XP Slowed Down

[brossge]

Hi, I just added a new Seagate 80 GB hard drive to my Dell 8200 that I bought in 2002 , I have added SP@ to XP but my computer takes 3 or 4 minutes to boot up before it was a minute or 2 is there a fix for my problem

[GaryRouth]

Anytime you have unexpected slowing on a computer, it's a good idea to run a few malware scans, since malware can add processes to the system startup. Follow up with a few online scans (Panda, Ewido, HouseCall, etc.) for a little double-checking.

Three to four minutes is a pretty slow boot for XP - take a look and see what processes are starting up. There are several tools that you can use to check -> a couple of good ones are in the "System Information" applet in Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information. If you look at the left-side pane in System information, select the plus (+) sign next to "Software Environment" and then on "Startup Programs". You'll see a list in the "Programs" column: next are the "Command" & "User" columns, & most importantly = the "Location" column, that shows where the program is being called from (you can use this information to manually edit that location, if the program doesn't have an options setting that allows you to stop the behavior). If you see an item listed as starting from "Common Startup", for example, simply removing its icon from the Startup folder on your Start/All Programs folder will stop it from running at startup. If you see an item starting from HKLM\Software... this is usually the "Hkey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" Registry key. RegEdit can help remove unwanted items from there.

The System Configuration Tool (msconfig) is available from the "Tools" menu in System Information. [You can also start msconfig by typing it into the Start/run box]. This tool also shows you programs running at startup, and allows you to selectively disable unnecessary processes.

If you are unsure of any entries, you can check the process names against the lists at AnswersThatWork ( http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm ) or SysInfo.org ( http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php )

If the processes look OK, and the malware scans come up clean, try running a "Logged Boot". Press the F8 key as your system is starting, then select "Logged Boot" from the menu. This will yield a file "Ntbtlog.txt", that you can examine for clues. Here's the blurb from Microsoft:
"Enable Boot Logging: This option turns on logging when the computer is started with any of the Safe Boot options except Last Known Good Configuration. The Boot Logging text is recorded in the Ntbtlog.txt file in the %SystemRoot% folder".
Unfortunately, the XP bootlog doesn't give as many clues as the old Win9x bootlogs did.

My bet is that trimming your startups should help.
. . . Gary

[ps. . . . if you've recently added any wireless devices, some time can go by during startup trying to find them]

[brossge]

Thank you for your time and help , your ideas helped my machain boot up faster
Thank you