My work PC is so slow...

[Mark R]

that it takes so long to get to the Windows desktop from the login screen, that the automatic logout due to inactivity gets triggered.

OK. It only does that on the first log-in after a cold boot. But still, the PC is pretty bad. I timed it once loading outlook (from a clean desktop, after all disk activity had stopped) - 1 min 41 seconds (until the inbox had appeared on screen).

Still, at least it's faster than our IT deparment. I reported a failing hard drive on an analysis workstation a month ago (SMART warning on boot-up due to excessive reallocated sectors). Still not replaced, and now the workstation randomly pauses for 20 seconds at a time, while the HD does makes funny clicky noises.

 

[secretanchitman]

wow, that slow? what are the specs? the ones at my work are p4s, but with 256MB of ram, and some crap intel integrated gpu. its made even worse considering the computers are restricted and can ONLY use ie6. why in gods name are we restricted to that old and defeated browser? at least upgrade to ie7/ie8, firefox, chrome - SOMETHING decent. i honestly dont get why we have to use ie6.

 

[Kadarin]

It's probably not the specs that are the issue, but rather the myriad of crap the IT has workstations on the domain running. Scripts, antivirus, startup programs, etc.. I have a T61 that takes forever also.

 

[rockyct]

It's probably not the specs that are the issue, but rather the myriad of crap the IT has workstations on the domain running. Scripts, antivirus, startup programs, etc.. I have a T61 that takes forever also.

Yeah, even a super old PC should be fine for email and internet. It's all the stuff IT puts on it that makes it run like a 486.

 

[spidey07]

It's a work machine. It's busy loading, scanning and recording everything you do. I'm serious. I budget about 10 minutes for a cold boot on mine.

And IT wonders why I never shut my laptop down. Nope, I never hard boot that thing unless I have to.

 

[Mike Gayner]

My work computer is a terminal and is insanely, annoyingly slow. I wish it could boot in 1min 41sec like yours.

 

[Leros]

Its cheaper just to give employees machines that work. All the time you waste waiting on a slow PC is lost money in productivity.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I remember in my first year of college it took about 10 minutes to boot up. Was nice when they upgraded those to P4's man they were slow. think they were P2's. It was actually loud in that class since all you could hear is all the hard drives working furiously.

 

[JoeKing]

I like the slow boot up and authentications that happen for my computer in the morning. Gives me an excuse to grab a coffee and a cig after I get in 😀

I like the routine I've built up around the boot time:
Coffee
BS with the cute girl down the hall for 5 mins
Smoke my morning cigarette
Use the bathroom
then come back to a computer that's fully booted up.

 

[rudeguy]

My work computer is a terminal and is insanely, annoyingly slow. I wish it could boot in 1min 41sec like yours.

Mine takes an average of 12 minutes from log on until its usable. I like my ramp up time.

 

[rudeguy]

I like the slow boot up and authentications that happen for my computer in the morning. Gives me an excuse to grab a coffee and a cig after I get in 😀

I like the routine I've built up around the boot time:
Coffee
BS with the cute girl down the hall for 5 mins
Smoke my morning cigarette
Use the bathroom
then come back to a computer that's fully booted up.

Pics?

 

[cutenfit]

Ha, I guess none of you work in IT. Remember, they are a cost center, not a profit center. So, some (most) companies give IT limited budgets to do their jobs and have long approval processes to buy new/replacement equipment. IT is a thankless job and every user is a budding computer expert waiting to take your job (in their minds). As for all that time you waist browsing the web instead of working...they know about that...

 

[esun]

Start-up time isn't an issue for me since we keep our PCs always on.

However, the first computer I was assigned at work was extremely crappy. It was a P4, I think about 1.6 GHz, with 1 GB of RAM. Luckily I was using a lab machine for basically all of my work which was a 2 x dual-core Xeon 3.66 GHz with 4 GB of RAM and RAID 0. Then my manager told me I should just move that into my office and use it, so now my computer is nice and fast (although I must say absolutely no amount of hardware can make Lotus Notes fast).

 

[spidey07]

Ha, I guess none of you work in IT. Remember, they are a cost center, not a profit center. So, some (most) companies give IT limited budgets to do their jobs and have long approval processes to buy new/replacement equipment. IT is a thankless job and every user is a budding computer expert waiting to take your job (in their minds). As for all that time you waist browsing the web instead of working...they know about that...

Not really. It's more about IT proving they are doing something by loading all that crap onto your computer.

It's the same way accounting, legal and HR all have incredible productivity stopping processes in place - it justifies their existence.

 

[JoeKing]

Pics?

I'll try to take one of me using the bathroom next time 😉

 

[chusteczka]

My laptop (and those of my co-workers) takes 20-25 minutes to boot up and be useable. This was even with the RAM at full capacity with 2GB memory. This is for a profit center and really does create a full morning routine of walking around to do other things while the computer starts itself.

 

[secretanchitman]

My laptop (and those of my co-workers) takes 20-25 minutes to boot up and be useable. This was even with the RAM at full capacity with 2GB memory. This is for a profit center and really does create a full morning routine of walking around to do other things while the computer starts itself.

20-25 minutes?????? wow, ive never seen a computer boot that slowly before, quite honestly.

 

[Hacp]

Maybe you should convince your IT department to invest in SSDs?

 

[chusteczka]

20-25 minutes?????? wow, ive never seen a computer boot that slowly before, quite honestly.

That is an honest time range, I have timed it at 20-22 minutes several times just to check. With several more times that it took longer than normal when I wish I had timed it just to be sure. It is a Lenovo Thinkpad T-41 with a 1.8GHz cpu and 2GB memory from 2004. Our work is all accomplished by logging into a remote database so once the laptop gets going, it works fine as a dumb terminal. Except, of course, for when I start Oracle SQL Developer, then it lags a bit.

 

[olds]

It's a work machine. It's busy loading, scanning and recording everything you do. I'm serious. I budget about 10 minutes for a cold boot on mine.

And IT wonders why I never shut my laptop down. Nope, I never hard boot that thing unless I have to.

I leave mine on during the week but shut it off on weekends.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Mine is a 1.8GHz Athlon64 with 512MB of RAM and an ultrahigh-pitched cooler on it. The sole exhaust fan occasionally ramps up in speed and will sometimes blow a ginormous dust cloud from out of nowhere. I have never actually seen those 150+ CFM fans that Delta makes but I sometimes wonder if that's what's inside the machine.

Highly doubt it considering it's a Dell Optiplex. I wonder how such a powerful fan got into that machine. And it's not just mine - all the other computers in my bay have the same setup.

It takes anywhere between 3-8 minutes from the Windows login to a usable state. And once a week, at 5:30 AM (halfway through my shift), McAfee VirusScan runs a full scan (that I can't cancel because it runs it in the background and I can't launch Task Manager or even right-click on this machine) that brings it it a grinding halt. Alt+Tabing between two IE windows starts to take about 30 seconds. This is while I'm on back-to-back phone calls (I work Customer Service) trying to maintain a 5:40 Average Handle Time for a process that covers billing, sales, retention and tech support. Fun times.