Question on start up time on the puter

[SSMAN]

My computer takes for ever to boot up. (about 7-9 minutes) My question is, Does having a buttload of pics (digital camera) slow down the boot up time on the computer? I have close to 500 pics in my documents. Looking for ways to get this thing booted up faster.

[Chrm10SPkZ28]

do you have any inti-virus stuff or anything to block spyware? i know if you do all that crap runs when you reboot and start up first thing. Also you might try going to your system tools under accessories and defragmenting

[Stang2be]

whats your pc hardware specs?

I went from a p3 933 dell to an AMD 64 bit 2800 with a sata drive and I'd say I can go from power up to desktop in under 20-30 seconds

[TexasDevilDog]

[QUOTE=Stang2be]whats your pc hardware specs?

I went from a p3 933 dell to an AMD 64 bit 2800 with a sata drive and I'd say I can go from power up to desktop in under 20-30 seconds[/QUOTE]

I agree. I have a AMD64 3200. I put linux on my SATA drive and moved XP to my old ATA100 hard drive. XP seems so slow to boot up now. Even after it boots up, windows is just churning the hard drive doing a bunch of stuff in the background. My SATA would be done in 20 seconds. Even opening apps and changing between programs is slow on the ATA hard drive.

Hard drives are the bottle neck of computers today. Spending more on a fast hard drive is more important than a fast cpu, in overall feeling of use.

[Roliath]

go to start > run > type "msconfig" and post a screenshot of what processes are running when you start your computer.

[Hunt4m3x]

What OS are you running? There maybe alot of programs running in the start. My My Docus folder is 4+ gig big. That doesn't count the 5 gig picture photo dir that Ive taken with my canon dig rebel.

[TexasDevilDog]

By the way, how much free space do you have left on your hard drive?

[dmh165638]

After the computer is completely done booting and the hard drive light is no longer flickering go to "Task Manager" and see how many process are running. There are a ton of services in XP that are set to automatic by default but are not necessary. Other items in the startup folder and in the startup tab (Realupdate, qttask, javaupdater, system tray tools, kybd hotkey loader, etc) in MSCONFIG can also delay the boot. You can change the boot order in your bios to help a little also. If you have your CDROM and floppy listed before your hard drive each will be scanned for boot media before going onto your hard drive. Disabling unused hardware can also speed things up. Items like Fireware, Serial ports, IR, etc. that are not used regularly can be disabled completely so the drivers don't have to load. If you have Virus Protection, check to see if it is setup to do a scan after each boot. This can drag your system down significantly if every file on hard drive is being scanned while Windows is trying to load everything up. System Restore can also really slow things down while it creates a restore point but this is something you will have to decide if you need. One other thing that can really drag things down is Automatic Updates, it likes to start looking for updates just after the desktop loads up. Depending on how it is setup, it will scan for updates and then start downloading them in the background and even install them without any input from you.

[SSMAN]

[QUOTE=Chrm10SPkZ28]do you have any inti-virus stuff or anything to block spyware? i know if you do all that crap runs when you reboot and start up first thing. Also you might try going to your system tools under accessories and defragmenting[/QUOTE]


Yes I do have antivirus, but it is half the size of norton. I did a defragment a couple of weeks ago, I will do it again.

[SSMAN]

[QUOTE=Stang2be]whats your pc hardware specs?

I went from a p3 933 dell to an AMD 64 bit 2800 with a sata drive and I'd say I can go from power up to desktop in under 20-30 seconds[/QUOTE]

If I remember correctly , its a 1.8 (1800)

[SSMAN]

[QUOTE=Roliath]go to start > run > type "msconfig" and post a screenshot of what processes are running when you start your computer.[/QUOTE]


Here you go, only two I could not get in to the pic is pchbutton and msmsgs. Nothing else is checked.

[SSMAN]

[QUOTE=TexasDevilDog]By the way, how much free space do you have left on your hard drive?[/QUOTE]



11.2gb used
20.4gb free

[SSMAN]

If I deleted most of the pics I have, would it help any?

[dmh165638]

Deleting the pics is not really going to help. Looks like you have several items listed there that aren't necessary. MSMSGS is Windows Messenger Service and is really not needed and is a major security liability that can be disabled in Services. PCHBUTTON is an HP related utility but I am not sure what it does. RECGUARD is another HP utility that protects a recovery partition. PS2 is related to additional buttons on an HP keyboard, KBD is also related to multimedia kybd keys but is from logitech. SGTRAY is related to a Backup utillity. HKCMD is a hotkey app for Intel Products. NVCPL is related to Nvidia drivers and should be left alone. APVXDWIN is related to Panda antivirus and should be left alone. IGFXTRAY is related to Intel Graphics accelerator, you shouldn't have the IGFXTRAY and NVCPL both running because it is for two different video cards. ALCXMNTR is related to your Realtek soundcard. REALSCHED is a Realplayer updater and should be removed.

You have several items there that are not necessary and can definately increase the startup timeas well as use up some valuable RAM. You will have to decide what is necessary and what is not. You shouldn't have both Nvidia and Intel Graphics software running, only one for whatever you video card is. If you don't use keyboard quicklaunch keys or hotkeys then remove those items.

[SSMAN]

[QUOTE=dmh165638]Deleting the pics is not really going to help. Looks like you have several items listed there that aren't necessary. MSMSGS is Windows Messenger Service and is really not needed and is a major security liability that can be disabled in Services. PCHBUTTON is an HP related utility but I am not sure what it does. RECGUARD is another HP utility that protects a recovery partition. PS2 is related to additional buttons on an HP keyboard, KBD is also related to multimedia kybd keys but is from logitech. SGTRAY is related to a Backup utillity. HKCMD is a hotkey app for Intel Products. NVCPL is related to Nvidia drivers and should be left alone. APVXDWIN is related to Panda antivirus and should be left alone. IGFXTRAY is related to Intel Graphics accelerator, you shouldn't have the IGFXTRAY and NVCPL both running because it is for two different video cards. ALCXMNTR is related to your Realtek soundcard. REALSCHED is a Realplayer updater and should be removed.

You have several items there that are not necessary and can definately increase the startup timeas well as use up some valuable RAM. You will have to decide what is necessary and what is not. You shouldn't have both Nvidia and Intel Graphics software running, only one for whatever you video card is. If you don't use keyboard quicklaunch keys or hotkeys then remove those items.[/QUOTE]


Ok, I am removing realsched and msgsgs, any thing else? BTW thanks very much for your help. I had no clue what any of these did. :o

[dmh165638]

I would get rid of NVCPL and IGFXTRAY, you can still access the features through the desktop properties or control panel. If you don't have a multimedia kybd or use hotkeys I would get rid of the keyboard programs also. You also need to check out your Services and disable the unused ones. There are several that really aren't needed (Wireless Zero Configuration(if not using wireless), Error Reporting(sends errors to Microsoft), Help and Support(if you don't click on the Help button in Windows), Messenger, Themes(if you don't run a desktop theme), Remote Registry Service, Server, Computet Browser, Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extension, Application Layer Gateway Service, and a few others. Here is a link to help you out Elder Geek XP Services Guide. (http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm) . There is another site www.blackviper.com that is excellent but it is under construction right now.