Speedy Windows

[TapA321 0]

I purchased my Desktop about a year ago, but throughout the past year it has acted a little strange (speed wise). It is a Dell Windows XP Pro 3.2ghz Dual Core Processor with 3gb of Ram. When it is running programs (like Flight Simulator) it is perfect, but simple things like when I first switch it on and it says Windows XP (with the little blue bar) it is so slow. And also when I switch it off, it takes about 30 seconds to shut down. I have specifically noticed this lack of speed because my other 3 year old desktop has only 1gb of Ram and a 2.6ghz Dual Processor, yet this is much quicker at starting up and shutting down.

Does anyone know how I can make my newer desktop much quicker at starting up and shutting down?

Thanks for the help and happy Flight Simming!

George

[simi_av8r 0]

one word TAP.... defrag!

I use all of these on a weekly basis and they seem to keep me in front of the pace, but i think i'm going overkil. One of them twice a month will really help!

There's:

Perfect Disk 2008 (free trial only)

AusLogics Defrag (this one's totally free!) - this is on my top-ten mst have XP utilities!

O&O Defrag trial version available, and its one i really like for its wealth of options.

and, last but not least,

MS Windows XP Defrag utility free and supplied with all copies of Windows as standard.

[mutley 4,495]

O&O is the one I use and can recommend it.

Cheers

[TapA321 0]

Thanks for the suggestion, simi, but I used the MS Disk Defragmenter just last week, and now it says that I do not need to defragment my (C:) volume nor my (D:).

Could it be anything else at all?

George

[mutley 4,495]

Your PC could be starting a load of unwanted services in the background when you boot up, sometimes you inherit these when trying demo or new programs, thinks like itunes often run services, they all detract from resource, hence speed. These services can be set to manual start up but you really need to know what you're doing so don't dabble.

There are programs on the market like Tune-up http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/ a free trial of this program may help?

Try Memtest this will run tests on your memory (Oh really? ...Ed!)

Hope this helps

[TapA321 0]

Thanks for that Mut

I'm not entirely sure of what you mean. Are you talking about those trialware products such as Norton Ghost that pop up after logging in? If so, I have removed that and Dell Network Assistant from my startup list, so after logging on it's quick at firing up. It's just the startup and shutdowns that seem to be a problem for me :doh

Thanks for all the suggestions

George