XP boot up duration

[Roy]

Hello group
What is duration of the XP boot up icon that appears once you start
your PC. Is it 30 seconds, 1 minutes or more?
I just noticed that in my PC it tends to become longer with time.
The XP icon stays for about 2 minutes which is quite long...
What are the reason for such
Is there anyway to rectify this?
TIA
Roy

 

[1PW]

Hello group
What is duration of the XP boot up icon that appears once you start
your PC. Is it 30 seconds, 1 minutes or more?
I just noticed that in my PC it tends to become longer with time.
The XP icon stays for about 2 minutes which is quite long...
What are the reason for such
Is there anyway to rectify this?
TIA
Roy

Hello Roy:

Autoruns from Microsoft's Sysinternals Suite is valuable for
determining what is loaded with Windows startup.

<http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Autoruns.zip>

Thorough antimalware scans may also be taking place during the boot
process. Also, 'Autocheck' may be validating your HDD.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hello group
What is duration of the XP boot up icon that appears once you start
your PC. Is it 30 seconds, 1 minutes or more?
I just noticed that in my PC it tends to become longer with time.
The XP icon stays for about 2 minutes which is quite long...
What are the reason for such
Is there anyway to rectify this?
TIA
Roy

There is no fixed duration period. The time it takes depends upon the
integrity of the hard drive file structure, device and device driver
integrity. Beyond that, items in startup and malware all have an impact on
how long it takes for a machine to boot up..

 

[R. McCarty]

Varies all other the place. About the only "Benchmark" that you can
use is a "Safe Mode" boot time. But this time would be a minimum value
since it omits specific drivers, startups and other normal items.

As a "Rule-of-Thumb" a XP PC averages around 45 seconds to well
over a minute, 20 seconds to fully boot and have a useable desktop.

One thing to always check related to boot times is the System and App
Event logs. Many times a computer boot is extended by Startup errors
were Services and startup calls fail and the system waits ( up to 30-Sec )
for the item to properly load. To check this, clear both logs - reboot &
immediately check each log for Errors and Warnings. If any are shown
then your boot time is being impacted by these events.

 

[HeyBub]

Hello group
What is duration of the XP boot up icon that appears once you start
your PC. Is it 30 seconds, 1 minutes or more?
I just noticed that in my PC it tends to become longer with time.
The XP icon stays for about 2 minutes which is quite long...
What are the reason for such
Is there anyway to rectify this?
TIA
Roy

Change your end-of-day technique to "hibernate" instead of "shut down."

The next morning, the system should be ready to go in about ten seconds from
power-on.

 

[Twayne]

Boot time increases with each background task and program added to the
machine. 3 Minutes is far from being unusual for a boot time, and in
fact is quite typical in most machines. But if you mean it sits on the
screen with the logo and the moving bullets going across the screen for
two minutes every time you boot, that's a little unusual although it may
simply be a large number of background tasks loading.

How long does the complete boot take? Mine is a little over 4 minutes;
very heavily loaded machine. And how do you decide where the boot starts
and where it ends? There are different interpretations of that.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Roy]

 Varies all other the place. About the only "Benchmark" that you can
use is a "Safe Mode" boot time. But this time would be a minimum value
since it omits specific drivers, startups and other normal items.

 As a "Rule-of-Thumb" a XP PC averages around 45 seconds to well
over a minute, 20 seconds to fully boot and have a useable desktop.

 One thing to always check related to boot times is the System and App
Event logs. Many times a computer boot is extended by Startup errors
were Services and startup calls fail and the system waits ( up to 30-Sec )
for the item to properly load. To check this, clear both logs - reboot &
immediately check each log for Errors and Warnings. If any are shown
then your boot time is being impacted by these events.

Thanks! would you please specify how and where to check boot logs?
Roy

 

[Roy]

Boot time increases with each background task and program added to the
machine.

Hmnn ,you mean the more programs installed the longer t that xp icon
stays?

