Jonathan M Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 Although I'm a lifelong Apple Mac user, I've recently bought an inexpensive PC laptop so I can run specific RC applications (i.e. Open TX Companion, Picasim, Aerobtec software for F5J motor-limiter, etc) which the Mac can't do. The initial trial of McAfee antivirus software has expired and I now keep getting tedious notifications that my PC is at dramatic risk. Is it really?! Won't Windows Defender do the essential job? (I'm not a seasoned Windows user, and the Mac ecosystem one never needs to purchase an outside application to keep it safe.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Lewis 3 Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 Yes defender will do the essential job for you, it should turn itself on automatically when you uninstall McAfee, other good free alternatives are AVG and Avast, paying for antivirus protection is a complete waste of money. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 I just use Windows defender and never had any issue yet...yet.....yet.....yet.....yet .....yet .....yet. PC does take 3 mins for DOS to boot for some reason though which I cant seem to fix. Totally removing power works and gets me a fast start of DOS but going to the lowest level of PC standby causes the delay on DOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Lewis 3 Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 You might need to go into the BIOS menu and enable fast start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 Will have a look at that Philip as the issue has got me beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 Download Advanced System Care (free) and it will help sort boot time.... Windows Defender, IMHO, works fine............ no need to stress 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan M Posted April 29, 2023 Author Share Posted April 29, 2023 Thanks for affirming that Defender is enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted April 29, 2023 Share Posted April 29, 2023 15 hours ago, Philip Lewis 3 said: You might need to go into the BIOS menu and enable fast start. Found Intel(R) Rapid start in the PCH config options which was not enabled but changing its status has not got rid of the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Lewis 3 Posted April 29, 2023 Share Posted April 29, 2023 (edited) Assuming you are reffering to the balck and white screens before you even see the Windows logo those are the BIOS P.O.S.T. Screens and nothing you alter once windows has loaded will speed them up, you can only enable fast boot (or if you are lucky Ultra fast boot) in the BIOS itself. You normally get to the Bios by tapping the Del key whilst powering up but you can also get windows to load it for you next boot up, if you have faster RAM Memory you also need to check that XMP is enabled in the Bios as well or else it will simply run at the default speed. If you need to get windows to load into the Bios just come back and I'll write out how to. Phil Edited April 29, 2023 by Philip Lewis 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul devereux Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 On 28/04/2023 at 17:54, Philip Lewis 3 said: You might need to go into the BIOS menu and enable fast start. On 28/04/2023 at 19:00, Andy J said: Will have a look at that Philip as the issue has got me beat. Just type msconfig into the search box near the power button, you will get a box showing you what and when programmes are running. Choose 'start' and disable the things you don't need to start when you switch on the PC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul devereux Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 On 28/04/2023 at 17:32, Philip Lewis 3 said: Yes defender will do the essential job for you, it should turn itself on automatically when you uninstall McAfee, other good free alternatives are AVG and Avast, paying for antivirus protection is a complete waste of money. I used to use free antivirus about 10 years ago, but for the last decade I use just the built in MS protection. And I'm someone who downloads a lot of films and games. I also have free Malwarebytes which I very, very occasionally run to catch pups and adware- but they don't get through MS Defender, so I get clean reports. MS also have a free antivirus tool you can download and run (it has to be downloaded each time as it is always being updated). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 Paul, what appears to be happening is that something is holding off the BIOS from starting, when I apply power using the computer on/off switch is that I get a message displayed on the monitor that no signal is connected. After about 1 min the monitor shuts down and goes into standby. After about 3 mins the BIOS starts along with the monitor coming out of standby displaying an option to jump into the BIOS by pressing F2. Then windows starts within a few secs and completes within 15 secs. To confound the issue if I turn off the mains supply to the Computer PSU and then turn it on after leaving it off for about 5mins is that the computer boots normally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 I had Avast on my old PC but I'm not sure if it was any better than the built-in antivirus. When I updated to a new PC it came with Eset which seems to work but we'll see if it runs out