How to Easily Optimize a Notebook Computer and Make it Faster Discussion

Nice guide Jack.

A couple of things.

First, I've read that keeping the page file constant in size (setting the min and max to the same size) helps performance. Not sure if this works, but it makes sense intuitively, as the machine doesn't have to adjust an already slow process on the fly.

Second, in addition to defragging, I keep the page file defragged with a utility called (strangely enough) Page Defrag. Even after a standard Windows defrag, the page file can remain fragmented.

I have heard that "Show windows contents when dragging" is one of the biggest video resource hogs.

Also, browsing is sped up considerably if you don't load obnoxious banner ads. Mozilla's ad block extension helps with this, as does installing a hosts file (note that the latter will cause problems with referral site redirects, such as dealnews.com and techbargains.com).

Of course, I use a full compliment of anti-spyware stuff, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, MS's program, Ewido, and Spyware Blaster. Also, Zonealarm and AVG free edition.

 

Yes I agree with post 46, CCleaner a great little program that does a lot, quickly. The XP updates just keep coming!

 

better than regclean? used that thing, found lots of errors, fixed. did it perform faster, who knows. did it screw things up, who knows. all i know is it found errors, said fixed so do i believe it?

 

Is there anyway to get rid of those annoying programs that like to hide? Like those stupid AOL Free Trial programs that don't appear in the add/remove program lists. All I can do is remove the icon from the desktop.

 

i just got an external hdd and my notebook wont detect it, neither will my desktop.

So i took it back and got a new one different brand.

Im thinkin i disabled one of the services, i follwed this guide word for word. Can anyone help me out. My os on my notebook is media center edition and my desktop is xp pro

 

Nice detailed information, but there is one small correction I would like to add for this line

On new V2000z series with ATI200M, you need to let AtiHotkeyPoller Service keep running as it is also enabling/disabling ATI PowerPlay. Without AtiHotKeyPoller service PowerPlay is stuck at Max Performance irrespective of settings even on battery. I do not know why the hell ATI linked these two.

 

When i try to run "tunxp" it says its not a valid win32 application.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Great post by-the-way.

$1.00 on the way.

Adam

 

This guide is so helpful, I sent $2.00!!!!

Adam

 

Same here atomic with the win32 error - happens on some of my machines, not others, who knows . .

 

1. When I try to clean up msconfig and UNcheck the programs that I don't want, every time I reboot they are CHECKED again.

2. I can't delete NORTON, and I can't uninstall it. Of course, I can't use any other anti-virus program, because Norton always starts up.

 

Hey all,

Great Guide first of all. I have some problems though and am looking for some help/advice as to what I might do to fix my problem.

My system below is about a month alot. When I got it the first thing I did was format it and optimize it the best I could. I have used just about every tweak on the first page of this guide. I cleaned out my startup to only leave the programs I REALLY need. So I have this new Laptop with 2 Gigs of Ram and it's optimized *I THINK* rather well..

However my computer from coldboot til the second the hard drive stops accessing anything and it's all fully loaded takes a rediculous 92 seconds! I have no idea why it's doing this. My bootfiles are regorganized. I even stopped alot of services I don't ever need and it's still taking this long.

I Did notice when my format was first done, but before I did any tweaks (or had installed anything) that the system tended to "hang" on start up. It still does from time to time. Sometimes the blue screen "welcome" Windows XP will stay on for over 10-15. Other times the taskbar it self seems to take a long while to actually graphically load.

I don't see how my optimized computer could be booting so slow. My thought is maybe I got a bad hard drive? Does that sound likely? I just know Dell will give me **** if I want to replace it... they will probably want me to do 1000 meaningless tests just to conclude what I already know. Wish I could get around that!

Anyway thoughts or advice appreciated.

Oh and PS... does Mcafee really need the 5-6 things it has in startup? That alone is 1/3 of my startup processes in msconfig...

 

i know this is old but thanks it helps to have info like this

 

If I were you I would ditch Mcafee and get AVG antivirus or Avast! Antivirus. They are both free and work great. And if you need a free firewall, Zone Alarm is great also. They won't be as much of a system hog as Mcafee is.

