Troubleshooting system startup for advanced users

Hi all,

I was wondering if any one could help me troubleshoot my startup problem. My system boot time is well over 2 minutes from power button pressed to all apps loaded and cpu usage @ 2%. I've tweaked services and applications, but there is more to do I believe. Below is some data from my Everest Report. I appreciate any comments or guidance. Thanks in advance.

 

have u tried running bootvis? what about a defrag?

 

Hi WSFuser,
I can always count on your reply. Thanks.
I've defragged the pagefile, MFT, HDD and defragged and cleaned the registry numerous times.

 

do u have objectdock startup on boot? u could try disabling it.

also is this system the laptop in ur sig? the slow hard drive could be the culprit.

 

yes sir.
it is my laptop.
And the hard drive is 5400RPM.
And stardock's program does hog a bit of memory and consumes a bit of CPU time.
I do believe that the HDD speed has to do with most of this because having disabled every non-microsoft services and apps did not really improve boot speed.
But I was curious as to wether or not the other drivers that load on startup has anything to do with it. For instance, ANY DVD has a driver that runs on start up although the program and the services it installed has been disabled from running on start. Again, thanks for the reply.

 

Go to START\RUN and type MSCONFIG. Click Startup tab and make note of all checked items. Now uncheck ALL items, and hit APPLY\OK. Reboot PC. Check for slow boot. If okay, then recheck each item and reboot to test for delay.

If problem persists, go to ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS\SERVICES, and list all STARTED items here.

You can also download the FREE HD TUNE to test the speed of your HDD, and Memtest86 to test your RAM. Rum Memtest86 for about 4 hours when testing memory.

 

I got a 1Ghz AMD with 384ram. I got WindowBlinds5 and Iconpackager installed but this oldie sure would beat that boot up time anyday. About 20 sec +-.

If you know what youre doing you can try this freeware app

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html

Lets you see everything that gets loaded when starting windows.

You can try to disable prefetch when starting up that should speed things up a lot. I do it with WinXp Manager, though Im sure you can do it yourself by digging in through the registry.

Regards.
Dina

 

Another option (are you using XP?)

http://www.driverheaven.net/dforce/showdoc.php?doc=txp_about

Gerard

 

The Prefetch folder is designed to IMPROVE boot time. Disabling this option (0 value in registry) will INCREASE boot time. One can empty the contents of the PREFETCH folder to improve boot time. A new NTOSBOOT-B00DFAAD.pf will be added at the next reboot. Select 2 for the registry value if you only want to save the BOOT prefetch.

 

Im not sure what that means but why is it that when I check the option, in Winxp Manager "Disable Prefetcher", my boot time decreases drastically. Scroll bar usually performs 12 complete passes but now, its only at about two. Theres a boot prefetch and an app prefetch right?

Not sure why but it works for me. Boot time is so so fast.

 

Sorry I've been a little busy lately,
There isnt much of a problem with the bios loading. I am pretty sure it is with applications load time. When I press the power button, it takes 1 sec to get to the boot screen, then 3 seconds more and I'm at the Acer screen (this is just a logo bitmap that ACER put into the boot process, it comes on between the windows bootscreen and the windows logon screen). After this Acer screen has displayed for about 10 seconds, the windows logon screen comes on. At this stage, it is worth noting that the logon message is reading: loading your preferences... IT IS HERE that it takes about another minute until I can see the start button. So we're at 1:15. Also worth noting here is that I have Style XP installed, so while I can see the start button, the visual style is still being loaded, which altogether takes another 5 seconds or so. After this, my applications load. Applications finish loading @ about 2:10 seconds. Bootvis tracing shows only the applications, services and drivers that I want to load and use. The task manager shows some 35 processes. I have only the most minimal services running. My laptop comes with a lot of hardware that I dont need and therefore have disabled. Again, I've tweaked everything that I can think of. While it remains a problem of Hard drive speed, I still think a there is more that I might be missing. And though I thank you for replying, I would not touch the prefetch tweak with a 20ft stick. I think the boottime defrag takes care of that for me. Besides, the last time I messed with prefetching costed me a week of troubleshooting. Any how, big thanks to your continued inputs.