Slow Start up

[dabm]

Hi

I have a VAIO FE21-H, and am pretty happy with it. It used to load windows very quickly. However, start up time now is very long, with windows taking a bit of time to load all of the relevant applications. I'm not too sure why its taking so much longer now, as I have even increased the RAM to 2GB from 1GB. I recently checked, and found that my hard disk is quite fragemented (31%). Could this be the reason? I know hard disk fragmentation slows the computer down, but I did not know it had such an effect.

If anyone knows why windows seems to be slow in starting up, please let me know

The computer is generally fine once windows has loaded everything, even quicker because of the increased RAM. But just takes a while to start up fully.

Thanks
Pete

[Blencogo]

Hi carlowlass,

The 'Search' on this forum sucks - I can't even find it myself!!

You need to check that your hard drive is working in Ultra DMA Mode. Direct Memory Access allows your HDD to transfer data to memory without troubling the processor. If it is working in PIO Mode everything will go through the processor and your Vaio will be slow to boot up and to access data on the hard drive.

For Windows XP:
Start -> Right-Click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device Manager

For Vista:
Control Panel -> Device Manager

1. Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
2. Double-click on Primary IDE Channel -> Advanced Settings.
3. Make sure ALL devices have "DMA if Available" selected and check that the Current Transfer Mode is "Ultra DMA Mode 4/5/6".
4. If any device is set to PIO mode then this is your problem and go on to 5, 6, 7.
5. Go Back and highlight Primary IDE Channel and right-click on it.
6. Select Uninstall and OK. You must uninstall - disabling is not enough.
7. Reboot your Vaio to reload the drivers and reset DMA.

If you have a secondary IDE Channel in Device Manager - do the same for that.

[IMI878]

Hi, i would do exactly the same, but i am sure you do not have to download the trial version of the tune up utility. My brother was telling me the other day that there is software that can be downloaded which works and is not trial. Just look it up on google.

[ravbambh]

I took Blencogo advice on the 1st page and my computer started up a whole lot quicker! Thank you very much Blencogo.

Blencogo, I noticed when I delete everything from c:\windows\prefetch, it automatically starts to create new files in that same folder. Any idea why? Will I have to keep deleting files from that folder? Does the size of the folder have an impact on booting up performance?

Many thanks

Rav

[Blencogo]

Hi Rav - good to hear from you.

The Prefetch folder loads the basics of each program you use so they will load quicker when you ask for them. Unfortunately, it will continue to load the basics of programs you use only rarely so it is a good idea to clear it out occasionally.