 

Excellent advice, something I was going to say in another thread.

AVG is excellent - it updates itself and isn't a process hog. Dump the Crapafee.

 

See if clearing out the prefetch folder helps boot times.

C>Windows>Prefetch. Drag all items to trash and empty, then reboot.

 

Myth - "Deleting the contents of the Prefetch folder improves performance"

Reality - "Every time you delete an application's Prefetch (.PF) file you will cripple that application's load time the next time you go to launch it. This can temporarily increase load times by as much as 100%. For one thing, XP will just re-create the Prefetch (.PF) files anyway; secondly, it trims the files if there's ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn't needlessly consume space. However you do not regain optimal application load times back until after the second time you launch the same application due to the Prefetch (.PF) file being re-created. Prefetch (.PF) files are not a cache and are not preloaded into memory upon windows startup. They are never even accessed until you launch an application. Only one Prefetch (.PF) file per application is created. There is never ANY reason to delete these files. Cleaning the Prefetch folder is actually a temporary self-inflicted unoptimization."

cheers ...

 

I never said nor implied that clearing the prefetch "improves performance." I said it improves boot times. And it does. The poster's issue was with boot times, not overall performance (admittedly, clearing the prefetch folder can slow down subsquent application launches the first time they are launched).

And your quoted "reality" does not consider that XP prefetches every app, even those you use rarely or only once, including installers and setup files. Having 50 installer prefetches load at every startup is silly and increases load times. I'd say that ocassional clearing of the prefetch folder, especially on machines that have had a lot of software installs, would help boot times.

The guy I trust the most about XP tweaks is The Elder Geek, and I quote:

Prefetch is one of the commonly overlooked components that can have a significant impact on system boot time.

Try it yourself. Set Windows to only prefetch boot data, not applications, as described here. Time the boot before and after. Some people see as much as a 20% boot time decrease. YMMV.

BTW, setting the prefetch to boot only will prevent the .pf files from reappearing, and permanently disable app prefetching. I don't recommend this, as apps that load at startup (antivirus, firewall) will load slower, and commonly used apps should be in the prefetch folder.

 

"Prefetch (.PF) files are not a cache and are not preloaded into memory upon windows startup." = Zero effect in start up!

as above = got nothing to do with prefecth files. U r talking about prefetch BOOT data - this is a totally diffrent issue, has NOTHING to do with XP app prefetch. To improve XP start up, it is better to remove unecessary services and uneeded start programmes - yes, i did try it myself

cheers ...

 

Thank you for the tip about alternate AntiVirus. I dropped Mcafee and switched to AVG. My Mcafee was free (through my internet) but I love the fact that AVG adds ONE process to my startup... not 5.

But unfortunately, my Boottime did not change at all... I'm not kidding,., Still over one minute.

I think it's time for a format. Now that school is out, I have the time to do it. Just a pain though.

When I get a chance, I willl do it and report back. After that I think it will be time to contact Dell.

 

to the people that uninstalled their norton av, how did you remove the liveupdate? everytime i try, it says that there are still some apps that are using it. i have no idea what they are since i already removed the main norton app.

 

u might try to:
1. disable ALL norton/symantec related services (computer admin-services), then remove
2. (when brave enough) remove all registry entries with either norton/symantec
3. symantec offers a guide: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...nsf=nav.nsf&view=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=
(not always 100% -but it is free and just as good)

cheers ...

 

Awesome to find all those need tip and tricks!
I've just ordered the new nx9420 and have been doing some reading about possible tweaking tips on several sites.

This is a very usefull one - ref free SW to optimize the laptop.
http://www.laptoplogic.com/resources/detail.php?id=33

greetz, peter

 

Hey y'all,

I followed all the advice on the original article. However, everytime I boot up now, it lags on my wallpaper for a good 2-3 minutes, before uploading all my start up programs, taskbar, etc.

How do I fix this?

