What is wrong with my Vista based PC?...?

Question

It takes nearly 2 min to boot up (and a long time to shut down). This Dell Inspiron E1505 is: less than 6 mos old; w/o a lot of software installations; and I've removed most items from auto start up. During boot -up the screen goes black for 10 sec. before the desktop appears. I've run virus and adware runs and found nothing.

Also when I use Internet explorer, the windows opens to odd sizes in different places on the screen (I have made them full size and closed them before use and re-opened, but it hasn't worked).

Thanks.

Answer 1

The number one issue with Vista is MEMORY. If you have less than 1 gig it will take forever. 2 Gig is better still.

We were able to improve start up with WinPatrol. It allows you to see what really is "auto" starting and kill those items you don't need. http://www.winpatrol.com/ there is a "free" version and a PLUS version.

The other item to check is your Antivirus, I hate to say it but switching from Norton to ANY other AV improved our performance on start up by 50% measured! Not to mention the machine just seems to run better. (sorry if Norton disagrees but that was our experience on three machines in a row!)

Answer 2

Have you gone into Start/Accessories/System Tools and run disk clean up (Select all the buttons in the window) then a Disk Defrag? Do that first, then find a download of Kaspersky, Advent or AVG. They are free and very light on system resources. Turn off then delete Norton and/or McAfee. Reboot and load the free antivirus you selected. The last resort is install more memory, it made quite a bit of speed difference on mine.

Answer 3

find the ie icon
right click properties
in the shortcut tab select normal window in the run.

(normal is default. it remembers the last used window size.
You could try maximised)

the above is for XP but it may get you thinking for vista


about your boot problem it soundds like a RAM power problem.

Some laptops are funny with RAM. Should try to stick to RAM that is designed at that speed and not backward compatable, also some laptops cannot handle "any" brand of RAM, because it may drag down the power supply.

If you have two sticks of RAM, remove one and try.

swap them over and try

If it works good on each one, but not together, then the RAM you have is not the best type for that laptop.

Answer 4

Your PC is infected with malware. Search Wikipedia for more info.

Then: Back up all personal data from your PC ("Backup" means: copy to CD / DVD / external hard drive). Then, use your Dell Recovery disk to reset it to Factory settings.

Note: You must use the manufacturer's Recovery disks, if included with your PC, to avoid driver problems, not a store-bought XP disk. The Recovery disks may be ON the hard drive, so Read The Friendly Manual (RTFM) FIRST to find out how to make your own Recovery disks, if you haven't already formatted your hard drive.

Answer 5

Other than its got Vista on? Thats one seriously garbage OS. Still, not even that crock should take 2 mins to start.. 1 min, maybe. You could try checking the drive - it might have developed errors. Also, see if there are any errors reported in the logs. If all else fails, try a reinstall.