 3 Minutes is far from being unusual for a boot time, and in

fact is quite typical in most machines.  But if you mean it sits on the
screen with the logo and the moving bullets going across the screen for
two minutes every time you boot, that's a little unusual although it may
simply be a large number of background tasks loading.

So where can we check that background task specifically.....from the
task manager....?

How long does the complete boot take?  Mine is a little over 4 minutes;
very heavily loaded machine. And how do you decide where the boot starts
and where it ends? There are different interpretations of that.

Hmm..mind takes over 2 minutes with only 45 programs installed in
that PC? is that normal?
I can blame the AV as since that PC acquired a new drive, It has been
already beenprotected by Kaspersky internet security and before the
boot up time was very short,...

HTH,

Roy

 

[Roy]

There is no fixed duration period. The time it takes depends upon the
integrity of the hard drive file structure, device and device driver
integrity. Beyond that, items in startup and malware all have an impact on
how long it takes for a machine to boot up..

Well the HDD is new and just barely 6 months since it was installed..
Antimalware was the same type since the replacement of the drive when
the boot up times was shorter.

 

[Richard]

Hello group
What is duration of the XP boot up icon that appears once you start
your PC. Is it 30 seconds, 1 minutes or more?
I just noticed that in my PC it tends to become longer with time.
The XP icon stays for about 2 minutes which is quite long...
What are the reason for such
Is there anyway to rectify this?
TIA
Roy

Hi Roy,

By boot up "icon", I assume you mean the splash screen with animation.

I just timed my shutdown/restart, and from the time I clicked Restart on the
shutdown menu until everything was back up was 50 seconds. The POST (Power
On Self Test) lasted 6 seconds. The Windows XP splash screen animation
lasted about 11 seconds. From there to desktop icons populated (user
settings loaded,) was 3+ more seconds. About 5 more seconds before all icons
in the SysTray on the taskbar had appeared. So, the Windows loading part was
about 15 seconds. Total time from when POST began until nothing was left to
load was about 25 seconds. (Using auto logon to bypass Welcome Screen.)

I'm running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3, on a Dell Optiplex
GX520, 3 Ghz (Pentium4), 1GB RAM, 1524MB pagefile.sys, 28 processes showing
in Task Manager (including TM) after startup, Commit Charge 216MB.

"The ability to boot in 30 seconds was a design goal for Windows XP, and
Microsoft's developers made efforts to streamline the system as much as
possible; many people have found that without extra services Windows XP can
boot from the PC's power on self-test (POST) to the Windows GUI in about 30
seconds. The Prefetcher is a significant part of this; it monitors what
files are loaded during boot, and optimizes the locations of these files on
disk so that less time is spent waiting for the hard drive's heads to move."
(--From Wikipedia article: Features new to Windows XP)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_XP

See also: Wikipedia article: Prefetcher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefetcher

System Files Reference
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457124.aspx

Troubleshooting Disks and File Systems
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457122.aspx

"The paging file is a hidden file on the hard disk that Windows XP
Professional uses to hold parts of programs and data files that do not fit
in memory. (The paging file and physical memory make up virtual memory.) In
Windows 2000, the size of the paging file was conservative and often needed
to be increased, which caused the paging file to become fragmented. Because
Windows XP Professional creates a larger paging file than the default size
used in Windows 2000, it is unlikely that your paging file will become
fragmented."

Troubleshooting the Startup Process
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457123.aspx

BOOT LOGGING
[Begin Quote:]
Boot logging lists the files that were successfully and unsuccessfully
processed during startup. Boot logging enables you to log the Windows XP
Professional components that are processed when you start your computer in
safe mode and also in normal mode. Compare the differences between the two
logs to determine which components are not required to start.

.. Restart the computer and press F8 when prompted. On the Windows Advanced
Options menu, select Enable Boot Logging.

