Slow Startup

Comments inline.


"Arrrrr" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm searching for some answers regarding my laptop's slow performance.
I'm using a Sony Vaio laptop with 512Mb memory runing XP Home Edition.
The
laptop is just over 18 months old. It was running quite well at one
point.

It got slower after I installed Norton System Work.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Norton has been known to slow
systems down.

I have since removed it [snip]

How did you remove it? I wonder if any of its many tentacles remain.

2) Changed memory managment in Registry to setting 2

Please specify the key you altered.

6) Run Regcleaner, Ad-Aware and several others. Found no issue.

Identify the "several others." Did you run either Spybot Search &
Destroy or SUPERAntiSpyware?

7) Took a day, but I DEFRAGGED my HD

That's odd; defragging shouldn't take that long. Did you perhaps check
your drive for bad sectors?

8) Removed all unnecessary program in Control Panel

Control Panel? Do you mean msconfig?

I suspect your problem is with Norton remnants.

Much agreed. I had some systems that had System Works installed that had to
be reformatted because there was just no going back.


"Daave" wrote in message
...
Comments inline.


"Arrrrr" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm searching for some answers regarding my laptop's slow performance.
I'm using a Sony Vaio laptop with 512Mb memory runing XP Home Edition.
The
laptop is just over 18 months old. It was running quite well at one
point.

It got slower after I installed Norton System Work.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Norton has been known to slow systems
down.

I have since removed it [snip]

How did you remove it? I wonder if any of its many tentacles remain.

2) Changed memory managment in Registry to setting 2

Please specify the key you altered.

6) Run Regcleaner, Ad-Aware and several others. Found no issue.

Identify the "several others." Did you run either Spybot Search & Destroy
or SUPERAntiSpyware?

7) Took a day, but I DEFRAGGED my HD

That's odd; defragging shouldn't take that long. Did you perhaps check
your drive for bad sectors?

8) Removed all unnecessary program in Control Panel

Control Panel? Do you mean msconfig?

I suspect your problem is with Norton remnants.

Thanks for the response Daave.

I removed Norston System Work by using the cleanup tool provided by Norton .
I have read several posts where people mentioned that "uninstall" doesn't
clean things out properly. Hence, I used the tool provided by Norton. Is
that still not enough?

To answer your other queries. Yes, I didn run "Spyboy Search & Destry".

Regarding the registry change, I updated
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory
Management\prefectchparameters
Changed "EnablePrefectcher" to 2
Changed bootime period from 30 seconds to 3 second.

I did CHKDSK my HD and found no bad sector, but I will double check.

As for Bootvis, I also read that it requires a few services, such as "Task
Scheduler" to be on to run. I did that and it still did not work for me.

Is there anything that you can suggest?

Thanks.

"Daave" wrote:

Comments inline.


"Arrrrr" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm searching for some answers regarding my laptop's slow performance.
I'm using a Sony Vaio laptop with 512Mb memory runing XP Home Edition.
The
laptop is just over 18 months old. It was running quite well at one
point.

It got slower after I installed Norton System Work.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Norton has been known to slow
systems down.

I have since removed it [snip]

How did you remove it? I wonder if any of its many tentacles remain.

2) Changed memory managment in Registry to setting 2

Please specify the key you altered.

6) Run Regcleaner, Ad-Aware and several others. Found no issue.

Identify the "several others." Did you run either Spybot Search &
Destroy or SUPERAntiSpyware?

7) Took a day, but I DEFRAGGED my HD

That's odd; defragging shouldn't take that long. Did you perhaps check
your drive for bad sectors?

8) Removed all unnecessary program in Control Panel

Control Panel? Do you mean msconfig?

I suspect your problem is with Norton remnants.

Thanks for the response Daave.

I removed Norston System Work by using the cleanup tool provided by Norton .
I have read several posts where people mentioned that "uninstall" doesn't
clean things out properly. Hence, I used the tool provided by Norton. Is
that still not enough?

To answer your other queries. Yes, I didn run "Spyboy Search & Destry".

