Super slow bootup, please help!

[Joe750]

Hi guys, I was about to put this post in the 'motherboards' forum, but I don't think that's the problem. It has a "fast boot" option in the Bios, but that doesn't seem to help. I just need some general advice. I don't have any PCI cards on this motherboard, just a keyboard and a harddrive. My boot time is 2 min, 9 seconds. I've tried removing most of the fonts, turning off most of the services and startup programs, I can't get it to warm up faster. My Dell boots in 9 seconds! Here are some specs:

Sapphire A3-M275 mobo, 2400+ CPU, 10 gig hd (5400), onboard Radeon 7000, 512 shared DDR2700, 64 to graphics. Thanks, any help is appreciated.

 

[mikecel79]

You forgot to say what OS you are running. That can make a huge difference. And what OS is the Dell running that it boots in 9 seconds? My DVD player takes longer than that to boot up!

 

[Fern]

What's in your startup menu? Go to Start, Run, then type in msconfig so you can see.

 

[Joe750]

Sorry about that, both machines are running xp pro. As for MSconfig, I have almost everything turned off in services. As for startup, there are a couple of different ATI programs (the board and video onboard are ATI), a Keyswapping program that I use, and something called "dumprep". That one is anyone's guess. I guess I should also mention that it takes the longest at the "Windows is starting up" screen. Someone told me that it is looking for a network. Is that possible?

 

[sctakeshi]

Though I don't know if dumprep would be causing your slow boot, it seems that it certainly can at least slow down your system once it's up and running: see here

 

[Joe750]

that's good to know. I still can't get it to turn off. I already have error reporting turned off. I'll email MS and see if there's anything I can do. I have noticed high CPU loads while not doing anything. Thanks!

 

[mikecel79]

I just looked at your PC config. That 5400 RPM drive is probably adding to the problem. 5400 RPM drives are notoriously slow.

Do you have a network card in the machine? WinXP won't wait for your network connection to come up before letting you login so I doubt that's the problem. Have you tried using bootvis from microsoft? You should probably ask this in the OS forum or do a search of the forums.

 

[Joe750]

When I went to download bootvis after reading about it in Maximum PC, the site clearly states that it cannot help speedup boot time. Is this not true? I know it tells you what's going on, but isn't it for developers? \

No, I don't have a network card or any cards for that matter.

 

[mikecel79]

Bootvis is defintely for shortening bootup times. It even has a function in there to optimize boot times. It will also show you if you have a drive that's hanging causing you long boot times. Give it a try.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: mikecel79
I just looked at your PC config. That 5400 RPM drive is probably adding to the problem. 5400 RPM drives are notoriously slow.

Do you have a network card in the machine? WinXP won't wait for your network connection to come up before letting you login so I doubt that's the problem. Have you tried using bootvis from microsoft? You should probably ask this in the OS forum or do a search of the forums.

My laptop has a 4200rpm drive and I don't think it takes 2 minutes to boot. My Startup tab in Msconfig has 14 items. Serivces tab....a lot.
DMA disabled in BIOS or in Device Manager maybe?

How long has it been since the PC's been defragged? That's probably not it, but if a computer goes a long time, fragmentation will kill it. I've seen the HDD maps of some PC's that haven't been defragmented in their lifetimes - a FAT Win98FE system, not defragmented for over 4 years...not a pretty picture.

My guess is that the Fast Boot thing in BIOS is probably the Quick POST option - it just bypasses a few of the initial tests, like extensive RAM checks.

 

[Joe750]

I will try Bootvis tonight and report what happens. As for defragging, I do defrag a lot, but the drive is full. Sometimes I have to delete things to get the 15% free space to defrag. Could being full do it?