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My windows PC running XP professional and using Avast as anti virus and Commodo as firewall has been slowing down recently at boot up.

I am getting NO reaction to any input from mouse or keyboard, until I have to switch off and restart until it works.

I don't think it is infected with any virus or has too much happening at boot up, can anyone point me in the right direction ?

Do you own any backup device, like for example an external hard drive or a pack of writeable DVDs?

Does your hard drive have any files you can't replace (like emails or documents or photos or music you recorded yourself)?

Is it a desktop or a laptop? Would you like us to consider its age and utility when making a recommendation? If yes, what model is it?

spot;1383561 wrote: Do you own any backup device, like for example an external hard drive or a pack of writeable DVDs?

Does your hard drive have any files you can't replace (like emails or documents or photos or music you recorded yourself)?

Is it a desktop or a laptop? Would you like us to consider its age and utility when making a recommendation? If yes, what model is it?


I have a CD writer and some CD's available, no other back up devices.

Oh yes there are some things I would prefer to save, and probably more than I know until I have lost them.

It is a desk top and when you ask I find I really know very little as to its 'utility'

It was bought Feb 2007, a barebones AMD thingy and some bits were cobbled into it.

I have Lavalys Everest open to answer anything that might be relevant.

The answer is yes, you could get it back to the state it was in from the factory and run it a while longer but it's a bad answer. The right answer is that anything five years old needs replacing or it will grow into a headache until you bite the bullet.

On the other hand, don't just go out and buy something. The more thought you put into the replacement the better your computing will be for the next five years. For one thing you might prefer a laptop this time round and free up your desk space.

Part of your replacement process will be buying a proper archiving external disk to make sure you've always got at least two copies of most of your important files. You can then use that on your current computer to archive where you currently are. If your current computer doesn't have USB2 then you can get a PCI USB2 card for £5 to do the archive with. Doing it to CD is a horrible idea.

How do you feel so far?

First thing is to restore to an earlier point and see if the problem goes away.

Does it come up fine in safe mode?

How do I feel so far ?

You have condemned my PC because it's over five years old.......shaken, and surprised, that's how I feel.

flopstock;1383566 wrote: First thing is to restore to an earlier point and see if the problem goes away.

Does it come up fine in safe mode?


You wouldn't rather get his data secure first? He has no current backup.

I have this PC in a cold room without heating against a cold exterior wall and a draughty door, could it be affected by the overnight chill ?

I have just restarted it with no problem showing at all.

Bruv;1383567 wrote: How do I feel so far ?

You have condemned my PC because it's over five years old.......shaken, and surprised, that's how I feel.


It's not condemned, I have a PC from 1998 which still does things for me but I'd not want to drive it on the Internet. Every software upgrade you do - and you do those every month as "security updates" - increases the load on your PC. When it was new it booted into 110MB of memory and I bet that's gone up to 320MB by now. Your software will seem to run slower each year because it has less room to stretch into and because the packages you upgrade need more resources each time. Eventually the right answer is to get a computer capable of running, for example, 4GB of memory instead of the half or 1GB you have at the moment. Memory on a new machine costs a lot less than upgrading the memory in the machine you're using because it's a different kind of memory which is cheaper to produce.

If your machine were providing complete satisfaction then of course I'd say stick with it. It's not. Replacement is cheaper than cure because the cure is just an invitation to the next problem after five years.

Bruv;1383569 wrote: I have this PC in a cold room without heating against a cold exterior wall and a draughty door, could it be affected by the overnight chill ?

I have just restarted it with no problem showing at all.


Cold's good for computers, though damp isn't. I'd like to get your personal files safe before saying press on regardless.

spot;1383568 wrote: You wouldn't rather get his data secure first? He has no current backup.


it doesn't affect the data.

It's a tool in xp that simply restores system files to an earlier date so that it is basically rolling back any auto updates to the system or driver installs.

I have to be honest I don't understand memory, but am obsessive about reducing rubbish on the PC.

