Issues with Vista 64

A

atomichybrid

New Member
Hey guys,

I'm new to this 64bit stuff. I've recently installed Vista Ultimate 64bit and noticed some different things compared to the 32bit. The 64bit seems to boot and shutdown longer than usual and my ram is crunching on 1.44gb and when I look at my case the harddrive light seems to flashing all the time. I'm just wondering if this is normal for a 64bit OS? if its not normal are there ways to fix this?

Specs are:
Intel Q9400 2.66ghz
ASUS P5Q
4gb 1100mhz g.skill ram
Gigabyte 8600 gt silent pipe 2
160 gb harddrive

NB: I did a fresh install and was well aware of the 64bit drivers so i the drivers are up to date.

Many thanks in advance.
 
Did you upgrade from Vista32 or XP? Vista will use more RAM than XP. Also, have you updated to Service Pack 1 for Vista yet?
 
Well my vista 32bit was formatted before installing the 64 bit and yes sp1 is already installed. Also, I forgot to mention that it booted quick after the installation but when I installed some programs (eg ms office, antivirus and etc) it started to boot a bit slower. But I dont think that the installed software should be the case since the programs are not that high end.
 
Installing more software can affect your boot times and system performance. Depending on what you have installed, you are probably running several more services at start. Your antivirus software, for example, will load a service or two to monitor your system in the background. These extra services will take up extra memory as well as take some time to load themselves. I What you are experiencing sounds normal in that regard.

Just how drastic is the perceived slowdown? You may also need to double check that you have installed the 64bit versions of some of your software. There could be some compatibility issues causing some hiccups.
 
It usually takes about 5 mins to boot (from flashing logo to welcome screen and to desktop) as for shut down probably 2 mins. But these things happened before installing the antvirus. Programs that I intstalled before the antivirus would be alcohol, ms office, winrar, live messenger and adobe cs4.
 
atomichybrid said:
It usually takes about 5 mins to boot (from flashing logo to welcome screen and to desktop) as for shut down probably 2 mins. But these things happened before installing the antvirus. Programs that I intstalled before the antivirus would be alcohol, ms office, winrar, live messenger and adobe cs4.
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Yeah those numbers don't sound right at all. I would double check your startup programs and what is installed on your pc.
 
Oh I forgot one program the Logitech Setpoint for mouse and keyboards since both of them are usbs. Could that make the boot longer becasue I noticed that its the last program to load on the system tray, other programs take some time but finish loading than Setpoint.
 
atomichybrid said:
Oh I forgot one program the Logitech Setpoint for mouse and keyboards since both of them are usbs. Could that make the boot longer becasue I noticed that its the last program to load on the system tray, other programs take some time but finish loading than Setpoint.
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I'm not sure if you said you had Service Pack 1. I would definitely run the Windows Updater and see what you get. I would also highly recommend running an Adware, Virus, Spyware client to see if anything is leeching resources.
 
As mentioned before it has SP1 installed and I've updated through windows update but no improvements so far. The slow boot up happened when I was not connected to internet (i kinda go offline and install before connecting to the net).
 
atomichybrid said:
As mentioned before it has SP1 installed and I've updated through windows update but no improvements so far. The slow boot up happened when I was not connected to internet (i kinda go offline and install before connecting to the net).
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Sorry about the SP1 mistake. I would definitely see what you have for startup programs. Are you running an account that has a log-in screen, or does the system boot straight to your desktop? And if it is a log-in screen, where is most of the time booting spent?

If the boot is mostly before the log-in screen then something could be wrong with the install (being said however, I know that Vista does load dramatically slower on some pc's than XP ever did). If the slow startup is after the log-in screen then we know too many processes are running in the background and lagging your computer behind.
 
It logs in automatically to desktop, no password. It slows down before the flashing logo and then when it loads to the welcome where it stays there for around 5 secs then to desktop where I wait for the programs to run. The startup programs are avast antivirus, setpoint and realtek hd audio manager.
 
Yeah, 5 minutes is a bit too long. You may want to check your drive integrity.

Are you using the 64bit version of Avast? Just checking.
 
atomichybrid said:
It logs in automatically to desktop, no password. It slows down before the flashing logo and then when it loads to the welcome where it stays there for around 5 secs then to desktop where I wait for the programs to run. The startup programs are avast antivirus, setpoint and realtek hd audio manager.
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So you are mostly waiting for your start up programs to load right? If that is the problem then we can tell you how to disable the ones you don't want :D
 
Not sure if I have the 64 bit version of avast. I just got it off the website and it didnt mention about downloading the 64 bit but the install went just fine. And regarding to the start up programs theres only 3 (setpoint, hd audio and avast), they seem necessary other wise my mouse and keyboard will go funny, I'll have no sound and I'll have no protection.

I appreciate the suggestions but, I guess I just have to live with it.
 
Well, beyond that, the last thing I could suggest is to defrag/optimize your hard drive. Just curious, how much RAM were you noticing Vista32 using?

As for Avast, I wasn't sure if they had a specific 64bit installer or not.
 
I guess I'll try that since its freshly installed. On my Vista32 it was normally running at 950mb on idle but when I run applications it jumps to about 1.44gb. But I read in other forums saying that Vista64 uses more than Vista32.
 
It is normal for the 64bit version to use a bit more memory than the 32bit version. It is also possible that the Vista Superfetch algorithm needs to get used to the way you use your system. It may be loading too much on boot. See if it irons out in a few weeks.
 
Zatharus said:
It is normal for the 64bit version to use a bit more memory than the 32bit version. It is also possible that the Vista Superfetch algorithm needs to get used to the way you use your system. It may be loading too much on boot. See if it irons out in a few weeks.
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Thanks for the heads up, didnt know that there was a software called Superfetch. The boot time seems to improve a lot now, there is no slowdown before the flashing logo and the welcome screen and total load time is now about 1-2 mins.

So thanks for the sugeestions guys now my computer is running normal.
 
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atomichybrid said:
Thanks for the heads up, didnt know that there was a software called Superfetch. The boot time seems to improve a lot now, there is no slowdown before the flashing logo and the welcome screen and total load time is now about 1-2 mins.

So thanks for the sugeestions guys now my computer is running normal.
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My pleasure. :)

The Vista Superfetch service pre-loads your most often used programs into RAM. The idea is to help the software launch quicker when you want it. This is one more reason why Vista seems to use a lot more RAM. Have you heard of Vista ReadyBoost? They are related.

Over time Superfetch will learn your behaviors and try to operate more intelligently. You can turn it off if it still gives you trouble down the road.

I'm glad to hear you are running smoother now.
 
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