Computer Geniuses: I have a question...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

My computer DRAGS at start up...How do I fix that?
Duckie

[Syncronaut Seven]

1. What OS are you running?

Is your hard drive nearly full?
Whan was the last time you defragmented your drive?
Check your system tray at the bottom of your screen, is your computer loading lots of programs on startup?

[LTR]

3. Very good point!

GO to this site:

http://www.pcpitstop.com

Very good at system diagnostics. They will tell you what, if anything, is wrong with your system.

Also be sure to clear out temp files often.

[Champion Jack]

8. Just went there and got the dreaded

Blue screen 'O' Death

[LTR]

10. What kind of system are you running?

OS?

How much RAM?

Try closing out of unnecessary programs (ALT CTRL DEL at the same time, click to end a program). You can also do this on the lower left of taskbar (right click, then option to exit).

Or try restarting it, and freshen the system up. I have gone through PcPitstop on both my XP and 98 systems, with no problems.

[Champion Jack]

15. win2k, 1.5 gig ddr ram

[LTR]

2. XP?

If so, go to START, select RUN, then type in "msconfig".

Go to the last tab, 'startup'. Click which programs you want to run on startup and which ones you don't. Anything related to the system itself, any antivirus software, and Roxio or other CD software should start up with the system. Anything related to add-on programs (Real, QuickTime, Media Player, or anything else you've added) can be unchecked on the boxes.

Chances are, you have too many programs loading on startup, and more than you really need.

[Nlighten1]

4. Type MSCONFIG in the run dialog box

Look for the startup tab.

[rock]

5. The dragging function is not an option with Windows

It's required.

[DBoon]

6. It's a feature

Windows is designed to teach its users patience. It's the virtuous operating system.

[DBoon]

7. Other ideas

Defrag the disk? (I'm not sure that this would affect bootup performance)

Maybe your computer is looking for some network service it can't find?

[Papa]

9. Defragging the disk most definately helps with boot times

Defrag is the 1st thing i would do.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

14. I just defragged like last week?

And my computer is possessed too...It starts scan disk during times when it's idle, and defragg sometimes too.
Duckie

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

11. Here you go:

The two sites you need for this ritual are

http://www.webattack.com

http://www.majorgeeks.com

Get these programs and install them:

jv16 Power Tools 1.3(!)(majorgeeks)

KMCS System Suite(majorgeeks)

Diskeeper Lite(free, webattack)

Spybot Search&Destroy(webattack)

Startup Manager(webattack)

Run Spybot.

Run KMCS. Goto "System Cleanup". Generate cleanup scripts. Run cleanup. Do this part regularly, even though cleanup runs automatically on startup. Things change in there.

Leave KMCS open. Run jv16. Goto the registry section. From the Tools pulldown menu, selcet the registry cleaner. Run it. From the pulldown menu selection "Special Select", choose "All entries that are safe to remove". Remove them. Select all. Hit "Try to repair". Quit.

Goto KMCS Registry Compressor. Compress registry. Reboot.

Run Diskeeper Lite(A much betterdefrag program and does NTFS systems as well...). Wait.

That's it. You WILL be a lot faster.

Rinse and repeat regularly.

On edit: Use Startup Manager to turn off MSMSGS(or whatever the hell it is called) and turn off the things that load, on startup, that you just don't need to load on startup.

[TrogL]

12. Buy more RAM

You're likely buried in swap. At startup your operating system is getting loaded in to RAM, then immediately offloaded into swap (on disk) as soon as any applications start. The computer spends the next few minutes trying to establish a "healthy" [sarcasm] relationship between RAM and swap for each app.

Just keep buying RAM until it stops swapping. 4Gb oughta do it. (just kidding)

[YellowRubberDuckie]

13. Win 98