Slow PC

[Francis93]

Hi,

The computer starts very slow. I'm stuck on the Welcome screen for about 30 seconds and the "busy" circle thingy lags and then startup programs start very slow. The gadgets open slowly too. And my computer lags up for a while. Memory usage during startup is only 700MB RAM yet I'm stuck in the Welcome screen for how many seconds and then startup programs open slowly (I only have four startup programs: ESET SS, Yahoo! Messenger, TuneUp 2010 and IDM). I tried everything, from registry cleaning up to disk defragmentation, instead my computer would run faster, it ran slower. My computer was fast before, now it's f'ed up. Please help guys.

Specs:
Windows 7 Ultimate x86
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz
2 GB DDR2 667 MHz Memory
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT 1 GB
320 GB HD

Thanks.

 

[ski]

Did your system always start up fast with those 4 programs opening at start up? If not, then uncheck all of them from the start up list, and check each program one at a time until the system starts slowly again. The last one checked is the culprit.
If it always started fast with those programs running at start up, then update your AV and AS programs, and run them.
If no luck, then a Diagnostic Start Up and a Boot Log may give you some clues.

 

[Jacee]

What is SS?
Do you have ESET set to scan or download definitions when you start up?
Are all drivers updated?
Have you cleared all temporary files?

 

[Francis93]

Did your system always start up fast with those 4 programs opening at start up? If not, then uncheck all of them from the start up list, and check each program one at a time until the system starts slowly again. The last one checked is the culprit.
If it always started fast with those programs running at start up, then update your AV and AS programs, and run them.
If no luck, then a Diagnostic Start Up and a Boot Log may give you some clues.

A few weeks ago, they startup normally. I don't have to wait for minutes for the computer to be available. I ran a scan using ESS but there were no detections.

What is SS?
Do you have ESET set to scan or download definitions when you start up?
Are all drivers updated?
Have you cleared all temporary files?

Smart Security. Upon startup, ESET automatically updates its definitions before a startup scan. I manually update the graphics drivers. I don't know what to do with the rest. Before shutting down the computer, I usually clean my computer using CCleaner and TuneUp. I expected my computer to start faster in the next boot but it didn't. It ran slow.

 

[joel406]

Another victim of tuneup utilities.

I would run a system restore back to a point where your PC was acting better.

Then dump those tuneup utilities.

 

[CassieFWinTeam]

Since this is a new occurrence, I agree that system restore is worth a try. Also, check out these tips for optimizing performance in Windows 7 - Optimize Windows 7 for better performance.

Hope this helps!
Cassandra
Microsoft Windows Outreach

 

[ski]

Also, make sure your CPU is not being maxed out in Resource Monitor. If it is, then RM will indicate which processes are the causes.

 

[Vertex]

If you are doing registry cleaning with CCleaner or Tuneup Utilities, make a System Restore point first and back up the registry using a free program called Erunt so in this case you can undo any changes in the registry.

CCleaner is said to be safe by many, but I use it as well but takes a bit of caution. Tuneup Utilities, for me is not for inexperienced users cause it fixes more but has a higher chance of making something fail to work if you accidentally delete something that is not supposed to be deleted or modified. I do have a suspicion that there is a malware embedded in the trial Tuneup Utilities version as my computer bugged after a month using Tuneup Utilities.

Please do a system restore to a time before you did any registry cleaning with either CCleaner or Tuneup Utilities.

If that fails to work, it may be the deed of malware. Try using Windows Defender or Malicious Software Removal Tool (MRT) that comes with Windows Update. They should help you remove potentially dangerous applications.

Or maybe try another antivirus such as AVG 9 or Panda Cloud Antivirus.

If that does not work, it maybe hardware or driver failure of some sort.

If not, another option would be to reinstall Windows.

 

[Francis93]

TuneUp 2010 was the culprit. I disabled its services, rebooted, and my startup became faster. So I uninstalled TuneUp 2010.

 

[Jacee]

You can set ESET to not update and scan at startup. Set a time of day, that will be more convenient for you.