Newbie with some questions about boot time and GPS

**alanw** · 01-27-2006, 10:27 AM

Hi everyone. I'm new. I just started reading (and searching, and searching) this forum about three weeks ago, after I bought a new (to me) Saab 900SE and realized that there weren't many good options for adding GPS and MP3. So I figured out what hardware and software made sense, ordered it up and set up the PC, and earlier this week had it installed. Here's what I got:

- Ampie case with M1-ATX and EPIA M-II12000
- 512MB RAM
- 40GB HDD
- K301 motorized indash touchscreen
- NL-202U GPS
- Running CentraFuse 1.5

For audio, I'm feeding this into some equipment I already had, an Audio Control EQ-T equalizer, Precision Power 2300 amplifier, and some Infinity and Alipine component speakers. Sound is just OK, not great, and I think I'm going to have to switch to an external sound card for that part of things.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with everything, but there are a few things that are nagging me and I hope I can get some advice from people who have already solved them.

First off is the boot time of the PC. It takes a really long time, to get to starting Windows. It sits at Verifying DMI pool data... for maybe 30 seconds. Once it gets past that, Windows comes up pretty quickly; no complaints. Is there a way to speed up that process? I currently have the default setting on the power supply of 30 seconds/3 hours which means I'm cold-booting pretty much every time I get into the car. I'm thinking about switching to 30 seconds/never, and setting Windows to hibernate. If the boot time of the PC comes down, that should be the optimum setup for a short wait and minimal power usage, no?

Secondly, when the car is first started, I have horrendous engine noise from the speakers for about five seconds. Once the PC begins to boot it goes away and everything is silent like it ought to be. I thought the J2 connector on the M1-ATX was a delayed turn-on for the amplifier, but it appears to power it up right away. Has anyone found a way to set this delay, or does it just not work?

Thanks for everyone's help! I'm looking forward to being able to contribute more than just questions here in the future.

-alanw
Barcelona, Spain

PS - Sorry, I decided to put the GPS questions in another thread but couldn't edit the subject.

**DarquePervert** · 01-27-2006, 11:41 AM

Here's some suggestions for speeding up your POST (all changes are int eh BIOS setup):
- Enable quick boot. This makes for a less-intensive (and faster) POST.
- Turn off auto-detection of IDE devices.
- Set the HDD to be the first boot device.
- Turn off USB boot capability.
- Disable any onboard devices you're not using (serial ports, parallel ports, secondary IDE, etc.)

Resuming from hibernation will typically be faster than booting cold, especially on a slower system, like the EPIAs or if you have several things loading at startup. The only reason my AthXP-M setup takes so long for a cold boot is because MBM5 takes so bloody long to initialize.

**alanw** · 01-27-2006, 05:18 PM

Thanks for the quick advice. Quick boot was already enabled, but I turned off auto-detection, disabled the other IDE devices, reset the boot order, and turned off an option to "display configuration". I'm now down to 9 seconds to the Windows logo and about 40 until CF starts playing music, so I'm happy.

Thanks again!

**Wiredwrx** · 01-27-2006, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by alanw

Thanks for the quick advice. Quick boot was already enabled, but I turned off auto-detection, disabled the other IDE devices, reset the boot order, and turned off an option to "display configuration". I'm now down to 9 seconds to the Windows logo and about 40 until CF starts playing music, so I'm happy.

Thanks again!

Try Hibernation instead of cold booting. You can also search on HORM (Hibernate once, resume many) for more information, though I found using the power button to go into hibernation will speed shutdown and startup as well, though not as quickly as Standby, though that needs constant power.

Michael