Slow WINXP start up

Please dont laugh
I feel as if I have stumbled into a room with a moving floor. I am a novice at this talking thru threads.

I have a Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop 14.1 XGA, 1.7GHz-M, P4 128MB DDR SDRAM, 200MHZ. Does that help with specs? Service Pack 1 (which I have been told, I should get SP2?)

This is my home computer which I use for graduate school. I only use it for papers and the occasional e-mail and web visit (once a week). As of late my start up has been really slow, everything has been for that matter.

I had a friend Defrag my harddrive, I have run Norton Anitvirus 2005 which I purchased, I have run a free down load of adaware, I have run and purchased Xoftspy for my spyware problem. I have downloaded counterspy and it did not find much, Norton finds nothing, the Ad aware and Xoftspy have found and deleted but to no avail.

I am convinced that there are nasties in my start up files so here is a list
SynTPLpr
SynTPEnh
SNDMON
UsrPrmpt
RealPlay
qttask
navapw32
Activation
mm_tray
LXSUPMON
dadapp
ccApp
msmsgs
exec
Digital Line Detect
Microsoft Office
carpserv
exec
RUNDLL32
hcm
America Online
I disabled the last 5 on this list because DELL said they were nasties but non of my anti whatever tools took them off?
I feel really frustrated considering I have spent more hours in front of this computer trying to solve this on my own then I have writing my graduate papers. Ok, that felt better. Sorry to pooh on you when you are hopefully going to shed some light on this one. Please remember that I am so green you could slip and fall.
Thanks
Farmer

 

If you want me to laugh tell me good joke first.

Two things that would Help Alot.
First!
Get rid of Norton, it's a big hog.
Lot's of great free one her at MG, I suggest Avast for antivirus & maybe Sygate for firewall
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1968.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3356.html

Second!
Get more memory atleast another 128mb, if you run 512mb total would be lot better.
I wouldnt run XP with less than 256mb.

As far as SP2, it wont speed up your laptop, if your were to run I would start with complete reinstall of OS first to rid of garbage in your system.

As far as your list of supposed nasties, dont know what they all are?

 

farmer,

Try this free program, http://majorgeeks.com/download4075.html

It is Startup Inspector for Windows and will help you identify most of these processes you have posted.

Let us know if you have any problems, questions, or a process you are not sure about disabling.

Steve

 

Both Matacumbie, and ASUS are giving you amazing advice. To add to their suggestions I'd grab Spybot Search&Destroy, and AdAware (which you mentioned but KEEP IT UP TO DATE), found (respectively) here:
http://majorgeeks.com/download2471.html
and here:
http://majorgeeks.com/download506.html

If the advice of Matacumbie, ASUS, or myself doesn't seem to help I would suggest taking a look in the Spyware Forum (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35)
and reading all the STICKIES. Then if you are STILL having problems, I would suggest posting there.

Good luck!
522.

 

If I remember right RUNDLL.32 is a windows app. It is required by windows. Don't ask me why, but I know that all windows versions have a similar app. I tried turnning off the similar file in win98se and it caused me to slow down drastically.

 

SynTPLpr ?
SynTPEnh ?
SNDMON ?
UsrPrmpt ?
RealPlay this puts real player in your tray. not needed
qttask quicktime... not needed
navapw32 ?
Activation not sure but most likely not needed
mm_tray music match.. not needed
LXSUPMON ?
dadapp ?
ccApp part of norton... NEEDED
msmsgs msn messenger... your call
exec ????
Digital Line Detect ???
Microsoft Office not needed in tray can open from menu
carpserv ???
exec ???
RUNDLL32 not sure
hcm ???????
America Online junk unless you use it

some i could identify.. and just my opinion on the needed issue... hope this helps.