Bootup & Shutdown Soo Sloooow!

[RicanDAB]

Hey guys,

My laptop is almost 5 years old, which by today's standards I know is a dinosaur, but it works for me right now. Hope to buy a new one next year, however if I could only fix the following problem in the meantime:

Booting up and shutdown takes so much longer than it used to. Bootup literally takes about 10 minutes and I get the feeling it is because of all the startup files (which I am reluctant to dive in and mess around with for fear of damaging things). I literally turn on the computer before I get into the shower just so it is ready for me when I get out.

Shutdown is another hassle. I get about 4 or 5 of those "Not responding" pop up boxes with the "End Task" buttons before Windows begins the shutdown. I know one of them says "WindowsFormsParking" and others say Adobe or a mix of random characters.

Sorry I have not explained too well. What I wanted to know is whether there is software out there that I can run to help fix this problem and speed up my bootup and startup without going in manually?

THANKS!

 

[star-warrior]

I had the same problem, and a few others. Do you ever have trouble installing new stuff as well? I had a corrupt windows key and damaged system files causing all that. Consider buying an external harddrive, and whilst you're still able, back up your data to it. If you have your original disks from the manufacturer, its worth doing a factory install. However, you may need to reload all the favourite programs in again. If that's too drastic, then just use this as a last resort.

BTW, now my computer loads up in tens of seconds, whereas it used to take 5 minutes to start up.

 

[star-warrior]

After reading that, noelie, I'm hesitant to install my HP printer now...

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I know you said you are reluctant to go into the startup stuff, but you're going ot have too. it sounds like you got a lot of "stuff" maybe that is running and you might not even use the associated applications anymore.

Spybot search and destroy also allows you to remove things from startup (similar to using the msconfig that noelie just mentioned). however, spybot usually highlights things with yellow and red to let you know if something is a known spy program or malware and gives you descriptions of each entry in your startup so you know what it is and you can uncheck it if you want. you can always go back and recheck it if you find later that you need it.

as for something automatic...well something like CCleaner, but i don't think that will speed up startup/shutdown. something like tuneup utilities might help startup, but I don't think that program is free.

CCleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/

spybot: http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/spybot/spybotsd14.exe

instructions on how to use it here:http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial43.html

however that doesn't tell you how to use the startup thing. you'll need to click on "mode" and select "advance mode." then after it switches to that in the left hand column of utilities, you should see a tools option. if you click on that you'll get a list of other utilities. one of those should be "system startup" click on that. then you'll get a color coded list of all items that start, when you get into windows. check it carefully and make sure you uncheck anything you don't use or stuff that spybot highlights as a known problem. ...if you have HP stuff it will likely highlight that red or at least yellow.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

opps. ok CCleaner does have a startup "cleaner" but you still have to select the items you want ot remove, and unlike spybot it doens't tell you what they do.

 

[BiMike]

Thanks Mike for the info on Spybot and Start-up. I have used Spybot before but never tried the Start-up check. Reduced my Start-up files from over 20 to half a dozen! It is surprising how you collect these things over a period. Speeded up my boot time no end !

 

[mike_n_herrin]

Thanks Mike for the info on Spybot and Start-up. I have used Spybot before but never tried the Start-up check. Reduced my Start-up files from over 20 to half a dozen! It is surprising how you collect these things over a period. Speeded up my boot time no end !

you are welcome. no problem. i tend to use spybot because my msconfig thing doesn't work anymore. yet another sign i need to reformat... glad it worked for ya. did it help any with shut down also? CCleaner might help with shut down by cleaning up the registry and stuff.

 

[BiMike]

^ Big improvement in shut down time too. I now realise I could have used Config but I was afraid of clearing out something useful! After several years I am still on a learning curve! Thanks

 

[gabriel1]

Have you defragged lately?

 

[RicanDAB]

RSVP RicanDAB?

Hey! Sorry for not checking in!

THANKS everyone for their advice. I defragged my system about 2 weeks ago thinking that it would help the problem but did not. However, I did have Spybot installed which I had to really update. I ran a scan and it found many items which I decided to delete. I also went in manually as per above and unchecked the hpqthb08.exe. Yes I do have an HP 1610 All in One printer, so obviously that was a source problem.

My bootup and shutdowns are still slower that I would like (what can u expect with a laptop bought in 2002) but I would say the processes take MUCH LESS than they used to ... I think the bootup went from 10 minutes to now 3 or 4. Big difference, I will take it. And all those End Task windows on shutdown are gone.

THANKS again guys

P.S. Mike - I will need to rerun Spybot with the advanced mode for the system startup feature, that should help even more.

 

[RicanDAB]

Update: When I ran the Spybot in Advance Mode, under System Startup I found a few files that in the description say they were added by the AGOBOT-KU Worm! What is that? Wouldn't my McAfee anti-virus (which updates frequently and I run every so often) have picked this up? Unsure ... but I was able to disable other stupid programs starting up that I did not need (including more of the HP programs!)

I'm rebooting now to see what happens ... see ya in a minute.

 

[RicanDAB]

I'm back!

I just conducted 2 shutdowns and bootups after unchecking certain items under System Startup in Spybot.

Bootup: From powering to opening up IE to view my homepage (which is my webmail and takes a few seconds to self-login): about 3 minutes.

Shutdown: I almost fell off the chair when I saw it almost immediately switch to the Windows shutting down screen ... whole process was a little over 30 seconds!!

Now that I am back online ... the whole system seems to be running a tad quicker, unless it is my wishful thinking, but it does feel that way.

What a big help you guys have been ... Thanks once again!

 

[mike_n_herrin]

Opps RicanDAB, i'll admit right now i thought hornymike_uk had started the thread and he was the one with a 10 minute boot up. i should have went back and looked.

Rican, also try CCleaner, at the web site i mentioned above. it's also free. really honestly windows should not sill be taking 3 minutes to boot up. I just found a new tool called BootVis, which according to this web site is a free microsoft product: http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?forumID=5&threadID=104607&messageID=1197775

I'm going to try it and let ya know how it works for me and my startup issue. It may only be for bootup and not my problem but we'll see.