XP Pro - how to get a faster boot up ??

CombatCow

Howdy,i just installed XP Pro on my pc at home ,after having 2k pro for a number of years.I have noticed that the xp boot up takes longer then the old 2k one.

Is there any way to speed up the boot process,at the moment it takes about 35-40 seconds to get into xp.I have changed some settings that shows ''OS selection time'' and ''display help screen'' at bootup..but didnt make a differance.In another thread here neokenzo recommended a tweaking tool ( tweak xp iirc ) but it didnt work very well.

My pc here in work cold boots into xp in about 15 seconds ( the xp logo splashscreen only loads 5 scrolling bars then go's into xp ) Mine does 25-30 scrolling bars at home.:dunno:


Thx,
CombatCow

maxheadroom

try using bootvis to see what's causing the delay.

CombatCow

O yeah sorry i forgot to mention that,i tryd bootvis and it came back with some graphs but i couldent really make anything out of them.

CombatCow

KdjaCL

Bootvis is superb got me from 3 min 23 secs to under a min.

t's a little known fact that Microsoft actually produced its own free utility to help speed up Windows XP boot times. Bootvis was its name, and although they later removed it from their site and claimed it was simply a design utility and would not help speed up the average PC, many XP users thought differently, enough to keep the software alive on the net. The Bootvis utility is available here. Try it out and decide for yourself!

To use Bootvis download and install the program, then run it.

Go to the 'trace' menu and select 'next boot and driver delays.'
Bootvis will prompt to reboot. Reboot and wait for Bootvis to start again.

Go to the 'trace' menu and select 'optimize.' Reboot again. Wait for Bootvis to complete its analysis. Your boot times should now be optimized.

Do that :0

from 99 XP tweaks http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1590&page=1

kdjac

CombatCow

A right i didnt do the 'optimize.' then Reboot a second time.Cheers max/kdjaC , i will give it a shot this evening and get back to ya

CombatCow

redhat_newbie

http://www.tunexp.com/

TuneXp does the job .
I hope it might also help.

cheers,
RHN

neokenzo

I used TuneXp as well. It does make booting faster. Anyone can tell me where to get bootvis?

Explosive_Cornflake

Originally posted by neokenzo
Anyone can tell me where to get bootvis?

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664 should sort you out.

CombatCow

:dunno:

I used bootvis and tune xp but both have failed to decrease the boot time.I read that disabling DHCP should speed up the boot time but i cant seem to disable it in the network options.Also does xp try and look for network connections to connect to while booting ??? i thought that might be the problem ( im on a home network ) so i plugged out the network cable....didnt help.What kinda boot times are you lads getting ?? It seems strange that my pc in work can get into xp from cold boot in bout 20 seconds and mine takes bout 35-40.


CombatCow

KdjaCL

Click the link i posted and do the 99 tweaks.

kdjac

CombatCow

Yeah i try'd a load of those tweaks m8 but none lowered the boot time..i still think im missing some default boot setting in the xp options somewhere.I'll have another look around.:dunno:

Thx,
CombatCow

Squall

You could try msconfig to stop some unnecessary programs from loading on startup. A lot of system tray programs can slow boot up time. Dunno if it will help much though.

mickeyboymel

I also use Tunexp and i found it very good,significantly improving the boot time, however, it takes the shell(?) a while to catch up as I have a lot of Norton Stuff running and they are very slow to start.

I can get to the welcome screen and type in my password, very quickly, and then I reach the slow point.

CombatCow

Yeah thanks lads there is little or nothing running at start up thanks to msconfig but evan with that and tune xp the boot time is unusually long...what kinda times are you's getting ???


Ty,
CombatCow

maxheadroom

where in the boot sequence do you notice the delay? Is it before the "starting Windows" white bar appears on the bottom of the screen, after that but before the animation, after the animation but before the welcome screen, or somewhere else?

CombatCow

Yeah max,Its on the Xp splash screen with the blue bar scrolling...it scrolls 25-28 times takes...bout 30 seconds.
:dunno:

Help meh,
CombatCow

ColmOT [MSFT]

CopmbatCow, it's not just XP that determines your system's speed...