I only have 7 startup items and it never lagged before. Strange.

 

If you don't want to buy Diskeeper, you can use the free Diskeeper Lite version from here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

It's not the latest, but it works well.

 

I have experienced this problem too. In my case, some of my desired startups (such as the fan controller/ temp monitor) would not load at all. Logoff and logon would load everything as normal. Easiest solution I found was to just wait about 15 sec before logging on. For some reason, it seems logon can interupt the startup process.

 

I followed this article as well, and it caused my computer to quit going into standby. I had to do a system restore to get it working again. I was also wondering... is it normal to have two rundll32 occurences in my task manager? Cause I do, and I've heard that there are a few rundll32 viruses out there.

 

I had a similar problem as well, but I noticed it after messing with the services program. I'm currently in the process of reformating my HD, then I'm going to slowly work my way up the services (while re-installing drivers and such), untill I figure out which ones cause such a rediculous time lag.

Of course, if anyone has any pointers as to which services cause this problem, I'm listening.

 

get a copy of the winxp msconfig and use that...

 

So can I ask what is TUNXP then ???

in all my years I have never seen this and is there a website - thanks

 

thats why I never use sportons (nortons)

I use these tried and tested on over 1200 systems


AVG
Sygate (even tho its been bought by nortons)
Adaware
AdMuncher

occasionally using spybot

thats basicly it and have never had a problem yet (x's fingers)

 

From the initial post in the thread:

Initial post also has working link.

Nice program, btw.

 

RegscrubXP doesn't do anything unless you pay for it first.

 

Worked for me - At least I think it did- i.e., it found errors, I told it to fix them, and re-scanned and it didn't find them again.

Also, the program is freeware - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/System_Maintenance_and_Repair_Utilities/RegScrubXP.html

Everything I see says it is freeware, although this rather disturbing passage states that the homepage and E-mail address are dead, and no support has been done to the program since 2002, which is also the date of the MajorGeeks file.

In that case, how would you pay for it if you wanted to?

 

The download is free and the scan is free. It told me I had 170something errors in my registry, fixed 16 of them, then told me I had to register it in order for it to fix the other 161 errors. In order to register I have to pay.

 

yes, it finds over a hundred errors but only fix about a dozen and ask to register in order to fix the rest. got rid of it.

 

From MajorGeeks? - B/c I've never had it mention anything about registering to me. ???

 

When I unchecked a few startup applications in msconfig and reset, I get this screen that says the system configuration utility has been changed and some other stuff. Is that normal?

 

I think so, I haven't been fond of using msconfig, and have had much better luck using StartupCPL.

 

I'd like to point out to all who read this thread that the original article is somewhat outdated. A number of the recomendations are perfectly valid, but as some of us may have noticed, others aren't so good. Remember that you mess with your settings at your own risk.

 

Ok, this is what I was mentioning earlier:

 

That's normal. It's basically there to give you easy access to msconfig if you messed up a program. If you find it annoying, just check the box and it won't bother you again.

 

Actually, I check the box all the time I change something and it insists on coming back. Further more, I wish msmsgs (windows messenger I think) and msn messenger wouldn't automatically make themselves go back to starting up at every boot again. No matter how many times I tell it not to, it insists..

 

Just remove them from the computer then. You should be able to do that thorugh the add/remove programs, in either the normal section, or the windows components section. Kill them there.

 

Great post thanks bro

 

If you want to get rid of messenger, download ad-aware home (its free) and get Messenger control. It stops it from running.

 

Wow, I never defragged much but Diskeeper told me my system was very unhealthy! Good to know!

Thanks Jack!

 

Hey, you can stop windows messenger from running at start-up by
1) open windows messenger
2) options>general
3) there is an option along the lines of "automatically run windows messenger when i log onto windows"
4) uncheck that box and messenger won't boot up unwanted again

 

how would you do this witha mac?

 

Thanks, but I just went in and deleted windows messenger.

 

Any thoughts on this article?

http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2...esoftwareguide.com/0606xptips.html&frame=true