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[SteveAvfc.]

Hi all am running Windows 7 on  swimbos laptop and its decided to play up. It takes forever to load at times up to an hour, once on it seems to run perfectly all programmes come up quickly and smoothly and scans show no corrupt files. Then when its comes to shutting down its the same takes an age.
Not that computer savi but know that there are a few of you that know your stuff, so here,s hoping you can help.
Many thanks in advance Steve.       

[TheBoy]

Whilst with more info, we might get there in the end, desktops are never worth the bother. Back up important files, and put factory image back on.

If it's taking that long it's either shagged of compromised anyway

[Shackeng]

Hi all am running Windows 7 on  swimbos laptop and its decided to play up. It takes forever to load at times up to an hour, once on it seems to run perfectly all programmes come up quickly and smoothly and scans show no corrupt files. Then when its comes to shutting down its the same takes an age.
Not that computer savi but know that there are a few of you that know your stuff, so here,s hoping you can help.
Many thanks in advance Steve.       

Trouble with Windows it stores vast amount of rubbish you don't need. I run a free programme called CCleaner every day or so, and it often removes several hundred MB's of crap.

I assume you are running anti-malware also?

Also worth a read: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/how-to-manageremove-startup-programs-in-windows-7/c2ff3fd1-3e32-46d9-9522-ec05034a2db1

[pscocoa]

Yes the last post is your start point  - have programmes been deleted without using the proper uninstall process - also any changing of antivirus programmes without running proper uninstall tools etc

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Another good one I use personally is bleachbit. This is a more aggressive one, but finds lots that ccleaner doesn't (but ccleaner still worth having, and using both) what antivorus are you using? if it's a free one, might be worth uninstalling and installing another, and giving it a virus scan. No antivirus is perfect, and it might pick up something your other didn't

AVG free
Eset NOD32
Mcafee

are the three I'd say are the best/reliable/trusted ones, based on personal experience. 


also...

Once all extra crud is stripped off, and you've cleaned the registry, and it's virus scanned, then the usual defrag, and an error check always worth doing. 

[Shackeng]

Further to my previous post, CCleaner - and probably also those mentioned by DBG above - also has a useful registry cleaner, as registry corruption often appears to  be a problem with Windows PC's.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Merci 


Only thing I came afoul of once, was a full clean with ccleaner or bleachbit, only to realise my search history, autofill and passwords were all deleted. You can uncheck any boxes of things you don't want deleting in the settings very easily, but that was a slight annoyance for me as I blindly just clicked 'clean' without reading the instructions first, as it were.


Search history deletion wasn't the worst thing, though 



oh, and another thing which is the most useful think in the whole world - and will probably target your slow startup issue more than anything - msconfig

Type this in to run / search bar, click the 'startup' tab, and uncheck anything you don't think should be there. All sorts of junk appears, say, like the program for viewing pics you accidentally install when you install digital camera software, java updater, the driver for the printer that broke two years ago, etc.. you can safely uncheck everything in the list (but that will include your antivirus, of course) so just use common sense, get rid of all the obvious useless ones. If unsure, just google the name of the task. Should sort you out nicely 

[zirk]

As suggested if its taking that long, its stuffed to the hilt with rubbish, could also be your Boot hard drive is full, not enough Ram to cope with the tasks and theres far too much starting up in start menu.

Prior to a complete rebuild, you could try deleting any programs you dont need or use, get rid of anything not needed on the Start Up Menu (theres a good tool in CCleaner for that or use Windows) you only need a handful of MS Apps to run in Start Up, run a Full CCleaner, Do a Malwarebytes clean in safe mode and run some Adware and Browser Virus Checks.

As a last resort you could download and do a full scan with 'Advanced System Care', its a good clean up Tool, but I would recommend you de Install it afterwards as if left on it can slow down the system whilst monitoring.

Failing that, as said, back your important files and a Fresh W7 OS Install.

[Gaffers]

If it takes that long then it is shagged.

As per TB's advice:

- backup important files
- reinstall factory image

If it is still slow then it is likely to be related to a driver issue.  Had this recently with a brand new HP Elitebook.  I only discovered the cause of the fault after booting safe mode with and without networking.  Reverted to an older version of the ethernet adaptor and bingo, everything hunky-dory

[SteveAvfc.]

Hi guys apologies for not giving you more details quickly posted this topic before setting of to work.

The laptop runs the following. AVG free antivirus, AVG paid tune up, Malwarebytes paid version. All these have been ran and have come back with a few issues. The said items have been cleaned and removed but still its taking its time. As for having to much on board she has no music or picture library and does not run games, its really is basic in its contents.
I am beginning to think as previously mentioned in that its shagged. 

Thanks guys for your input.

[The Sheriff]

Don't be frightened of it. You have told yourself it's 'shagged', so go from there. It's had it, so anything I do to it doesn't matter. Back up whatever you need from it and go to town on it. You might just prove that it's not shagged, just full of crap.

[Sir Tigger KC]

If you have the CCleaner, go to Tools->Start Up and disable anything you deem unnecessary or alternatively disable everything and then enable stuff when you realise something dosn't work. 

For example I have Spotify installed, but it was starting up and humming away in the background, so I disabled it and switch it on when I want it. 

[TheBoy]

It's a desktop, just rebuild it, and stop messing about!

[Mr Gav]

While you say that you don`t have any media on the laptop there is something else that may be filling your hard drive up. Windows likes to create a back up image every month unless you disable it and it`s quite easy to find your hard drive being full of back up files. This happened to my mums laptop and all I did was find them and delete them and it was running like new again.
Worth looking at IMHO 

[Mr Gav]

It's a desktop, just rebuild it, and stop messing about!

First post, first sentence says it`s SWMBO`s laptop