Vista VERY slow for 10 minutes after startup.

My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work which
came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed fine
with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after startup,
vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that time
everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on the
computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the problem.

System Specs:
Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
1GB RAM
80 GB HD
Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card

Steps taken:
My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3 of
it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in it, so I
removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of RAM.

RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.

I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
detecting any major problems and there were none.

Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup applications
as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still no
improvement.

I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
improvement.

Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task Manager
tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it could be
that it's just not getting updated.

I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But if
anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or startup apps
that could be causing this, please let me know.

Thanks,

dpwilli

Look in task manager to see which processes are consuming cpu during this
period, and add columns for disk activity to see which processes are
thrashing the drives. Then you will be one step closer to understanding what
is going on...

"dpwilli" <> wrote in message
news:02802533-C666-49E2-8B53-...
> My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work which
> came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed
> fine
> with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after startup,
> vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that time
> everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on
> the
> computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
> immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the
> problem.
>
> System Specs:
> Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
> Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
> 1GB RAM
> 80 GB HD
> Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card
>
> Steps taken:
> My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3 of
> it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in it,
> so I
> removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of RAM.
>
> RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.
>
> I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
> detecting any major problems and there were none.
>
> Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup applications
> as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still no
> improvement.
>
> I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
> improvement.
>
> Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
> processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task Manager
> tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it could
> be
> that it's just not getting updated.
>
> I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But if
> anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or startup
> apps
> that could be causing this, please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> dpwilli

Mac,
Thanks for the suggestion. I have looked at CPU utilization, but the task
manager isn't updating during this time so all running processes are showing
reasonable (< 10 - 20 % utilization). I haven't tried the disk activity
column though. I'll give that a try and post the results. Thanks for the
suggestion, and keep 'em coming.

dpwill

"Mac" wrote:

> Look in task manager to see which processes are consuming cpu during this
> period, and add columns for disk activity to see which processes are
> thrashing the drives. Then you will be one step closer to understanding what
> is going on...
>
> "dpwilli" <> wrote in message
> news:02802533-C666-49E2-8B53-...
> > My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work which
> > came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed
> > fine
> > with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after startup,
> > vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that time
> > everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on
> > the
> > computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
> > immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the
> > problem.
> >
> > System Specs:
> > Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
> > Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
> > 1GB RAM
> > 80 GB HD
> > Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card
> >
> > Steps taken:
> > My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3 of
> > it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in it,
> > so I
> > removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of RAM.
> >
> > RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.
> >
> > I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
> > detecting any major problems and there were none.
> >
> > Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup applications
> > as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still no
> > improvement.
> >
> > I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
> > improvement.
> >
> > Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
> > processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task Manager
> > tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it could
> > be
> > that it's just not getting updated.
> >
> > I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But if
> > anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or startup
> > apps
> > that could be causing this, please let me know.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > dpwilli
>

This is not normal, if you are sure there is no virus/spyware take it back
to where it came from & let them fix or replace it.

"dpwilli" <> wrote in message
news:02802533-C666-49E2-8B53-...
> My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work which
> came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed
> fine
> with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after startup,
> vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that time
> everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on
> the
> computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
> immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the
> problem.
>
> System Specs:
> Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
> Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
> 1GB RAM
> 80 GB HD
> Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card
>
> Steps taken:
> My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3 of
> it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in it,
> so I
> removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of RAM.
>
> RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.
>
> I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
> detecting any major problems and there were none.
>
> Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup applications
> as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still no
> improvement.
>
> I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
> improvement.
>
> Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
> processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task Manager
> tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it could
> be
> that it's just not getting updated.
>
> I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But if
> anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or startup
> apps
> that could be causing this, please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> dpwilli

It should update during that time! Check in Event Viewer to see if there is
anything being recorded during that period... Start/Orb, type Event, click
on Event Viewer.

Also in task manager sort the rows by clicking on the top of the cpu or disk
columns to see the highest activity...

"dpwilli" <> wrote in message
news:CA5F1CE4-DDFA-4A80-942D-...
> Mac,
> Thanks for the suggestion. I have looked at CPU utilization, but the task
> manager isn't updating during this time so all running processes are
> showing
> reasonable (< 10 - 20 % utilization). I haven't tried the disk activity
> column though. I'll give that a try and post the results. Thanks for the
> suggestion, and keep 'em coming.
>
> dpwill
>
> "Mac" wrote:
>
>> Look in task manager to see which processes are consuming cpu during this
>> period, and add columns for disk activity to see which processes are
>> thrashing the drives. Then you will be one step closer to understanding
>> what
>> is going on...
>>
>> "dpwilli" <> wrote in message
>> news:02802533-C666-49E2-8B53-...
>> > My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work
>> > which
>> > came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed
>> > fine
>> > with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after
>> > startup,
>> > vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that
>> > time
>> > everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on
>> > the
>> > computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
>> > immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the
>> > problem.
>> >
>> > System Specs:
>> > Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
>> > Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
>> > 1GB RAM
>> > 80 GB HD
>> > Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card
>> >
>> > Steps taken:
>> > My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3
>> > of
>> > it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in
>> > it,
>> > so I
>> > removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of
>> > RAM.
>> >
>> > RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.
>> >
>> > I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
>> > detecting any major problems and there were none.
>> >
>> > Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup
>> > applications
>> > as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still
>> > no
>> > improvement.
>> >
>> > I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
>> > improvement.
>> >
>> > Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
>> > processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task
>> > Manager
>> > tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it
>> > could
>> > be
>> > that it's just not getting updated.
>> >
>> > I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But
>> > if
>> > anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or
>> > startup
>> > apps
>> > that could be causing this, please let me know.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> >
>> > dpwilli
>>

