Slow Windows XP Boot

[Guest]

Well guys I'm sorry to be posting this message here but I'm sure it's something that most of us have to deal with. What can we do to make the Windows XP boot faster? My case for example, I got 512 ddr ram, an Athlon XP 1800 processor, a Soyo Dragon motherboard, a 7200 rpm hard drive... I unloaded almost everything from my startup (using msconfig), there's absolutely no reason for my computer to be so damn slow on startups!!! It takes ages to start!Any suggestions, ideas?

[Guest Joshieca]

Well this isn't much help, but I when I had my XP1900+ WIN XP Pro would take about 40 seconds to start...now I moved to P4 2.53 and it takes like 7 seconds...It just might be the nature of the AMD CPU.Some things to check on start up are if you're loading any un-needed drivers (RAID, SCSI, USB 2, Firwire, etc.). Also check to see if any virus checkers, hard drive indexing, things like that are running at startup.[br][br][div align=center][br][link:members.cox.net/fstimes/wetimage.html]Click Here For Weather Image of the Day!

[Guest]

Hi Gustavo,from a slightly different angle, there is no need to always boot win Xp every day, have you tried the sleep mode, it's much much faster.Booting XP once a week is more than enough (contrary to WIN98 ...).Patrick (EBBE)

[Guest]

hmmmm wanna pay my electricity bills??? lol Serious now, my computer is in my room and there isn't much air circulation here so it gets quite hot, doesn't matter if the computer is on, off or in the sleep mode... that's why i don't keep it running the whole week.

[Guest]

I've got XP Home with a P4 2.4G machine and it takes a least a minute if not 2 minutes for it to fully boot.

[FTD1949 0]

I found out how to get around a slow boot. Get a cup of coffee while it's booting....speeds it up quite a lot:)C Evans

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi all.My Windows Xp boots fairly well once I got in the habit of defraging the drives every other day. If you defrag often, it doesn't long.I use 'Diskeeper lite' a freeware defrager http://www.executive.com/downloads/menu.asp( much faster than the windows defrag ).The first time you defrag, it will take awhile, thereafter, once or twice a week will take only 10-15 minutes. The commercial version can be setup to defrag automatically.Dick

[Guest jase439]

Can't say if this is related, but I had a similar problem once that was due to an external SCSI device not being properly terminated. The SCSI device driver would load late in the boot cycle and then hang for 60+ seconds before timing out.You might check your event viewer for possible driver alerts.J

[Steve Cannell 4]

XP boots reasonably well with a fresh install but once you add any firewalls and Antivirus software your going to get longer bootup times.SteveCYYZ

[Guest]

Also make sure that you don't have any CDROMs in your CDROM drive(s), usually they are in the boot sequence before your hard disk (so you can boot up an OS install disk), and it can take quite a while to look at the disk and decide it is not bootable. (This is also fixable by setting the boot order in the BIOS).

[Guest Eagle92395]

My XP Pro on a 2.53Ghz P4 boots in about 12 seconds total. Try these, they are incredible sites:http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htmhttp://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/strangeservice.htmGoing through, learning these processes and getting rid of 90% of them will not only improve boot time, but really improve PC speed. Also, the motherboard has ALOT to do with boot time. I use the MSI 850 board and it has a "Quick Boot" option that doesn't go through the usual diagnostics and POSTS.

[Guest lwhelan]

Gustavo,From memory that motherboard has an in-built 10/100 lan - correct?If so, then are you using it because if you are not then while the PC is booting it will be waiting to be given an IP address form the system or a server and it will wait for what seems an eternity.If you are not using the network capabilities then I would suggest that you disable the lan function in your BIOS - or a jumper on the motherboard.My 0.02c's worth................Regards,Laurie WhelanBrisbane, Australia

[Guest]

Hmmmm never thought of that... it has indeed a 10/100 lan .... I try turning my cable modem on after the computer is on....

[Guest Milio_B]

Ok, in a hurry so I'll make it quickStartRuntype msconfigSelect BOOT.INISet waiting time to 3 seconds instead of 30 or any other value.That should help, works for meWell, off to the hospital nowBye!

[Guest]

Never thought of that also.... damn I'm forgetting to think of all my options! LOLcheers guys!