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My computer lately is having trouble starting up. I don't mean when you log on and Vista takes 15 minutes before you can even do anything. I mean when you turn the computer on, it shows the HP logo and then the Windows logo. It takes forever, sometimes freezing up.

Anyone know why it's doing this?

How old is it? Also what antivirus do you have on it?
What is the laptop model number also?

Bought it in April 2009. It is a HP dv7-1285. It has Kaspersky.

-cough- Vista -cough-

McAvoy wrote:My computer lately is having trouble starting up. I don't mean when you log on and Vista takes 15 minutes before you can even do anything. I mean when you turn the computer on, it shows the HP logo and then the Windows logo. It takes forever, sometimes freezing up.

Anyone know why it's doing this?

Is it slow only once it gets to the Windows logo (past the HP logo), or is it having trouble before Windows starts to load (does the HP logo take a long time to clear)? If it's the former, a problem with Windows is the likely culprit but if it's affecting the computer even before the OS loads then the most likely culprit is a failing hard drive.

As to Windows being slow to become usable after logging on, that usually indicates you have too many programs loading automatically at Windows startup unnecessarily. This can easily be fixed:

click the Start button/Windows orb, in the search box type in "msconfig", and click OK to any security warnings, in the dialog box that appears go to the "startup" tab and un-select whatever you don't need or want to launch at Windows startup. It will ask you to restart once you click 'Apply' then 'OK', though you can click "exit without restart" to continue using the computer. Either way you should see Windows load to a usable state much more quickly on future boot-u.

Well some reason it fixed itself. No problems in the past week.

I have been toying with the idea of replacing my primary hard drive with a larger capacity one and since I am doing having Windows 7 installed. But the size of my hard drive bay will only allow me to go up to 640 GB (9.5mm thickness). Before anyone asks me why I need that much space is because I don't like carrying seven DVD cases with me on a ship. Takes up too much space. Burning the DVDs onto my hard drive saves physical space.

McAvoy wrote:Well some reason it fixed itself. No problems in the past week.

I have been toying with the idea of replacing my primary hard drive with a larger capacity one and since I am doing having Windows 7 installed. But the size of my hard drive bay will only allow me to go up to 640 GB (9.5mm thickness). Before anyone asks me why I need that much space is because I don't like carrying seven DVD cases with me on a ship. Takes up too much space. Burning the DVDs onto my hard drive saves physical space.

640 GB can fill up pretty quickly when you start putting high resolution video files on there.

Externals.

Yeah, I have a 1TB that fits in my pocket.

Nickswitz wrote:Yeah, I have a 1TB that fits in my pocket.

Insert your own: "Is that a hard drive in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" or "MY what a large hard drive you have" joke here...

Nickswitz wrote:Yeah, I have a 1TB that fits in my pocket.

Yeah I got three of them. One of them got damaged so probably more like two of them. Both are Seagate.

Let's see here: I got 100 GB free on my primary hard drive. I got 100 GB free on the secondary hard drive. It's filled with documentaries, like History Channel, Discovery Channel and National Geographic.

The first external has all the movies and about 120 GB worth of BBC documentaries. The second hard drive has 90 GB left on it filled with various TV series.

Now the other thing why I want new hard drives in the laptop is that when you are on a ship you don't have access to a outlet all the time. So you have to run the laptop on battery power. Now my laptop can run for a little over 3 hours. But when watching a movie in your rack (bunk) you can't have a external connected all the time.