Especially when I am installing something, my computer will load normally for about 3 seconds, and then pause for about 30 seconds. This cause many applications to take 10X longer than normal. While the computer is pausing, The loading light on my computer is on, so I know it didn't freeze. I've defragged my computer and formatting my hard drive is not an option. Thank you everyone.

hi

it is unclear to me what you mean.. are you talking about when booting.. the 'pause' as it loads windows?

if that's what you mean, post back and we can most likely get that boot time down some.. many machines are set to a 30 second -pause by default(and you can't see that} it is waiting for you to choose which start mode you want, unless you press esc, or F8 on a compaq to close the 'splash screen'.

I found this out the very 1st day I got my present system because I was appaled at how long it took to boot up, it was set to 30 seconds pause, in order to make a chioce as to how I wanted windows to start..


please also post back more system information, what OS etc.

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**puff**.. "Put that thing out boy.. the Sheriff's a comin'!!"



[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 04-04-2001).]

It usually doesn't pause when starting up, only when I am installing software and playing games. Instead of loading, it seems to take a "break" all the time

Are you trying to install programs with a virus scanner still running? If so it may be trying to scan files before they are installed. If not, sounds like something else may be running in the background that's holding things up. Antivirus programs often cause flaky installs and should always be shut down before installations.

Use [Ctrl] [Alt] [Del] ONCE to find out what's running before you start an install. Highlight an application and click End Task to shut down everything but Explorer and Systray those two MUST be running. Rundll can be left running too, if it's there, it doesn't seem to have an adverse affect. You'll have to use the 3 finger salute several times to shut everything down, it only shuts down one application at a time.

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So many idiots, and only six bullets...
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

If you are running 2k (and possibly ME) the installer has been changed. MS has learned that backing up and checking all the files during installation saves a lot of time later. This makes ins longer but as a tech I am happy about it.

Two additional things could cause your loading problem: too little RAM and not enough Hard Disk space. How much RAM do you have and how much "Free" space do you have on your Hard Drive?

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Always wondered where Silicone Valley was...saw a pic of Pamela Anderson...now I know

It is definitely not antivirus or any other program, I have tried the control alt delete thing already. I don't have windows ME or 200, but windows 98. I do have a compaq computer with a 6ghz hard drive with about 1.5 ghz free. Should I compress about 1 ghz? I have 64 megs of ram pII 233 Thank you

Should I compress about 1 ghz?

As in Drive Compression? NOPE! Drive compression was a good idea, on paper, but in practice, causes more problems than it fixes.

64MB Ram should be adequate, but with a Compaq you have lots of things running in the background. If BackWeb is in there it eats a lot of resources, and they put other things with names I can't decipher. Run msconfig and take everything out of the Start Up tab except
Task Monitor,
System Tray,
Load Power Profile
virus Scanner.
Also go to Start\Settings\Taskbar and Start Menu\start Menu Programs\Advanced button and open the Start Up folder. Create a separate temporary folder and move everything from the Start Up folder into the Temporary one. That makes it easier to drag them back if needed.

More memory wouldn't be a bad idea, but usually is not vital as long as you're not running graphics intense programs or serious games. I'm running a P-233MMX with 64MB and win98 and have no complaints. Even picture editing gives me no problems. The largest pictures I have open instantly. (over 200K pics scanned at 300DPI) After editing it takes about half a second to save them.

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So many idiots, and only six bullets...
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

With a 6 gig hard drive and 4.5 gigs of data on it......you could really experience slowdowns if the Hard Drive is fragmented. I recommend running Scandisk and then Defragment the Drive [save time by defragging just the files].....prepare for it to take as long as 3 or more hours if you haven't defragged the drive in a long time......You will be surprised how much faster Win98 will run if it is as much as 4% fragmented, once you are finished.

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Always wondered where Silicone Valley was...saw a pic of Pamela Anderson...now I know

absolutely!!!!!

it's a MUST (for me at least, or any machine that I admin)- required maintenance dictates running scan disk, and then defragg at least once a week, as I do this all the time, it takes only about 20 mins to do both on my pc.


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*another 'toaster' bites the dust*



[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 04-06-2001).]

I have defraggmented it, I notice a slight speed increase, but it still pauses. I only let explorer and systray run , but it still pauses, I might have to get a new hard drive?

I am going to buy a new hard drive, but I would have to replace it due to the lack of extra IDE spaces. How can I transfer my info from one hard drive to another exactly? I do have a cd burner

There are several "Ghosting" programs available ...I use Norton Ghost and it works well for me....what these programs do is make a mirror image of the information from the old drive to the new one .......you just pick up where you left off so to speak ......but with a larger drive. You can buy a ghosting program at any software store or MAYBE find one on the internet.

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I'm putting a new Fat32 partition in my Head Drive...hope it speeds me up.......