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PC boot up time taking 5 mins+ ????

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Hi everyone, just after some advice as my pc seems to be slowing down.

Over the last couple of weeks I've noticed that the time it takes to get to my desktop from switching on the pc to desktop is getting slower..and I can't think of any reasons as to why. It's taking like between 5 or 6 minutes before I can use anything! Never used to be this slow! Also it's taking quite a while to switch off too..maybe 2 or 3 minutes.

PC is an AMD Athlon 1900XP(1.60 GHZ processor), 80GB HD,512mb ram,running windows xp professional.
Using Norton systemworks 2005
Microsoft Antispyware
Zone Alarm pro firewall
Ad Aware pro
Spybot
Spywareblaster
Bazooka (all virus and spyware scans clean)

Have used Systemworks to clean out junk and defrag optimisation.
Task manager is showing 46 processes running, and I've deleted as many unnecessary start up programs as I can using msconfig.

Then went to PC Pitstop website and ran a scan, passed all the benchmark tests but was flagged on 1 : Unusally slow disk performance - apparently similar pc's to mine should be running the cache at 11mbps and mine is 29 and it suggested I defrag! I did the test just after defragging! :confused:

Though it didn't say so specifically...does this sound like my hard disk drive is on its way out? It's almost 4 years old (oct 2001). Could this be it? Is a 3 years+ HDD an antique now?

Thanks in advance for any ideas/advice.
Dan.
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Comments

  • shrek101
    shrek101 Posts: 2,249 Forumite
    Do search for a program called Bootvis in google. Its by MS it may speed up your boot times.

    No longer a user, goodbye folks. PLEASE delete my account. Thank you
  • slowen
    slowen Posts: 2,795 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Have you tried to defrag the harddrive to get it to runa bit quicker and maybe uncheck some of the start up processes that run on the PC which should bring the boot up time down
  • ribenagirl
    ribenagirl Posts: 357 Forumite
    Could well be age-related. I just replaced my hard drive in our upstairs PC - gradually it'd been getting slower and slower like yours.

    Try defragging, and disk cleanup. windows does tend to spit bits of files all over the place. and - if that doesn't help, and my gut feeling is that it might not, consider whether it's time to replace....and make sure you're backing up regularly in the meantime - you don't want to switch on one day to find that the HDD has died altogether.
    :love: I :heart2: Boots :love:
  • danmanchester
    danmanchester Posts: 1,273 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks everyone, pc has been defragged (using Norton systemworks defragger optimisation tool) today - didn't notice any improvement and also downloaded that Bootvis and ran the trace optimisation but hasn't improved the speed. Running out of ideas - I think it looks like I better replace the HDD rather than regret not doing so.

    I've seen some 80gb HDDs for about £35 or thereabouts, not sure if getting a larger one would be better (?) as I have only used 44% of the space on this one!
  • T4i
    T4i Posts: 1,845 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Thanks everyone, pc has been defragged (using Norton systemworks defragger optimisation tool)

    Norton does not know HOW to speed anything up. The std windows defrag util is more than enough.

    46 processes is alot, did you get this down on startup?

    Your P.C specs dont look that bad tbh, do you know what speed your IDE-HDD channel is?? )right click on my computer, properties, device mgr, expand IDE, double click primary and look for UDMA or PIO mode....1 to 6 I think)

    5 mins is a long time for a 1.6Gig machine, If you monitor your HDD light during boot I bet it goes idle for a good minute??

    Seen exactly this myself just this week with a 64-bit machine, took about 4mins to boot. Turns out the PSU was not up2 the job in hand. Geeza bought a performance one instead of a budget one and it boots in 19 seconds now...slightly longer than this machine (32-bit) :D

    A cheaper 'try' at finding a solution is to update/re-install IDE drivers for you motherboard chipset.
  • danmanchester
    danmanchester Posts: 1,273 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks T41,

    Got into primary IDE properties and it says "current transfer mode:multi word dma mode 2" tried to update driver - no newer available although the driver date is 01/07/2001.

    I did change the original PSU which was a noisy 300 watt Time thing last year - to a Zalman ZM400A-APF 400 watt psu, that seems fine quiet etc.

    Not sure what else to try.....

    PS: as for processes my start up manager shows just 14 programs due to start up with windows...but by the time everything has loaded task manager shows on average 45 running.!
  • Hythers
    Hythers Posts: 37 Forumite
    I had similar trouble a couple of months ago. I had left a blank disc in my cd burner and as the bios boot option was cd first it ages to boot.
    stupid or what :)
    "Badges? We don't need no stinking Badges"
  • Toxteth_OGrady
    Toxteth_OGrady Posts: 3,958 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    PS: as for processes my start up manager shows just 14 programs due to start up with windows...but by the time everything has loaded task manager shows on average 45 running.!

    Why on earth do you have 14 start-up programs? What do you do with them all? Can't possibly see why you would need that many running at start-up.

    As for processes I suspect many of the 45 are Windows services that you don't even need.

    :cool:

    TOG
    604!
  • danmanchester
    danmanchester Posts: 1,273 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    the start up programs are:

    ctfmon.exe (no idea what that is?)
    Incredimail (ok I could stop that I suppose but it's never slowed pc in the past)
    Norton systemworks
    NVCplDaemon (no idea what that is?)
    nwiz (no idea what that is?)
    Zone Labs client
    ccApp (no idea what that is?)
    Symantec netDriver monitor
    gcasServ
    NeroFilter check
    adobe version cue cs2
    acrobat assistant 7.0
    adobe acrobat speed launcher
    adobe gamma

    Have now disabled:
    Incredimail
    Nero and all the adobe apps...and going to reboot and see what happens.
  • Toxteth_OGrady
    Toxteth_OGrady Posts: 3,958 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ctfmon.exe is a part of the Microsoft Office suite. It activates the Alternative User Input Text Input Processor (TIP) and the
    Microsoft Office XP Language Bar. This program is a non-essential system process. Disable it.

    NVCplDaemon allows you to adjust your graphics card settings from the System Tray. You don't need it running unless you frequently tweak your graphics, which you can easily do from Desktop Properties, Advanced Settings anyway.

    nwiz.exe is a part of NVidia's Nview features installable alongside its graphics hardware products. This application will give the user access to additional features which allow the configuration of up to 32 monitors on a host, or to expand the desktop across many monitors. This is a non-essential process. Disable it.

    ccapp.exe is a process belonging to Norton AntiVirus 2003. It is responsible for the auto-protect and email checking facilities, both of which will not function correctly if this service is stopped. This program is important for the stable and secure running of your computer and should not be terminated.

    gcasServ.exe is a process belonging to the Giant/Microsoft AntiSpyware product. This program is important for the stable and secure running of your computer and should not be terminated.

    You can safely disable NeroFilterCheck. All it does is check the status of drivers needed for CD burning so you don't need it running at startup.

    You might also find some useful info here on some other XP Services you may wish to turn off.

    :cool:

    TOG
    604!
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