
Image, do a full backup.
3. First try a Repair Install. In theory none of your data will be
lost. You will have to apply the most recent hot fixes. If no help:
4. Put your backup somewhere safe, NOT on your hard drive, so it can't
be messed up.
5. Do a full, clean install of XP and whatever Service Pack level you
want (2 is OK if it's handier, 3 is more inclusive and hot fixes are
faster IFF you read the instructions before installing SP3).
6. Once XP is working well, back it up using XP's backup or whatever
legit backup/imaging program you have available. Now you have something
you can use in the future if it's ever needed again.
7. Rebuild your computer. Put all of your applications and programs on
it that you need/want.
8. Make a full backup. Now you'll have a full backup of your OS and
your installed programs.
9. Add back all of your important data.
10. Back it up again! Put those three backups aside so if the need
arises again in the future, you'll have them ready.

It's a lot easier restoring things from backup than having to do it all
manually. If you want to be even more comfortable, invest in imaging
software such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image.
BootItNG is also good but a bit too much onthe techie side for most
people; not quite as user friendly but still a powerful app.

HTH

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

In addition, both Gerry's and Ken's comments are well worth reading and
understanding.

My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the
years. What should I be doing to alleviate this? Would grouping my
numerous files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

Organizing your files and folders will not help. You need to manage
your Startup and Shutdown. See below for general information about
this.

I. Manage the Startup:

Start>Run>msconfig [enter]

This brings up the System Configuration Utility. Look on the Startup
tab and find the probable culprit. Uncheck the box next to its name,
Apply and OK out. You don't need to restart immediately, but the next
time you do you'll get a dialog saying you've used the Utility. Just
tick the box that says in effect, "don't bother me about this again".

Important - Do not use the System Configuration Utility to stop
processes. Instead, use Start>Run>services.msc [enter] and do not
stop any services unless you really, really know what you're doing.

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560
The free Autoruns program is very useful for managing your Startup -
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx - Autoruns

II. Shutdown information:

Shutdown issues are generally caused by a program and/or process that
is refusing to exit gracefully. The program and/or process can be
from malware or can be legitimate (such as an invasive antivirus like
Norton or McAfee). If you are using a Norton or McAfee product,
uninstall it and replace with a better program such as NOD32,
Kasperksy, or Avast (free). The Windows Firewall is adequate for most
people. With Vista, shutdown issues can also be caused by old/poorly
written drivers so make sure all drivers are updated. See Step B.
below for general driver directions.

A.The first step is always to make sure your computer is
virus/malware free.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

B. Drivers - The First Law of Driver Updates is "if it ain't broke,
don't fix it". Normally if everything is working you want to leave
things as they are. The exception is that heavy-duty gamers will
usually want to update their video and sound drivers to squeeze every
last bit of performance out of the hardware to get the fastest frame
rates. If you're not one of those people, you don't need to update
your drivers if there are no problems you are trying to solve.

Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM
computer (HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the
drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific
model machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the
drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like
Belarc Advisor or System Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows

C. If the computer is virus/malware-free, drivers are current, and no
Norton or McAfee programs are installed, then do clean-boot
troubleshooting to see which program/process is the culprit:

How to perform a clean boot in Vista and XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

D. If you need more information, here is an excellent shutdown
troubleshooter:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Standard caveat: If troubleshooting the issue is too difficult - and
there is absolutely no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea
- take the machine to a computer repair shop. This will not be your
local BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place. Get recommendations
from family, friends, colleagues.

Malke

 

[Twayne]

Please set your client to text-only. HTML is frowned upon in groups.

 

[Gerry]

Mike

Won't that actually made the computer even slower than it was? Certainly for several days?


--
~~~~


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my usual suggestion is to delete the CONTENTS of the PREFETCH folder.

and reboot.

it is none destructive as windows will begin to populate it at the boot.

it is another bug in windows since when you install program an entry is made in the prefetch folder.
but if you uninstall it, the entry is not removed.
so xp chases it tale at boot up looking for it.

he folder is a sub folder under windows.




(e-mail address removed)



My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the years.
What should I be doing to alleviate this? Would grouping my numerous files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

 

[mikeyhsd]

nope.

it takes average 3 reboots to get things happiest.
and a defrag.
which uses the prefetch data to re-arrange data on the HD.

personally I have always disabled prefetch.
computer runs better and stays at top speed.




(e-mail address removed)



Mike

Won't that actually made the computer even slower than it was? Certainly for several days?


--
~~~~


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my usual suggestion is to delete the CONTENTS of the PREFETCH folder.

and reboot.

it is none destructive as windows will begin to populate it at the boot.

it is another bug in windows since when you install program an entry is made in the prefetch folder.
but if you uninstall it, the entry is not removed.
so xp chases it tale at boot up looking for it.

he folder is a sub folder under windows.




(e-mail address removed)



My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the years.
What should I be doing to alleviate this? Would grouping my numerous files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

 

[Twayne]

nope.

it takes average 3 reboots to get things happiest.
and a defrag.
which uses the prefetch data to re-arrange data on the HD.

personally I have always disabled prefetch.
computer runs better and stays at top speed.

Well, mileage is going to vary greatly on that one!

It might gain you some temporarily shorter boot times for a day or two,
but that's about it.
Disabling prefetch is silly and would only be negligible on an already
slow or minimally occupied processor system.

