Startup on my computer took about 45 seconds to start up when I first got it, but I installed SP3 on the computer yesterday, and the start up time is horrendous. It takes like two minutes to start up. It goes to a blank screen for a bit, then goes to a black screen with just the mouse arrow showing, and a couple seconds later the welcome screen comes up and it took like 3 minutes to load the taskbar. The only things I have downloaded the toolbar would need to bring up is my internet, AVG, and my external hard drive. Any help?

Screenshot of task managaer services and startup items please.
Right click taskbar>task manager> processes tab> arrange from lowest to highest stretch the window tall and scroll to the bottom if you will.

Some computers dont act well to avg. I had a computer that, when avg was installed it made the system process shoot up to 70k so I switched to avira and it went down.

Alright, do you want me to restart the computer and have it start up again then do it so you know what processes are starting up first or anything?

No, not necessary. but if you do it may be faster this time. It could just be cause it was arranging stuff in the background after the update.

I'll get a screenshot for you. Actually, this was the fourth time I started it up after that update. I knew what was going on the first time since it just installed, but I don't know why it's continually doing that.

Now click mem usage and scroll to the bottom. I need to see the biggest ones. Also, make the windows longer. I need to see all of them. And press windows key+R and type msconfig and go to the startup tab. You might want to look through that, and untag anything that you dont want to start at startup, and take a screenshot for anything you dont know what to do with.

Or it might just be a problem with sp3 and your machine.

(this is why i prefer macs, since there is only one company making the hardware and the software, you know that the software and hardware are always compatible.)

haha, sorry. Just wanted tot throw that in there...

Anyway,

There are a number of factors that can cause your computer to take some time to boot up. I few of the larger more prominent factors are the speed of your HDD, malfunctioning drives connected to your computer, and the number of applications you have launching on start-up.

A few things you can try:

You just recently installed a fairly large service pack. I would recommend defragmenting your HDD. ALthough this probably isn't the solution to your issues.

You could have DNS issues. Are you running off a wireless card with a shotty connection? Try disabling your network adapters and rebooting your computer.

Many users of AVG report slow boot times. Try uninstalling AVG and rebooting your machine.

Unplug your external HDD, and then boot your PC. Does it make a difference? It's possible your computer is having trouble connecting to your external HDD.




Douche-Bag (Just wanted tot throw that in there).

I loled.

I figured. xD

Metakey+R, type defrag, use defrag

Base,

Did you ever try any of the suggestions mentioned in the thread?

thanks,

Nah, I haven't tried anything yet. I'm waiting for this thing to do the stupid updates again before I try again. Every time I start my computer, it says installing updates and I sit there waiting for it and it says the same thing again basically when I restart.

Sometimes XP will have problems installing updates after you install SP3. You just need to re-register the DLL's used to run windows updates. Try the following fix:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144

Then start>all programs>windows update and follow the prompts to see if windows updates works properly.

easier way to go to task manager..

CTRL + ALT + DELETE
(at the same time)

there may be some unnecessary files or programs that are taking over your virtual memory, go into the "Set Program Access and Defaults" on the start menu and unninstall some programs that you dont use, and restart your Computer.

^wrong. That doesnt help. An he already knows that.

it really does,

and its only a Short-Cut.

I wasnt talking about the shorcut being wrong. Who on earth doesnt know that shortcut?

umm kindergardners?! duh!

paris hilton?

----

well the shortcut should work,

Why would gardeners not know that shortcut?

When I was a kindergartner however, I did know that shortcuts because I wasnt a geek then and I didnt know how to my our pc so it was slow as crap. The computer was even slower then our dial up internet.

And paris hilton doesnt know it because she can afford a mac.

A computer cannot be slower than internet. The speeds are measured on two completely different scales.

You know what I mean though. It took 5 minutes to load yahoo, and 6 minutes to open the start menu.

Your computer was ghetto as hell then. When you were a kindergartner (what, seven, eight years ago?) my computer took half a second to open the start menu and no more than ten seconds to load most web pages.

Our computer had 128 or 256mb of ram and windows xp. That was average. And of course we TONS of startup items. And we never ran disk cleanup or defragmented it once. Cause none of us were geeks.

Windows XP was out when you were in kindergarten? When I was in kindergarten, we were still using Windows 95.

^haha same here!

I never used a computer till I was like 8.

Okay, back on topic you guys.

Apparently, my updates weren't fully installing for some reason. It finally updated fully today, and my startup is a tiny bit faster. I'll tell you what happens when I try out everything else you guys told me to try. Thanks.

alright! we will be waiting!