Extremely slow boot

**samuel_j57** · 02-10-2005, 12:37 PM

I am running an 800MHz Via Epia with c3 core. 256 mb ram. WinXP Pro SP2 slipstremed with nLite - 800MB footprint - Using Minlogin. I forgot to uncheck the option to use bootvis with nLite. about 12-15 sec for bios load

But it still takes up to 1 min 40 sec to load OS (give or take about 20 seconds). Absolutely rediculus, especially with everything I have done. I was having the problem With a different HD so I made fresh install on a different one, but i still have the same problem.

When booting nothing happens for about 41 seconds, and then you can hear the HD starting to work. I ran bootvis on the other HD and the Traces would show absolutely no activity for about 40 seconds.

Dont know what to do...

**SFiorito** · 02-10-2005, 01:47 PM

12-15 second BIOS load???? WOW!!! I don't think that's normal. On a side note, I've noticed once I get to Explorer with my notebook and desktop running normal (no mods at all) XP SP2 it'll just sit there for about 30-40 seconds with absolutely no activity. Have you optimized your BIOS settings? What HD you running?

**Gobby** · 02-10-2005, 01:54 PM

Check the BIOS Settings and make sure that the Hard Drives aren't setup to autosearch on every bootup, then tweak other BIOS settings one at a time, do a search on google for what each one does and how it helps, I'm also running the VIA EPIA 800 and have also noticed that my drives power down during bootup, will try to investigate tomorrow as the whole computer is going back into the car over the weekend. Will note all my BIOS settings as well and post here for you.

**samuel_j57** · 02-10-2005, 05:17 PM

I was running a Seagate Barracuda ATA III at first. I figured there was something wrong with it because i pulled it from one of our old servers at work. It was supposed to be 20GB but I couldnt get more than 8GB to be recognised when I formatted it. So i switched to a 2.5" Travelstar laptop harddrive out of an IBM thinkpad. But it took nearly the exact amount of time to fully load, and exactly the same time it sits there before doing anything after the windows boot screen shows.

What do you mean by "set up to autosearch"?

I have gone thru the bios and tried to change anything that looks like it would speed up the boot. I'll admit though there are several things that I dont know what they do.

**samuel_j57** · 02-10-2005, 05:32 PM

Ok, so i changed a couple things in my bios (I dont know what it was) and it went from 100 seconds to about 35. Bios loads quicker and the windows screen is only up for a few seconds. no i just need to figure out what is delaying it on loading of explorer (which is taking the longest now)

**giz@turbocharge** · 02-22-2005, 07:01 PM

You may want to try out these links.....I am also using a 800mhz epia w/512mb ram and running xp sp2 ....no nlite just optimized xp itself. Boot time is aprox 30 or so seconds.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html