Slow Startup

[kestrel]

this happened about a week after i got my laptop. Its a Sony FS920.
It used to startup file. Nice and fast. Then, about a week later, before i was even able to go on the internet. the startup started taking forever. So i just put it in hibernate every time i want to turn it off. I tried everything i could find to speed it up. I removed a bunch of startup programs and switched the theme to windows clasic.
I took out all the effects and stuff (which i dont think affects startup, but anyways)

I have nothing left to do.
Can Anyone Help Me Out?

thanks

[sicarie]

this happened about a week after i got my laptop. Its a Sony FS920.
It used to startup file. Nice and fast. Then, about a week later, before i was even able to go on the internet. the startup started taking forever. So i just put it in hibernate every time i want to turn it off. I tried everything i could find to speed it up. I removed a bunch of startup programs and switched the theme to windows clasic.
I took out all the effects and stuff (which i dont think affects startup, but anyways)

I have nothing left to do.
Can Anyone Help Me Out?

thanks

Another thing that affects it is items directly on the Desktop (ie - do you need stuff to sit on your desktop, or can you move them into 'my documents' and create a shortcut to them?), as well as your Quicklaunch. Check to see if those are visible, and remove as many as you can.

Was any software installed or uninstalled about the time it started to do this?

[sicarie]

Just thought of another idea - how old is your hard drive? You should check the disk - my laptop started doing that right before my HD died...

[kestrel]

i cant remember if any software was
but i remember one more thing
before my dad gave me teh computer, he did go on the internet with it, but when i got it, it was still fine. I might have installed firefox, but i cant remember, it was a while ago.

I have 16 items on my quicklaunch bar...too much?
I have 14 items on my desktop.

[sicarie]

i cant remember if any software was
but i remember one more thing
before my dad gave me teh computer, he did go on the internet with it, but when i got it, it was still fine. I might have installed firefox, but i cant remember, it was a while ago.

I have 16 items on my quicklaunch bar...too much?
I have 14 items on my desktop.

On the quicklaunch - are those items on the left of the taskbar (near the 'start' button) or on the right (near the time)?

[kestrel]

Those are on the left

I stopped nearly all startup programs such as iTuneshelper.exe - dont need that

i alse modified the boot.ini file using msconfig to not show the Windows XP logo on startup, ill just get a blank screen until its completely loaded

any other options?

[sicarie]

Those are on the left

I stopped nearly all startup programs such as iTuneshelper.exe - dont need that

i alse modified the boot.ini file using msconfig to not show the Windows XP logo on startup, ill just get a blank screen until its completely loaded

any other options?

16 is a lot - I would delete the ones you don't use.

Where does it hang, on what screen?

[kestrel]

where does what hang?

i deleted 8 quick launch icons

[latitude]

Did you try to run scandisk, defragmenting and / or a spywarekiller?

[sicarie]

where does what hang?

i deleted 8 quick launch icons

Where does it seem to slow down - is it at the Windows splash screen (or where that is supposed to be), when you login, etc...?

[Chrisjc]

Quick lunch Icons and other Icons on the desktop shouldn’t be an issue. I would do what "latitude" suggested and check for spy ware, virus and or defrag it.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

Give that a try also Id suggest a virus scan.. If you don’t have one you can download AVG here http://www.grisoft.com/doc/31/us/crp/0?prd=isw

It is a rather good scanner for not spending $$$ on others.

if neither of those things help I couldn’t think of much more considering you said you went in "MSCONFIG and took startups off" there for maybe consider your HD going bad?

[Cyberdyne]

You may also uncheck any unnecessary services also by using MSCONFIG and leaving the microsoft services on. Also allocate more memory to your PC from hard Drive virtual memory under system properties > performance settings.

Last but not least if none of the solutions worked for you, I would suggest a full backup and format of the drive. If after format all is great and startup is fast you had a software issue, on the other hand if after format its still slow I would start looking for a new hard drive. I recommend Hitachi/IBM

Best Luck, Cyber.

Guys thank you all for great responses!

-=Windows=- MOD