Boot time of 13 seconds?

[azonicbruce]

Hey there. Checking out the guru3D.com forums and there are people saying they're getting boot-up times of 13-20 seconds! I keep wondering what I'm doing wrong. I usually averaged 60 seconds (from hitting power button to no more hour-glass on desktop). They've all given tips on lowering boot time. I've tried many of them and have only been able to get 55 seconds best. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif
http://www.guru3d.com/forum/read_msg.php?tid=84&forumid=cpuintel

I know YOU GUYS will at least know WHAT each of these tweaks does and how it affects the computer. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif For example, one of the suggestions is to change some of the options in the Msdos.sys file. Here is what is in my Msdos.sys file now, a few of them tweaks:

[Options]
Logo=0
DblSpace=0
DrvSpace=0
BootMulti=1
BootGUI=1
DoubleBuffer=0
AutoScan=1
WinVer=4.10.2222

WHAT does each of these parameters do exactly? I know the "Logo" is the Windows splash screen but that's about it. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Some info. from you smart people would be helpful.


Also, I ran msconfig, and under the startup tab here is what's in the list:

*System Tray
*Adaptec Direct CD
*Smartalec
*WinampAgent
*RFX_auto_upgrade
*RegShave
*TaskMonitor
*ScanRegistry
*LoadPowerProfile
*LoadPowerProfile
*Caledos Runtime
*run=

The ONLY ones I have checked now are SystemTray, Adaptec direct CD, and Caledos Runtime (my wallpaper changer). That all shaved off about 5 seconds.
My question is,HOWEVER, is there something that I disabled that I SHOULDN'T have? And WHY is LoadPowerProfile in there twice? Some of the other ones are programs I unistalled months ago. Is there any way to get rid of them?

I'd go into more details of my system and what tweaks I've used to optimize performance, but I think that's enough to chew on for right now. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif


AAAGGHHH
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE and information, and so much incompetence on my part. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif I'm just glad I have places like the PC Guide where I can slowy but surely gain some understanding of the vast world of PCs n' stuff.

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You catch more flies with honey, than with a rifle!

[sea69]

I would keep in scanregistry, powerprofile 2x is normal. ( I'm not)

55 seconds????........... I wish!

in my msconfig I have the following:

1. TclockX- (special clock functions)

2. ScanRegistry-(windows registry backup-recommended)

3. SystemTray-(windows require {debatable}

4. LexmarkPrinTray-(my option)

5. LoadPowerProfile-(lazy)

6. CountrySelection-(?)

7. WinPoET-(adsl dailer/connection)

8. EnsoniqueMixer-(sounds great)

9. F-STOPW.EXE -(anti_virus)

10. OptOut-(of doubleclick)

11. Adaptec DirectCD-( you know why)

12. DXMPatch_981116-(security patch)

13. LicCtrl-(zonealarm)

14. TrueVector-(zonealarm)

another dozen or so things not checked or disabled...


lol

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif


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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)

[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 10-02-2001).]

[BigBlue66]

Howdy,

Yep, you need ScanReg, as well as SysTray. Task Monitor is usually recommended as well. It gives you the Close Program dialog box when you do a 3-finger salute in Windows, although some people say they get that box even if it's disabled. Never checked it out myself, but maybe I will.

I wouldn't worry too much about boot time. As long as your system is stable and running optimally, what more can you ask? It's like I always tell the wife, (she's a worrier about boot time, too) power up the computer and then go get a cup of coffee. Don't worry, be happy. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

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"Right turn Clyde!"

[mjc]

I bet that some of them have set the BootGUI line in MSDOS.sys to 0...it would boot to a C: prompt instead of directly into Windows...thereby shaving a considerable amonut off the boot time, but that is really false economy...still need run Windows later and that will take more time. The best I've ever done is about 30 sec, but that was without ZA, scanreg, and a couple of others...I am currently running about 50 sec for boot times and that is with the functionality I want when I get to the desktop.

For some of the startup items...PowerProfile-if you don't use the "power saving" feature you don't realy need it (I don't load it and I can go into standby, manually), ScanReg turned off can cut quite some time especially if you have a large registry...if you can remember to manually run it eveery time you do somthing (like install or unistall, tweak or something else to the registry) then you don't really need it.

You can get rid of a start up program by using msconfig and unchecking it or do a google search for one of the many start up managers or manually edit the registry (the values will be in HKLocal Machine -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Current Version -> Run, RunServices, RunOnce, RunServicesOnce).

Basically it boils down to "What can YOU do without?" when you start up your computer...if you can remember to turn on something when you start for the day (or however often you cycle the power) then turn it off and decrease your boot times, but remember, everything that you turn off is something that you mave have gotten accustomed to or that you want to have availabe when first get to the desktop....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[ErnieK]

Sea - It is my understanding that with Win98/se and ME you can deselect everything in your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat (sys config -[msconfig]) and windows will boot and run ok. From what I have read and heard this is the best way as windows does not actually need I always run with all items deselected except for my Zone alrm in Autoexec. In the start-up all I leave is Firewall, Antivirus, ad-aware (all of these are security items) systray power profile x2, and scanreg.
After reading the post earlier about Direct CD I will be enabling InCd even though "Ricoh" CD-RW makers recomend disabling it in start up


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Ernie

[azonicbruce]

OK, I ENABLED ScanRegisty again (I install/download/reinstall things alot), and DISABLED Config.sys and Autoexec.bat. So far, I see no problems. Boot time is still about 55 seconds.

