Startup time...is this normal?

[Sir Arun]

Hi, I have a problem with my boot time even though I have pretty solid hardware in my tower.

After pressing the on-switch I need 1 minute for the user icons/welcome splash screen to show.

After typing in my login credentials, and for me to see all my desktop icons, another 1 minute and 15 seconds pass (total waiting time= 2:15)

For the start menu to get responsive, allowing me to select and click on a program to open (e.g. Mozilla hunderbird) a total of 2:45 has passed.

And for Thunderbird to open up and start checking for new mails, i.e. run normally and responsively, a total of 5:15 has passed.


I have:
a Core 2 Quad Q9650 running @ stock 3.0 GHz,
8GB 800MHz DDR2-RAM (CL 6 I think),
Windows 7 (fully updated, as I frequently check for windows updates)
No Malware (I run Avast, Malwarebytes, Advanced System Care 5, Glary Utilities and they ALL show no virus after regular scans)

I am using Dropbox, a wireless logitech keyboard and have Samsung Kies installed.


I am thinking I have too much startup programs running, but I'm not sure...

When I press ctrl-alt-del, I can see that I have 23 Processes running (including itunes helper) as I just counted them, but at the bottom it says 74 processes are running...?

The task manager also tells me 2.84 GB of my 8 GB are currently occupied, primarily because I have lots of tabs in Firefox. When I close Firefox, it remembers my tabs, so upon starting it again, they show up.


What is the real issue here?

Cheers

 

[iam2thecrowe]

PC's just get slower over time, with file fragmentation, more data on the hard drive = slower loading, more things loading at startup etc. My computer probably takes about 2-3 minutes (havn't timed it) to fully load into windows and hard drive stop loading, and is similarly specced, it has been a few years since i have done a clean windows install, which is a sure way to speed things up. Things that may improve if you remove temp files, remove any unneeded programs/data, remove programs from startup. Programs like Advanced System Care and other cleanup utilities are worthless and will make your computer run slower. Run a simple yet effective combination of Microsoft security essentials, spybot search and destroy, and CC cleaner to remove temp files, dead registry entries etc.

 

[Rumbletum]

Hi, I have a problem with my boot time even though I have pretty solid hardware in my tower.

After pressing the on-switch I need 1 minute for the user icons/welcome splash screen to show.

After typing in my login credentials, and for me to see all my desktop icons, another 1 minute and 15 seconds pass (total waiting time= 2:15)

For the start menu to get responsive, allowing me to select and click on a program to open (e.g. Mozilla hunderbird) a total of 2:45 has passed.

And for Thunderbird to open up and start checking for new mails, i.e. run normally and responsively, a total of 5:15 has passed.


I have:
a Core 2 Quad Q9650 running @ stock 3.0 GHz,
8GB 800MHz DDR2-RAM (CL 6 I think),
Windows 7 (fully updated, as I frequently check for windows updates)
No Malware (I run Avast, Malwarebytes, Advanced System Care 5, Glary Utilities and they ALL show no virus after regular scans)

I am using Dropbox, a wireless logitech keyboard and have Samsung Kies installed.


I am thinking I have too much startup programs running, but I'm not sure...

When I press ctrl-alt-del, I can see that I have 23 Processes running (including itunes helper) as I just counted them, but at the bottom it says 74 processes are running...?

The task manager also tells me 2.84 GB of my 8 GB are currently occupied, primarily because I have lots of tabs in Firefox. When I close Firefox, it remembers my tabs, so upon starting it again, they show up.


What is the real issue here?

Cheers

I would install CC Cleaner which will clear away temporary files and moreover allow you to look at those programmes which start when you launch the operating system. You can shoose what to delte or temporarily stop, to ascertain the effect on your computer start times. Typically I allow no more than 4 programmes to start on our main computer, but more are needed for the kids laptop to keep that working properly. Just experiment.

I have read that each tab on Firefox is like running another copy of it. If this is so keep them to the minimum to conserve memory and cpu, and speed up the machine.

Less is more. Fewer unnecessary applications on the go gives you better response>

Cheers

 

[lewza]

I would highly recommend removing all but 1 anti virus product as it will cause your machine to run a lot slower. Also, having more than 1 can cause conflicts between the programs.

If 23 processes are running that actually isnt a lot, however, if its 70 odd then yeah that is a lot.

I personally would go to...

Start > Run > MSCONFIG > Services & Startup...

From here I would turn off all the services which are not needed as soon as you boot up your machine. Generally keep all anti virus and Microsoft ones. Remove anything to do with itunes, steam, adobe etc...

Same when your on the startup tab, anything that isnt part of a Windows folder or anti virus (or something you dont know of) then dont touch it. As for things like messenger, vodafone etc just untick.

Will require a reboot when done.

 

[lewza]

Moreover...

Like someone has mentioned, with time your computer will become slower, despite what hardware it has.

If your after a machine that is gonna boot very quickly etc then your best bet would be a reload. Its very hard to return a machine that is now very slow to something that is 'fast'.

