Lots of stuff loading at start-up - questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Big Mac
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Big Mac

I am just wondering - it seems a lot more memory is being use by my
computer than my sons computer. I have 1 gig of memory while he has
512 MB. My computer is using about 350 MBs loaded into memory at boot
up, while his is using about 200 MBs. We have both "disabled" or put
to "manual" several of the same Windows XP components that are used
for networking and stuff.

So, I am loading a lot more stuff than he is I suppose. I do have
more stuff than he has.

* 1st question - will programs see extra memory and use more of it
because it decides it can?

Now, I'd like to know about this - I go into start\run, and type in
"msconfig". The end choice on the right is "start' or "startup".
There I see what stuff loading at boot time I guess (I also see a
couple of things loading the start\.all programs\startup - these are
just shortcuts that start of a program - I have deleted all but
"smartUI").

* So 2nd question - how do I find out where all of these programs
starting at boot up belong to? I recognize a couple of them -
"DrgToDsc" is my Roxio drag a file to here and it will burn program -
which I never even use or will want to use. I have 26 programs that
are loading on boot up. The info Window there is a fixed size. It
only displays the start of the path to where these programs are at - I
just don't know. I can find some by using search. There is stuff in
this startup (msconfig\startup) that seems to, on purpose, be vague.
For example: "mxyjxxn" listed there, traced to a file called
mxyxxn.exe in my Windows folder. What in the heck - it is using up
memory on start up I guess (???) , but I don't know what for. Are all
of those files in there 3rd party stuff?

I don't recognize these: zHotkey, RxMon, Schwicon2K, SetHook, ccApp,
ISStart, EngUtil, pptd40nt, mwsoemon, SmartUI, attask, realsched
(something in Real Player perhaps?), nwiz, NvCpl. Any input here is
appreciated.

* 3rd question - as can example, I have unchecked the box in front of
Drugstores. but when I reboot - it reboots in a diagnostic mode - I
can't figure out how to make my changes permanent - anyone? I think I
even logged in as Administrator and I still could save the changes as
permanent, at lease the way I am doing it.
 
ccApp = Norton
pptd40nt = PerfectDisk
nwiz = Nvidia
NvCpl = Nvidia

Don't go around disabling things willy nilly. You may lock yourself out of
your system!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Memory footprint is irrelevant. You have more real therefore the system will
leverage the resource. The more kept in memory, especially frequently used
stuff, the better system performance is. Also, be careful about the metric
being employed to determine memory footprint and availability. There isn't a
tool out that correctly reports either correctly, and that includes MS
tools.

If you want less loaded in memory, then reduce the amount of real memory
installed the system will automatically adjust to a smaller working set. Be
careful about disabling stuff, especially stuff you think you don't need.

Now for the real question. Exactly what actual problem are you trying to
resolve? You mentioned an issue with an app named "Drugstores" but that's
not something useful to find. Do a start->run->msinfo32. Expand the software
branch and click on the startup programs branch. Hit ctrl-a copy the data
then paste it back here. You also mention something about a file name with,
for all intents and purposes, a bogus appearing name. Are you running
current, up to date anti-virus software?

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
 
Now for the real question. Exactly what actual problem are you trying to
resolve? You mentioned an issue with an app named "Drugstores" but that's
not something useful to find. Do a start->run->msinfo32. Expand the software
branch and click on the startup programs branch. Hit ctrl-a copy the data
then paste it back here. You also mention something about a file name with,
for all intents and purposes, a bogus appearing name. Are you running
current, up to date anti-virus software?
Click to expand...

Actually what got me going on this was that my son's computer (he is
visiting and brought his computer and we are in the same room) is a
2.6 GHz Celeron with 512 MBs memory, and mine is a 2.2 GHz Athalon
with 1024 MBs memory. We both downloaded the same program - a
freeware program that explains any computer related abbreviation ever
used - not a big program, but a lot of text, with a nice search
feature.

Anyway, for some reason his 2.6 GHz Celeron (without a math-co
processor of course) loads the program in seconds, while it takes my
2.2 GHz Athalon much much longer - like mine = 30 seconds and his = 5
seconds.

It just seems like my system is dragging sometimes.. I am hooked up
to cable and he is on a dial up, but no windows were open when I
tried. Oh yea, I have a 160 gig hard drive while he has a 40 gig.
But I just the day before optimized the drive for speed with a Norton
utility. It took over two hours easy to do this (optimize the disk),
I want to say 3 hours but I didn't time it. And I only have 45 gigs
of space used on my hard drive.
 
There's some apple and orange comparisons going on.;-)

Celerons have math coprocessors. That distinction went away several
generations of hardware ago; in fact, the last time that distinction was
made was on 486 class processors. All socket 5 and latter class hardware
have integrated math coprocessors, also known as floating point processors.

