Computer takes a long time to load simple programs

Deathwinger · Post by **Deathwinger** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:15 pm

Simple Programs like Windows Calculator takes almost 20 seconds to load and appear whereas I could play say, half life 2, fast and without incident.

Sometimes its not just simple programs but logging into windows, sometimes when i click on the user icon to enter my password it takes half a minute to load the typing screen and other times it would take that half minute to accept the password and show the 'loading preferences' section.

I didn't think much of it before but when stuff like Calculator takes that length of time to load NOW...then I figured it was time to learn what could be wrong.

Here are my specs:

Toshiba Satellite P30
1.5 gigs of RAM (DDR)
100 gigs of hard disk space
3.04 GHZ P4 Processor

I use programs like cacheman to help with the management of the large amount of memory.

I did some virus scans and spyware scan, cleaned all that up, nada, defragmented as well.

Help

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:39 pm

Windows rot. I've seen it happen before, I generally format when it does rather then trying to find what has to timeout before it finally loads the application.

Xamindar · Post by **Xamindar** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:02 pm

Reinstall Windows

Deathwinger · Post by **Deathwinger** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:10 pm

Is that the only solution...to reinstall windows...does this mean i have to back up everything on my computer that i want to keep?

Deathwinger · Post by **Deathwinger** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:29 pm

Ok someone at the steam forums told me to reset my bios to default setting and that seemed to work.

Just for future reference if anyone else gets this problem.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue May 23, 2006 8:12 am

OMG, and the only recommendation here was to reinstall Windoze ...

\"Whut, your HD is full? Throw your computer away and buy a new one!\"

Another good idea in such cases is to run a little M$ tool that optimizes driver loading sequence ... heck, I forgot the name ...

bobo · Post by **bobo** » Tue May 23, 2006 8:42 am

MSCONFIG, perhaps?

I can't understand why resetting the bios the defaults would help anything.... after all, it's a laptop (right?), and they aren't exactly known for putting all sorts of tweakable settings in the BIOS. Instead you reset stuff like the boot order, HDD autodetect, and whatnot. But anyway, if it works, it works. If it happens again, I would open up task manager and see if any particular process is eating up all of your CPU when the slowdowns occur.

SuperSheep · Post by **SuperSheep** » Tue May 23, 2006 9:01 am

Deathwinger. Long time, how's everything?

I would also turn off the MDM (Machine Debug Manager) if it's running, and also turn off Help & Support service as it has a tendency to enable itself. Along with Windows Updates.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue May 23, 2006 9:04 am

No, not msconfig. bootvis was the name.

Deathwinger · Post by **Deathwinger** » Tue May 23, 2006 9:38 am

Hey supersheep, i'm good, how are ya?

Well, the bios seemed to be a temporary fix, now its back to its 20 second loading days.

Yeh, I know Diedel, everyone thinks that just wiping everything off your computer will solve everything...however, its a process 99% of the time could be avoided and doesn't always work (what....i'm gonna reformat every 7 months? No thx)

I just disabled the help and support but i do not see the MDM service that you speak of super.

I am downloading the bootvis and i will try that as well. I'll let u guys know how it goes.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue May 23, 2006 10:13 am

The mdm only gets installed for local debugging (e.g. with MS Visual Studio), or remote debugging services. It doesn't need to be present. Even if it's present, you will not see it in the Task Manager's application window, but only in the process window, as it runs as a service.

You may want to run a HD surface check, too.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:49 am

And try flushing everything that windows caches.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:55 am

run chkdsk

Sir Sam II · Post by **Sir Sam II** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:23 pm

Deathwinger wrote:Simple Programs like Windows Calculator takes almost 20 seconds to load and appear whereas I could play say, half life 2, fast and without incident.

Samething happens with my desktop computer at work, whether going through the start menu, or using short cut keys set for the menu shortcut (example: ctrl c). Chkdsk /f, emptying cache, defragmenting, none of it has worked for me, but interestingly enough get this. On my wireless keyboard I have a calculator button, press it, instantaneous. I fear resetting my bios because every motherboard has it's likes & dislikes, & mine will more & likely not want to work again & to wager the benefits/setbacks possibilitys its not worth it at this time.

bobo · Post by **bobo** » Tue May 23, 2006 1:35 pm

You don't have any mapped network drives by chance, do you? I've seen instances where it would take up to a minute just to spit out basic functions of the OS, because it would try to scan or reconnect to those drives, but would not be able to do so quickly due to a connectivity or name resolution problem. The problem is amplified if a network drive is in the search path.

Deathwinger · Post by **Deathwinger** » Tue May 23, 2006 2:34 pm

Well I am on a wireless connection with my family's router which is connected upstairs. I get a very low signal due to the steel and concrete between me and the router, but I still happen to get the full connection (downloads at 32k a sec, sub 150 pings).

I did a hard drive reading test check with HD Tach and the graph showed basically dramatic falls in the read time of the hard drive after a standard level whilst my memory stick showed a straight line right across the graph.

So where the memory stick was a straight line, my hard drive looked like the top part of an outline of someone splattering liquid on a wall.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Tue May 23, 2006 2:38 pm

HD tach isn't a good way to diagnose these problems. Guess what, thats typical of hard drives that the seek time goes down the further the head has to go. Its *average* seek time on the product literature.

Did you run chkdsk? which version of windows are you running? When's the last time you've ran a virus scan?

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue May 23, 2006 2:40 pm

DW,

you may consider to get a pair of these connectors providing a network through the electric wiring of your house. They aren't cheap, but they will cure any wifi related problems you are having. I use them, too, they work great.

Deathwinger · Post by **Deathwinger** » Tue May 23, 2006 5:37 pm

I did run chkdsk
Running windows xp
I use mcafee anti virus enterprise edition that my school gave out, its constantly searching for virsuses on the system so i guess i can say the scan always occurs.

I won't need any special help with the wifi too much here cause i get the full amount of the connection anywayz and i am just visiting for the holidays, i study abroad.

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Wed May 24, 2006 5:11 am

It's haunted. You either need a holy man or a big fire. If it gets any worse chop it's head off or destroy the brain.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed May 24, 2006 5:22 am

Try to keep it useful Isaac.

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Wed May 24, 2006 6:59 am

i'd get rid of the virus scanner. They slow stuff down a lot. I’ve never had one and look how great i'm doing

Sir Sam II · Post by **Sir Sam II** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:21 am

Lol, well at least keep some kind of virus scanner on there. A free for personal use is AVG & I havn't known it to slow any system down that it's running on. Unlike McAfee & Nortons I've noticed have severely slowed my systems down, I currently use Pc-Cillin. Although this issue would be more related to a connectivity issue like bobo was saying which similarily would be a read/write problem of some sort IMO.

Computer takes a long time to load simple programs

Computer takes a long time to load simple programs

Re: Computer takes a long time to load simple programs