First: You will get more and better responses if you post in Plain Text. It
looks like you copy/pasted the first para and then wrote the rest in HTML
format. Or, a command character got leftover and it killed you post beyone
the "...utility b".
For many of us, your post appears as:
"
My laptop takes about 4 minutes to complete bootup. I am running WinXP home
edition with SP3 on a Compaq Presario V2000 laptop. I use the utility
b
"
and nothing more. To see the rest of it switching to HTML mode (an insecure
mode) is the only way to see the whole post. Anyway, please see inline:
In news:0644AB90-63AE-4671-B053-58BC77608838@microsoft.com,
PSRumbagh <PSRumbagh@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:
> My laptop takes about 4 minutes to complete bootup.
4 minutes is not an excessive boot time. I assume by "boot time" you mean
the length of time from starting to boot to when the computer becomes
usable? OK, close enough for gvt use! Just for grins, "boot" time actually
starts at the end of the POST and the beginning of when they System Tray is
being populated.
So, is it boot time or time to populate the System Tray that's a problem?
I am
> running WinXP home edition with SP3 on a Compaq Presario
> V2000 laptop. I use the utility b WhatsRunning.exeb
> immediately after bootup to see what is loaded. There are
> 59 processes, 108 services, 495 modules, 28 IP connections,
> 215 drivers and 28 starup items. Only a few of the
> processes and services show up under msconfigbs tabs.
Have you tried starting WITHOUT whatsrunning and checked how long it takes
that way?
How long do you -think- it should be, and why?
I suspect your boot time is OK and so is the system tray loadtimes. It's
more likely to be a background task/s if there is something causing problems
that way. Or, there are one or more 20Second periods of waits due to the
machine looking for software that's not there but the system knows to wait
the 20 S default for them to awake.
Do you install/reinstall a lot of programs? Do you create and delete a
lot of files and folders?
What are you using for backups? If you aren't creating backups you are
making a HUGE mistake! Check Wikipedia.com for more details. Also
blackviper.com is a good site for XP background information.
>
> Questions:
> (1) Is this an excessive amountof stuff?
No, it's not. You could try eliminating some services you don't need, but
they aren't likely to cause any improvements in timing.
As a comparison, I currently have 95 processes listed and the machine did
a Restart (timed from ShutDown to Ready to run programs) in 3:08. The
actuall boot time + syst tray loading takes around 2
8 Minutes/Seconds. My
machine is fast and efficient as the day I got it and began making disk
images for backups.
(2) Where are the
> commands to load all this stuff?
There are actually 5 places the commands come from to initiate those
processes and programs; 6 if you count boot.ini. Others are the various
..ini files, commands in the registry, win.ini, Installed Programs Settings,
and ... they won't easily come to mind at the moment and I'm not inclined to
look them up. Google can find the infor for you.
(3) How do I figure out
> how many and which of these items
> are not really needed?
Blackviper.com is probably the best source I've seen for determining some of
these, not all of them. There are many other such sites around the 'net,
too. But, 9 times out of ten, the results of getting rid of those things
give negligible, if even noticeable, speed improvements.
(4) Is it safe to use the
> Diagnostic startup mode of msconfig.exe?
Yes. Just remember, msconfig is a TOOL, NOT a "fix"! MsConfig is great for
locating what might be causing the slowdowns, but then you have to go to the
source of the command that starts that, and fix it there.
(5) Which of the
> five switches under msconfigbs Selective Startup can be
> safely turned off for test purposes?
Nearly all of them, with the exception of explorer.exe, and even that is
recoverable if you know how. If you do screw it up, boot into Safe Mode and
run System Restore from there is you need to.
Now for some other considerations:
-- Have you run an updated AV scan? Whose AV program are you using?
-- What did you use to do spyware/malware scans? Did you update EACH ONE
before using it?
-- How much is your pagefile being used? Is it being used during boot? It's
easiest and most accurate to use a page file monitor to determine that; Task
Manager isn't reliable or even user friendly for such calculations.
-- How much RAM?
-- How much empty space on the boot drive?
-- Done a chkdsk on the boot drive?
-- Did the slowness start quickly al of a sudden or slowly, over time?
-- What did you install/uninstall/customize just before the boot slowdown
started to happen?
-- Are you running Norton's GoBack by any chance? It necessarily MUST slow
down the boot time due to a huge amount of work it needs to do at every
bootup.
-- What do you consider a "good" boot time?
4 minutes is not an excessive amount of time to boot by any means. Start
your computer, do a C&C, and when you come back it should be done and ready
to go. If you don't have a fair level of expertise for XP and the computer
in general, you are likely to create as many problems as you repair.
If you should reach the point where you're just plain stumped, then turn to
the process of elimination:
-- Download Ccleaner and run a registry cleanup. Oh, BTW there's a small
group of closed minded idiots here who will tell you not to do that. If you
look back at this group's history, you'll notice it's always the same group
if closed minds who libel and defame registry cleaners to no end without a
single bit of verifiable evidence to back themselves up.
CCleaner is probably a good choice since it's easy for the uniniated to
use and makes a backup copy of any changes it makes. Mostly it seems
everyone finds it easy to use and understand.
-- Start uninstalling programs, one at a time, doing TWO Restarts after
each removal, and then check to see if the boot time changed.
-- When everything is uninstalled and all that's left if the Operating
System, then you might as well do a clean install of XP, starting from
deleting and recreating the partitons and then fomatting the drive and
following all the onscreen instructions.
This is an excellent reason why it's good to have known good backups
available to go back to instead of all the hassle of the preceding
paragraph.
Let us know how you make out. Lots of folk here will be happy to assist you
further if you'll come back and state the results of your efforts.
HTH,
Twayne`
