Startup time from 75 seconds to 165 seconds. What is wrong?

SimTmiCro · May 9, 2011

Hello forum.

I have a month-old Dell Inspiron N7010 Core i5 460M with 6 gigs of ram running on Windows 7. Until recently, it has been starting up in about 75 seconds. However, out of nowhere, it suddenly began starting up in between 2 and a half minutes to 3 minutes. I am completely baffled, and I do not know what is wrong. Could it have been something I installed, or is it something that is beyond my knowledge. The last things I downloaded before the problems started were Starcraft II, Need for Speed World, and Microsoft Security Essentials, but I doubt one of those is the source of problem. Much help is greatly appreciated.

ignatzatsonic · May 9, 2011

Run msconfig and uncheck everything on the startup tab except your anti-virus.

Then restart and let us know if the problem persists or goes away. If it goes away, the culprit is one of the items you unchecked.

Ztruker · May 9, 2011

If you change anything on the Startup tab of msconfig, write down what is currently starting before doing so. That way you can get back to where you are now if needed.

Perhaps doing a Clean Boot might be a better way to go, at least to see if there is a problem here.

SimTmiCro · May 9, 2011

Hello. Thank you for responding. I did what you told me to do, and now my laptop starts up in 75 seconds again. So like you said, it seems the culprit is one of the items I unchecked. How do I go about identifying which program caused the problem?

ignatzatsonic · May 9, 2011

Recheck them one at a time, booting between each recheck. If you come to a slow boot, you know that the one you last re-checked caused the problem. Most of the items in that list don't need to be checked--they will run when needed.

SIW2 · May 9, 2011

75 seconds sounds a long time to me.

Still - it's an oem machine - so I wouldn't know.

Anybody else think that's long?

hjonesMCT · May 9, 2011

Yeah, 75 seconds seems a long time, especially with 6 gigs of RAM. Manufacturer bloatware is probably the culprit.

pooch · May 10, 2011

Not as long as mine lol

Layback Bear · May 10, 2011

WOW pooch thats a loooooog time. Have you done any investigating why this is happening?

pooch · May 10, 2011

Layback Bear said:
WOW pooch thats a loooooog time. Have you done any investigating why this is happening?

This happened while I was speeding up my system start and ended up doing a bootup repair because of a bad setting (while Restart time was already running

)

My system restarts in 64 seconds but most of the delay is caused by the numerous BIOS screens

gregrocker · May 10, 2011

You don't need to reinstate any of the msconfig>Startup items unless you absolutely need the program running when you start up, using RAM and CPU even if you're not using it and spying on you. The exceptions would be a laptop's factory Battery or HD utility which also has a driver installed - google unknown startup items to find what they are - as these may monitor battery life and/or park the HD reader.

Periodically check back to see if any programs have written themselves into Startup tab and turn them off in their Program preferences.

Next on the msconfig>Services tab Hide All MS Services, then see what is running without permission. Uncheck these if you didn't start them yourself. If they write themselves back into the list after restarts, turn them off in their Preferences or uninstall them.

Any longer than 30-60 second startup is problematic. Use this tool if the above steps don't help: Trace Windows 7 boot-shutdown-hibernate-standby-resume issues - MSFN Forums

Other tips for cleaning up a factory OEM bloatware install: Clean up factory bloatware

JeremyAlexander · May 10, 2011

75 Seconds is crazy! But 3 minutes is nuts for windows 7. Here is a application that is an extreamly good solution to reslove your issue with boot times. If anything else at least give this a try you can always uninstall it.
http://www.soluto.com/Download/
This application breaks down your boot and shows you detailed information on how long each service and application takes to launch and has delay and pause options. Your boot should not take more than 60 seconds running anything over a dual core on windows 7.
I have a crap athlon II x4 620 and my boot is 48 seconds.

mrdemon · May 10, 2011

Try Soluto,

I have used it and found loads that I can delay and even STOP from loading up.

Also its good too see a timer on the booting.

So is this normal then?

Quad Core 4 gig 1333 Sata

gregrocker · May 10, 2011

I personally would not tolerate a boot over 30 seconds, because I know Win7 can be made to do better.

It isn't always a startup program but often a driver failing to load or even a slow or fragmented HD.

On a Dell Core 2 Duo with two minute start time and highly suspect Apple/AOL/meebo startups, we ran the MSFN trace adminstered by our own Cluberti - possibly the leading expert in the world on this.

Carl immediately spotted in the trace results 1) a 5400-rpm HD with 2) heavy system file fragmentation. We offline defragged System files which decreased boot time to 1 minute, where it stands until OP wants to replace Dell's ridiculously spec'd HD.

JeremyAlexander · May 10, 2011

I would never allow an application to 'clean' my registry but there are alot of free applications that can defragment your registry that should help.

gregrocker · May 10, 2011

Auslogics Registry Defragger is the only one I would trust based on about ten year's experience with it.

mathesar · May 12, 2011

Interesting thread, I ran Auslogics Registery defrag, defragged my boot HD and finally ran Soluto, after having Soluto Pause the recommended aps Im at 1 min 23 second boot time, Not sure what else I could try? Im guessing this is a little slow still (boot drive is a 1TB Samsung F3 Spinpoint 7200pm SATA)

Could it be because I have several partitions on 4 Internal HDDs? I wouldnt think that would effect boot time tho.

SIW2 · May 12, 2011

What are those 49 applications that Soluto can't remove (yet ).

Suugests at least some of them are not needed - just that Soluto is beta and can't get rid of them for you.

Try looking in msconfig startup tab - post a screenshot and we can advise if you can stop anything else from there.

mathesar · May 12, 2011

SIW2 said:
What are those 49 applications that Soluto can't remove (yet ).

Suugests at least some of them are not needed - just that Soluto is beta and can't get rid of them for you.

Try looking in msconfig startup tab - post a screenshot and we can advise if you can stop anything else from there.

When looking at the msconfig start tab I uninstalled a few apps that I didnt use (IGN download manager / DS3 Tool etc.) which helped a little.

Is it normal for the boot times to be inconsistent? (this is without changing anything). One time Soluto will report 55 seconds, reboot and its at 1:15 seconds etc. it always seems to vary.

I reboot the PC twice just now without changing anything and Soluto reported 1:12 and 1:10 the 2nd time.

Heres my current msconfig:

SIW2 · May 12, 2011

I don't have any of those.

Try unticking them all ( don't worry - if you do find you want one - you can just re tick it later ).

You don't seem to have your a/v app. listed there.

My boot time varies 27 to 45 secs. usually 35-40 secs.

Your machine is a lot better than mine.

Startup time from 75 seconds to 165 seconds. What is wrong?

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