Computer start up is veeeerrry slooooow

THEPAIN73

I turn on my computer at the same time as my girlfriend and 3 minutes later she is already browsing online while mine sits on the windows welcome screen.

Over time computers become slower, but I would like to free it up some so I don't have to wait forever.

I have AVG and it never repairs anything a.k.a never finds errors or viruses.

I know it's vague and I hate getting car calls like this, but I mean there has got to be something that can be done.. reformatting isn't an option.

autono-wally, erotibot300

did you try spybot? you can also update drivers in case one is causing this
of couuurse.. it may also be your hard drive is failing. do you hear strange sounds from it?

THEPAIN73

I have two hard drives on is a 40GB and the other is a 250GB.

The 40 has my windows on it but the 250 has most of the files I run.

Neither one is making any noise.

Spybot I don't think I have, is it freeware?

And where can I update drivers?

Rigor Mortis

Spybot is free, and may be found here.

Or if you ever google it be damn sure you download Spybot Search and Destroy and not a similarly named program such as Spyboy. Wouldn't mention it except my father-in-law made that mistake....

TychoCelchuuu

Why isn't reformatting an option? Heck, if your files are all on a different hard drive you can even reformat without having to back up first. That's going to be a lot easier than running the 5 different programs it's going to take to clean off years of spyware accumulated on a computer that's never been scanned by anything other than AVG.

shadydentist

When was the last time you've defragmented? That will help somewhat, as will uninstalling all the programs you don't use and cleaning your registry. But sooner or later, you're going to need to reformat, and if you have Windows on a separate drive it looks like you're in a good position to do so.

contraband

Run CCleaner on system and registries, run defrag, run Spybot and Malwarebytes with current definitions, run MSCONFIG to disable all unnecessary startup programs, run CCleaner on system and registries again. In that order. That is all you can do short of a reformat.

JPS

Everyone always seems to miss the obvious things and go straight to obscure or drastic measures first.

Run a chkdsk /r

Azio

JPS wrote: »

Everyone always seems to miss the obvious things and go straight to obscure or drastic measures first.

Run a chkdsk /r

yes, this

the advice people give in these threads is the equivalent to "your car is making a funny noise? Better get some jacks and pull the transmission then"

Doctorstrongbad

Maybe it is time for a new computer?

Cabezone

If you want your computer to run speedy you really need to reformat. It's by far the easiest way to speed things up.

THEPAIN73

The reason I can't reformat is due to not having a Windows XP disc and I am not sure if my computer can handle Windows 7.

Quantux

Step 1: Once you get booted, run msconfig. Go to services, check "hide all MS services". Go through the list of whats left. 9 times out of 10 you can uncheck all of them and not see any issues. (unchecking these does set them to "disabled" so if you do actually need any of them, go to services.msc and set them to "manual") Go to the next tab which is start up programs. Uncheck all. If you're all paranoid and can't live without antivirus or really like messenger auto starting, then re-check those, but most everything in here is useless. (Unless you can't stand waiting an extra 2.5 seconds waiting for acrobat to open, or need a status on you printer ink STAT). Hit save, say yes, let it reboot.

Step 2: when it comes back up, defrag a few times, run chkdsk /F (on c: )and reboot.
Step 3: Once back up, get ccleaner and run that until no more registry issues are found.

By now, you should be as fast as it's going to get without format/reinstall.

You will also want to repeat step 2 for d: (the 250GB drive), but you'll want to start that overnight as both defrag and chkdsk will take a hojillion years.

TelMarine

How old is the 40GB drive? It could just be dying. If you've done all the tips here and the speed increase lasts for a short time, just install windows on your 250GB drive and keep that defragmented. I have had a few drives older then 7 years eventually just take forever loading anything and then eventually malfunction.