Author Topic: Super Slow Computer (Read 17401 times)

SandyG · « **on:** April 23, 2014, 06:09:46 pm »

I do a little fixing on computers. I know enough to be dangerous. Need to go work on a friend's computer. He is using Windows XP. Says it is so slow it is taking almost 30 minutes to boot up. Will this program fix Windows errors he may have? Which version do I download, full or portable? I will try scanning for viruses if my anti-virus key will work on his computer. Will do disk and system file checker. Then planning on trying this program. Any other thoughts?

chris635 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 23, 2014, 06:54:34 pm »

Shane's program is laid out in a step by step fashion to help get your friend's system back in good running shape. Keep in mind there is always the possibility that things could be so messed up, that only a fresh install will fix it. Usually his program can fix most problems though. So give it a shot, and let people now about Tweaking.com programs.

Chris

Willy2 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 23, 2014, 07:47:48 pm »

Harddisk could be close to dying. Switch off the AV and as many other programs that run upon start up. Then run Piriform's Speccy. See what the program says about the HD.

jraju · « **Reply #3 on:** April 24, 2014, 12:09:45 am »

Hi, There is a bootvis program by Microsoft to speed or optimize your computer speed. As MSoft stopped support for xp, pl download it in majorgeek.com and run it . It will fix the boot order problem. The instructions are there how to use the program
Run disk defragment program which is available in system tools. run it
Run clean disk program.
This will some what improves the computer
Next download ccleaner and run it. You could also erase the %temp folder%.
Next minimise the start up, when window starts, by going to the Run command and type msconfig. Select the start up folder and then disable the auto updates of the program you want. These programs take much time in loading.
Windows bootvis is the best program.

Shane · « **Reply #4 on:** April 24, 2014, 09:02:53 am »

When boot up is taking that long it is always because of the hard drive.

The hard drive is the slowest of the big 3. CPU, Memory and Hard drive.

A normal hard drive has 1 arm that does all the reading and writing to the platters on the drive. So when you have a lot of things opening and trying to read off the drive they have to wait their turn till the drive is done with the last command it had.

So a failing drive can cause it but sometimes the drive is fine. I had more than a few users who complained about horrible boot times. That was because they had over 90 to 100+ things running in the back ground. So every time they rebooted they where waiting for 90 to 100+ things to open! Once I disabled all that startup crap and got their system to around 40 processes instead the system flew

Shane

SandyG · « **Reply #5 on:** April 24, 2014, 09:47:18 am »

Will definitely be trying to use Shane's program. Does Bootvis also work on other versions of Windows? Particularly Vista, but newer versions too?

Willy2 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 24, 2014, 09:55:26 am »

Use Piriform's CCleaner to reduce the number of processes that start upon start up.

SandyG · « **Reply #7 on:** April 24, 2014, 09:59:48 am »

I plan on using Shane's program and CCleaner and probably Bootvis. Will probably run through them all after I see how results are progressing. Was interested in this Bootvis and if it will help Vista too.

jraju · « **Reply #8 on:** April 24, 2014, 07:56:12 pm »

Hi, Bootvis is only for windows xp. It does not support any other version. It is effective on xp and it is a fix by microsoft, by prioritize the order of booting of initial program, particularly after installing service pack. This has definitely reduce the boot time.
As Shanes and i already pointed out, that closing of startup program is the best thing to get the computer quickly. Those programs, which would have by default auto update settings enabled. It is better to go to start up folder to disable unwanted auto updates. These could be manually updated, but if allow auto start, then this takes time to boot. HP programs, adobe program etc. This could be done in ccleaner as well as in msconfig. In ccleaner, some programs do not show in their original names but in codified names. So please take care while disabling

Shane · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2014, 08:51:48 am »

Just remember. The trick to making a computer run faster is to take as much load off the hard drive as possible

So the less startup programs the better.
And my simple system tweaker has all kinds of tweaks that take just a small amount of need of the drive, but they all add up, like pennies add up to a dollor. And then of course install my free version of CleanMem. Keeping the memory clean will help Windows not use the page file so much, which is on the hard drive and there again it helps with performance because of not needing to use the page file as much.

Shane

SandyG · « **Reply #10 on:** April 28, 2014, 10:59:48 am »

After working on this computer for hours running a lot of scans and cleaning, I got off all the malware and pups. Did the tweaking.com program. Computer is running much faster and better. However, I get two dialog boxes that I cannot get rid of when booting up the computer. One box says Windows Installer is trying to install. If you don't do anything it eventually goes away and boots up. But it slows the boot up process down. If you click on close on the box, it still runs and runs and then eventually closes itself and boots up. This is slowing down the boot. Also, a message box comes up in the start=up task bar saying the Windows Credential Manager is ready. I can't get rid of this dialog box and opening it doesn't get me to any screen that helps me out. I'd like to get rid of the two error boxes, the Credential Manager box and the Windows Installer box. Any thoughts?

Shane · « **Reply #11 on:** April 28, 2014, 11:09:43 am »

Ok, again, in msconfig you should be able to disable the Microsoft Credential Manger from starting up

As for the installer that pops up, that is a pain in the butt and it is happening because the Windows installer thinks a file needs to be replaced or updated for a program and does it at every boot.

The trick is to find out which program installer is doing it, once you find it you can use this tool here to remove it from the Windows installer and stop it from popping up

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/Windows-Installer-CleanUp-Utility.shtml

Shane

SandyG · « **Reply #12 on:** April 28, 2014, 11:43:31 am »

Any idea how to find out what program is causing it to pop up?

Shane · « **Reply #13 on:** April 28, 2014, 11:45:37 am »

The installer Window that pops up normally will tell you the name of the program or setup, normally, but not always.

You could also try checking the event viewer, the installer should be saying something there and it might tell you what program

Shane

SandyG · « **Reply #14 on:** April 28, 2014, 11:59:41 am »

I'm trying to remember. Event viewer is in msconfig?

Shane · « **Reply #15 on:** April 28, 2014, 12:04:30 pm »

No, go to the start button, then right click on Computer and click Manage.

Shane