slow startup

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Guest

Hello folks,
I've got an XP laptop that seems to take around 10 minutes to come up to the
point of being able to open a program. I don't really have much loaded on it
except for MS Office and iTunes. I have all my songs on an external harddrive.

How to I speed up the startup process? I've checked Taskmgr and found 57
processes running. Is that a lot? I'm not really sure what they are.

Any suggestions?
 
If you have Windows Defender installed, you can use Software Explorer to show
programs started at Windows startup. Many tasks are system related and you
have very little control over their startup. Here's a link to process
explorer which may more clearly identify what is running on your system:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx

It is not unusal to have 57 tasks going. Even if you don't have a superfast
CPU, that's usually not the problem. In general, I have found that laptops
under 1 GB of RAM are subject to excessive paging during startup when coupled
with resource intensive programs. Task Manager and Performance (under
Administrative Tools) can allow you to monitor paging and cpu activity.
Programs from Symantec like Norton Internet Security tend to be large
resource hogs and do slow startup. Do not auto start programs such as Music
Players, Messengers, etc. that can wait for later. Don't go nuts and try to
turn off all ancillary tasks that support Apple, Adobe, MS Office, etc.
After you Logon to Windows, the task bar and system tray give you an
indication of what was auto-started. If you can't reduce the 10 minutes to a
more reasonable time, learn to love Hibernate.
 
Thanks for the help.
One more question - Is the standard, of turning off your PC every night,
still necessary? Back in the day, it seemed more important than now. Is there
a need to shut down at all, considering all the power saving options
available?
 
I've a set of users who never turn their machines off. I would encourage
folks with that mindset to use the most effective power-saving options
available to them. Newer machines and newer Windows versions are far better
at power saving than older ones. Powering down a CRT--i.e. a
non-flat-screen display--is one of the more effective power savings
tools--consider replacing it. Nothing is simple though--newer machines
standardize on higher resolution video displays--so if you buy an LCD now
and then replace your machine in a year or two, the LCD that works fine with
the old machine may not have the resolution to work best with the new one.

There is no requirement in terms of the OS for a regular shutdown.
Application software, however, may create the need to reboot. Depending on
the Windows version, the once a month security patch distribution often
requires a reboot--so that is a factor to remember.

I would encourage you to learn what those processes are--and the little
icons "down by the clock"--in the "notification area." If you can't ever
remember using one of those, it may be a good idea to close it down, and
take steps to keep it from starting automatically.

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Mr. Bill Sanderson is a good source for advice. My personal opinion for
desktop systems is to use standby (you could use XP power management options
to spin down the hard drive after 30 minutes) during the day (if I will be
using the computer periodically) and power down at night (before going to
sleep). I like to power down because running fans means bearing wear. My
primary concern with laptops is heat so I would prefer to power down (or
hibernate) after I am finished for the day. Slightly off topic, I have seen
recommendations to always leave the power on for LCDs attached to desktops.
Most LCDs have energy efficient modes and will only use several watts, but
leaving the power on has something to do with extending the life of the LCD.
 
My answer follows below:

theotherdave said:
Thanks for the help.
One more question - Is the standard, of turning off your PC every night,
still necessary? Back in the day, it seemed more important than now. Is there
a need to shut down at all, considering all the power saving options
available?

With regard to your question about Switching off computers, I suggest
download one of our Newsletters dealing with this:

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/its_archive/newsletters/jul06/newsletter-july06.pdf

Please let me know if this link still working so that I can correct it if
necessary.
 
both Mr Cat and Bill are an excellant source of info
I am going to add my 2cents what I tell my clients.
It is a matter of choice wether to keep the computer (laptop or desktop) on
all the time or shut it down every night.
Both work fine.
If you do keep it on all the time, as said here you should do a reboot about
every two weeks just to clean out the memory a bit.
If you turn it on in the morning and shut it down before you go to sleep.
You should be consistant on both accounts.
A laptop is actually made to turn on and off at different intervals (like
after an hr of use as an example) but a desktop is not
I do tell all my clients regardless of what power strip you have to shut it
down if you are going to be away for more than 2days and also in a severe
thunderstorm, hurricane or any other natural disaster..
In a lot of areas are a lot of power surges, and even with the best backup
APC, I have seen computers fried in a bad thunderstorm.
You do not know when the power will return and if it has been off for over a
long period of time you will find there might be a major surge when the
power returns.
The same for when you go on vacation or are away for a few days. Since you
are not there to shut it down if weather is bad, it is safer to just do it
before you leave.
I also recommend you turn off the electricity for the modem if you are on
broadband if you are going to be away or if the weather is severe in your
area.
robin
 
Interestingly S3 sleep shuts down all fans on my new desktop system which is
running an Intel 6600 quad core processor, in a Shuttle sp35p2 case and
motherboard.

However, I cannot wake the system with Wake On Lan from S3 sleep, so I can't
use it when I expect to need to connect remotely.

The software mechanisms that Windows Home Server uses to wake machines to
back them up at night can awaken it--my understanding is that they do that
by programming the bios on the machine itself to wake at a designated
time--rather than an external signal.

I really like sleep--the machine is close enough to off for me--no fans--and
a single keypress on the keyboard wakes it in a few seconds. However, I
need it to be awakened by a signal from a remote location, so I need to
figure out something better during most working days.

--
 
Good article--pretty much covers what we've discussed so far, but in the end
it says to consult your local PC support staff.....

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