Slow Startup Times

Hi there,

My laptops startup times have become increasingly slow, around 5 and a half minutes, whereas a few months ago it was starting up in around 3 mins.

Please could you give me some advice on how to speed it up as it has become very frustrating and im pretty sure is not normal for the spec that it is.

Regards skyline_gtrr32

 

Recommend that you check out the Basic computer maintenance everyone should do thread, as well as the Disable Unneeded Services In Windows XP thread, as the instructions there will help speed the machine up considerably.

Post back with any questions.

 

Ive only just had chance to carry out these steps.

Thankyou very much for the suggestions, my laptop now starts up in around 3m and 30secs so I would say that that is a significant improvement.

Thanks again, skyline_gtrr32

 

You didn't say what antivirus you are using. It would be very informative to post this and say if you have recently upgraded to a 2007 version or even 'something internet security'.

Studio T

 

Hi there,

I am running Norton Antivirus 2004 and have not upgraded to a newer version as i do not see that it is neccessary. This is one of the last programs to appear in the taskbar at startup and then it is followed by the wirless connection application supplied by 3com.

Regards, skyline_gtrr32

 

Thanks for letting us know. Comparing notes is one of the strong points of these forums. When the time comes to renew the Norton license, beware of upgrading to Norton Internet Security. There have been many reports of problems with this and some other full packages.

I am using Norton AV 2005 until next renewal in July. Currently I get NAV turning off about once a month and demanding to be reactivated! This works fine but wastes 20 minutes or so. I have written to Symantec about this and will post the reply (if) when I get one.

Studio T

 

BootVis has helped me out after taking everything out of startup programs in msconfig except anti virus/firewall . There are also programs to defrag and rearrange boot files built into XP. If you decide to use BootVis do a little homework first.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664
It is rated 4.72 and has over 1 million downloads from this website.

 

Bootvis is for the impatient. Microsoft pulled the tool from their download center due to the fact that XP does it automatically on its own over time.

Im curious while discussing boot speed issues, no specs were gathered?