Some of the symptoms you report can be attributed to spyware and other forms
of crap ware. That was why I want to look at your startup.

I also need to know the name of the application you're using. There are some
legit tools out there, but the number of bogus tools vastly out numbers them
by several orders of magnitude.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
 
Walter Clayton said:
There's some apple and orange comparisons going on.;-)
Celerons have math coprocessors. That distinction went away several
generations of hardware ago; in fact, the last time that distinction was
made was on 486 class processors. All socket 5 and latter class hardware
have integrated math coprocessors, also known as floating point processors.
Click to expand...

You've got me curious now - if a Celeron has a math-coprocessor on it,
then why is it so much cheaper to buy one than a P4? What are the
disadvantages of having a Celeron vs a P4 or Athalon?
Some of the symptoms you report can be attributed to spyware and other forms
of crap ware. That was why I want to look at your startup.
Click to expand...

Ok. I ran Ad aware, deleted a few things it found (if I ran it every
day it would find stuff), then loaded the program (mentioned below:
AcronymGenie version 4.0 ). I also have Spyware Blaster and even
Spybot. Same results. 27 to 28 seconds. I loaded the program a
couple of times with no other windows open. However, I loaded it
yesterday once and it miraculously loaded in something like 11 or 12
seconds. In this case I believe that I had just turned my computer on
and never fired up anything (except of course the stuff that
auto-loads), but I am not sure. (I am on cable and am connected when
i fire up the computer - I run the Norton programs: Personal Firewall
& SytemWorks [anti-virus included] & Ghost loads too (no idea why
ghost loads - I just wanted it to back-up my HD onto DVDs)..

And as far as the start up - are you talking about what is in:
start\all programs\start-up
or are you talking about startup when you type in msconfig and get
that screen?

In the case of the start\all programs\startup, 2 programs are
there,"SmartUI" loads (I do not know what it is for), as well as an
added toolbar "mywebsearch". The damned toolbar keeps adding itself
into that startup menu even if I delete it from there. I'd uninstall
it in a second, except one of it's functions is these darned extensive
smiley's that my Yahoo chat-room club uses, and I have to have the
program to see them, or I just see code. (smileys good for Yahoo
Messenger, MSN Messenger, & O.E. email)

For the other startup menu you get when you go into msconfig, I
mentioned almost all of the stuff that loads in a previous post in
this thread. There 27 things that are listed and checked in front of
them, including the two I mention in the start\all programs startup.
I know what a few of them are for. Most I do not. (I am loading
about 150 MBs more into memory than my son. 350 MBs vs 200 MBs).
There is even one in msconfig\startup that is a complete blank space
as the name. If you want me to list them all I'll do it next post.
I also need to know the name of the application you're using. There are some
legit tools out there, but the number of bogus tools vastly out numbers them
by several orders of magnitude.
Click to expand...

The program I am talking about is: AcronymGenie version 4.0
Freeware. It has something like 17100 definitions, or "entries" for
computer abbreviations. It reports how many seconds it takes to load,
and also a % thing shows what 5 it is at while loading - it seems to
be that after the program is like 60% loaded it bogs down.

To refresh - I was wondering why my son's computer, a 2.6 GHz Celeron,
loads the above mentioned program in probably 7 or 8 seconds compared
to my 27 seconds for my 2,2 GHz Athalon. Me having 1 gig of pc2700
memory vs his 512 MB of pc2700 memory. My hardrive=160 GBs (just
optimized for speed with 45 GBs of stuff on it), while his hardrive=40
GBs (probably only 5 GBs on it).

I am also wondering, now that I have your attention, & if you know, if
memory chip bus speed is important here. I was told it doesn't make
that much of a difference in overall performance, but I'd like another
opinion (anyone). I have two 512 MB pc2700 chips - one came with the
computer (it is pretty new), & the other I added recently. The
original's bus speed is only 166 Mhz. The new one is 333 MHz, which
or course, when the memory bus speed is tested, it reports 167 MHz,
because the slowest memory chip's bus speed dictates the max (at least
I know that much).

It is beside the point that once the program is loaded I can minimize
it and it shrinks to a tray icon, and I could have it load with boot
up. What I am curious about is why it takes my computer so much
longer to load the darned thing up, when the difference in our
computers is only supposed to be about 17 or 18% reported GHz speed.

Thanks,
Big Mac
 
You have different background processes running, as compared to what your
son has running. It will effect the load time. I found one errant process
(started automatically on my machine), that bogged down my system -
periodically. I use the associated program only rarely. I changed the
process to manual load and now have no problem.

