[liquidborn]

Signed up to the forum especially for this, as it's doing my brain in...

My system takes around 7 to 8 minutes for everything to finish loading. I've been through numerous online guides about disabling Services, cleaning files, defragmenting, Registry hacks, etc etc - but nothing seems to shave any noticable time off whatsoever.

I'm running Vista Home Premium (x64) on a AMD Phenon X4 9550 (2.2ghz), with 2x2GB DDR2 sticks (afaik, it's at 333mhz).

I'm not sure which logs in particular to provide - but i'm more than happy to co-operate if it means I can improve things!

I'd like to avoid scenarios such as purchasing faster RAM etc - I know these things can improve performance greatly - but unfortunatly it's not a luxury I can afford at the moment - so cost-free tweaks, etc are very welcome

Hope someone can help out...
Thanks in advance!

[oksteve]

wow that is a long time,make tea and eat a biscuit while your waiting, heck even time for the ironing.

Obviously something is slowing it down. Is this something new, or has it always done this from day one?

When my system was slow to boot it was because the operating software was trying to read the installation from the CD rom not the hard drive. Once I changed this in the bios I was up and surfing in about three mins.

If this problem has only just started then I would think that you have installed something by accident or design that wants to organise itself before anyone else.
If you can after you have done the ironing and its booted, click Start button then 'Run' type in the Popup msconfig . Then click the startup tab and you'll see what programs start when you turn on your machine. If you see anything that should not be there uncheck the box next to it. Don't worry about Microsoft stuff so much as programs that you thought you got rid of or forgot about.
Click apply or OK and you may have to reset machine (sorry) but as with everything, its trial and error until we get it right.

[liquidborn]

It was fine to begin with, I can't pinpoint a time when it suddenly started :/
I'm really careful with installing things, i'm always keeping an eye on Programs and Feature in the Control Panel to see if there's either any rogue entries, or if there's something I can uninstall.

Yeah i've trimmed my Startup entries right down - I use CCleaner to clean my drives, scan my Registry, and manage what starts up etc.

It's at 11 entries at the moment - AV/Firewall (Comodo and Avast), 2 gaming-related programs (Steam and XFire), 3 small customisation apps (Rainmeter, RocketDock, and CD Art Display), and a few others.

I've even been through my Services - disabling non-essential ones, or setting less-important ones to 'Automatic (Delayed)'.

It confuses me, because a quad-core with 4GB RAM shouldn't take this long - unless i'm missing something... :/

[oksteve]

what about starting up in Safe Mode ?
As soon as you start your machine hit the F8 key .You will then get a screen showing lots of crap but scroll down to "start in safe mode"...NOT the repair one.
Hit enter and see how long its takes to boot.

[Goldcoin]

I think Vista is just slow by nature lol. Mine is the same way. Maybe not 8 mins., but like 5 for sure before I can even start using Firefox.

I use CCleaner and have Anti-Virus as well.

[oksteve]

I have Vista .under 3 mins to FF 2.30 in Chrome But I guess even if you have nothing running its all down to hardware.
I have a three year old Toshiba Satellite lappy , newer machines get online even before you hit the switch damn it !!!! Soooo jealous

[liquidborn]

Safe Mode's fine, no problems.

[oksteve]

I wonder if your antivirus software is set up to scan for viruses at startup?
Try removing it from startup.
If not that try something else.

[Phantom010]

Have you tried a Clean Boot?

[oksteve]

That is a great link Phantom, thanks

[liquidborn]

I just checked Avast's settings, and it's Boot-time scan feature is only available on 32bit OS's...:/

I'll try that link too, thanks.