Regarding the registry change, I updated
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory
Management\prefectchparameters
Changed "EnablePrefectcher" to 2
Changed bootime period from 30 seconds to 3 second.

I did CHKDSK my HD and found no bad sector, but I will double check.

As for Bootvis, I also read that it requires a few services, such as "Task
Scheduler" to be on to run. I did that and it still did not work for me.

Is there anything that you can suggest?

Thanks.

"Daave" wrote:

Comments inline.


"Arrrrr" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm searching for some answers regarding my laptop's slow performance.
I'm using a Sony Vaio laptop with 512Mb memory runing XP Home Edition.
The
laptop is just over 18 months old. It was running quite well at one
point.

It got slower after I installed Norton System Work.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Norton has been known to slow
systems down.

I have since removed it [snip]

How did you remove it? I wonder if any of its many tentacles remain.

2) Changed memory managment in Registry to setting 2

Please specify the key you altered.

6) Run Regcleaner, Ad-Aware and several others. Found no issue.

Identify the "several others." Did you run either Spybot Search &
Destroy or SUPERAntiSpyware?

7) Took a day, but I DEFRAGGED my HD

That's odd; defragging shouldn't take that long. Did you perhaps check
your drive for bad sectors?

8) Removed all unnecessary program in Control Panel

Control Panel? Do you mean msconfig?

I suspect your problem is with Norton remnants.

The Norton cleanup tool is *supposed* to work, but I know of a few cases
where it doesn't. You mentioned you ran RegCleaner. Was it Jouni
Vuorio's program? If so, under the Software tab, click the Author
column. Do you see any entries that say either Norton or Symantec? Do
the same with the Software column. And what is listed under the Startup
List tab?

The reason I suspect Norton is that your problems began immediately
after you installed Norton System Works (IIRC). But since your defrag
took a whole day, I wonder if it's starting to go. You should obtain a
program from the manufacturer of the drive that checks the health of
your hard drive. If you're not sure where to obtain it, post back with
detailed information about your laptop and hard drive.

It's possible you have malware, even though scans come up negative. If I
were you I would either try Clean Boot Troubleshooting (if you want to
get your hands dirty and have time to use the process of elimination) or
posting a HijackThis log (if you would prefer experts to analyze what's
on your PC) to an appropriate forum.

"How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP":
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

HijackThis:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/p...php#hijackthis

"Online Help Forums":
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/forums.php



Arrrrr wrote:
Thanks for the response Daave.

I removed Norston System Work by using the cleanup tool provided by
Norton . I have read several posts where people mentioned that
"uninstall" doesn't clean things out properly. Hence, I used the
tool provided by Norton. Is that still not enough?

To answer your other queries. Yes, I didn run "Spyboy Search &
Destry".

Regarding the registry change, I updated
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session
Manager\Memory Management\prefectchparameters
Changed "EnablePrefectcher" to 2
Changed bootime period from 30 seconds to 3 second.

I did CHKDSK my HD and found no bad sector, but I will double check.

As for Bootvis, I also read that it requires a few services, such as
"Task Scheduler" to be on to run. I did that and it still did not
work for me.

Is there anything that you can suggest?

Thanks.

"Daave" wrote:

Comments inline.


"Arrrrr" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm searching for some answers regarding my laptop's slow
performance. I'm using a Sony Vaio laptop with 512Mb memory runing
XP Home Edition. The
laptop is just over 18 months old. It was running quite well at one
point.

It got slower after I installed Norton System Work.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Norton has been known to slow
systems down.

I have since removed it [snip]

How did you remove it? I wonder if any of its many tentacles remain.

2) Changed memory managment in Registry to setting 2

Please specify the key you altered.

6) Run Regcleaner, Ad-Aware and several others. Found no issue.

Identify the "several others." Did you run either Spybot Search &
Destroy or SUPERAntiSpyware?

7) Took a day, but I DEFRAGGED my HD

That's odd; defragging shouldn't take that long. Did you perhaps
check your drive for bad sectors?

8) Removed all unnecessary program in Control Panel

Control Panel? Do you mean msconfig?

I suspect your problem is with Norton remnants.