Windows 7 Improving Windows 7 boot and performance...

dkperez

New Member
System is a desktop with Asus p6T motherboard, i7 920 overclocked to 4GHz, 6GB of DDR3 memory running at a bit over 1520 MHz, 250GB Seagate SATA II drive for O/S, 4-1TB Seagate SATA II drives, DVD burner, a couple external drives and so on........
O/S is Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Boot time:
Turn on to Windows logo (the dancing blobs)? 29 seconds
Turn to Log in - 88 seconds
Login password to desktop - 32 seconds

This seems EXTREMELY slow to me, especially since the laptop running a slower i7 720 with virtually the same programs installed boots MUCH faster..... But, of course, it only has a couple 500GB drives...

I've been through the tips, tweaks and so on.

I've run disk cleanup and cleaned up what I can
I've run the recommended services cleanup and shut down services I'm not using
I've run msconfig and shut off everything at startup that I don't need
I've got the system set to automatically do a full defrag on all disks weekly

Performance once booted isn't bad, but depending on what I'm doing I randomly get slowdowns that when looking in the Task Manager don't show anything interesting for CPU usage or extraordinary memory usage (of course, since I'm running Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom my version of "extraordinary" may be skewed since these two programs routinely use 4-5 GB of memory)..

SO, anybody got any ideas what else I should be doing to find bottlenecks and improve performance? Is there a way to get the timing for everything that's happening during boot time? So I can see if there's a specific thing that's taking a lot of time?
 
Actually, W7 WAS installed from scratch. And, I've tested with the system at the default speed and it's SLOWER........ The overclocking was done properly, temperatures are well within normal range, and empirical measures demonstrate a performance increase of anything that uses the CPU and/or memory over the base speed....

So, no, slowing down the system isn't going to make it faster...

I'll check the article on optimization.
 
And slowing everything down would help how?

you are absolutely right - slowing down now would not help anyone :rolleyes:

In case your system board/cpu/ram is not already beyond repair you may attempt to fix the issue by:

1) all clocks back to normal and I mean all ;)

2) now, have your essential files back up and verify those files are still in working order. however, be prepared when your system is back to normal you may face the problem that all your backup files are unreadable.

3) boot 7 from CD, format, install.. u know the drill and bring everything back manually - do not restore any backup images created by your screwed system.

see how that works out - no guarantees it will work for you coz I would take the stack and toss it in the bin as is. Your overclock is ridiculous - sorry, for being bluntly honest with you. If you are lucky you will be back on a stable and reliable system again.
 
Regarding your first complaint (Dancing blobs) What have you got set as your timeout?
Msconfig - boot tab. The default is 30secs. If you only have one OS installed you can by pass this, or reduce it.
The login time is not abnormal, but can be bettered. If you have a long delay from the "Welcome" screen to the desktop, it may be a known bug connected with your choice of background.
I have found that this is because the Windows 7 default is not correctly addressed. But this is what I have found works for me.

The long way:

If you are selecting the picture from the windows offers, you will find them all in Windows - Web - Wallpaper. Otherwise, select the one you want, from whatever source you personaly are using. You can touch it up, or whatever you wish to do, with your favourite graphics program.
When you are ready, copy it and paste it into a temp folder. Rename it TranscodeWallpaper.jpg
Now go to Users - username - Appdata - roaming - Microsoft - Windows - Themes
Rename the file there as TrascodeWallpaper1 (or similar) .jpg. Copy you new chosen wallpaper to the folder. Log off and on and you should find the delay has gone.
Windows is now seeing it as it's default path.

The regedit way:
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
In the right-side pane, create a new DWORD value DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout and set its value to 5.
You then need to reboot.

The easy way with a reg fix.
Run the attached.

FWIW (imho) Overclocking is popular, particualarly amongst gamers. CPU's normally optimise, automatically, with motherboard components and wil adjust, or cope, with the slowest piece of hardware it may find there. Mild overclccking seems to be normally succesful, in most cases. Extreme overclcocking, as in your case, overides the CĂ…PU's ability to cope, and results in instability and, in many cases, bsods. If you google you will confirm this.
However, having wasted space with that comment, I would not really think that is the reason for the three slowdowns you are experiencing, but would contribute to a general poorer, or slower, performance generally..
 