So, sometimes it's not the hardware at all!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

Big Mac said:
Walter Clayton said:
There's some apple and orange comparisons going on.;-)
Celerons have math coprocessors. That distinction went away several
generations of hardware ago; in fact, the last time that distinction was
made was on 486 class processors. All socket 5 and latter class hardware
have integrated math coprocessors, also known as floating point
processors.
Click to expand...

You've got me curious now - if a Celeron has a math-coprocessor on it,
then why is it so much cheaper to buy one than a P4? What are the
disadvantages of having a Celeron vs a P4 or Athalon?
Some of the symptoms you report can be attributed to spyware and other
forms
of crap ware. That was why I want to look at your startup.
Click to expand...

Ok. I ran Ad aware, deleted a few things it found (if I ran it every
day it would find stuff), then loaded the program (mentioned below:
AcronymGenie version 4.0 ). I also have Spyware Blaster and even
Spybot. Same results. 27 to 28 seconds. I loaded the program a
couple of times with no other windows open. However, I loaded it
yesterday once and it miraculously loaded in something like 11 or 12
seconds. In this case I believe that I had just turned my computer on
and never fired up anything (except of course the stuff that
auto-loads), but I am not sure. (I am on cable and am connected when
i fire up the computer - I run the Norton programs: Personal Firewall
& SytemWorks [anti-virus included] & Ghost loads too (no idea why
ghost loads - I just wanted it to back-up my HD onto DVDs)..

And as far as the start up - are you talking about what is in:
start\all programs\start-up
or are you talking about startup when you type in msconfig and get
that screen?

In the case of the start\all programs\startup, 2 programs are
there,"SmartUI" loads (I do not know what it is for), as well as an
added toolbar "mywebsearch". The damned toolbar keeps adding itself
into that startup menu even if I delete it from there. I'd uninstall
it in a second, except one of it's functions is these darned extensive
smiley's that my Yahoo chat-room club uses, and I have to have the
program to see them, or I just see code. (smileys good for Yahoo
Messenger, MSN Messenger, & O.E. email)

For the other startup menu you get when you go into msconfig, I
mentioned almost all of the stuff that loads in a previous post in
this thread. There 27 things that are listed and checked in front of
them, including the two I mention in the start\all programs startup.
I know what a few of them are for. Most I do not. (I am loading
about 150 MBs more into memory than my son. 350 MBs vs 200 MBs).
There is even one in msconfig\startup that is a complete blank space
as the name. If you want me to list them all I'll do it next post.
I also need to know the name of the application you're using. There are
some
legit tools out there, but the number of bogus tools vastly out numbers
them
by several orders of magnitude.
Click to expand...

The program I am talking about is: AcronymGenie version 4.0
Freeware. It has something like 17100 definitions, or "entries" for
computer abbreviations. It reports how many seconds it takes to load,
and also a % thing shows what 5 it is at while loading - it seems to
be that after the program is like 60% loaded it bogs down.

To refresh - I was wondering why my son's computer, a 2.6 GHz Celeron,
loads the above mentioned program in probably 7 or 8 seconds compared
to my 27 seconds for my 2,2 GHz Athalon. Me having 1 gig of pc2700
memory vs his 512 MB of pc2700 memory. My hardrive=160 GBs (just
optimized for speed with 45 GBs of stuff on it), while his hardrive=40
GBs (probably only 5 GBs on it).

I am also wondering, now that I have your attention, & if you know, if
memory chip bus speed is important here. I was told it doesn't make
that much of a difference in overall performance, but I'd like another
opinion (anyone). I have two 512 MB pc2700 chips - one came with the
computer (it is pretty new), & the other I added recently. The
original's bus speed is only 166 Mhz. The new one is 333 MHz, which
or course, when the memory bus speed is tested, it reports 167 MHz,
because the slowest memory chip's bus speed dictates the max (at least
I know that much).

It is beside the point that once the program is loaded I can minimize
it and it shrinks to a tray icon, and I could have it load with boot
up. What I am curious about is why it takes my computer so much
longer to load the darned thing up, when the difference in our
computers is only supposed to be about 17 or 18% reported GHz speed.

Thanks,
Big Mac
Click to expand...
 
Sean said:
I had an adware problem, deleted too much stuff to get rid of it, and
now many programs dont load at start up, (ATI, Logitech, etc) how do
I recover?
Click to expand...
To make changes to Startup: Start/Run/type "msconfig" [less quote markers],
and click "OK". This opens the "System Configuration Utility". Click the
"Start" Tab. There you can checkmark any thing you want to add to startup or
remove the checkmark from any thing you want to remove from startup. A
easier way to do it is a free program "Startup Control Panel" from Mike Lin:
www.mlin.net.
 
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