My computer is slow on start up and also slow in initially loading internet sites – has anyone any suggestions?
I recently had a virus and I then had my hard drive reformatted for me and XP reloaded on to the system. Since that time the start up has become extremely slow and takes several minutes. When finally loaded I then find that loading internet sites i.e Firefox etc., has also become very slow. Any advice for someone who is not a qualifed computer engineer would be very much appreciated?
December 3rd, 2010 at 7:23 pm
see if you can download missing updates from Windows Updater
also run Defragmentation tool on your hardrive
December 3rd, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Doing a search for speeding up xp will give you lots of site with suggestions on making xp run faster, startup faster, and shut down fast. Are you running behind a firewall? I noticed that with my firewall (comodo) there is a section on the bottom box “files waiting for review” and on my xp machine if that gets too large my whole pc slows down to a crawl and if it is really large it seems to freeze. I just open / view the files for review and remove them and my pc works better.
You may also want to check the task manager and see what items are running in Applications and Processes. In processes there is a list of what is running and the CPU Usage it is using – you can also view the processes running, CPU Usage and Physical Memory on the bottom of the Windows Task Manager.
That may give you some idea as to what it causing your pc to run so slowly.
If you see some process that is using a lot of cpu you can do a search for it to see what it is and if you need it running (before ending the process.
here are some articles on disabling processes
http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-xp-support/106186-processes-can-i-disable.html
http://www.optimizingpc.com/optimize/windowsservices.html
http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php?t4122.html
or theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/xpprofiles.htm
http://www.blackviper.com/AskBV/askBV.htm
http://www.computing.net/answers/windows-xp/how-to-disable-processes/97953.html
http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-xp-support/126305-how-can-i-disable-certain-unnecessary-startup-processes.html
http://vectrosecurity.com/content/view/31/26/
http://www.pcpitstop.com/faq/disable.asp
http://windowsstart.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-disable-background-processes-in.html
Hope this helps some
December 3rd, 2010 at 8:21 pm
If your virus/spyware free, there are a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your computer for normal stuff and not gaming. You don’t always need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.
First, if you haven’t cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events produces a key. That key needs your PC’s resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for speed. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.
http://www.delete-computer-history.com/what-is-the-best-registry-cleaner.html
2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:
1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser
2. Click Start, click “Control Panel”, and then double-click “Internet Options”.
3. On the General tab, click “Delete Files” under Temporary Internet Files.
4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the “Delete all offline content” check box , and then click OK.
5. Click OK.
3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:
1. Open your Start menu.
2. Click Run
3. In the command screen type “msconfig.exe”
4. In the “system configuration utility”,click either “service” or “startup” tab
5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.
6. Click “OK”