Windows Vista Laptop Slow To Start Up

[tomartoh]

posted some time ago about my laptop going from fast to very slow, ie 7mins black screen. before log in window.

did everything recommended plus a lot more and today i am trying to trim some space on "c" and deleted firefox, which has been my favourite browser as it showed 1.75 gigs on add/uninstall, and uninstalled it and lo and behold start up time back to normal. done it a few times now. and ok

but............. on add/uninstall it still shows firefox 3 with 1.57 gigs and will not install. [was 3.5 beta i actually uninstalled] cannot find trace firefox of in on programs files on "c"

so where is all this memory hiding?

[Jiu-Jitsu]

posted some time ago about my laptop going from fast to very slow, ie 7mins black screen. before log in window.

did everything recommended plus a lot more and today i am trying to trim some space on "c" and deleted firefox, which has been my favourite browser as it showed 1.75 gigs on add/uninstall, and uninstalled it and lo and behold start up time back to normal. done it a few times now. and ok

but............. on add/uninstall it still shows firefox 3 with 1.57 gigs and will not install. [was 3.5 beta i actually uninstalled] cannot find trace firefox of in on programs files on "c"

so where is all this memory hiding?

WinDirStat

[H2oDunc]

Tomartoh try the disc clean up utility in system tools. Run it then click on the more options tab at the top. Then select to clean up the restore points and shadow copies. Vista likes to make copies and restore points all the time which takes up lots of space. Click clean up then return to the previous tab and select delete. Check how much space you have recovered. I got back over 6 Gig. Also f your system is slow try Googling delay start. A nifty little program that lets you delay loading everything at once so your system starts a lot quicker

[tomartoh]

I think i have cleaned everything possible including the screen. but will follow your process h2odunc

Had 2 days starting fast as previous, after uninstalling firefox. Now its back to slow start again. exactly the same. loading bar comes up, then screen blank for 7 minutes then goes into normal start mode. Its as if there is a timer inside delaying the start. deleted all the browsers except ie8. i used to think people were being anti microsoft when the slagged off ie7/8. i dont now and i will soon put firefox back on. I miss firefox, great browser. ie8 seems cumbersome in comparison

i used windirstat before but now using spacemonger which is great and easier to work with. seen loads of old crap stored in 'c'. freed up 4 gig but had to put hibernate back on so lost a couple of them

dont want to install win7 as it will have to be paid for sooner or later and would rather get vista sorted out

jeez but i put some time in on this, wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. but at least i am finding my way around the computer

[thailandlover]

I missed your previous thread on this as I haven' t had much time online lately, but I am assuming you did the obvious and removed all unnecessary programs from starting up when windows boots?

[Jiu-Jitsu]

The black screen could be to do with Updates installing before start up.

How much RAM do you have installed?

[tomartoh]

The black screen is every time so cannot be updates. Been a number of false dawns. the first to go was avg antivirus and comp back to normal for one startup. same for a number of other programs. Last being firefox, and then ok for 2 days with a lot of startups. and then back to the black screen thing.

got 2 ram and 4 or so gig free now on 'c'. out of 31

i spend so much time on this that the gf comes to check me incase i am chatting up some bird on the internet

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Defragged? Have you googled for a solution for your problem?