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Potentially Computerless

littlekiwi

littlekiwi

I charge by the hour for anything before noon
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Messages
10,794
Am really struggling with what decision to make here knowing MOC is around the corner. For a little while now my 2 1/2 year old windows 10 laptop has been taking what I think is too long to become useable when I first start it up (power on, enter password and open internet browser, photoshop elements, MS Word, File Explorer). At the moment it’s taking at least 5 mins to get to the password stage and another 5 mins to be useable. After the first 10 mins or so everything is ok. I chatted to my techy friend and she said I should get it looked at which I kind of agree with as long as whatever is wrong is covered by the extended warranty I have. My issue is, if I put it in soonish it’s likely to get tied up with christmas and new year shut downs at the repair place potentially or if I wait til the new year and send it in January I kiss MOC goodbye basically. What should I do?
 
I'm using a 2011 iMac that takes about 5 minutes to become useable, as you describe. I just do something else while I'm waiting. I can't afford to do anything else, so I just put up with it.

Don't miss MOC! :love
 
I did initially think it could be a RAM issue - I already have 8gb but could up it to 16gb.
 
How full is your hard drive? Sometimes that can cause a lag.

As far as MOC: if you don't *have* to have it looked at right now, perhaps you can wait until after January? My thinking is that when you take it in, if they're closed over the holidays, then you're laptop is just sitting there, which seems like a waste. (If it really had some pesy problem and HAD to be out of your hands, that would be different. I'd say take it in right now.) Also, how long are they closed for the holidays? If they're not working, they're not earning money, so I can't imagine they're closed for too long? It's still early enough in the month that you could potentially get it back before Jan 1.
 
Tree City said:
How full is your hard drive? Sometimes that can cause a lag.

As far as MOC: if you don't *have* to have it looked at right now, perhaps you can wait until after January? My thinking is that when you take it in, if they're closed over the holidays, then you're laptop is just sitting there, which seems like a waste. (If it really had some pesy problem and HAD to be out of your hands, that would be different. I'd say take it in right now.) Also, how long are they closed for the holidays? If they're not working, they're not earning money, so I can't imagine they're closed for too long? It's still early enough in the month that you could potentially get it back before Jan 1.
Click to expand...

I don’t actually know how long it could take or when they would be closed (am thinking probably 25th Dec to 2nd Jan as a guess) as I’d be dealing with the store rather than the repair agent directly in the first instance. I know when my mums laptop went in it took about 2 weeks I think from memory.
 
Tree City said:
How full is your hard drive? Sometimes that can cause a lag.
Click to expand...

I have a 1TB hard drive thats approximately half empty (thats the one advantage of this laptop when I got the forced upgrade, I got a bigger HD out of it)
 
Have you done a Disk Clean-up? Every Windows update litters the drive with files that slow things down, especially start-up. Use the Disk Clean-up App that comes with Windows 10, then click the option to clean up system files. Also check which software packages are loading themselves up in the background at start-up. It's often called fast start or quick start-up - where when you run a program it's there very quickly - only because it loaded up in the start-up process slowing that right down. Run the Start-up Apps settings feature in Windows 10 and turn off anything you don't want to launch itself during start-up.
 
Angela Toucan said:
Have you done a Disk Clean-up? Every Windows update litters the drive with files that slow things down, especially start-up. Use the Disk Clean-up App that comes with Windows 10, then click the option to clean up system files. Also check which software packages are loading themselves up in the background at start-up. It's often called fast start or quick start-up - where when you run a program it's there very quickly - only because it loaded up in the start-up process slowing that right down. Run the Start-up Apps settings feature in Windows 10 and turn off anything you don't want to launch itself during start-up.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I haven’t done any of that yet but will in the morning. Having said that I am pretty good about getting rid of unnecessary bits that Windows adds.

Actually, just had a thought, I have a feeling I can pinpoint when the slowdown started - a few weeks ago I had issues installing my antivirus software so had help from the company online where they took control of my laptop for an hour or so cleaning up previous installations of the software that hadn’t been eliminated when I tried to install the new version. So I’m wondering if that could have caused part of the problems as I don’t remember it being this painful to start up my machine prior to letting the online chat help at my laptop.
 
Personally, I would find out if this is covered by the extended warranty and if so, find out the turn around time. If it's a week, I would definitely go for it. If longer than that, I would try to get some help from my tech friend to clean up the machine as best I could. If you know you have time to create in January, I wouldn't be without a computer if I really wanted to participate in MOC . . . like Michelle said, you can do other things while waiting on the computer to do what it does. :)
 
@gonewiththewind unfortunately the only help my friend has given is send it in since I’m still under warranty for another 6 months. To be fair I think the decision to hold off on sending it has been made for me as Im likely to be away for pretty much the whole of next week if all goes to plan.
 
I would start by seeing what is automatically starting in the background. And then, running a disk cleanup can help. Basically, it's an internal thing that tells the computer where the open space is, and helps it fix it's index.

Anti-virus software can also slow things down. It sounds counter-intuitive, but depending on the settings, it may be scanning everything when the computer starts up. I would google your antivirus and "slow start up" to see if there are some tips. Sometimes, the default settings are not the best choice.
 
it seems to be a bit faster which is a good sign, will keep an eye on it when I use it over the next little while. I’ll be having some forced time away anyway over the next couple of weeks as I’m away from the 16th through through to the 19th, home for one or two nights then away til the 26th or 27th with family.
 
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