Windows XP takes 30 - 60min to load

[Professor-Falken]

I have a friend who asked me to look at his computer he told me it takes 30 - 60 minutes to boot to Windows.
But after it boots I can do work. He said I think it has spyware. Where should I start when trying to fix this computer.

Also I have a 2 year old Toshiba laptop that sometimes turns off no reason. Does anyone know why?


I'll be waiting!

Professor Falken

[hbroomhall]

The usual reason for excessive startup times is either lots of malware, or too many apps installed, or both.

For the first - the usual methods of malware removal.
For the second - find out what the user actually uses and de-install the rest. And some things can be set to only run when actually required rather than started from the startup directory.

Harry.

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by Professor-Falken

I have a friend who asked me to look at his computer he told me it takes 30 - 60 minutes to boot to Windows.

Sounds slightly exaggerated to me, one day 30 mins and the next day it could be an hour?

As said it *looks* like it may be a spyware issue and perhaps the PC needs a RAM upgrade as well?

Originally Posted by Professor-Falken

Also I have a 2 year old Toshiba laptop that sometimes turns off no reason. Does anyone know why?

Does it reboot or switch off?

[Johnd76]

I would firstly do a scan of the computer to make sure there is no spyware in the system, as said above maybe more ram should be installed

[greenbrucelee]

Do a virus scan this will usually bring up lots of viruses that need removing. It could also be quite full with apps as said above so more info from you (disk space etc) could help us diagnose the problem better.

I remember when I had my first PC with a whopping 250MB hard drive in it, as soon as the disk space went below 100MB the performance level dropped dramatically. Upgrading to more RAM helped a little but in the end managing disk space was also a good idea.

Upgrading the CPU can be a good way to improve performance but in this case it is probably due to malware.

Cleaning the fans so cooling is better can help with performance.

Preventative maintenance is better than having to fix a ****** PC.

[BosonMichael]

If there's nothing obvious, I'd try a wipe and reinstall and see if that clears up the problem. If it doesn't, you could have a failing piece of hardware.

[JonGlory]

LOL 30 mins to boot , do what BM said, back up and reinstall.

[Bluerinse]

What OS is on this errant PC?

What are the hardware specs, ie do they meet the OSs min requirement?

How long does it take to boot into safe mode?

Is it a member of a domain?

What happens if you set up a new user account?

Is there any info in Event viewer?

Is there any issues in Device manager.

Have you checked the performance of the CPU during windows loading?

Have you investegated and tuned the start up applications using MSconfig?

Does it have Norton Internet Security on it?

Have you scanned for Viruses, trojans, and other Malware?

As for your laptop, have you checked power options in Control Panel? It's probably set to hibernate and that causes issues sometimes with many BIOSs. try turning off all the power saving options and see what happens.

[Mr.Cheeks]

Do a full thorough scandisk on your laptop and that will resolve the issue = trust me, im A+ certified too