Windows 8 Win 8.1 on a new PC is sluggish.

[BudVitoff]

That's what my grandson calls it. He's got 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive in an Asus PC. System info is attached here as a .pdf file. 95% of his activity is Minecraft, but even before that comes into play, the OS is slow to load and if he should enter an erroneous password at the start, "slow" becomes "ten minutes" after entering the correct password.

I have a hunch that msconfig is loading a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff. Although I wouldn't know what to disable, GeekSquad can probably help me on that. I'm just wondering if any of you can offer other thoughts on the matter.

 

[holdum333]

Hi Bud! There are many reasons for a slow PC. Here's ten of them!
Maybe other members will add their suggestions!
10 Quick Ways to Speed Up a Slow Windows PC

 

[BudVitoff]

Okay, lots of lookers, but no replies. Let's see if I can generate a bit more interest. Please stop me when I go wrong: Msconfig lets you have some say about what services and other setups get started when the system is loaded. Most of these take time (at restart) to initialize an app so that when that app is invoked, it's ready to run without waiting for any kind of setup. It makes sense, but only if you're going to actually run that app, otherwise it's wasted time at startup! In addition, I would think that merely initializing an app is going to take some resources that, when you multiply that by a couple dozen apps that aren't even going to get invoked, there's going to be some drag on the system overall. I don't know. I'd like your opinion on this.

As I type this, I see that I just got a reply to my original post. I'm eager to see what help I'm going to get.

 

[holdum333]

Hi Bud! Here's another reply! This is a freeware from Malwarebytes. IMHO a trusted company.
StartUpLITE - Speed Up Windows Startup & Boot Time

 

[holdum333]

Here's what I use to see what's starting up. You can see I only have 4 on start-up!

 

[holdum333]

Catch you latter Bud! I see your on line, but I'm tired. Hope I've given you some suggestions you can use!

 

[BudVitoff]

It's definitely a good start. I recognized the "How-to-Geek" item. I accumulated a whole slew of his stuff, then finally quit. He sure does not like Java, does he?

My next step is to get together with the kid and start working with what you gave me. One last question: In msconfig, I'm used to seeing a "disable all" option. Am I correct in assuming that I'm not asking for trouble in selecting that, and when the need for the item does show up it will come alive at the time?

Thanks for the help (from one old guy to another). I'm a bit concerned about the resemblance between your photo and mine ...

 

[HenkB]

Another trick I am using on minimal PC's is the following:
- Right click "This PC" select "Properties"
- Select in the left Column "Advanced System Settings" to open screen "System Settings"
- In tab "Advanced" in square "Performance" click on "Settings"
- Tab "Visual Effects" you see "Auto select" / "Best visual" / "Best Performance" / "Own choise", select "Best Performance"
- Go back to the desktop, right click on it and enable "Clear Type"

It does the job on my tiny Acer One netbook with only 1 GB mem and in general I don't think it to be a good idea to messing around in msconfig.

Henk

P.s. slightly edited: typo's, addition

 

[holdum333]

Thanks Henk! That's a great tip! Hey Bud! Java is some times needed, but not like it used to be. Java is a magnet for malware and that's why HTG doesn't like it. If you need it , you will get a pop -up telling you you need it! Just keep Java up dated and you'll be OK! You can get a lot of opinions on what needs to start up on boot.
I have read that msconfig is not the best place to disable start ups except when your trouble shooting. A lot of techs on help forums recommend CCleaner to disable them.
Your Anti-Virus needs to start up for sure. It seems that w10 would have you disable start ups in task manager. W10 is different then W7.
I use CCleaner! That's the best I can do for you old guy. Glad you like my photo!

 

[holdum333]

Hey friend! If you want to get real serious, give this a look! To much work for me LOL!
Link Removed
This is the program most recommended by techs. Here's a safe down load site!
Autoruns 13.51
Autoruns is an app that shows you what apps are configured to run during your system bootup or login. It also shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These apps include ones in your Startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys.

 

[ussnorway]

in 8 and 8.1 you can get back some speed by disable the error report tool

this tool runs in the background by default and asks | auto sends reports back to Microsoft whenever a app hickups... the fact is Microsoft does not use these reports for patches any more because they now support 10.

 

[Neemobeer]

• Well it depends if this "clean install" was from a Windows 8.1 iso or from the recovery media/partition. If it was the latter then most likely it came packed with a bunch of bloatware software that I would go about removing.
• I would also open Task Manager and look under the Start Up tab or download autoruns to see what all is starting up automaticall
• Third I would say use a tool such as MalwareBytes or Spybot and scan the system to make sure it is clean
• Hardware could also attribute to a slow system
  • A dirty fan or CPU lacking a proper layer of thermal paste could throttle the CPU down
  • The harddrive could be failing and cause slow read/write speeds

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

One comment I'd like to make here too, is a rule of thumb guide many of us "old guys" use. If the computer your grandson is using (it would be helpful to know the make/model) doesn't boot up in less than 5 min. it needs to be serviced. You can do a lot of this stuff yourself as mentioned by others above, however, this is tricky stuff. To be clear, from the time you turn on the power-on switch on your grandson's computer until the time Windows boots up and you can bring up a browser (IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) to a home page; this is bootup time, and on a PC that came with Win8.1 it should not exceed 5 min. total time. Otherwise it's a combination of Windows corruption, possible virus/malware infection, or faulty hardware, which takes a lot of work to narrow down and fix.

