Slow Boot Up - also printer problem

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Hi All

For quite a while now my PC has been slow to boot up. When it was new it was very fast, now it seems to take several minutes from the blue screen appearing to being able to click on icons and load/use programs. What is going on? What do I need to do to resolve it?

System specs are

HP Pavilion a330.uk
260+ (1.91GHz)
AMD Athlon XP
256MB DDR
HP DVD writer
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX-440
64 MB video memory
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft works suite 2003
v92 ready modem
IEEE 1394 interface

Other problems I have had are discussed alsewhere on this forum, on other threads. The only new software installed has been Adobe Photoshop and Kodak Easyshare, and Google Earth as well. I think the booting problems were there already prior to these installations.

My question is how do I sort this thing out?

Another problem concerns my printer. Ever since my brother attempted to print to large (A4 size?) photos last year there has been a small pronlem. Every time a page gets printed there are a few marks (green?) on the top left hand corner of the reverse side. Perhaps I'm thick, but I cannot figure out how to resolve this?

A small problem, but annoying. Particularly when sending letters to potential employers etc.

I just don't understand. These two problems have been causing me some frustration, and I would be very grateful if you could help.

Thanks.

[Saab Dastard]

A few things spring to mind:

A lot of applications / services automatically started by Windows. Especially if there is any AV / spyware / disk checker etc. running at startup.

The computer tries to connect to a resource on a network-connected PC that is not responding.

The user profile that is logging on has grown very large.

A peripheral device is slow to respond.

I'm not sure what effect fast-user switching has, if you have a lot of users sharing the PC (I use XP pro), as presumably the OS has to load all user profiles? I may well be wrong about that.

Free space and fragmentation of your hard disk (and pagefile) may also be a contibutory factor, as is the amount of RAM. If you have a lot of programs auto-loading, the system may well be paging them out to disk before you actually get to use it! 256 MB is not a lot these days - a further 256 should only cost about £50.

Some food for thought.

No idea about the printer.

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Not network connected - no defined user profiles.

[Saab Dastard]

WE Branch Fanatic

Every user account on the computer has a User Profile, whether they like it or not! There is also a Default Profile (and one for adminstrator).

Right click on My Computer, select Properties, Advanced, User Profiles. Or go Control Panel, System, Advanced, User Profiles.

SD

[BOAC]

Run MSConfig.exe (in the system32 Windows folder) to see what you are 'starting up' with.

The printer sounds as if some excess ?green? ink has found its way onto the rollers. Try meths on a cloth to clean the rollers - which are probably the bottom set if it is a 'reverse' problem.

[WE Branch Fanatic]

WRT the printer thing,yeah that would make sense. Better get some meths or another solvent.....

[Jaguar001]

I see from your specs that you have 256MB of RAM. I also assume you are running windows XP. I used to have an older version of AMD Athlon XP. I noted that as time went on with windows XP it uses more and more RAM as you install new software and stuff. Inorder to increase your boot up time, I recommend increasing your RAM to 512MB or higher (1GB is sweet), and trust me you will notice a big difference.

PS - Is your graphics card built-in with shared memory. If so you are currently running on 256MB-64MB, hence they slow boot up and generally slower PC.

[WE Branch Fanatic]

It use to be fine. Does anyone know how to clean the printer rollers?

[Jaguar001]

what printer is it?

[WE Branch Fanatic]

HP PSC 2175 All In One. Got the workings exposed right now, can't see the rollers -am I just dumb?

[Jaguar001]

Try this

Remove both cartridges. See your printer's manual or help files for specific information on removing and inserting cartridges. Most HP printers must be turned on to remove the cartridges.

Unplug the printer.

Wipe the copper-colored electrical contacts with a clean, dry, lint-free cotton cloth.


If these dont work go to the following site

http://ipgweb.cce.hp.com/ipgna/caller/chat.asp?dd=aio&productName=HP+PSC+2175+All-in-One&productCategory=12085&SCOID=238445&PSOID=90805&lang=en&cc=us

It is an online chat with HP technician

Best of luck.

[Conan the Librarian]

Simple cleaning tip. Run several sheets of plain paper through it. By reversing and flipping, you will get 4 passes for every sheet. What might have happened, ( I notice Adobe PS mentioned) is that you have printed borderless pictures which often bleed ink into the machine, as the image is slightly larger than the paper on which it is being printed. A good way of avoiding this in PS is to get your picture up and then open a new file at A4 or whatever (in the drop down menu) and using the "Move" tool, transfer your pic to the new canvas, resizing exactly. It is a doddle.

If you can get to those rollers and the platen, cotton buds with alcohol work well. you will be relieved to hear that Scotch doesn't work and in fact makes it sticky, so just use that stuff for swallowing. Chemist will give you a bottle of the right stuff for threepence.

Conan

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Problem solved by eyeballing the dirty rollers, exposing them and wiping with a tissue. Fingers crossed no more streaky marks.

I'll come back to the slow booting another time. Thanks all!!

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Disk cleanup and defrag have made some difference, although more to running (now like greased lightening) than booting.