SO WHAT do those other things in Msdos.sys do?

mjc, thanks for the info on BootGUI. So what you're saying is that boot up will bypass loading Windows but that eventually it'll have to so it cause the system to be busy? I don't think I'd want to do that. I'll leave it at the default.

What about DblSpace, DrvSapce, BootMulti, DoubleBuffer, and AutoSacan? What do they do?

In general, what I'm trying to do is make my machine go as FAST as it possible can (not just boot up but performance in general) BEFORE resorting to overclocking (I'm pretty hesitant about that). I've run the performance tips module in SiSoft Sandra 2001te, and so far I've done a few things:

*Create FIXED swap file (2.5 times the physical mem) instead of "let Windows manage" (variable)
*Set "typical role of this computer" to network server
*Disabled "search for new floppy drives each time your computer starts"
*Disabled "Double Buffering" for HDD (through the DoubleBuffer=0 in Msdos.sys, right?)

These are just a FEW things I've done, all suggestions from SiSoft Sandra and a few others. ANY OTHER effective ways of speeding up my machine?

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You catch more flies with honey, than with a rifle!

[azonicbruce]

Sorry, got "Bad Gateway" error when I tried to post

[This message has been edited by azonicbruce (edited 10-02-2001).]

[mjc]

DoubleSpace and DriveSpace are 2 old disk compression routines...leave those off.

DoubleBuffer should be off unless you are using some SCSI drives that require it.

AutoScan is for running ScanDisk after a bad shutdown....it can stay on because it only does anything after a bad shut down.

What I was saying is: if you don't boot into the GUI automatically you'll need to do it manually...the boot process will stop at a C:\_ (the underscore represents a cursor) and be "done" but that doesn't really get you into the desktop does it?

The thing about autoexec and config.sys is while Win98 doesn't need them they can be very useful...allow you to configure some things that can't be done in Windows (like my RAMDRIVE).

How much memory do you have...the old rule of thumb for swapfile size doesn't really make much sense if you have over about 128MB...and especially if you have 256MB.

Other things to do is find a program called Boot Log Analyzer...it will make a little sense out of the BootLog and allow you to display the results in several ways one of which is by time...longest to shortest. This will show you exactly what drivers or programs are taking the longest to load.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[azonicbruce]

mjc, I DO have 256MB of PC100 CL=2 SDRAM. So what should the swap size file be at, or do I even need one at all?

Right now under my "virtual memory" setting I have it set to 640MB.

ALSO, under Config.sys I have:
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE

Under Autoexec.bat:
SETBLASTER=A220I7 D1 H7 P330 T6
SET SBPCI=C:\AUDIOPCI

HOW USEFUL/IMPORTANT are these parameters? Should I re-enable certain ones?

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You catch more flies with honey, than with a rifle!

[This message has been edited by azonicbruce (edited 10-02-2001).]

[mjc]

With 256MB I have seen people go as low as 80MB...but it really depends on how many programs/files and how big they are. Windows will always need a swapfile to run properly, some games require it and use it even if there is a large amount of free RAM. One method to determine the swap size is to start sysmon (add the swapfile size monitor--it is under the memory management heading) and monitor the largest size the swapfile gets to be (you need to let Windows handle it first) and then use that with a comfortable pad (if it gets to 50MB then I would add another 25MB as a pad...for a total of 75MB)...but in any case 640MB is way to big...or you could just set it to match the amount of RAM you have installed (it would be like you had 512MB--sort of, half of it would be slow http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif )

The himem and emm386 are DOS based memory management..if you don't use any DOS applications (there are some games that do) and I believe the SB lines are for SB16 emulation (DOS based games)...again if you don't have any then don't worry about re-enabling them.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[azonicbruce]

OK, I enabled "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings", rebooted and ran system monitor. I tried open all the programs I usually use at the same time and even ran some games (like quake 3 and wolfenstein) while the others were still open (even though I usually don't do that, but a good test situation, I guess)

Under "Swap File Size", it seemed to peak at about 220MB.
At the same time the "Unused Physical Memory" was almost at 0MB
and the "Swap File in Use" was at about 8MB.

So what exactly does this mean?

So far it looks like what you said about setting the swap file fixed at 256MB might be the ideal. Am I right? I'm confused though 'cause even though the swap size grew to 220Meg, the amount actually "used" seems to have only been 8Meg.

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You catch more flies with honey, than with a rifle!

[mjc]

Yep...that's about right Win grew it to what it "thought" it might need...in this cas about 220MB, but it only actually used 8MB. The best way is to repeat this several times and take the average of the results, but 256MB seems to be a good size since it is beyond what it peaked to in an unusual situation (trying to get as much open as possible), but since it actually only used 8MB a smaller may work (but some of the games may need a certain size swapfile and that may be why it grew so large)

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.