Computer performance is slowing down.

[LordCutlerBeckett]

For a couple of months, my computer has taken at least five minutes to start up and run effectively. After that, everything will run fine. But I can't stand to wait five minutes just to turn on a damn computer. I defrag both of my hard drives monthly if they need it, I ran a scan for viruses, and removed stuff I didn't need. It still takes a long time just to turn on my computer. I haven't a clue what's wrong with my computer. If anyone has a clue why my computer is running slow, feel free to say so.

Another thing, when I turn on my computer, I get a box that pops up before Windows loads. It asks whether I should run Windows XP Professional edition or something. Can I toggle that, somehow? It looks like DOS with big font, and I have thirty seconds to choose a hard drive to run Windows on. I only have Windows installed on one drive, so that screen is just a waste of time.

Thanks for reading, I hope someone can help.

[Ad Bot]

[Miga]

This is what I like to call the "Windows XP degrade" effect, which has happened to basically everybody I know. The OS will just start to slow down, or "degrade" over time and become slower and slower for absolutely no reason. It can vary how long it takes before the degrading takes place, but it's happened for me in less than one year. There's not much you can do about it but reinstall XP, or move on to Vista or 7, both of which don't have this problem.

[LordCutlerBeckett]

Do you know why this happens? I'm not planning on buying a new OS until I can get enough money to build a computer.

agsf extra thing: Me and my brother have had XP for years now, and his computer runs faster than mine. He never defrags his drives, and scans regularly. I have no idea what's going on. :c

[Miga]

I don't, sadly. I've never looked into what exactly causes it, but I've tried everything to speed up my PC's that had this problem with no success.

As for your brother's PC, it will happen one day.

[LordCutlerBeckett]

Well, I would expect one problem coming from the registry, maybe. I use CCleaner to fix up unneeded registry objects, though. And it's just the starting up the computer that is slow.

[Nickelob Ultra]

If you have an Intel processor, do the following:

Check in Program Files or in Add/Remove programs for "AMD Dual Core Optimizer".  If you're any bit smart you wouldn't have installed this if you have an Intel processor or a non-dual core AMD processor, but some games sneak this in when installed to make sure any customer that does have an AMD dual core plays the game nicely.

If it is installed or you found it in program files, either delete it or remove it and restart your computer.

I have an Intel Core i7 930, and it slowed my system a bit.  When starting up, I'd actually have to wait at least 10 seconds for my computer to start doing stuff fast.

[LordCutlerBeckett]

If you have an Intel processor, do the following:

Check in Program Files or in Add/Remove programs for "AMD Dual Core Optimizer".  If you're any bit smart you wouldn't have installed this if you have an Intel processor or a non-dual core AMD processor, but some games sneak this in when installed to make sure any customer that does have an AMD dual core plays the game nicely.

If it is installed or you found it in program files, either delete it or remove it and restart your computer.

I have an Intel Core i7 930, and it slowed my system a bit.  When starting up, I'd actually have to wait at least 10 seconds for my computer to start doing stuff fast.

Looked, found nothing or anything related to that.
There's this other crap there, but I don't know if it's important...

Here's a list: Lernout and Hauspie English Engine - I don't know what the forget it is
Microsoft.NET framework stuff - looks important
Microsoft SQL server stuff - again, looks important
MSXML stuff - looks important


Remove these?