Slow PC startup

admirable

admirable

Suspended / Banned
Messages
11,612
Name
Jim
Edit My Images
Yes
I've noticed my main pc is getting slow to startup in the mornings.

I'm guilty of having a pile of stuff on my desktop (currently 428GB), would this slow the startup? It's the biggest folder on my main drive.
 
Wouldn't think so but I don't keep much on desktop.

What about using cCleaner to give it a wee cleanout?
 
Last edited:
428GB on the desktop - nice!

Slow startup is normally due to installs dropping stuff into your startup.

Start->Run->msconfig.exe

Look at the startup tab. Do you want all of those things starting?
 
arad85 said:
Slow startup is normally due to installs dropping stuff into your startup.

Start->Run->msconfig.exe

Look at the startup tab. Do you want all of those things starting?
Click to expand...

I did all that last week, only seven boxes ticked.

I have 4 drives installed, my windows experiance is 5.9


84031373.jpg
 
floppy drive, dvd drive and the standard built in multi card reader
 
I ran the Windows Performance Toolkit earlier and it says it's Avast causing the slow startup
 
admirable said:
I ran the Windows Performance Toolkit earlier and it says it's Avast causing the slow startup
Click to expand...

Odd.. Never seen avast cause a slow load up.

What spec is the machine? Also maybe turn off the always connected to the Internet option in avast update settings, it may turn off it trying to update as soon as windows loads?
 
Dell Precision T7500
Intel Xeon E5520 @ 2.27GHz
12GB ram
W7

just coming up for 3 years old
 
I'm going to clear my desktop, I'm sure it's that.
 
How often have you removed dust from inside the computer? If the vent get clogged up with dust (including one on processor) the computer can build up too much heat and that would also cause a slowdown. With all those hard drives in it maybe the power unit isn't big enough to cope. 6TB on four disks is asking a lot try only 2 hard drive disks with greater capacity. How much RAM do you have? just Adding Disks may need more RAM to help

Realspeed
 
Last edited:
Nope it's not dust
 
I suspect it is the number of hard drives you have.and RAM. I upgraded my computer to 16gig RAM from 8gig and from 1 TB hard drive added a second 2tb hard drive and that slowed down my startup noticably.

Quick check is to disconnect the extra hard drives and see how the computer starts up. If it is much shorter time then therein lies the problem. Quick note I have a 750w power unit in mine to be able to handle any extra loads. Also have an intel i7 processor installed, a lower spec one will take a bit of time to read discs. I read in a previous post above you have 12 gig RAM which is a strange number as Ram should really be added in pairs ie 2x4 gig =8 gig or 4x4gig=16 gig etc . Each pair should be exactly the same in all respects anything different can upset how a computer reads data.

I used 4x4 GIG RAM Corsair DDR3 Vengeance LP CeruleanBlue PC3-12800(1600)CAS9-9-9-9-24XMP.1.5v if thats any help
Realspeed
 
Last edited:
realspeed said:
How often have you removed dust from inside the computer? If the vent get clogged up with dust (including one on processor) the computer can build up too much heat and that would also cause a slowdown. With all those hard drives in it maybe the power unit isn't big enough to cope. 6TB on four disks is asking a lot try only 2 hard drive disks with greater capacity. How much RAM do you have? just Adding Disks may need more RAM to help

Realspeed
Click to expand...

Heat won't slow a pic down neither will a lower rated power supply. Having more disks will not require more memory.
 
12gb is normal in a triple channel setup. 3x 4gb for example.

Speed of processor wouldn't be effected by more drives either. A Xeon should be more than capable anyway.
 
Last edited:
Neil
I don't know his computer. All I am doing trying to think of what may be the problem. Maybe you can come up with a better solution as it appears you have more computer knowledge than me.

Realspeed
 
I've just timed it from a cold boot - 8 mins

I have 6 x 2GB SAMSUNG DDR3 PC3 10600R ECC REG DRAM
 
neil_g said:
Heat won't slow a pic down neither will a lower rated power supply. Having more disks will not require more memory.
Click to expand...

Maybe not but will slow down his startup time with the number of disks which is the OP's problem.
 
admirable said:
I've just timed it from a cold boot - 8 mins

I have 6 x 2GB SAMSUNG DDR3 PC3 10600R ECC REG DRAM
Click to expand...

That's rediculous. How long does it take if you start it in safe mode? It won't load program's or drivers so will give you an idea if you've a service hanging.
What's it say in the event log?
 
admirable said:
I've just timed it from a cold boot - 8 mins

I have 6 x 2GB SAMSUNG DDR3 PC3 10600R ECC REG DRAM
Click to expand...

8 mins, something very odd is afoot..

I'd be running full chkdsk on all drives but especially the boot drive as a starter for 10. Once booted is performance okay or slow?
 
Time to use your own memory as to when this slowdown started and if you can relate it to some software change.

No way can I see it being about the number of drives or your RAM.
 
neil_g said:
Odd.. Never seen avast cause a slow load up.
Click to expand...

Avast slowed down the startup on my last computer considerably, it seemed to be the automatic update that was causing it because nothing would work until the popup saying it's been updated showed - then the computer would burst into life!

Been fine with the SSD setup though.


EDIT: Just spotted 8 minutes! That's a long time. What about malware?
 
Disabled auto updates on avast - startup 4 mins

Uninstalled avast - startup 3 mins
 
I also have Win Server 2011 login to my server which I rekon slows the PC by about 1 min, but I can live wuth that
 
How fast is it if you disable Avast?
 
admirable said:
I ran the Windows Performance Toolkit earlier and it says it's Avast causing the slow startup
Click to expand...

That's what I found too! Was giving me a startup time of about 5 minutes. Do a search and you will find others complaining about slow startups after one of the Avast updates. I'm now using Avira.
 
Last edited:
Beaten to it.
What does the performance analyser say is taking time now?
 
No alerts on the analyser now
 
And it's still 3 minutes? I'm assuming the analyser will show you where the time is going....
 
3 minutes still seems like a long time considering you have so few startup items, but have you thought about an SSD? I've got Avast and an array of startup items and I think my startup time is about 20 seconds, I should really time this.

EDIT: Ok, it feels like 20 seconds lol. I've just timed it and from cold boot until all startup items are loaded (including internet connection) is 36.82 seconds.
 
Last edited:
Hi

Avast should not slow you machine down. I moved to Avast as it is much better than AVG which killed my machine.

Run some scans to clear up temp dirs and old cached data using CCCleaner, also run a reg fix from within the same program.

Then I would suggest running a virus scan using either Kaspersky Virus removal tool or the Sophos virus removal tool.

Also make sure your not running out of disk space on your c: drive

Did you notice the slow down after you installed anything ?

REgards
Chris
 
I have windows home server login that pops up at boot time but it causes no slowdown at all so I wouldn't blame that.

Are we talking how long it takes for the desktop to appear or how long until the computer finishes loading stuff and becomes responsive?

If you can get the contents of C: down to a size that would fit on a SSD you could image the drive and restore to a new SSD if you can't face a fresh install.
 
It's the time taken until the computer finishes loading stuff and becomes responsive
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top