The HD is reported to be 54% free, so less than half is occupied.

flopstock;1383572 wrote: it doesn't affect the data.It doesn't affect the data if the machine and operating system are intact as opposed to crumbling into oblivion. The number of hard drives I've had to strip out of beached carcasses to retrieve data after the owner naively ran a system restore is beyond counting, mostly because of an exponential hard drive collapse giving the appearance of non-repeatable software glitches. The trick is to get the data out while the machine's still capable.

Bruv;1383573 wrote: I have to be honest I don't understand memory, but am obsessive about reducing rubbish on the PC.

The HD is reported to be 54% free, so less than half is occupied.


That's the disk storage space. Memory is a temporary fast working space where the processor gets to handle the programs and data. If the data gets changed it's put back onto the far slower hard disk for the next time it's needed.

spot;1383571 wrote: Cold's good for computers, though damp isn't.


There is cool and there is bitterly cold, PC's starting from frozen can't be good.

spot;1383574 wrote: It doesn't affect the data if the machine and operating system are intact as opposed to crumbling into oblivion. The number of hard drives I've had to strip out of beached carcasses to retrieve data after the owner naively ran a system restore is beyond counting, mostly because of an exponential hard drive collapse giving the appearance of non-repeatable software glitches. The trick is to get the data out while the machine's still capable.


Are you trying to cheer me up ?

Bruv;1383576 wrote: There is cool and there is bitterly cold, PC's starting from frozen can't be good.


I think you're wrong but anything bitterly cold and unprotected from damp will be damp. Techies going for speed records cool computer parts in liquid nitrogen but they always take care to exclude atmospheric moisture from the board before cooling it.

Bruv;1383577 wrote: Are you trying to cheer me up ?


I represent the provisional wing of Real Life, our motto is "better safe than sorry".

Now you have me worried.

The computer, to me, is not that old, but I know they are always out of date as soon as you buy them.

I shall have to nurse this one until I can replace it, which isn't any time soon.

spot;1383574 wrote: It doesn't affect the data if the machine and operating system are intact as opposed to crumbling into oblivion. The number of hard drives I've had to strip out of beached carcasses to retrieve data after the owner naively ran a system restore is beyond counting, mostly because of an exponential hard drive collapse giving the appearance of non-repeatable software glitches. The trick is to get the data out while the machine's still capable.


Backups are always a great thing to have. But I personally would not be worrying about shopping for a replacement until I've eliminated it possibly being a software issue.

And other than to note that not once has using a restore point ever lost me an iota of user data on even one of my folks machines, I'll leave you to it. I only offered a suggestion. I don't believe in getting into pissing contests over equipment I am not being paid to support.

Best of luck Bruv!

Bruv;1383580 wrote: Now you have me worried.

The computer, to me, is not that old, but I know they are always out of date as soon as you buy them.

I shall have to nurse this one until I can replace it, which isn't any time soon.


Don't, at least, go near PC World or Currys. If you want to browse sensible prices when you reach that stage, see what Carl Watts has at Tier 1

flopstock;1383581 wrote: Backups are always a great thing to have. But I personally would not be worrying about shopping for a replacement until I've eliminated it possibly being a software issue.

And other than to note that not once has using a restore point ever lost me an iota of user data on even one of my folks machines, I'll leave you to it. I only offered a suggestion. I don't believe in getting into pissing contests over equipment I am not being paid to support.

Best of luck Bruv!


Thanks for the good wishes, I am inclined to believe is has something to do with the cold/possible damp.

I am obsessive about keeping my PC stripped to the waist, defragging and such regularly, at least weekly.

The PC resides beside an outside door in an unheated room, so apart from any other possible problem, damp/cold is high on the list.

We had snow fall and bitter cold last night, so I shall work from that point first, and start covering the old girl up overnight.

spot;1383582 wrote: Don't, at least, go near PC World or Currys. If you want to browse sensible prices when you reach that stage, see what Carl Watts has at Tier 1


I would only ever enter such shops to look, my last was bought from Novatech I am very happy with them.

Funny old things computers..............................All last night when I decamped to my other PC, the one in the warm, the internet would not work......... whatever I did.

Today, started the 'problem' computer, not a thing wrong with it......................apparently.

Maybe it just had an off day yesterday............don't we all ?