Can anyone help me speed up my PC?

Question

My computer was fast but recently it has been slowing down mostly on boot up after I type my password it takes forever to be ready.

Specs (Emachines T6524):
Windows XP MCE 2005 (SP2),
AMD Athlon 64 3500+,
1.00 GB Ram,
ATI All In Wonder 1800XL 256MB,
Maxtor 6Y080L0 (80GB),
Samsung SP0802N (80GB),
ST3300633AS (300GB),
Lite-On CD-ROM LTN-489S,
TSSTcorp CD/DVD-RW TS-H552B,
Generic Internal 8 in 1 card reader,
Pinnacle DV/AV,
Realtek AC'97 Audio,
Aureal Vortex 8830 Audio,
Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC,
56Kbps Internal Modem,

Selected Programs in msconfig):
ashdisp.exe,
bootskin.exe,
itype.exe,
logmeinsysystray.exe,
mobsync.exe,
macvntfy.exe,
macdrive.exe,
mddiskprotect.exe,
realsched.exe,
msnmsgr.exe,
fdm.exe,
ctfmon.exe,
poptray.exe,

Please HELP Me This Is a Big Problem
Thanks

I do know that ashdisp.exe is Avast Anti-Virus It's my anti-virus software so I think I do need it!!! (http://www.avast.com/)

Nope no wrrp in the task manager

Answer 1

OK first and for most what you need to do is go to start, run, and type in msconfig click OK go to start up and uncheck every thing there exit without restarting, then go back to run type in regedit click OK when the box pulls up open the files in this order HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop single click on desktop after that to the right another box will open find menushowdelay right click on it then choose modify in the value box that will open change the value from 400 to 0 exit out now changes will not take affect until you restart your PC
after you have restarted a small box will appear telling you about the selective start up just check the box stating that you don't want to hear about it again now you should have noticed the speed of the menu opening alot faster

then click start again go to control panel set your computer to category view choose printers and hardware after that opens chose mouse select pointer options move arrow over to fast this increases the speed of the mouse

then click start again go to control panel set your computer to category view choose performance and maintenance select adjust for visual affects uncheck all boxes the check 3 and only 3. the box that says shadows under menus, 2 use common tasks in folder , and 3 use drop shadows for icon labels windows may change but all the extra affects that slow down your PC are gone

next to put you PC back to the pretty state all you need to do is change the them back to what you had it go back to control panel and select tools the folder options then under general where you see tasks be sure show common tasks in folder is selected

If you have more than on hard drive in your PC you can then click start again go to control panel set your computer to category view choose performance and maintenance select adjust for visual affects choose the tab at the top that says advance go down to virtual memory click change if you have more that one drive C:, D:, E: and so on will appear all you have to do is just single click on C: select the box on that says no paging file the click set you must select d: or any other available drive and select system managed size or a one or 2 gig of space (1024 MB to 2048 MB or as you see fit) click set then OK and restart you PC

Then after the computer has been restarted all you need to do is defragment it and you should be done this will give you the max speed with out spending a lot of money

If you want it faster than that i recommend running a raid 5 system which i what i have in my computer the speed is off the charts also all i run is 256 FOR MEMORY AND I WILL PUT THE SPEED OF MY PC UP AGAINST ANYONE PLUS I'M USING ONLY A 1.5 GHZ P4 PROCESSOR 1 GIG OF MEMORY IS NOT NECESSARY for part and services

Here is a great website for all your computer needs they have everything at dealer cost most of the time and if you join their yahoo group they will be able to keep you posted on up and coming deal and they have well trained techs that will give you plenty of how-to advice.

http://www.theelectronciswarehouse.com

Answer 2

ashdisp.exe is for Avast Antivirus, you can turn that off so that it doesn't load at startup, that should help.

Bootskin is a theming program, if I'm not mistaken, which in some cases can be a resource hog. In less you desperately want something other than the default XP theme (can't say I blame you), you can disable that or uninstall it.

itype is your Microsoft keyboard software, you should probably leave that running.

logmeinsystray is a remote access program. If you use it, leave it, otherwise you're welcome to disable it or uninstall it.

mobsync.exe is a mobile device synchronization program, if you've got a pocket PC that you're using that for, keep it on, otherwise uninstall it.

macvntfy I can't imagine why you would need it. From what I can find, it's software to make iPods compatible with Windows, but they've been compatible for a long time now.

macdrive allows you to run a Mac formatted Hard Drive on a PC, so I'm assuming you've got one in there.

mddiskprotect is a sub-process of macdrive, so leave it if you are using macdrive.

realsched is just the RealPlayer startup program. RealPlayer sucks in my opinion, so you can either disable or remove the program.

msnmsger is what it sounds like, MSN Messenger. Disable this, start it on your own time.

fdm is Free Download Manager. An okay program, but there's no need for it to be running at startup. Disable it.

CTFMon is involved with the language/alternative input services in Office XP. CTFMON.exe will continue to put itself back into MSConfig when you run the Office XP apps as long as the Text Services and Speech applets in the Control Panel are enabled. Not required if you don't need these features.

Poptray is an email notifier service, you're probably fine leaving this, but I've never personally used it.

Other than that, download Crap Cleaner (ccleaner) and run a full scan (takes just a few minutes), and then defragment your hard drive (takes anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours).

Probably the thing taking up most of the startup time is that bootskin program, but that's just a guess, I'm not sure of that.

EDIT: Yes, even though it's your Anti-virus program, it doesn't necessarily have to run at startup. I keep as little as possible at startup, just so that my computer can boot faster.

Answer 3

Apples and Oranges my friend, you cannot compare them by clock speed or processor speed. A Mac and PC can be equally matched, have the same clock/ processor/ amount of ram, the Mac will be faster. It's the way the software (operating system and programs) and computer(hardware) works that counts. PC's just seem frustratingly slow compared to a Mac. Macintos(hardware and OS) just make better use memory, the graphical interface and file storage. PC windows and desktop look painted on, and when you click a link or press a button it seems like an eternity before anything happens, that's the best I can describe it. I would bet you could cut the speed of the Mac in half and it would still be faster. PC's seem way more memory hungry. Accept it.

Answer 4

That's quite a list of statistics... but, it's simple enough to do.

Find 'Internet Options' in your Windows Security Center, and clean out all the 'Temporary Internet Files', all the 'Cookies' and your 'Web Browsing History'. After that, run any programs you have to get rid of spyware, adware and viruses, then defragment your computer. That should help out quite a bit.

Answer 5

The one thing I do not see in your MSconfig is antivirus and antispyware programs.
Install and set active:
AVG free edition
Spybot S&D
AntispywareGuard
AntispywareBlaster
AVG Antispyware
Also run the following manually
AdAware SE
a²

Links to all of them can be found here>>>> http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic3616.html

Answer 6

Try downloading CCleaner, cleans Temp files which slow down computer.
www.ccleaner.com

Answer 7

Do Ctrl-Alt-Del and check the Processes tab. If you see WRRP anywhere, you are infected with a huge pain in the ***.

Answer 8

well, first off you dont need msnmsgr.exe or realsched.exe
and if might be macaffee...umm im not sure, but i dont thing you need ashdisp or itype...check those
defrag a few times, and run disk cleanup
hope that help =D

Answer 9

Install your motherboard software. It's usually online.

Answer 10

make sure you defragment at least once a week, run virus, spybot, adaware scans....other than that I'm not sure but my computer worked better after I did that