Is your hardware OK - ATA66 or ATA 100?
What size cahce has your HD got?
What's your CPU spec?
What timing does your RAM have?
Is it a clean install or an upgrade from W2K?
Is your HD defragmented?
How much RAM u got?

The machine you have in work is more than likely an OEM machine, designed specifically for XP.

The design aim for Windows XP was to have it cold boot in 30 seconds or less. Hitting 35 seconds isn't too bad!

CombatCow

OK well heres the spec.

Is your hardware OK - ATA66 or ATA 100? ---- ATA100 western digital
What size cahce has your HD got? ---- 8MB
What's your CPU spec? ---- AMD Barton 2800+
What timing does your RAM have? cant remb tbh
Is it a clean install or an upgrade from W2K? ---- Clean XP
Is your HD defragmented? ---- nope ran defrag a few times
How much RAM u got? ---- 1 Gig pc2700


My pc in work is kinda lame tis a Intel 2.6 Ghz compaq thingy with 512MB o' ram and 40Gig maxtor..this thing rips through the boot up as i said earlier.From cold boot to xp in less than 20 seconds !!!


Thanks for the help,
CombatCow

ColmOT [MSFT]

hhmmm - well you certainly should be expecting a fast bootup.

Do you have any funky software that installs a system service or a kernel mode driver or anything like that?

CombatCow

Erm....considering i have no idea what that means i will say no......i disabled some services in the service and apps menu.....didnt help boot times.I think i will have to chat with the MIS guy when i get back to work.:dunno:

cheers m8,
CombatCow

maxheadroom

What peripherals are connected to the computer - funky keyboard/mouse, USB devices, network etc?

CombatCow

Just the ususal ps2 keyboard and ps2 mouse and network cable....thats it,do you think it's somthing to do with the network,maybe trying to connect to it while booting ?


CombatCow

maxheadroom

I seem to remember something about remote registry service scanning the network at boot to see if there's any other computers to connect to.

Also, try setting a static IP instead of using DHCP and see if that speeds it up?

CombatCow

Intresting thanks max i have already have myself an assigned IP,i might try to disable the nic in the device manager to see if thats the prob.btw what times are you getting ''if you are using xp''

CombatCow

clearz

35-40 seconds isint bad to get into your operating system. Ive never seen windows 2000 do it in that time. Is that the time from you switch your computer on or from when XP starts to losd.

CombatCow

yeah basically when i got to start - turn off computer- restart it takes 35-40 seconds to get back into xp.There is no wait time to start using progs once it's in xp, it's really fast from there on.I just wondering cause as i said my work pc can cold boot into xp in less than 20 seconds :eek:


** im also after stopping a lot of the services according to the blackviper guide,but id say these services affect xp once it has loaded to the desktop and not the boot splashscreen **

** i was also trying to listen for hard disk activity during the splashscreen,and i can hear that it's not acessing the hdd while it's loading....so im thinking it might be a kinda boot time setting somewhere in xp ( like wait so many seconds on this screen before starting xp) **


Keep the ideas coming,
CombatCow

ColmOT [MSFT]

There is a "pause" during startup, or what appears to users to be a "pause", but it's when XP actually initialises the drivers and the NT subsystem.
This is heavily dependent on your hardware, and also on the kernel mode drivers that your hardware uses.

maxheadroom

My system has a fairly slow boot, but theres a boot loader delay in there, and I'm also too lazy to optimise the disk or boot sequence until it gets longer than about 2 mins...

Do a bootvis boot + drivers trace and stick the bin file up here so we can see what's causing the delay.

Furp

Just a quick question what format is your hard disk in NTSF or FAT32?

Are there any settings in your Boot Rom, i.e. things set to manual that should be on automatic, or a CD in your Cd drive, what about boot sequence are you sure Xp is not waiting for something to initilize, external hardware USB devices..?

CombatCow

yeah furp the format is ntfs,what do you mean by the boot rom....the bios ?
I dont have any usb stuff connected to the pc :dunno:

Well i dunno if any of you can make somthing out of the bootvis screenshot here.



Thanks for all your help so far lads.
**btw i know real player is present there at boot up...but i got rid of it**


CombatCow

ColmOT [MSFT]

There is nothing too bad with those readings.

Re run it with Trace-> Next boot + Driver delays to get an idea of what drivers are loadin gin what order.