Hi, dpwilli.

Mac's suggestions are right on!

We often hear complaints that Vista is slow at first, but then gets better
after a few days, as the Indexing Service completes the initial Index. To
see if this might be the problem, click Control Panel | Indexing Options and
see if it says "Indexing complete", or that it is "reduced due to user
activity", or similar language. Indexing is SUPPOSED to work in the
background and be almost unnoticed - and it does, AFTER it finishes building
the initial Index. Of course, it has to get to work again if we add a lot
of new content to the hard drive, such as a lot of new emails or newsgroup
messages, or importing a lot of files, especially text files, that need to
be indexed.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

"dpwilli" <> wrote in message
news:02802533-C666-49E2-8B53-...
> My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work which
> came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed
> fine
> with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after startup,
> vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that time
> everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on
> the
> computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
> immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the
> problem.
>
> System Specs:
> Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
> Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
> 1GB RAM
> 80 GB HD
> Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card
>
> Steps taken:
> My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3 of
> it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in it,
> so I
> removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of RAM.
>
> RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.
>
> I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
> detecting any major problems and there were none.
>
> Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup applications
> as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still no
> improvement.
>
> I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
> improvement.
>
> Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
> processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task Manager
> tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it could
> be
> that it's just not getting updated.
>
> I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But if
> anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or startup
> apps
> that could be causing this, please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> dpwilli

If none of the suggestions you've received pan out check your security
programs. Some antivirus and antispyware programs do a scan on startup.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


"dpwilli" <> wrote in message
news:02802533-C666-49E2-8B53-...
> My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work which
> came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed
> fine
> with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after startup,
> vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that time
> everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on
> the
> computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
> immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the
> problem.
>
> System Specs:
> Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
> Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
> 1GB RAM
> 80 GB HD
> Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card
>
> Steps taken:
> My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3 of
> it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in it,
> so I
> removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of RAM.
>
> RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.
>
> I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
> detecting any major problems and there were none.
>
> Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup applications
> as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still no
> improvement.
>
> I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
> improvement.
>
> Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
> processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task Manager
> tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it could
> be
> that it's just not getting updated.
>
> I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But if
> anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or startup
> apps
> that could be causing this, please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> dpwilli

Ok, so what is considered normal for Disk I/O Reads & writes?

I've got my anti-virus software doing 17,000,000 I/O Read Bytes. Windows
Explorer is doing 3,000,000 read bytes, but has 17,000,000 'I/O Other Bytes'.
Do any of those seem excessive? CPU Utilization remains normal and physical
memory is steady around 26%. Still having the same issue. 10 minutes or so
nothing will run, then all of a sudden everything is fine. No issues listed
under performance issues.

By the way, this is a 64 bit machine. Any reason that could be causing a
problem?

"R. C. White" wrote:

> Hi, dpwilli.
>
> Mac's suggestions are right on!
>
> We often hear complaints that Vista is slow at first, but then gets better
> after a few days, as the Indexing Service completes the initial Index. To
> see if this might be the problem, click Control Panel | Indexing Options and
> see if it says "Indexing complete", or that it is "reduced due to user
> activity", or similar language. Indexing is SUPPOSED to work in the
> background and be almost unnoticed - and it does, AFTER it finishes building
> the initial Index. Of course, it has to get to work again if we add a lot
> of new content to the hard drive, such as a lot of new emails or newsgroup
> messages, or importing a lot of files, especially text files, that need to
> be indexed.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> (Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)
>
> "dpwilli" <> wrote in message
> news:02802533-C666-49E2-8B53-...
> > My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work which
> > came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed
> > fine
> > with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after startup,
> > vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that time
> > everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on
> > the
> > computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
> > immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the
> > problem.
> >
> > System Specs:
> > Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
> > Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
> > 1GB RAM
> > 80 GB HD
> > Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card
> >
> > Steps taken:
> > My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3 of
> > it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in it,
> > so I
> > removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of RAM.
> >
> > RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.
> >
> > I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
> > detecting any major problems and there were none.
> >
> > Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup applications
> > as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still no
> > improvement.
> >
> > I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
> > improvement.
> >
> > Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
> > processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task Manager
> > tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it could
> > be
> > that it's just not getting updated.
> >
> > I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But if
> > anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or startup
> > apps
> > that could be causing this, please let me know.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > dpwilli
>

Hi, dpwilli.

