Why is your computer slow to start up?

Answer 1

Do a Defrag. Go to START, PROGRAMS, ASSESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, then do a system cleanup, then defrag.

Clean up any unused programs on your PC. Go to Control Panel, ADD/Remove Programs and remove anything (kid games, etc) you know you don't use for sure. If you're not sure, don't do it.

Kim Komando has some good info at her site www.komando.com and there is a good software package (not expensive) that I bought at Costco called SYSTEM MECHANIC that will do system diagnostics. They probably even have a download for sale on the net. Or at Amazon.

Another thought is just to go to Google and type in your laptop brand and "slow boot up" or "slow start up". I have found lots of nerd discussion boards with useful info this way. Good ideas from others who have had similar challenges on a multitude of problems. MSN has discussion boards on computer problems, for example. As does Microsoft. Click on Tools, Windows Update, and do your updates, then surf around the site for troubleshooting info. If all else fails, go to Data Doctors or another Computer Geek fix it shop and they will usually take care of it.

Answer

1. Run a security scan for your laptop. Don't be lazy and think you can deal with the infection files later. If you frequently visit various website and download files often, your laptop will have high risk to be infected. It is really necessary for you to have an anti-virus software to protect the laptop computer. This is the most important step to speed up laptop.

2. Remove hidden junk files on your laptop to speed up your laptop. How long haven't you clean up the junk files? Too many junk files on the system will slow down the laptop speed by occupying the system resource. To delete those hidden junk files, please: Open "My Computer"--"Program files" and then choose the programs you never use or want deleted then just delete the folder.

3. To speed up your laptop computer, you also can disable some unneeded services and programs on the laptop startup. To do this please: Click Start--Run--type in msconfig--under the services tab you can disable the unwanted services. In addition, under the "Startup" tab, you can choose and disable some of them in order to speed up laptop boost speed.

4. Scan and fix Windows registry on your slow speed laptop. Perhaps you will ask that why you can speed up your laptop by cleaning registry errors. Registry stores all of the configuration settings in the system like a brain to human. Any incorrect registry settings, corrupted registry will make your laptop run unstable. If you leave the corrupted or malicious registry entries there and continue to run the damaged system, this potential risk will not only slow your computer down but also crash your system. If you never repair registry errors on your laptop, you can try this method to speed up your laptop.

Answer 2

There are two major reasons for slow computer start up:
1. There are too many programs running on the startup list. That means: too many programs automatically start when you start up your computer, so it takes long to start your computer.
2. Slowdown of the overall system performance. This can be due to more reasons like registry is full of errors and fragmentations, junks files take up too much space on hard disk, etc.

For manual speed up PC boot, open Run, input Msconfig, then you can diable or delete programs that are unnecessary to start when you boot your computer.
For overall speedup of computer, you'd better download a system optimizer. Select the one works best for you!

Answer 3

There are many reasons why a computer might be slow. The most common ones are malicious software or viruses which are installed on the machine. The second most common would be insufficient RAM. This is often caused by buying cheap computers or if your computer is very old. There are lots of other possible causes as well.

Malware/Viruses

Malware (malicious software) is the most common reason computers run slow, and they can slow a computer down by a lot.

Malware is often obtained by clicking on bad ads which trick or scare you into downloading and installing software onto your computer, as well as some software that comes bundled with other software you are trying to install. The best defense against malware is simply caution. If something triggers a UAC/Admin privileges prompt then decide whether you want to give that thing power to change important settings on your computer (if you are installing something, you will need to give it this power)

Then of course you should make sure to have both Antivirus and AntiMalware softwares installed on your computer. For Antivirus I recommend Avast Antivirus (see avast link) as it has a free version, though you can use the paid version for superior protection. And for anti-malware, I would recommend installing MalwareBytes Antimalware (see malware link). These two programs should be capable of catching most of the bad software that the other one misses.

You should run a virus or malware scan after installing these programs.

Insufficient RAM

This is also common, especially on cheap computers, or a computer which is old and has been upgraded to use a more modern operating system than the one it came with.

For different computer operating systems, I recommend you have at least this amount of RAM.

Windows XP: 2GB of RAM or more

Windows Vista/7: 4GB of RAM or more (though performance at 2GB of RAM is not 'bad', its also not great).

You can see how much RAM is installed in your machine by holding the [Windows Key] down and pressing [R]. You will then get a popup screen that tells you how much memory is installed in your system.

If your memory doesn't meet the requirements I listed then you'll want to upgrade it. To do that, follow these instructions to take the RAM modules out of your computer...

If you have a desktop computer: ( see desktop link )

If you have a laptop computer: (see laptop link)

Take them to a computer store (a store that sells computer parts) and ask the sales person there to give you 'better RAM'. If they are computer knowledgable they should be able to sell you RAM sticks which have a higher capacity and are compatible with your computer.