Is there a way of minmal booting, with only XP/Windows being loaded initially, and leaving the rest pf the programs to be flashed up by the user as and when.....if so how??

Thanks in advance

Confused WEBF

[Tarq57]

Google earth is heavy on resources, esp the latest Beta. 512 I think it needs. Make sur eit's not starting with windows. Have a browse of http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15159 to get some good ideas how to trim your startup menu. Buy some more RAM.

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Goto START, RUN, type in MSCONFIG. Click the Startup tab. You are safe to uncheck everything in there. Hit OK to apply and reboot. It'll give you a message about selective startup. Check the box to not show that again and hit OK.

From the above link.

So what happens them? Start up............then what? What really critical things must start up?

[spannersatcx]

further 256 should only cost about £50.:eek:

Blimey that's dear! I just brought another 1GB stick that was about £75 from crucial, now have 2GB's doesn't really decrease start up times, increases game loading and processing online game, used to start a game and be last in, increasing RAM offloaded the swapfile/virtual memory being loaded on the HDD after that installed a new HDD, that speeded things up a little.

Do regular av and spyware cleanups, defragment HDD once a month. The biggest hog is things being loaded at start up, reduce that and it should be quicker.

By using msconfig you can stop programs being loaded at initial startup which may help the start up process being quicker.

[Hobo]

Goto START, RUN, type in MSCONFIG. Click the Startup tab. You are safe to uncheck everything in there. Hit OK to apply and reboot. It'll give you a message about selective startup. Check the box to not show that again and hit OK.
From the above link.
So what happens them? Start up............then what? What really critical things must start up?
I can confirm this definitely helps. I have had slow boot up problems for a while. I think an HP printer contributes (see also http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=222263 ). I just bought a HP Photosmart 8050. You can't NOT install the HP Image Zone Software (~250MB) or the scanner doesn't work. Doing what WE Branch Fanatic suggests unchecks this, and since then, it's been a lot quicker. I've just updated Mcafee and the new version seems to do a scan everytime I switch on. Is this really nescessary, as it is guarding against Viruses when it is on anyway, and can this automatic scan be disabled? I haven't been able to find a way so far.

[Tarq57]

From the above link.
So what happens them? Start up............then what? What really critical things must start up?
Sorry to take a bit to reply, failed to realise that was meant for me. :\
Your antivirus (and other resident security, if installed) programs. I've got about 7 of them, so it didn't make a big difference, but getting rid of things like the catalyst control centre, java updates, sound system config, HP auto update and a couple of others, it's cut it down by maybe half a minute.
If you connect to the internet at startup, security programs are important. If most of your time is spent not online, and you can remember to turn the watchdogs on b4 connecting, maybe not. Up to you.
I've found a disabled-at-startup program (ATI catalyst control; graphics) that won't start when comanded unless I go into the start menu and restart it's runtime. Since I don't access it much, that's not a problem. There may be others like that. And you might need to remember to update certain disabled items from time to time,too, eg java. So how you configure it depends a bit on how hands-on you want to be, and how much you know to be hands on at certain times.
I don't actually know that much, and at times have had to go hunting for answers when something "broke", that later turned out to be self-inflicted but unremembered. The OS is a complex and dark place at times!

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Since the above posts......... My PC has been upgraded, had bits changed, and is a bit like Trigger's broom. Nevermind - it works!

The printer, however, has decided to start causing trouble. Everytime I try to print something it appears to get a paper jam. After clearing the paper jam (as far as I can see) it then says it has a carriage jam.

Can it be easily fixed - or is it a case of needing a replacement?

Arrgh! Had a few urgent things to print. Murphy's law strikes again!

[jimtherev]

Still got the handbook? If so, you will find how to print a test page without the computer interfering. Typically, switch printer off, the switch on again holding down page-advance button or something similar. If you get an error there, then yr printer's probably kaput.

If all well there, try printing a test page from the computer. Control panel > printers & faxes > right click on yer printer > then in the Properties page you should find all sorts of exciting stuff including 'print test page'. Does that work without error messages?

Whether or not, you may like to try right clicking on the printer again, deleting the printer, then re-starting the computer. It should find the printer, and 'install new hardware'. If you still have the install disk, let it use that, otherwise it will find the printer driver and reinstall. The problem with the second course of action is that you may reinstall the error which has been bugging you.

If all that seems too much, then printers are cheap as chips these days... and you'd probably find one of better or equal quality at a price that's not too unreasonable - even if you go to PCwhirls or some such.

Good luck

[Mike-Bracknell]

If it's the same printer, then it's at least 4 years old.

Buy a new one. You'll find that:

- The cost of a new one is cheaper than your time spent on fixing the existing one
- The availability (and hence cost) of the peripherals associated with the new printer will be better
- The functionality/quality of the new printer is likely to be higher

Here endeth the lesson on TCO :)

[WE Branch Fanatic]

I've just installed the replacement. Now, where to take the old one for recycling?

[Mike-Bracknell]

The local tip :ok:

As you're an individual you should be WEEE exempt.