how can i make my laptop boot up quicker?

[adomakin]

my laptop sems to be taking longer and longer to switch on.
ive tried to clean up my desktop but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. when it was new it used to switch on and get to the desktop real quick.............now i wait for what seems an eternity! can anyone help?

[ZOA NOM]

run defrag

[Joeaksa]

How old is it? How old is the load of the OS (windows) on the computer? If its been more than a year its worth saving everything, then reloading Windows (if thats what you are using) again. Defrag is a good way to start getting it back into shape but if your load of Windoz is over a year old you might look at doing it right.

Backup all your data then put in the laptops rescue disks, which will reload all the OS and apps. Then before adding all your data and programs, delete all the crap you do not need. All the AOL, "Get a free credit report" and so on that clutters up your computer, desktop and hard drive.

Also, if the hard drive is large enough I like to partition it into two sectors. One "C" and one "D." Put Windoz on the C drive along with the various programs. Put your data and such on the D sector. This way when the computer starts up its not sorting through all your data to find the OS, and as well if you ever have a problem in the future, format your C drive and reinstall. Your personal data is sitting on the D drive section and still there.

This does not keep you safe from a complete hard drive failure and you should always back everything up on another hard drive, computer or where-ever.

After you do all that, run Defrag once a week if you take the laptop around with you, otherwise at least once a month.

If you need help with it, I will be in London by mid to late week next week.

JoeA

[Halm]

If you are seeing a continual slow down on boot up, my guess is that it is a recent program you loaded or a combination of virsus and trojans. They always kill performance. A quick way to check for the most current ones is MS's free tool:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ad724ae0-e72d-4f54-9ab3-75b8eb148356&displaylang=en

Like Joe said, a FDISK / reformat and reload is always a good idea, especially if you are still running Windows 98. This is the only way to be sure you have a clean system and improve performance. BTW, the new generation of 7,200 RPM hard drives might be the best way to improve performance short of a motherboard transplant I have seen. My new 80 Gb drive in a Dell Latitude D400 is clearly faster in bootup, shutdown and most importantly application useage.

[mikester]

USe MS free tool before you reload. It's also helpful to get a second opinion via spybot search & destroy.

If all of that STILL doesn't find anything to improve the speed you need to look at what programs are being loaded at startup.

Assuming you're using windows XP (the hardware you have might be helpful) hit the start button, then click run and type in msconfig. Click the okay button and then check out the tab labeled "Startup."

These are all the programs that load at startup (after the login) and if there is a ton of them it can slow things down.

Careful here as you could disable antivirus...stuff like that - important stuff. I always turn off things like ituneshelper, qthelper, things that are clearly "extra." They are designed to make THAT program load quicker when choosen but it's at the detriment of every other program and general use.

Lame

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by ZOANAS
run defrag

Zonas...I just noticed your sign-off.

Typical blackshoe, always complaining about the color of my shoes!

[Steve Carlton]

A guy at work is a computer guru, and when he looked at my laptop there were 71 programs running in startup. Laptops have more programs than desktops running, but that was too many. He disabled a bunch of them, and I get to the desktop much quicker now. It's hard (for me, anyway) to tell which programs are essential to run.

[Moses]

Originally posted by Seahawk
Zonas...I just noticed your sign-off.

He has a signoff? I only see the avatar.

[ZOA NOM]

Originally posted by Seahawk
Zonas...I just noticed your sign-off.

Typical blackshoe, always complaining about the color of my shoes!

Yeah, you probably tell people you were in the Navy, don't you, flyboy!

Well, at least you weren't a Marine

[Joeaksa]

Oh, I hope that Randy does not see this! Just wait....

JoeA

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by ZOANAS
Yeah, you probably tell people you were in the Navy, don't you, flyboy!

Well, at least you weren't a Marine

WERE!?! I'll bet you're a Pollywog...and a damn fine one

FWIW, I did a tour as an Airboss and qual'ed as an OOD. After over a year of having my own watch section, I learned to respect the men and women in black...didn't earn the "Water Wings", but I already had some gold

But the Marine thing, you're on your own!