> Ok, so what is considered normal for Disk I/O Reads & writes?

I have no idea. :>( I've never had any need to observe or investigate
these stats.

> 10 minutes or so
> nothing will run, then all of a sudden everything is fine.

The first thing that comes to mind is heat. Some piece of hardware inside
the case shrinks when cool and no longer functions properly. After
power-on, it takes 10 minutes for it to come up to operating temperature, or
to expand enough to make or firm up a critical connection. The hard drive
cables would be prime suspects.

Have you discussed this with Acer, or the vendor who sold you the notebook?
Is it too late for a replacement under warranty?

I probably can't help with this problem, dpwilli. Please post back when you
get it figured out and let us know. Good luck!

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

"dpwilli" <> wrote in message
news:FA9A9B8A-1867-4DD0-98A7-...
> Ok, so what is considered normal for Disk I/O Reads & writes?
>
> I've got my anti-virus software doing 17,000,000 I/O Read Bytes. Windows
> Explorer is doing 3,000,000 read bytes, but has 17,000,000 'I/O Other
> Bytes'.
> Do any of those seem excessive? CPU Utilization remains normal and
> physical
> memory is steady around 26%. Still having the same issue. 10 minutes or
> so
> nothing will run, then all of a sudden everything is fine. No issues
> listed
> under performance issues.
>
> By the way, this is a 64 bit machine. Any reason that could be causing a
> problem?
>
> "R. C. White" wrote:
>
>> Hi, dpwilli.
>>
>> Mac's suggestions are right on!
>>
>> We often hear complaints that Vista is slow at first, but then gets
>> better
>> after a few days, as the Indexing Service completes the initial Index.
>> To
>> see if this might be the problem, click Control Panel | Indexing Options
>> and
>> see if it says "Indexing complete", or that it is "reduced due to user
>> activity", or similar language. Indexing is SUPPOSED to work in the
>> background and be almost unnoticed - and it does, AFTER it finishes
>> building
>> the initial Index. Of course, it has to get to work again if we add a
>> lot
>> of new content to the hard drive, such as a lot of new emails or
>> newsgroup
>> messages, or importing a lot of files, especially text files, that need
>> to
>> be indexed.
>>
>> RC
>> --
>> R. C. White, CPA
>> San Marcos, TX
>>
>> Microsoft Windows MVP
>> (Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)
>>
>> "dpwilli" <> wrote in message
>> news:02802533-C666-49E2-8B53-...
>> > My wife recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook for her work
>> > which
>> > came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. At first everything seemed
>> > fine
>> > with it, then after a few weeks she started noticing that after
>> > startup,
>> > vista was virtually unresponsive for about 10-15 minutes. After that
>> > time
>> > everything ran fine. There has been only one application installed on
>> > the
>> > computer, but is not running at system startup and is not launched
>> > immediately after startup, so I don't think it could be causing the
>> > problem.
>> >
>> > System Specs:
>> > Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
>> > Preinstalled Vista Home Priemium
>> > 1GB RAM
>> > 80 GB HD
>> > Radeon ATI Xpress 1100 Graphics Card
>> >
>> > Steps taken:
>> > My first thought was that it needed more RAM. Of the original gig, 1/3
>> > of
>> > it was being reserved for video memory. It had two 512mb sodimms in
>> > it,
>> > so I
>> > removed one and added an additional gig, bringing me to 1.5 gigs of
>> > RAM.
>> >
>> > RESULT: Did not notice any significant improvement as a aresult.
>> >
>> > I then ran many of the Vista performance utilities to see if the OS was
>> > detecting any major problems and there were none.
>> >
>> > Next, I ran msconfig and disabled the majority of the startup
>> > applications
>> > as well as a handful of services which I knew were not needed. Still
>> > no
>> > improvement.
>> >
>> > I disabled Aero and turned off all of the windows visual effects. No
>> > improvement.
>> >
>> > Task manager doesn't show any processes utilizing excesive amounts of
>> > processor time or memory. Although, I have noticed that the Task
>> > Manager
>> > tends to freeze up durning this initial post-boot lag time. So it
>> > could
>> > be
>> > that it's just not getting updated.
>> >
>> > I'm going to try and start it in safe mode to see if that helps. But
>> > if
>> > anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any specific services or
>> > startup
>> > apps
>> > that could be causing this, please let me know.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> >
>> > dpwilli
>>

Hi.

i have the same problem.

My machine
Ram 4 gb
Video Nvidia geforce 8800 GTx
Cpu intel Core2 Quad 2.66
Board MSI P6n Sli Platinun

in vista ultima 32 bit the boot is perfect time, but when i upgrade to 64
bit, is a very slow boot ( about 7 minutes), i have a teory about the drivers
of the board.

but also is slow when i run vista 64, is dirvers problem ?