Twofer

Q: I have a Dell 4500S, XP, & QWest DSL, and 2 problems:1. After turning on the computer it takes 7-8 minutes before I am able to do anything; go online or do anything offline. After this time period everything operates normally. This is a recent development.2. If I leave the computer on it will go online without any instructions from me, even while I am doing something offline. These 2 situations seem to be independent of each other as they began happening at different times.Gerry
A: It is normal for the amount of time to start your computer to increase with extended use. Simply put, the startup time can increase with the more files that are saved and installed on your system. With that said, 7 to 8 minutes is still too long to wait for a computer to load and become useful. A few weeks ago I wrote an article that included some tips to help your computer start sooner, this is a good place to start. You can try those suggestions, but they were primarily designed to reduce the load time in average situations were it may take 3 to 4 minutes for a system to load. These should reduce the time to about 2 minutes or less.
Your situation sounds as though it could be a convergence of contributing factors. Whether it is free software that you once used but don’t anymore or too many programs set to autostart, or even a gaggle of fragmented files. Each contributes to increasing your start time, but it would also be wise to check your computer’s system maintenece settings to insure that nothing is scheduled to run before loading your system.
A good way to determine if they are the major culprits or minor players is to start your system in Safe Mode. Some people call this a clean boot because it is used for troubleshooting/ diagnostic purposes. Another reason for using Safe Mode is that the problems that you feel are unrelated, may very well be connected. DSL connections are always on so you can go online at anytime. If your system is going online by itself it could be the signs of a different problem. Spyware and system updates are normally the only things that go online without initiation on your part. What you are describing doesn’t sound like a system update.
You can boot in Safe Mode by restarting your computer and pressing the F8 button while the system is booting up. You should see an option to boot up in Safe Mode. Select it. In Safe Mode, check all of the items that I mentioned earlier and also run an anti-virus/spyware removal program on your system. You can go to Symantec.com and perform a free scan of your entire system. If nothing is found restart your computer normally, and see if the startup time has decreased and if the other problem recurs.