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/77130/jsi-tip-5826-what-is-the-windows-xp-prefetch.html

http://www.jasonclarke.net/archives/2005/06/02/finally-windows-xp-prefetching-explained/

MS also has some good articles on it but they are more techie oriented.

"
XP systems have a Prefetch directory underneath the windows root
directory, full of .pf files -- these are lists of pages to load. The
file names are generated from hashing the EXE to load -- whenever you
load the EXE, we hash, see if there's a matching (exename)-(hash).pf
file in the prefetch directory, and if so we load those pages. (If it
doesn't exist, we track what pages it loads, create that file, and pick
a handful of them to save to it.) So, first off, it is a bad idea to
periodically clean out that folder as some tech sites suggest. For one
thing, XP will just re-create that data anyways; secondly, it trims the
files anyways if there's ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn't
needlessly consume space. So not only is deleting the directory totally
unnecessary, but you're also putting a temporary dent in your PC's
performance.
"

HTH

 

[JD]

yep for sure, they defend their poor excuse of an attempt to speed up
windows.

but as I have pointed out the prefetch entries are NEVER automatically
removed when removing programs.

this has never been addressed.
and it causes problems.

even running Vista ultimate 64 I still disable prefetch/superfetch or
whatever.
system is faster and more stable.]

have run for as much as a week each way and the system is more stable
with it turned off.


all the nay sayers have yet to verify that they have tried it or
addressed the removal of prefetch entries.



(e-mail address removed) <mailto:[email protected]>



"Twayne" <[email protected]

nope.

it takes average 3 reboots to get things happiest.
and a defrag.
which uses the prefetch data to re-arrange data on the HD.

personally I have always disabled prefetch.
computer runs better and stays at top speed.

Well, mileage is going to vary greatly on that one!

It might gain you some temporarily shorter boot times for a day or two,
but that's about it.
Disabling prefetch is silly and would only be negligible on an already
slow or minimally occupied processor system.

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/77130/jsi-tip-5826-what-is-the-windows-xp-prefetch.html

http://www.jasonclarke.net/archives/2005/06/02/finally-windows-xp-prefetching-explained/

MS also has some good articles on it but they are more techie oriented.

"
XP systems have a Prefetch directory underneath the windows root
directory, full of .pf files -- these are lists of pages to load. The
file names are generated from hashing the EXE to load -- whenever you
load the EXE, we hash, see if there's a matching (exename)-(hash).pf
file in the prefetch directory, and if so we load those pages. (If it
doesn't exist, we track what pages it loads, create that file, and pick
a handful of them to save to it.) So, first off, it is a bad idea to
periodically clean out that folder as some tech sites suggest. For one
thing, XP will just re-create that data anyways; secondly, it trims the
files anyways if there's ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn't
needlessly consume space. So not only is deleting the directory totally
unnecessary, but you're also putting a temporary dent in your PC's
performance.
"

HTH

(e-mail address removed) <mailto:[email protected]>

Mike

Won't that actually made the computer even slower than it was?
Certainly for several days?

How did you turn off prefetch in XP?

 

[JD]

Thanks.

either by editing the registry or this program.
find the prefetch entries in the registry and set them to 0 "ZERO".
more than one place in the registry.


windows-xp-prefetch-clean-and-control.exe




(e-mail address removed) <mailto:[email protected]>



message

yep for sure, they defend their poor excuse of an attempt to speed up
windows.

but as I have pointed out the prefetch entries are NEVER automatically
removed when removing programs.

this has never been addressed.
and it causes problems.

even running Vista ultimate 64 I still disable prefetch/superfetch or
whatever.
system is faster and more stable.]

have run for as much as a week each way and the system is more stable
with it turned off.


all the nay sayers have yet to verify that they have tried it or
addressed the removal of prefetch entries.



(e-mail address removed) <mailto:[email protected]>

"Twayne" <[email protected]

Well, mileage is going to vary greatly on that one!

It might gain you some temporarily shorter boot times for a day or two,
but that's about it.
Disabling prefetch is silly and would only be negligible on an already
slow or minimally occupied processor system.

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/77130/jsi-tip-5826-what-is-the-windows-xp-prefetch.html
http://www.jasonclarke.net/archives/2005/06/02/finally-windows-xp-prefetching-explained/

MS also has some good articles on it but they are more techie oriented.

"
XP systems have a Prefetch directory underneath the windows root
directory, full of .pf files -- these are lists of pages to load. The
file names are generated from hashing the EXE to load -- whenever you
load the EXE, we hash, see if there's a matching (exename)-(hash).pf
file in the prefetch directory, and if so we load those pages. (If it
doesn't exist, we track what pages it loads, create that file, and pick
a handful of them to save to it.) So, first off, it is a bad idea to
periodically clean out that folder as some tech sites suggest. For one
thing, XP will just re-create that data anyways; secondly, it trims the
files anyways if there's ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn't
needlessly consume space. So not only is deleting the directory totally
unnecessary, but you're also putting a temporary dent in your PC's

How did you turn off prefetch in XP?

 

[sandrajames]

My computer has become very slow to start up and shut down over the
years.
What should I be doing to alleviate this? Would grouping my numerous
files
into folders make a significant difference? Thanks.

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[jimbo571]

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