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Windows XP: 10-20 Minute Startup?? Please help

by schludini - 5/4/05 7:16 AM

Total posts: 6

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Post 1 of 6

10-20 Minute Startup?? Please help

by schludini - 5/4/05 7:16 AM

When i start my computer I get stuck at the Windows XP screen for about 20 minutes, i figure its some type of hardware problem but im not sure, i disabled one of my harddrives that i wasnt using and it loaded up in about 10 minutes but it used to load in about 2, im not sure what to do.

thanks!

im running a dell dimension 8200 series running xp pro sp2, p4 2.4ghz, 256mb ram

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Post 2 of 6

Sounds like software to me, not hardware. . .

by Coryphaeus - 5/4/05 7:29 AM In reply to: 10-20 Minute Startup?? Please help by schludini

What do you have running at startup? Too many programs, and more especially spyware will do as you describe.

After it is booted, do the three finger click (ctrl/alt/del) and take a look at what is running. The list should be short for most PCs, no more than a half dozen programs. See anything you don't recognize?

Have you investigated spyware/malware etc.? Junk from the Internet can hose up a PC. Visit my site below and scroll down to the Anti-Spyware Suite. Download and run AdAware, Spyware Blaster, Spybot, and CWShredder. Run them and see what you find.

Good luck,

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Post 3 of 6

10-20 Min.......

by Earthquake McGoon - 5/4/05 8:35 AM In reply to: 10-20 Minute Startup?? Please help by schludini

I'm sure this is not the promary cause, but 256M RAM certainly doesn't help! Many times in these pages, I've seen messages from Moderators which point out that 512M is just about the minimum. I agree. After taking care of start-up, AV, Firewall, all the un-necessary programs that XP runs in the background, etc., there is not much left of 256M to run what you want. Do yourself a favor and go to at least 512M RAM.

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Post 4 of 6

Add More Ram

by Richard64 - 5/4/05 3:36 PM In reply to: 10-20 Min....... by Earthquake McGoon

I am running 1024 MB and thinking of adding at least another 512MB. I just don't know how I got along without it.

Richard64

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Post 5 of 6

Start up

by RockMTL - 5/4/05 9:02 AM In reply to: 10-20 Minute Startup?? Please help by schludini

In an effort to make things easier for us we download and use all kinds of programs. The more we use and want available for us on startup, the more time it takes to load all the programs. Although 20 minutes is a long time, as the fellow posters say, check to make sure you don't have any Ghoolies(viruses/adware) in your system, check to see all your programs that Start Up are really neccessary to do so at that time and yes, 256mb is not much especially for todays systems. 512 or 1G would definately not hurt, in general.
Good Luck

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