after a year. Avast are still hassling me for payment to renew and trying to charge my card, unsuccessfully I should add. It seems they won't take no for an answer, be warned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyinFlynn Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 1 hour ago, Andy J said: Paul, what appears to be happening is that something is holding off the BIOS from starting, when I apply power using the computer on/off switch is that I get a message displayed on the monitor that no signal is connected. After about 1 min the monitor shuts down and goes into standby. After about 3 mins the BIOS starts along with the monitor coming out of standby displaying an option to jump into the BIOS by pressing F2. Then windows starts within a few secs and completes within 15 secs. To confound the issue if I turn off the mains supply to the Computer PSU and then turn it on after leaving it off for about 5mins is that the computer boots normally. This sounds to me to be more in keeping with a power supply issue than your Bios not starting. Most PC power supplies monitor their outputs and will only issue the power normal signal if all is well. Any chance of trying a different power supply? Maybe try one of the cheap PC power supply testers? The power supply on/off switch is only a logic switch, the PSU has a +5v standby supply available all the time, you disconnecting the power lead is a hard reset and forces a cold boot for both the psu and the motherboard. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 Thanks for the tip FlyinFlynn. Don't have an old PSU but certainly the 5v standby supply is running as I can see 1 LED illuminated on the Mother Board when in the lowest form of standby. Will take a look and see if any other LED's come on when I can see that the DOS has started which may indicate that the PSU is being held off for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul devereux Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 On 28/04/2023 at 17:19, Jonathan M said: Although I'm a lifelong Apple Mac user, I've recently bought an inexpensive PC laptop so I can run specific RC applications (i.e. Open TX Companion, Picasim, Aerobtec software for F5J motor-limiter, etc) which the Mac can't do. The initial trial of McAfee antivirus software has expired and I now keep getting tedious notifications that my PC is at dramatic risk. Is it really?! Won't Windows Defender do the essential job? (I'm not a seasoned Windows user, and the Mac ecosystem one never needs to purchase an outside application to keep it safe.) Yes, you don't need McAfee, it is just bundled with the other bloatware, just delete it in add/remove programs in the control panel. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul devereux Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 On 28/04/2023 at 17:52, Andy J said: I just use Windows defender and never had any issue yet...yet.....yet.....yet.....yet .....yet .....yet. PC does take 3 mins for DOS to boot for some reason though which I cant seem to fix. Totally removing power works and gets me a fast start of DOS but going to the lowest level of PC standby causes the delay on DOS. DOS? Do you really mean this? It's a old floppy disc programme, discontinued for decades. Do you mean you PC is low to boot/start up? That's nothing to do with DOS, AFAIK. Nothing directly to do with BIOS either, that is just displaying info on what is happening (or not happening). As @Philip Lewis 3says Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 Paul, it is the BIOS that appears to have the issue. Problem got worse as went into the BIOS and let it set the optimised defaults for Boot and found it was then booting from an old version of windows found on one of the three hard drives I have connected. To make matters worse I could not direct it to select the solid state drive, so went in today and disconnected the two backup drives I had connected. Once the PC recognized the other two drives have gone it now appears to be booting correctly and for some reason the delay in booting has also disappeared. Will now try connecting the two back up drives and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Lewis 3 Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 What you needed to do was correct the boot option priorites in the BIOS, however disdconnecting any other drives forces the bios to attempt to Boot from what is left, and that should remain as the correct drive when you reconnnect them, loasding optimised settings will have enabled fast boot. You should be all good now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 Well getting close. Two harddrives work but the third throws an error and is not recognized at windows start up. PC is also booting quickly again....why I do not know but at least it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Lewis 3 Posted May 1, 2023 Share Posted May 1, 2023 Check the connectors are seated properly, if they are and it still doen't appear go to contol panel>administrative tools>computer management>storage and see if you can see it there and if it shows an error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted May 18, 2023 Share Posted May 18, 2023 Well after 6 days of fast starts, the issue of slow starts has returned! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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