70 second boot time just isnt good enuf for a HTPC!!!!!

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fraseyboy

New Member
I always new that my home-built HTPC had a long boot time, but it was only when I timed it that I realized how bad the problem really is!

It came out at about 70 seconds. The post test isnt the problem though. The big problem is Windows!

60 seconds of those 70 is taken up by the windows boot screen. The line keeps sliding past, over and over for 60 seconds. This is annoying if I just want to watch some TV on the computer... Instead of being the simple issue of switching on and watching, it becomes a big issue forcing me to walk away, eat some chocolate, walk the dog, run a marathon, and then come back to find that it has only just loaded into the logon screen...:mad:

Now this really pisses me off. I have tried many things, including Microsoft Bootvis and TuneXP, which managed to shave it down from 108 seconds... But its still not good enuf.

Can anyone help me?!?!?!? :(


Computer specs:
Windows XP Professional
Athlon XP 2400+
512MB RAM
Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 8 40Gb 7200rpm
Albatron KX600 Pro
GeXCube Radeon 9600XT
Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer
 
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Filip

Active Member
I think the fastest you can get is 30 seconds becouse my previous computer was almost like yours, same HDD, CPU, RAM and video card.

My friend has a computer and even after a fresh Windows install he waits around 3 minutes (I was there). He has a 2600+ sempron, 256 MB of RAM, radeon 9250, dunno what mobo.

Who knows what the problem is, maybe a shitty HDD, maybe virus and other crap, some BIOS options enabled/disabled etc.

EDIT:

Home edition boots faster (it does for me)
 
Last edited:
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fraseyboy

New Member
filip-matijevic said:
I think the fastest you can get is 30 seconds becouse my previous computer was almost like yours, same HDD, CPU, RAM and video card.

My friend has a computer and even after a fresh Windows install he waits around 3 minutes (I was there). He has a 2600+ sempron, 256 MB of RAM, radeon 9250, dunno what mobo.

Who knows what the problem is, maybe a shitty HDD, maybe virus and other crap, some BIOS options enabled/disabled etc.

EDTI:

Home edition boots faster (it does for me)
Click to expand...

Thx for the fast reply guys :D


The HDD was second hand when i bought it so it could be that... But I dont want to spend money on a new one to find that its still just as long...

I made sure im virus/spyware/adware free so it cant be that.


BIOS options? Are there any which would make it boot faster?
 
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Filip

Active Member
fraseyboy said:
BIOS options? Are there any which would make it boot faster?
Click to expand...

I have an option called, Fast Boot, but I haven't tried to boot with it disabled so I don't really know the difference.

There are also some tests that your system performs when booting, some of them are not really necessery so you can disable them in BIOS (like checking the HDD cable etc.)
 
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fraseyboy

New Member
filip-matijevic said:
I have an option called, Fast Boot, but I haven't tried to boot with it disabled so I don't really know the difference.

There are also some tests that your system performs when booting, some of them are not really necessery so you can disable them in BIOS (like checking the HDD cable etc.)
Click to expand...

The bit at the beggining (black screen, white writing. Can't remember name >_<) takes a very short amount of time. Its the Windows XP Boot screen that takes forever. So I think enabling fast boot might not make much of a difference for the boot screen. I'll try it anyway though.
 
youtin

youtin

New Member
Yes, more RAM!

And I unless you have WinXP Media Center Edition, I don't think you can have the same instantaneous turning-on as your TV set. (I could be wrong, though. It I don't have MCE so I'm not so sure)

Want your computer to turn on fast? Don't do cold boot, hibernate or even standby!:D
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
The biggest culprit with long boot times is the hard drive. Since the slower and older the drive, the longer it takes to access windows files and it takes longer to put those files into the memory. Adding another 512MB will onlly make it load a bit faster.

What you can try to do is get rid of some programs that load on startup, defrag, and have your computer boot from the hard drive first, that way it doesnt search for a boot record on the cd drives.
 
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flush01

New Member
i have 2nd computer, with athlon 2400xp too, 1gb ram, and osme shitty video card, it boots in like 15-20 seconds... so reformat
 
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Bobo

banned
flush01 said:
i have 2nd computer, with athlon 2400xp too, 1gb ram, and osme shitty video card, it boots in like 15-20 seconds... so reformat
Click to expand...
With XP Home or Pro? My computer (athlon 64 3400, fx 5200, 512mb) boots from off to windows (auto log-on) in around 20 seconds with XP Home.

I don't think that this problem is caused by anything in the BIOS. What speed is your hard drive? My time increased considerably (like 15 seconds) when I started using a 16mb cache drive instead of an 8mb cache
 
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flush01

New Member
Bobo said:
With XP Home or Pro? My computer (athlon 64 3400, fx 5200, 512mb) boots from off to windows (auto log-on) in around 20 seconds with XP Home.

I don't think that this problem is caused by anything in the BIOS. What speed is your hard drive? My time increased considerably (like 15 seconds) when I started using a 16mb cache drive instead of an 8mb cache
Click to expand...

i just timed it, when loading windows xp screen pops up it takes 13 second to go to windows... (win xp pro version)

it's older maxtor 80gb drives, so im sure it's only 8mb not 16
 
Hairy_Lee

Hairy_Lee

VIP Member
you might want to make sure that prefetch mode is enabled in the IDE options in your bios thats always a help.

sadly it looks like its down to an old hard drive with this problem
 
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fraseyboy

New Member
wow how do you guys get 20 second boot times!

So I have to spend some money? :( :( :( :(

Well what cheap 40gb or 80gb hard drive do you recommend?
 
Hairy_Lee

Hairy_Lee

VIP Member
i doubt you'll get much performance with a small IDE drive in the price range you are looking at... i would save (and live with the slow boot for a while longer) and get a WD raptor... they are really fast drives and should solve any loading speed problems you have
 
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Bobo

banned
Why do you need to turn your computer off at all? My desktop has been running for about 2 weeks without being turned off, and it works fine.
 
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fraseyboy

New Member
Bobo said:
Why do you need to turn your computer off at all? My desktop has been running for about 2 weeks without being turned off, and it works fine.
Click to expand...
lol i get scared that it might explode.... :eek:

Anyway, I timed the boot properly. It came out at 84 seconds!!! 15 of those seconds is on the pre-boot or whatever its called (black screen white writing) and the other 69 is on the Windows XP Professional boot screen.

I don't really want to buy a new hard drive, new OS and move all of my files over... How much faster would it get from buying another 512MB of RAM?
 
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