Registry issue on WinXP laptop

[powayroger]

My wife uses this laptop, which I formerly used with no problem or delay in boot up. After a year of using it, it became very slow and boot up took forever (She has a Sunday school class for 9 year olds that she creates PowerPoint presentations for).
I finally had a look at it and ran CCleaner which took out some waste, then I ran Norton Utilities and defrag the registry which compacted 2 meg out of the registry, but her registry is 52 megs.
I’ve gone thru the control panel and there isn’t any unused programs (We had already deleted programs off it so it pretty much only has what is needed).
So apparently something is wrong. I really don’t want to reformat and reinstall (which takes forever). So fellow friends of Bob, do you have any suggestions how I can get this registry down to normal (Programs that I could use??) size so it will be faster???

BTW, the laptop is too old to get win7 on it.


Thanks!

 

[Drew99GT]

http://download.cnet.com/Auslogics-Registry-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10678033.html

I used that when I had XP; worked like a charm.

 

[buickman50401]

Its not a registry issue. That is not a rediculous size for the registry. My bet is on startup items and or malware. You mentioned Norton. If that is your AV that is likely one of the culprits.

I'm surprised you jumped straight to assuming the registry is the problem.

Download Rkill. Run it to kill any hidden malware processes. Then run Malwarebytes.

 

[55Test]

When was the last time the hard drive was defragmented?

 

[powayroger]

I run Malware and it was defrage 2 days ago. No change.

 

[brianl703]

Check under drive controllers in devices under control panel and make sure that the hard drive is operating in DMA mode and not PIO mode.

If it's operating in PIO mode, that will make it extremely slow. There is a registry fix to change it back to DMA mode.

 

[buickman50401]

Originally Posted By: brianl703
Check under drive controllers in devices under control panel and make sure that the hard drive is operating in DMA mode and not PIO mode.

If it's operating in PIO mode, that will make it extremely slow. There is a registry fix to change it back to DMA mode.

Good call. Forgot about that one. I remember having to do that on a couple of XP laptops I was working on.

 

[SrDriver]

Run CCleaner with the following changes. Check mark everything but Autocomlete Form History, Saved Passwords, Network Passwords, Start Menu Shortcuts, Desktop Shortcuts.

Under Advanced everything but Wipe Free Space.

You will get some warnings but say OK.

Then run CCleaner a couple of times to insure everything is cleaned up.

As always backup anything important before doing this.

I have done this many time on sluggish Windows Computers.

Please post on how you make out.

Make a note of the check marks and when done set them back as they were before starting.

 

[powayroger]

Thanks all, but no change yet.

 

[buickman50401]

Originally Posted By: powayroger
Thanks all, but no change yet.

You tried Rkill and then Malwarebytes?

 

[OVERKILL]

If you open Task Manager, how much memory is in use? What is the average CPU usage?

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted By: powayroger
Thanks all, but no change yet.


What's your flavor... Internet Explorer?... Firefox?... Chrome?

You could have too many applications running.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted By: brianl703
Check under drive controllers in devices under control panel and make sure that the hard drive is operating in DMA mode and not PIO mode.

If it's operating in PIO mode, that will make it extremely slow. There is a registry fix to change it back to DMA mode.


I have Windows XP and no such listing exists in my Control Panel. Got another name to try?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted By: brianl703
Check under drive controllers in devices under control panel and make sure that the hard drive is operating in DMA mode and not PIO mode.

If it's operating in PIO mode, that will make it extremely slow. There is a registry fix to change it back to DMA mode.


I have Windows XP and no such listing exists in my Control Panel. Got another name to try?


Right-click "My Computer" go to Properties

System -> Device Mangler

it is under drive controllers/IDE ATAPI controllers (or something along those lines) in there.

 

[powayroger]

Thanks all, but I decided to reformat the drive and start over nice and clean and lean.

 

[nleksan]

I use the following programs to keep my computers running like new:
CCleaner + CCEnhancer
Eusing Registry Cleaner
Puran Disk Defragmenter (puts system files on outside of disc)
Spybot Search&Destroy
Windows Security Essentials
WinMend Registry Defrag

All are free programs updated regularly, and with years of using them on dozens of PCs, not one issue. Also, free!

If it is a startup issue, run msconfig and uncheck everything that is not inherent to the OS (plenty of guides online).
Also, the program Soluto will help with discovering any issues during startup.

Good luck!