I need help with my new PC...

[Nissian X]

Right, everything is running like it should be, although I have one concern, I'm using Windows XP, and everytime I log off and/or Restart and or/switch users, it takes a very long time, can anyone help me out with this??

[And_so_it_goes]

Right, everything is running like it should be, although I have one concern, I'm using Windows XP, and everytime I log off and/or Restart and or/switch users, it takes a very long time, can anyone help me out with this??

in my experience windows xp always takes a long time to shut down or restart (i never log off or switch users) because it has to save settings then for your next start up. the good news is it doesn't take as long to start up as 98 did. i think this is normal, unless your wait times are say, longer than a minute.

[Daman_He_Hate_Me]

look in your system tray, see how many icons you have, these represent programs that load up everytime you start windows, you know virus scanner, firewalls, media players, and all kinds of other programs. The more programs in there, the longer it will take to start your machine and shut it down. If this is not the case, you may have some other problem.

[And_so_it_goes]

yeah, and check out blackviper.com on disabling all kinds of unnecessary background programs. can make a big difference, even in gameplay.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Right, everything is running like it should be, although I have one concern, I'm using Windows XP, and everytime I log off and/or Restart and or/switch users, it takes a very long time, can anyone help me out with this??

How much RAM do you have? My boot-up/shut down/Log Off's take about 20 secs to boot, 20 to shut-down and about 5 to log off. Having many programs running in the background will cause slower boot-up/boot-down times, since there's more programs to load/shutdown. The RAM will allow for faster speeds i regards to boot-up/shutdown.

There's many things you can do, but knowing the basics about your comp would help. RAM, what background progs you're running, AV scanners etc.

[Friend_Bear]

My comp takes usually around 5-20 seconds to boot into XP and usually around 5 seconds to log-off even though I have a ton of programs running in the background, many are system hogs like norton systemworks, but since i've got a healthy 768mb ram + my system is a pretty good Athlon XP 2.2ghz, not the best but definately not to bad either.

As for your problem, if you try reducing the programs you have running in the background and you still have this problem, it could be a registery problem and there usually not so easy to diagnose and repair.

[moya]

5 seconds to boot?! From power on? You're having a laugh, mate. :)

Nissian X: There are things you can do to speed up Windows XP shutdown, though most of them involve editing the registry. What the tweaks basically do is tell Windows not to wait so long to shut down the background apps etc. blackviper.com may give you info on this, but I know that www.tweaktown.com has a good guide which tells you all you need to know about this stuff (it's called "XP - from reformat to relax" or something).

For the record, my boot-up from power-on takes just shy of 35 seconds. Log off and shutdown takes around 15 in total.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

5 seconds to boot?! From power on? You're having a laugh, mate.

I was just coming back to mention that! LOL Man, imagine a computer that is up and running even before the monitor shows its' colour!

My Boot-up and power down are facilitated by the fact that I only have one thing start on boot-up, and that's my AV scanner. Before I shutdown alot of the other stuff that I was finding I was turning off anyways (MSN, ICQ, Audio EQ etc), it would easily take 45 seconds to boot up.

[Aku]

Check out www.blackviper.com (http://www.blackviper.com). It lists all the common Windows XP services, and which ones you can safely disable. Disabling a lot of these services also helps your games to run better, and be more stable (less crashing).

[Nissian X]

Check out www.blackviper.com (http://www.blackviper.com/). It lists all the common Windows XP services, and which ones you can safely disable. Disabling a lot of these services also helps your games to run better, and be more stable (less crashing).
Thanks for all the help guys, I've done a few things that you mentioned and so far it's all good. Though I'm also going through that Blaster Worm phase right now.:(

[mandark]

Thanks for all the help guys, I've done a few things that you mentioned and so far it's all good. Though I'm also going through that Blaster Worm phase right now.:(

Ouch. Go to this site and clean it up:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Thanks for all the help guys, I've done a few things that you mentioned and so far it's all good. Though I'm also going through that Blaster Worm phase right now.:(

I've removed that worm from a couple peoples' computers... That would be a good candidate for slow-ass computing abilities. Especially trying to connect to the internet- you should have noticed a huge degradation in speed. Basically it'll use your connection to flood MS's site with a DoS attack- eating up your bandwidth... nasty that. It should have been apparent from the get-go that there was something more amiss than just a slow boot up process. It's really a wonder that you can connect to the net...

Are you sure that it's Blaster... have you checked your email Inbox to make sure that you're not sending out thousands of emails to unsuspecting victims?

[Renzatic Gear]

I talked to Niss just a little while ago, he was getting the RPC protocol reboot so it's definately blaster.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Yup, that will do it. Should enable your Firewall, and disable RPC functions if you're not using them (most likely not).

[Friend_Bear]

I put 5-20 seconds since I never actually timed it, never even thought about timing it....but just for the record on a soft reboot it takes 12 seconds to boot, from hard it takes on average around 15. :-p

I keep my system is top condition for gaming, I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Nissian X]

Yup, that will do it. Should enable your Firewall, and disable RPC functions if you're not using them (most likely not).
Okay, how do I disable my RPC functions?

[Renzatic Gear]

SHAZAM! (http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.removal.tool.html)

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Yeah, it wasn't Blaster that I removed after all- It was MyDoom... RPC should be disabled though... IF you don't know what RPC is- then disable it... bad news. Yeah, I know, I give shoddy tech support! ;)