You can then take these RAM sticks home and install them using the instructions I listed above.

Registry Fragmentation

Registry is accessed by almost all the installed programs and your operating system itself. Why is computer slow and freezing has to do with the fragmented registry data. You have to download a PC Optimizer software that includes Registry Defragmenter tool such as Reginout to perform system maintenance tasks.

Too Many Programs are Installed

Installing too many programs make your computer slow and freezing. You have to uninstall the unwanted programs.

1. Click Start | Control Panel.

2. Click Programs | Uninstall a Program.

3. Select a program to remove.

4. Click Uninstall button.

5. Follow the wizard.

6. Reboot the computer after completion.

Lack of Proper Configurations

You will feel that your computer is slow and freezing if you haven't set Windows for best performance.

1. Right click My Computer.

2. Select Properties.

3. Click Advanced System Settings.

4. Click Advanced tab.

5. Click Settings button under Performance frame.

6. Select the option Adjust for best performance.

7. Click Apply | OK | OK.

Junk Registry Keys

Storing junk entries in the registry makes your computer slow and freezing. You have to delete such junk entries using a Registry Cleaner and PC Optimizer software.

Answer 4

There are many reasons that a computer may be slow starting up. Some popular reasons include malfunctioning hardware, BIOS settings, spyware or virus infections, too many startup items, and a fragmented registry.

Answer 5

Normally a computer starts slower due to number of start-up programs, background services, virus infection and junk data stored in registry database.

You can speed up your computer on start-up by

> Disabling unwanted start-up programs

> Cleaning Windows registry and system junk using some reliable cleaner such as Reginout Cleaner.

> Running an antivirus scan.

> Running Windows updates.

> Optimizing background running services.

Thanks

Answer 6

If you're computer was fast at first and now it is slowing down the main reason it too many files on the hard drive. These can be junk files that built up over time, such as tmp files. Run Disk Cleanup then Defragment your hard drive and that will get rid of those junk files and should make your computer run faster. Another thing you can do is add more memory. That will also make it go faster if you have loaded more programs since you have bought it.

Answer 7

Corrupted System Files

Your computer slows due to corrupted system files. System files corruption is one of the most responsible causes for crashing the entire computer. Deleting or moving the system files may crash your computer.

1. Insert the Microsoft Windows Installation CD ROM.

2. Click Start | Run.

3. Type SFC/ ScanNow and press ENTER.

4. Follow the instructions on your screen.

Corrupted Registry

System registry corruption leads to runtime errors and your computer slows. Windows Registry is very complex and not easy to repair manually. Hence, a third-party Registry Cleaner and PC Optimizer software is recommended.

1. Download a Registry Cleaner and PC Optimizer software such as Reginout.

2. Click Registry Cleaner tab.

3. Click Start Scan.

4. The registry scan will start. Wait till it is finished.

5. As per the results, click Fix Now button to start repairing you registry.

Often good registry cleaners include built-in Backup & Restore centre that lets you recover from an unforeseen situation by simply restoring the state of your registry.

Faulty RAM

Your computer crashes due to problems with the computer memory. A faulty RAM may result in Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

In such a case, remove the existing RAM and clean it using a soft cloth. Then, connect it again. The problem may not persist..

Incomplete Installations

Your computer slows because of a previously failed or incomplete installation. An incomplete or failed installation creates junk registry entries and thereby system crashing problem.

Repair the registry entries created by a failed setup and delete the files that still remain on your hard disk. Delete the contents of C:\Windows\Temp folder.

Disk Space Allocated by Unnecessary Files

Your computer slows if the operating system has no adequate free disk space to perform its operations. Temporary files, temporary internet files, log files, browser cache and other files may occupy a large amount of your disk space and thus generating runtime errors that crashes your system.

Using Disk Cleaner, delete the junk files from your hard disk. The steps are as below:

1. Click Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk CleanUp.

2. Follow the instructions on your screen.

Answer 8

Because there will be so many start up programs & services will be running in back ground...so it will take so much time for startup....These start up programs & services can be viewed using msconfig.msc command in run prompt.to increase the speed of start up reduce the list of startup programs.

Answer 9

My computer works fast enough. lol But general few reasons why a computer get slow,

• Virus or malware (Do a Virus Scan)
• Too many Temp files. (download and run Ccleaner)
• C driver running out of free space (you should keep at least 2GB)
• Software which not compatible with your PC (ex might need more RAM)
• Too many processes might be running
• An virus guard which might be too heavy for your PC
• Have several Virus Guards ?

Answer 10

David points out many things that could be the cause of the slow operation of your computer but in my professional experience, I have found the most common problems are related to hard drive fragmentation, excessively large Internet cache settings, and too much junk stored on the computer. Yes, infections of various types can slow down the computer but that is less common than many people realize. The same can be said about the registry. Yes, some unneeded entries can be in the registry but it would take thousands of those to impact the computer even in the slightest.