[adomakin]

Thanks guys! loads of great info here. JoeA, thanks for the offer of help. ill let you know if i get in a pickle! while im here, how do i partition my hard drive? my machine is a dell inspiron 5100. it was new in feb 04 and runs XP. it has a 40gig hard drive.

[Joeaksa]

Andy,

Without formatting your hard drive, the only option I know of is a program called "Partition Magic." I may have a copy on my laptop hard drive, otherwise we can buy it off of the internet. Works wonders and can partition any hard drive without losing any data while the OS is in place.

If your computer was new in 02/04, then the OS was loaded in 01/04 and is two years old. If you are going to keep it, its time for a reload IMHO. Some people do not subscribe to this but Windoz and other programs load up crap that really slow it down.

I have a Dell 600M and did the same thing 4 months ago. Really saw the difference in speed but its up to you. If you are going to do this you might look in to getting a 60 or 80 gig hard drive unless the one you have is under half full. The prices are very good and the new drives run faster, making everything load faster.

Joe A

[adomakin]

cheers Joe, partition magic sounds like a nice bit of software.

Thanks for your help

Andy

[rcecale]

Originally posted by ZOANAS
Yeah, you probably tell people you were in the Navy, don't you, flyboy!

Well, at least you weren't a Marine

Q: Do you know the difference between a Marine and a SUBmarine?

A: Nothing! A sailor will go down on both of them!

Randy

[Joeaksa]

Zonas,

Thought it might hurt. One of my best friends is a ex-Marine. Thank God they are on our side...

[rcecale]

Andy,

If you decide to follow Joe's advice and rebuild your hard drive, allow me to suggest something a bit further.

Once you have your OS and any additional applications installed, configure everything as you like it and then make an image of it.

Norton Ghost is perfect for this. Basically, it makes a copy of everything which you can back up to an external drive, or even span it across DVD-R disc(s), if you need that much room (A DVD-R will hold up to 4.5 GB.

This way, if and whenever you feel the need to rebuild your drive again, you simply lay the image on it, over whatever you have and you are back up and running in a hour or so, rather than the multiple hours it takes to install everything individually.

I know of some people who do this as their routine backup. They have the original image, and once a week, or once a month they image their current setup.

Just my own $.02.

Randy

[adomakin]

great idea randy, thanks for the info

[ZOA NOM]

Originally posted by rcecale
Q: Do you know the difference between a Marine and a SUBmarine?

A: Nothing! A sailor will go down on both of them!

Randy

Not bad, jarhead.


A transport plane was in route to Guadalcanal Island during WWII and it was blown off course in a terrible storm. The plane crashed in the sea, and everyone made it to shore in the life raft.
The survivors included: A young and very attractive Navy Nurse; The Marine Pilot and Co-Pilot; and Five young Marine replacements including their corporal.
The pilot explains he did not get out a distress call before they went down and the island is not on any normal navigational patterns.
The Navy Nurse ask what that means.
The pilot explains they have little chance of being rescued and could be marooned there for life.
The Navy Nurse gets worried that there are 7 men and just her.
The pilot decides they should split up and explore the island, meet back in 2 hours and discuss what they have found.
Everyone meets back with relatively good news, the island has plenty of fresh water, fruits, a lagoon with fish, and there seems to be turtles on the south beach. There are also plenty of palm trees and other wood to make shelter. In addition, an empty barrel has washed ashore.
Everyone sets out to build a shelter.
After 3 months everyone has come to the conclusion the pilot is right, no chance of a rescue.
The men have a secret meeting and decide to draw straws for who gets the Navy Nurse.
They approach the nurse with their idea and with the winner.
The nurse being well medically trained and quite practical decides this is not viable and decides to give in and have SEX with all 7 Marines on a rotating basis, each man getting it once per week. But she does NOT want to get pregnant so she limits SEX to blowjobs only. She also stipulates she wants to have SEX while under the empty metal drum, and the Marine is to place his penis in the hole for her to pleasure.
The Marines huddle again and agree this is the most practical idea.
After about 4 months the nurse starts getting regrets and decides to take her own life.
After another 6 months, the Marines huddle again and decide to bury her.

[Joeaksa]

A Marine knows that "whole" is spelled "hole" ....