 

[dodger46]

If you can afford an SSD you'll cut the waiting time down to seconds instead of minutes! I just fitted one to a Pentium Dual Core laptop, boots to desktop 30 seconds. This machine goes from boot to Home page in 45 seconds...Most Apps load in less than a second...Well worth the investment.

 

[bwrlane]

This is a well understood problem. Your computer slows down over time. Everybody has it. There are basically three ways to solve it and each method can be ranked according to three criteria - easy, effective and cheap.

Solution 1: Spring cleaning. Clear out clutter with ccleaner, remove unnecessary start up programs and defrag. Easy and cheap but not particularly effective

Solution 2: Fresh install of windows. I reckon everybody should do this every now and then. You get a better, more responsive and new feeling system. Cheap and moderately effective but not very easy

Solution 3: Get an SSD. This is really the full, final solution, and nothing you will ever do to your computer will have more of an impact on how it feels to use. Easy, effective, but not cheap

 

[Sir Arun]

Does having CCleaner remove your temp files also make Firefox forget all the tabs it remembers?

Because I'm in university and need my tabs for later research...

 

[jitpublisher]

Once you bite the bullet and spend the money for an SSD, you will be glad you did. Hard drives are the single piece of hardware that have not kept up pace with the speed advances of the rest of the hardware in your PC. They have made tremendous advances, sure, but they still use a little arm to read spinning disks (sort of like an old record player, ha!) and are single biggest bottleneck in a modern system by a huge degree. The rest of your PC is light years ahead of your Hard Drives in "speed" terms. An SSD with no moving parts brings your Hard drive performance to almost unbelievable levels to people who have never had the pleasure of sitting down and using a PC that has one, brings it pace with the rest of your system. There is no other single piece of hardware you can change in a modern computer that will make such a big, quite noticeable difference in the way your PC runs. They may seem expensive, but for the performance you get, compare the price of a good SSD to the price of a high end GPU, or CPU, and they do not seem that expensive. Just getting one to load your OS on, and using a second regular hard drive for data and storage makes a world of difference that is well worth the cost.

 

[bwrlane]

Does having CCleaner remove your temp files also make Firefox forget all the tabs it remembers?

Because I'm in university and need my tabs for later research...

Yes, I believe it does. But I have to say that having firefox remember your last opened tabs is a pretty clumsy and erratic way of remembering your sources.

 

[jitpublisher]

Let me just toss this out there, if you have to worry about Firefox slowing your PC down, well you have issues with your machine that no amount of "cleaning" is going to solve! Perform the task mentioned in this thread to clean out programs starting and running that your don't really need, defrag, streamline your antivirus, check your PC for Spyware, and if that don't get you moving, maybe you have driver issues with a piece of hardware?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Here is some useful info to check your startup times using the event viewer. I use this and it works well.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/use-windows-7-event-viewer-to-track-down-issues-that-cause-slower-boot-times/3253

 

[Rumbletum]

Use bookmarks rather than having "n" tabs open in Firefox. These bookmarks will be retained even if you use CC Cleaner.

Don't prevaricate sort out the startup programmes

Clear out all the crap temp files and then defrag if you have a HDD that hasn't had that attention before. My Defrag is a useful programme.

I'd love to buy an SSD, but can't justify the cost. Even if the start up time was reduced to milliseconds with an SSD I could not justify it.

Cheers

 

[JollyJay]

No need to justify! Impluse buying is the best.

 

[kawininjazx]

I had a system like that and it was blazing fast even on Vista. I would recommend you just run one anti-virus, I like Microsoft Security Essentials. Also, run MSCONFIG and diasable anything not important, usually I leave the antivirus, graphics program, and sound program running and kill everything else. Then run ccleaner, chkdsk, and defrag hard dive.

 

[maxinexus]

You should make a routine at least 1year clean format HDD and reinstalling the windows fresh. Save pictures, movies or whatever is important to you on different drive or partition. I do this every 6 months and my PC never slows down

 

[osamabinrobot]

You should make a routine at least 1year clean format HDD and reinstalling the windows fresh. Save pictures, movies or whatever is important to you on different drive or partition. I do this every 6 months and my PC never slows down

this is a good routine.

also, i cant rave enough about getting an SSD into my box. seriously jaw-dropping effect. i've upgraded cpu's quite a few times over the years but the boot time + responsiveness of getting an SSD was still startling to me.
people have complained quite a bit about the ocz agility 3's but i have one with the latest firmware and have had 0 issues, and top notch performance out of it for what i would consider a reasonable price. i saw an eblast from newegg this morning for a 60 gig for 60 dollars after mail in rebate, a dollar a gig for the performance is pretty awesome.

 

[MKBL]

Defragmentation really helps, especially if you have large data and lots of writing. Windows 7 has weekly defrag as default, probably Wednesday 12 AM. I have changed it to Wednesday 5 PM because I know my wife usually browses web at the time, and this keeps the HDD fragmentation max 1% all the time, usually 0%.