Windows XP Professional records in a log, windir\Ntbtlog.txt, the name and
path of each file that runs during startup. The log marks each file as
successful (Loaded driver) or unsuccessful (Did not load driver). Boot
logging appends entries to Ntbtlog.txt when you start your system in safe
mode. Comparing normal mode and safe mode entries enables you to determine
which services run in normal mode only. The following lines are sample
Ntbtlog.txt entries:

Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\flpydisk.sys Did not load driver
\SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\flpydisk.SYS

If you cannot start your computer in normal mode, start it in safe mode. For
the services that run only in normal mode, disable those services one at a
time, trying to restart your computer in normal mode after you disable each
service. Continue to individually disable services until your computer
starts in normal mode.
[:End Quote]

Note: After you Enable Boot Logging, start in Normal mode first, then start
in Safe Mode with Logging enabled and that log will append to the first.
(You may want to rename Ntbtlog.txt with date format:
NtbtlogYYYYMMDDhhmm.txt

Also check Application and System logs in Event Viewer.
Start> (all)Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Event Viewer
Double-click entries to view. (The Copy button is beneath the 2 arrows.)

TIA
Roy

YWIA (You're Welcome In Advance.
--Richard

 

[Jose]

Hello group
What is duration of the XP boot up icon that appears once you start
your PC. Is it 30 seconds, 1 minutes or more?
I just noticed that in my PC it tends to become longer with time.
The XP icon stays for about 2 minutes which is quite long...
What are the reason for such
Is there anyway to rectify this?
TIA
Roy

Hello group
What is duration of the XP boot up icon that appears once you start
your PC. Is it 30 seconds, 1 minutes or more?
I just noticed that in my PC it tends to become longer with time.
The XP icon stays for about 2 minutes which is quite long...
What are the reason for such
Is there anyway to rectify this?
TIA
Roy

Hello group
What is duration of the XP boot up icon that appears once you start
your PC. Is it 30 seconds, 1 minutes or more?
I just noticed that in my PC it tends to become longer with time.
The XP icon stays for about 2 minutes which is quite long...
What are the reason for such
Is there anyway to rectify this?
TIA
Roy

I think folks that are working on improving 'boot times" would be
better to not use words like about, around, sometimes - these words
are too general and subject to interpretation of what is a long time
and what is too long.

About how long does it take for my flashing bar to appear, about how
long for my personal settings to load, try in Safe Mode, etc. Are you
using a stop watch to measure it of the one Mississppi method? What
if you blink?

I believe you can just tell someone you did "something" to make their
system faster and they will believe it.

If you want to see results, you need to measure it from start to
finish, then make an adjustment and measure it again. This process is
called benchmarking.

This would be from the time the NT kernel loads until the login
process completes (use an automatic login to eliminate user
intervention) and this can be measured down the the hundredths of a
second.

You can measure it. You can change it. You can look at everything
that loads, how long it takes, decide if you need something loading or
not - and get rid of the clutter.

A person presents a laptop - the complaint - it takes too long to
boot. Well, let's measure it and see. It took 213.78 seconds to
complete this process.

It was quickly down to 79.08 seconds - more than 50% without even
trying hard and here are actual numbers and the results of before and
after are repeatable. A miracle!

Of course there are basic system hygiene methods and techniques
everybody recommends, but by all means please do apply all the system
temp file cleaning, defragging, etc. you want, then when done, measure
it, make changes and measure it again.

It is not just some - I think it might be a lot faster now kind of
thing. There is no maybe, might be, could be, possibly, seems to be,
head nodding effect. Trial and error methods might let you hit upon
a few things that seem to make a difference, but did your actual time
is seconds improve from when you started tinkering? What are the
numbers?

If I get a normal and safe boot log file, what do I do next?

Programs like XP get bigger over time with SPs, critical updates,
patches, etc. Why would programs that get larger with more to do not
also run slower. Running faster seems unlikely - ever. Microsoft
doesn't care how fast your system runs. Your system will never be as
fast as it was when it was new and it will never be fast enough.

There is no normal or typical, every system is different. It can be
make as fast as possible (before things start to not work) given your
particular system and operating environment.