lizardfuel55 on 30/7/2008 at 17:30
Hi, I've been putting up with a really strange (not to mention annoying) problem that my laptop has been going through. I have a Santa Rosa MacBook Pro with OS Leopard, and I put on a Windows XP Pro (with Service Pack 2) NTFS partition. It used to work fast at first--especially booting up and logging on. I have noticed that now when I log onto Windows (no other user accounts , just mine) the wallpaper, desktop, desktop icons, start bar, all load. But when I click on My Computer it takes a good minute and a half for all the components to be displayed (like C drive , the CD drive, Shared Documents). I only have one partition which is C drive. But for a minute and a half, the flashlight icon keeps moving back and forth. Even if I click on any icon, the cursor will turn into a sandtimer but no programs will open once all the drives show up in the My Computer window.
My initial theory was that maybe it's searching for My Documents which I shifted to one of my external harddrives. But that doesn;t seem to be it. When I log off and log back in, it loads much faster. I can open programs in 2 seconds. Also, I realized that the Apple keyboard features (which is controlling volume and brightness) works only then. If I had to boot up Windows, not only does it take long to load (although shutting down is pretty quick), the brightness and volume keys don't work. I have to set it manually through Control Panel. So now if I have to open up Windows, the ritual is that I sit around for a minute and a half (which is a very long time if u think about it) and just when it's working I force myself to log off (so the volume and brightness keys work once I log back on)
I suppose it's worth mentioning that I had downloaded this "skin" which makes XP look like Vista, but I uninstalled it now although not completely since it needed the Service Pack 2 CD which I don't have at the moment (I'm on vacation) . I would think that could be the problem, but then why does simply logging off and on make Windows work like a charm? Is it an update glitch? Has anyone had this problem before? Could somebody please help me since I'm really tired of waiting around or this stupid thing to load (not to mention hearing myself come up with stupid theories). This has been going on for 4 and half months now. Come to think of it it's been a while since I received any Bootcamp updates from Apple...
Just in case my specs are-- 2.4 GhZ, OS 10.5, nVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, 15 inch display, 250 GB (of which 30 GB is fr Windows).
I'll be waiting for any answers/suggestions/tips/solutions. Thanks so much in advance =)
Zerker on 30/7/2008 at 22:34
It's probably just something slowing down the initial load process, not even necessarily something specific to the Mac hardware. Are you using any hard drive indexing search engines like Windows Desktop Search or Google Desktop? Loading the file index can significantly slow things down, as those can sometimes be a gigabyte or two. Same goes for most Virus scanners, especially if they're doing a scheduled scan or are set to do on-access scans. If you combine the two, things get even worse as the Virus scanner will be doing on-access scans on the index data or what not.
TF on 31/7/2008 at 09:07
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bikerdude on 1/8/2008 at 23:59
Quote Posted by lizardfuel55
But when I click on My Computer it takes a good minute and a half for all the components to be displayed
Hi Lizard
Try both of the following as it worked for me when my macbook started running slow...
# reset the pram - hold p/r/cmd/alt(or ctrl) and let the computer 'bong' 3 times.
or
# unplug the power, remove the battery, and then press and hold the power button for 6 secs.
biker
lizardfuel55 on 2/8/2008 at 20:53
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
Hi Lizard
Try both of the following as it worked for me when my macbook started running slow...
# reset the pram - hold p/r/cmd/alt(or ctrl) and let the computer 'bong' 3 times.
or
# unplug the power, remove the battery, and then press and hold the power button for 6 secs.
biker
Hey, Biker, I did what you said. I turned it off, held down the 4 keys for 3 bongs and then after releasing I held the Option key to bring up the BootCamp menu for Windows. It still took a while to load and the date (and time) remained the same. Was I supposed to have accessed the Mac harddrive first or it doesn't matter? I think though that the loading time for the My Computer window was maybe shorter by 5 or 10 seconds...
Quote Posted by Zerker
It's probably just something slowing down the initial load process, not even necessarily something specific to the Mac hardware. Are you using any hard drive indexing search engines like Windows Desktop Search or Google Desktop? Loading the file index can significantly slow things down, as those can sometimes be a gigabyte or two. Same goes for most Virus scanners, especially if they're doing a scheduled scan or are set to do on-access scans. If you combine the two, things get even worse as the Virus scanner will be doing on-access scans on the index data or what not.
No, I don't have Windows Desktop Search or Google Desktop (I do have Google Earth though, but it doesn't open on startup). In my earlier post I had mentioned I downloaded a Vista Transformation Pack which included the Vista sidebar. I remember there was a search field on there but I can't remember if it served like the standard search (in the Start Menu) or if it was like a Desktop/Google search.
As for virus scanners, I always had only two (ThreatFire and Spyware Doctor, which don't perform searches on startup) and never stopped the computer from loading quickly before.
Quote Posted by TF
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And here it is again
bikerdude on 5/8/2008 at 08:39
Quote Posted by lizardfuel55
Hey, Biker, I did what you said. I turned it off, held down the 4 keys for 3 bongs and then after releasing I held the Option key to bring up the BootCamp menu for Windows. It still took a while to load and the date (and time) remained the same. Was I supposed to have accessed the Mac harddrive first or it doesn't matter? I think though that the loading time for the My Computer window was maybe shorter by 5 or 10 seconds...
Hi Lf
Well 10 seconds is not to be sniffed at :cheeky: Di you also try the second thing I suggested..?
When booting into windows via boot camp, you would always select the second drive icon "windows"
biker
