Laptop slowing down..

[utopiomania]

Hi!

My laptop has developed a startup problem. When I power it up, the startup sequence
is so slow you can sit and watch it paint the bios screen from top to bottom.

Sometimes its normal, sometimes it take forever to get past the (phoenix - screen) and
just fire up windows.

I have copied most data off it, but whats wrong with a machine when it starts to behave
like this??

[LuCiFeR[SD]]

I have copied most data off it, but whats wrong with a machine when it starts to behave
like this??

What have you tried to fix the problem so far? Have you removed and reseated the ram? Same with the HDD. I have come across a similar failure which was when the DVD drive was failing in a machine. I removed it and all was well (Apart from not having a dvd drive that is )

What is the make and model and specification of the laptop too?

[IdeasVacuum]

Once you get past the start-up, does everything then run OK? If so, it could be a BIOS issue, some sort of corruption - should be easy to re-flash the BIOS, see what the manufacture website has to say - they may have a forum too, in which case no doubt someone else has had the same issue with the same model.

I read somewhere that, finally, BIOS will soon be a thing of the past.

[blueznl]

Have seen this problem twice (though long time ago). One machine had cmos battery issues, corrupting BIOS setting and causing irregular startup slowdowns, the other machine had corrupt memory, which mostly affected bootup but for some strange reason only caused OS crashes on a very infrequent basis.

On laptops however I'm not so sure either option can be fixed...

[Baldrick]

Sounds a bit like what I had happen a while back with my desktop machine.
http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... 0&p=338509

[Rook Zimbabwe]

When was the last time you did a TOTAL defrag of the HDD?

I use Defraggler to defrag mine...
got from http://www.filehippo.com

is on MajorGeeks as well... but I caught a trojan trying to sneak in on one of their flash ads a couple weeks ago...

RAM is your next bet then the bad CD drive... hoping you can simply pop that out like the IBM and some HP machines do... Not 100% sure about Dell or ASUS etc.

second... download something that lets you see what is trying to load at startup like RegCleaner by Junio Vuiori and look at what is actually happening on startup not just what windows shows you!

I read somewhere that, finally, BIOS will soon be a thing of the past.

Yup... every time I have tried to flash my BIOS it has become a thing of the past!!!

[Tenaja]

recent benchmarks show defragging doesn't help performance. Unless you have a pc made in 1992...

[Rook Zimbabwe]

Actually most IDE HDD laptops will benefit. my theory of the actual startup files will hold the most water... there4 may be many things the OS is trying to load!

Possibly even malware or JAVA crud!

I also like to clen my prefetches every once in a while... thats just me though... seems to cut boot time in 1/2 for a XP Pro 32bit IDE HDD

[utopiomania]

'What have you tried to fix the problem so far?' Nothing, I just stuck my head in the
sand like a 'struts', or 'ostrich', and hoped the problem went away by itself!!I

Only, it didn't..

It's a small 10.4" laptop, Lenovo 3000 v100. Thanks for the tips, BTW.

What I don't understand is why the startup is so slow. If there's a problem with ROM
data (code) integrity, I would have expected a crash.. not a random slooow startup.

I 'feel' it has developed a hardware problem that holds it back, and that It's time to
fork out money for a replacement.

[LuCiFeR[SD]]

I wouldn't give up too quickly [edited]

[IdeasVacuum]

Go to the Lenovo website, they have a ton of driver updates etc, and some trouble-shooting advice:

http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/us/en ... list2.html

[blueznl]

Before we all go crazy in suggestions: did you do a reinstall of Windows? I'm assuming, but still...

[TerryHough]

Do you have any antivirus programs installed? Is one or more trying to check the system on bootup? Or is one trying to update itself while the other is scanning on bootup?

This can be happening before Windows appears to be alive.

For example (but not limited to):
AVG Free installed and set to update itself before scanning AND set to the default options.
Windows Defender installed and set to the default options.
System is OFF during the overnight hours (usually 3:00am defaults)
On bootup the next morning,

• Windows Defender will try to scan the system immediately, and

• AVG will try to download any updates immediately

This will all start before Windows appears to be alive and it REALLY slows down the boot process.

If you get booted up successfully during the day and run for an hour or so and then reboot and the system comes right up, then this may be your problem.

Fix by changing the schedule of the conflicting antivirus programs.

Good luck.

[utopiomania]

Thanks! The only antivirus is MS Security Essentials which has 'always' been there, nothing else.

It also have a a Lenovo Care app with an entry saying 'het systeem updaten' whatever that means, maybe I should try that

[utopiomania]

I just checked the drive with Acronis Drive Monitor (free) and the HD has a serious problem
with lots of sector reallocating going on..

It gave the HD a 30% health rating, one warning, and one critical on the same problem, so I
have to get a new HD for it and reinstall Vista.

This makes sense, since the laptop has been slower and slower no matter what I have done
to it in the way of registry cleaners, managing apps that runs in the background etc.

The HD temperature is too high at 52C as well which may explain this. Its a small laptop, so this
is probably a design flaw.

But is it ok to swap the HD, is it expensive/cheap?, and will Windows complain about it?