P.C. start up problems

[billy smith]

Anybody help. I am a PC novice---Why does my PC take almost two minutes before I can 'Dial-Up' my internet connection using internet explorer---Is it because I have too many icons on my desktop?

[lisaj]

can be: everytime you log-in to your PC, or boot it up (where it effectively logs you in automatically), it loads your profile (which contains the contents of your desktop). Keep too much here and it can take an age: even more so if you use a network roaming profile on a company network.

[moonacre]

Two minutes seems excessive. Could be lots of things but first I'd check that your file system isn't messed up. Assuming you're using Windows you should have a utility called Scandisc (click start/programs/accessories/system tools/scandisk. Run this and it will detect any problems and offer to fix them - follow the instructions. Next up would be to check your drive isn't excessively fragmented. To defragment follow the same menu options but choose disk defragment instead of scandisk. Again follow the instructions. It may take a long time to run so do this when you don't need the PC for a while.

If either of these things don't help then I wonder if you have any programs which run on startup which are interfering with boot up?