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System is a desktop with Asus p6T motherboard, i7 920 overclocked to 4GHz, 6GB of DDR3 memory running at a bit over 1520 MHz, 250GB Seagate SATA II drive for O/S, 4-1TB Seagate SATA II drives, DVD burner, a couple external drives and so on........
O/S is Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Boot time:
Turn on to Windows logo (the dancing blobs)? 29 seconds
Turn to Log in - 88 seconds
Login password to desktop - 32 seconds

This seems EXTREMELY slow to me, especially since the laptop running a slower i7 720 with virtually the same programs installed boots MUCH faster..... But, of course, it only has a couple 500GB drives...

I've been through the tips, tweaks and so on.

I've run disk cleanup and cleaned up what I can
I've run the recommended services cleanup and shut down services I'm not using
I've run msconfig and shut off everything at startup that I don't need
I've got the system set to automatically do a full defrag on all disks weekly

Performance once booted isn't bad, but depending on what I'm doing I randomly get slowdowns that when looking in the Task Manager don't show anything interesting for CPU usage or extraordinary memory usage (of course, since I'm running Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom my version of "extraordinary" may be skewed since these two programs routinely use 4-5 GB of memory)..

SO, anybody got any ideas what else I should be doing to find bottlenecks and improve performance? Is there a way to get the timing for everything that's happening during boot time? So I can see if there's a specific thing that's taking a lot of time?

Which anti-virus or security solution are you using?
 
The long way:

If you are selecting the picture from the windows offers, you will find them all in Windows - Web - Wallpaper. Otherwise, select the one you want, from whatever source you personaly are using. You can touch it up, or whatever you wish to do, with your favourite graphics program.
When you are ready, copy it and paste it into a temp folder. Rename it TranscodeWallpaper.jpg
Now go to Users - username - Appdata - roaming - Microsoft - Windows - Themes
Rename the file there as TrascodeWallpaper1 (or similar) .jpg. Copy you new chosen wallpaper to the folder. Log off and on and you should find the delay has gone.
Windows is now seeing it as it's default path.

The regedit way:
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
In the right-side pane, create a new DWORD value DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout and set its value to 5.
You then need to reboot.
Hey Rak thanks for the info.
Your reg file works like a charm. It shaved 10-15 seconds off my boot time.
I did change the DWORD value to 1 to speed things up even more.
No adverse effects so far.
 
Makes me happy! I only take credit for "the long way". which I evolved during the Vista Beta era. A guy on another site, a while ago, whose name I forget, turmed it into the reg file, which is neater and quicker.
Just keep in mind that if you alter anything on your theme, you may have to start over.
Definitely a bug, which has been lodged with MS for a looong time, with no reaction.
 
Makes me happy! I only take credit for "the long way". which I evolved during the Vista Beta era. A guy on another site, a while ago, whose name I forget, turmed it into the reg file, which is neater and quicker.
Just keep in mind that if you alter anything on your theme, you may have to start over.
Definitely a bug, which has been lodged with MS for a looong time, with no reaction.
As it turns out the "guy" included his name in the text of the .reg file.
Vishal Gupta.

He has a site called askVG that is full of tweaks etc.

As a matter of fact I was wondering if there was a way to add a function to the desktop context menu to toggle between show\hide hidden files and folders.

Voila, right at the top of his page is a link to a script to do just that.

Link Removed - Invalid URL
 
Looks like a interesting site. I'll have to check it out when I get more time.
Thanks
Joe
 
Ah. Good one , Figold. It is a long time since I took the trouble to use the .reg myself, and I had totally forgotten Gupta. I have put him back on my bookmarks!
 
Kem - perhaps you could help me out a little, I'm at my wits end with a problem.. I'll get back to you on the weekend through PM.. Stressed and have no time now :)
 
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