Tweaking the startup and using MSCONFIG are only troubleshooting tools, and are usually meant for Techs to use on a temporary basis. Many of my Clients attempt to make their computers run better by "tweaking" the MSCONFIG and leaving it run in DIAGNOSTIC or Test mode, and never restore the MSCONFIG to normal mode. Not doing this means that the real problem, software or hardware caused, has not been found and repaired, so the computer is never really running normally; even though it appears to run faster. If the PC came with Win8.1 it's probably 4 to 5 years old and never had a professional servicing; hard drives and RAM often fail during that period, so your hardware needs to be tested to eliminate that from the mix. Also, online Gaming serious degrades the PC's effective life and the "rule of thumb" bootup time test will tell you if that's causing problems.

On the other hand, if that computer is older than 5 years old (>2011), and it was upgraded from an earlier version of Windows (XP, Vista, Win7) to 8.1; it's quite likely that old hardware has begun to fail and needs replacing, as well as drivers and BIOS are likely both out of date. Again, professional servicing may be able to identify if this is the case and get all the updates in and replace any faulty hardware found. If you have a newer computer, say 3 years old with Win8/8.1/8.1.1/10 on it, take it to his place and load up his game and test it. If it's fine on your test PC, it's very likely one or more of these aging type problems. 9/10 computers >5 years old need their hard drives replaced, so most likely if your Grandson's computer was upgraded from 8.1 from an earlier version of Windows as mentioned, that's the first thing to try.

Let us know how it turns out.
Best,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[BudVitoff]

Sorry guys. I did say that it's an Asus PC and I attached a file showing some system specs. I failed to mention the model# (a K751M ? laptop) and that it was new last November when he purchased it at a small discount because it was a demo unit. Unless some customer got nasty, the only use it's had is Minecraft and a little surfing.

Bear: You don't qualify as an "old guy" yet. Contact me in 20 years.

Neemobeer: Thanks for the advice, but your post puzzles me. You refer to a "clean install" in quotes as though the term is used elsewhere in the thread, but it isn't. Am I being too picky, or did you happen to post to the wrong thread?

 

[ussnorway]

Bear: You don't qualify as an "old guy" yet. Contact me in 20 years.

So he's just a cub? ... these young wipper snappers!

 

[Neemobeer]

@BudVitoff hell if I know, I may have been drinking or read somethings from a different post who knows. I'm all over this forum.

 

[BudVitoff]

@bochane: I tried Best Performance and saw that it unchecked a whole slew of things including "type quality" (my term). When I went back to the desktop I couldn't find the Clear Type option anywhere. I ran anyway, and felt that the resulting type quality was, in my opinion, unacceptable, so I undid Best Performance. If you can tell me where to find the Clear Type option, I'd like to try again.

@holdum333: I tried StartUpLite and it took out just one item -- I don't remember its name, but every bit helps. CCleaner took out a bunch as well. Thanks.

@ussnorway: Once I got to Action Center, "Problem Reporting Settings" and the "Choose when ..." stuff were nowhere to be found. Any further help on this?

Mystery: On Saturday, it was sluggish on startup. On Sunday, we filled in the form to "register" the machine -- he had just procrastinated doing it since the time he bought it. He didn't tell me this, but on Monday it had speeded up significantly. On Tuesday, I applied as much of your advice as I could, then I found out about Sunday's improvement, and he said my efforts made it still better, but I can't determine how much. Why in the world would registering the machine make a difference in performance?

 

[Neemobeer]

I would wager it was a coincidence that it sped up after the registration. Slow downs are more likely to occur from

• Drivers loading
• Services starting
• Scheduled tasks running that start on boot up
• AV running scans
• Windows updates
• Start up entries ( only affect the login process after signing in)

In any event the EventViewer is your friend as well for finding problems such as slow responding services and problems with the authentication process.

 

[BudVitoff]

I won't take that bet, but things happened just the way I said they did, with no other interference. How does one explain that? Also, this will be my first use of EventViewer. Do you have any tips on its effective use?

 

[Neemobeer]

I would be mostly concerned with the Application log (1) and System (2). Once you've selected the log click on "Filter Current Log" (3) and just filter for Error (4). I wouldn't be alarmed if there were a lot of the them, this is generally normal in Windows lol.

After that it's a matter of googling the error or Event ID to see if it's really bad. You could also grab them from a powershell prompt which is similar to cmd.

For example this command would grab the most recent 50 error message from the application log
Get-EventLog -LogName Application -EntryType Error -Newest 50