Still Slow Boot Time

**vipervin** · 10-07-2006, 12:13 AM

So I spent all evening trying to reduce my boot time and it is clocking at 1min 14sec from the time I press the power button to music in Centrafuse.

Clean install of WinXP (using nLite image). I cut basically every service that did not seem to be in use, disabled hardware that was not in use, defragged, loaded centrafuse into shell, removed the GUI logon screen, and other minor tweaks I found with prefetching. Posting takes 10sec, but after that, another minute to get into CF.

Hardware is IBM ThinkPad 1.13GHz PIII-M, 512mb RAM, and 40gb 5400 rpm drive.

I tried bootvis but it could not optimize my system. Probably because I disabled a service it may use?

Any more ideas to make my boot faster. 1:14 is too long, I don't understand how some people get even less than 20sec.

**DarquePervert** · 10-07-2006, 05:47 AM

Turn off any unnecessary settings int he BIOS.
Here are some things I set specifically:
- Turn off IDE detection on any IDE channels with no devices.
- Turn off the ability to boot from USB
- Remove any devices from teh boot order that you won't try to boot from, including USB.
- Turn off FDD and FDD seek if you have no FDD.
- Turn on "fast boot" or "quick boot" mode, if your BIOS supports it. That setting does faster checks that are less thorough.

Also understand that most people don't do a full boot, but resume from hibernation or standby, which takes far less time than a full boot. The sub-20s startup time is likely not a full boot, but resuming from hibernation or standby mode, either of which are far faster than a full boot.

Good luck.

**vipervin** · 10-07-2006, 02:18 PM

Thanks for the response. I can't really do much to my BIOS because its a laptop. Double-checked everything there and its pretty much set. POSTing isn't the problem since that is less than 10 seconds. It is Windows that still takes a good minute.

From hibernation, it is about 20 seconds like you said. But I guess I was under the assumption most people were recording their times with cold boots. I want to try to avoid hibernation just beacuse of all the USB issues people seem to have.

**DarquePervert** · 10-07-2006, 03:49 PM

I suggest trying it. People have difficulties with hibernation with specific motherboards,a nd the hibernation issues may not rear their ugly heads with your setup...
They don't come up in my system, and I'm not using one of the more popular EPIA based systems.

**Vineet Singh** · 10-10-2006, 03:02 PM

Set a static IP on your nic's, or disable them. A good 5-10 seconds can sometimes be shaved off by this, since it doesn't look for a DHCP server. No page file, no system restore, and try to get that bootvis to work, it took off 7 seconds for me. You can graph and see what takes the longest, and go from there.

Set to boot by HD first, not CD or floppy/usb. Install windows on a 10-15gb partition on your drive, then install your media on the 2nd larger partition (helps keep things clean with fragmentation and what not). Once it boots quick, enable system restore and make a restore point. Uncheck system restore for the 2nd partition.

Turn off indexing for the hard drive (right click, properties, along the bottom). Use classic theme if you can stand it. Keep very few icons on the desktop, don't run antivirus, especially norton, unless you have internet access in your car. SP2 is slower and slower with all the hotfixes IMO, SP1 was the quickest in my experience.

Windows_2003_eXPerience_edition looks promising for quick boots, google it. I haven't tried it yet, but I might. However, I already tweaked my standard XP SP2, 1.6ghz laptop to boot in 37 seconds to music (roadrunner).

User hive profile cleanup service from microsoft can also help with quick shutdowns. You can also defragment the drive using a bootable diag cd called MINI PE 9/03/05 or something. This has an app that can defrag the OS, since it's running it's own OS off the CD. I think it's called perfect disk, but not sure.

7200rpm drive, and more importantly, cache size, makes a huge difference. I think they have 8mb for the seagate 2.5's.

**vipervin** · 10-20-2006, 07:13 PM

Thanks for all the tips, actually did most of them originally. I think I disabled too many services, and oddly, caused the system to boot slower. Did a reformat and disabled only devices not needed, kept services in place, and my boot time is about 35 seconds now. The numbers I was looking for =)

**simple5** · 11-20-2006, 11:22 PM

I have a 120X Transcend 4GB CF card and currently getting boot times +2mins. I think its the Cataylst drivers and the AC-97 codec slowing things down. I'm trying to find the perfect nLite settings, but I don't think minLogon will work for me. Something else I noticed was that the card would not work with the IDE adapter with PCI bus masterings enabled in the bios. Any help is appreciated. Any else delt with this?

**SFiorito** · 11-21-2006, 07:37 AM

same thing I posted in the other thread: use SanDisk cards.

**DarquePervert** · 11-21-2006, 08:41 AM

Or hibernate instead of shutdown.
A resume from hibernation takes far less time than a full boot every time.

Granted, my specs are significanlty better than the standard-issue M10000, but I get from power to music in well under 30 seconds, as well as my nav screen showing where I am.
Even with an M10000 board, people get similar starting times using hibernation.

If you're adventurous, then using standby is even faster.