To explain, let me dig into each one. First, let's talk about file fragmentation. The way that the hard drive stores data under the various versions of Windows is by allocating a certain amount of space at the first available point on the hard drive and writing the data down. So, let's say that Sally writes a school paper and it takes up, say, two clusters of hard drive space as she is working on it. She saves the file and the computer writes it down in those two clusters. After this, she works on something else, say a different paper for another class. After working on it for awhile, she saves it on the drive and it takes up, say, three clusters. Let's say that in this theoretical situation, it gets stored just behind the first paper's two clusters. Now, the next day, she comes home and, being a good student, she gets right to work on her papers. She works on the second paper first today, so when she saves it, rather than taking only three clusters, it takes five. Since there is nothing more stored on the machine yet, it takes all five clusters in a row. However, when she works on what was the first paper yesterday and saves it, it is now larger than the two clusters can store, so it uses the original two clusters for as much as they can hold and then takes the rest of it and places it after the five clusters of the other paper. So now this paper has two file fragments. If another file gets stored behind this second fragment of the paper and she adds to it again to make the file larger, the computer will create a third fragment after the latest file. This happens constantly on a computer with the creation, editing, and deletion of data in logs, scan histories, spreadsheets, edited pictures, and much more. Over time, the amount of fragmentation can definitely slow down a computer. As such, if you tend to do a lot of downloading or gaming on the computer (and I mean games such as World of Warcraft or Assassin's Creed, not small online games such as Candy Crush or Yahoo Bingo), then I suggest getting a decent defragmentation program (such as Auslogics Disk Defrag) and defragmenting the hard drive about once a month. The one built into Windows is better than nothing but if you can get something better (and you can look at http://www.majorgeeks.com for suggestions), then do so.

The Internet cache can also be a big problem. For some silly reason, Microsoft likes to set this to an obscenely huge size. (I have seen Internet caches as big as a few gigabytes.) There is no reason for this. In fact, the best recommendation is a scant 20 megabytes since what you are downloading and storing are a few text files that are the HTML or PHP files and the web graphics to make up the background of the page or other such items. The way to change this is to go to the Control Panel, double-click on Internet Options, and then about three-quarters down the page, under "Browsing History" click on the button labelled Settings. In there, you will see a setting labelled "Disk space to use." In parentheses, it will suggest 50-250 megabytes but put in 20. Once this is done, click OK and this will take you back to the original settings window. Now click on the button labelled "Delete..." In here, make sure that you have check marks next to "Temporary Internet files and website files" and "Download history." You can select other things as well if you wish but these are the two that are most important. Oh, by the way, if you have not taken note of your passwords anyplace other than in your web browser, then do not put a check mark next to Passwords. Once you have checked at least the two options I mentioned, click the button labelled "Delete." Depending on how large the Internet cache was set to before being reset to 20 megabytes, this step could take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Be patient. When you can, click on the OK on the original Internet Options settings window and this is done.

As for having too much stored on the computer, as I wrote recently in another answer, Windows expects 20 percent of the hard drive to be available for its uses and when the amount of data the user stores on the machine starts to encroach on that "reserved space," Windows starts thrashing about like a spoiled kid. Most specifically, what it starts doing is that it reduces the size of the virtual memory swap file down below what it desires to have and that means that it does not put as many things into RAM or the swap file as it would normally, so that means that Windows does not run certain functions until just before they are needed and sloughs off other functions to the swap file or shuts them down completely until they are needed again. This entire process of going back and forth can really lag the computer even if all you are doing is something as simple as printing out a budget spreadsheet for your household to a printer attached via wireless networking. In this case, you need to do one of three things: clean up the items stored on the computer by moving pictures or other things that you don't need on a regular basis to optical discs (CDs or DVDs), invest in a larger hard drive and have a professional technician ghost your machine over to the new drive (and if he is truly professional, he will defragment your hard drive for you at the same time he does this), or invest in an additional hard drive (whether internal or external) and move your data over to that new drive so as to keep space available on the C: drive. If you opt for the latter, I would suggest moving most (if not all) of your data to the new hard drive and leaving the C: drive only for Windows and the installation of applications.

These solutions will most generally speed up your machine. If they do not, then you may have issues with a failing hard drive, viruses or other infections, a lack of RAM, a failing power supply, or other issues. At this point, I would suggest taking the computer to your local repair shop for evaluation and advice. It could just as easily be that your computer is just getting to the point it is too old to run efficiently with the version of Windows that is on it as well as all the security and other patches as provided by Microsoft, so it might be time to upgrade. The repair shop can tell you if that is the case.