I just got a brand new dell inspiron 6000 for xmas. it was fast for the first month, but recently it has been taking 6-8 minutes to start up. the windows screen will load up, but i wont be able to do anything until it stops processing or whatever its doing.

i tried to run dell support, but in my opinion its a huge piece of shit. very user-unfriendly and little problem-solving value. one thing it did tell me, though, was that it could be from multiple anti-virus applications.

I have McAfee SecurityCenter that came with my computer, and my gf downloaded Cisco Clean Access Agent b/c she has to use it to get into her network at school. I uninstalled Cisco, but it didnt help and I have no clue what to do.

Before contacting the shmoes at Dell, I figured someone on here might have some useful help.

4/7/2006 1:54:04 PM

Download Microsoft BootVis

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664

This is a boot logging application to show you what is taking so long during the boot process.

Also, defrag your hard disk. Once you have done that (or while you are doing that) read this:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1786009,00.asp

Also, check your system for Spyware and possible viruses.

[Edited on April 7, 2006 at 2:02 PM. Reason : +]

4/7/2006 2:00:24 PM

i've checked for viruses and spyware and defragmented. i dl'ed that program, but cant figure out how to get it to tell me anything.

i dont know how i overlooked this, but i realize i have Symantec as well as McAfee installed. I'm trying to uninstall Symantec through the control panel, but it says it cannot be stopped and to check if i have permission to stop services.

Can anyone help????

4/7/2006 3:56:46 PM

Quote :

"i dl'ed that program, but cant figure out how to get it to tell me anything."

If you Google "how to use BootVis" there are 81,000 hits.

I am sure one of them could help.

Quote :

"I'm trying to uninstall Symantec through the control panel, but it says it cannot be stopped and to check if i have permission to stop services."

You must be logged in as a local administrator to do this.

4/7/2006 4:12:59 PM

i'm the only user on this computer... do i still have to log in as a local administrator? if so, how

4/7/2006 4:20:44 PM

Start -> RUn and type in 'msconfig' (w/out quotes) then click on the startup tab (last one on right). This is a list of everything that starts up on boot. You can go through here and clean up some of the stuff that isn't necessary (quicktime, realplayer, etc.). Dell puts a bunch of unnecessary software up there that can be "unchecked" also.

Before you just go and start unchecking things though look up what the .exe file is actually opening. You can do this by typing in the name of the .exe file into google and you should be able to find information on what the program is for. Or, let someone else that knows what they are doing look at it.

As far as Norton...it's usually not a good idea to have both Norton and McAfee installed at sametime. Try uninstalling Mcafee first and then Symantec (disconnect from internet first though so that you aren't on the web w/out any virus software). If that doesn't work then google "Symantec removal tool" and run it.

4/7/2006 6:27:48 PM

I've had this problem twice with my Inspiron, both times it was a dying hard drive

4/7/2006 6:29:07 PM