Boot Timer

[Ray]

After we installed SteadyState, when our computers are rebooted, we
get one of the standard black boot screens telling us the computer was
unexpectedly shut down and asking if you want to start in safe mode,
Start Windows Normally, etc...

If I can stop that screen every time it would be great - but what I'm
really asking is if anyone knows what sets the timer value. Some
computers restart in 10 seconds, some in 30, then there are a couple
that are 3-4 minutes..

Where can this setting be changed?

Thanks in advance
Ray

 

[Twayne]

After we installed SteadyState, when our

computers are
rebooted, we get one of the standard black boot
screens
telling us the computer was unexpectedly shut
down and
asking if you want to start in safe mode, Start
Windows
Normally, etc...

If I can stop that screen every time it would be
great -
but what I'm really asking is if anyone knows
what sets
the timer value. Some computers restart in 10
seconds,
some in 30, then there are a couple that are 3-4
minutes..

Where can this setting be changed?

Thanks in advance
Ray

There is no setting per sae. The amount of time
it takes is whatever it takes for the computer to
load and initiate the programs it needs. It
varies widely by speed of the cpu, front side bus
speed, cpu type, L1 cache, amount of RAM,
pagefile, etc. etc..

First the Power On Selt Test runs, when it
completes, it starts loading the windows support
files it needs.
To see what's happening during those times, you
need a boot monitor. Several free versions are
around; I don't use th em so have nothing to
recommend. I used to use bootvis, but it's not
friendly to win SP3 and is iffy with SP2, so
something else needs to be used IME.

HTH

Twayne

 

[Bob I]

Typically you would want to find out what hardware is taking so long to
initialize.

 

[Ray]

Probably showing my stupidity - if the time is so long because it is
slow to initialize, how does it know in the first 5 seconds it is
going to take 178 seconds to initialize a device...

or maybe I didn't explain the problem correctly..

I'm talking about at bootup..
First - you get the Dell POST screen. You have about 2-3 seconds to
select a boot menu or enter setup. It is also at this point you would
have to hit F8 for safe mode.

Immediately after that screen goes away - and within 2 seconds, the
screen I'm referring to is displayed...

"We apologize for the inconvenience but Windows did not start
successfully..."

This is the screen that has the timer on it. We have 20 "identical"
Dell PCs and most of them start with a timer value of around 28
seconds - but there are a couple that are 177, 233, 55, 8, etc.

3 systems don't display the screen at all - they just start Windows.
That's the behaviour I would really like to have...

At the end of the countdown, each computer begins loading Windows.
During the timer countdown, there appears to be NO drive activity.

Does this still sound like the same issue to you?

Thanks Again
Ray

 

[Bob I]

Now that you have given a description of what you were referring to, I'd
hazard a guess that you have set up "SteadyState" to restore the hard
drive every time and the timer is caused by the amount of drive space
that has to be copied back. The cause isn't Windows but your use of
SteadyState. If you "clean" the slow computer up and reset the
SteadyState backup copy, you should see a reduction in the count down
timer. (This is only conjecture based on a quick read of what
"SteadyState" does and YMMV )

 

[Ray]

Ding Ding Ding!!
At least partially correct. We ARE using SteadyState to Restore the
Hard Drive back... However - during this "waiting period" there is no
drive activity...I think that's what has me puzzled the most. All of
the computers are in a Computer Lab at a small elementary school - and
I do clean them up - defrag and reset things from time to time. As I
said before - several of the machines don't display this at all...

Nothing appears to be broken - it's just irritating...

I keep thinking there must be something somewhere that governs this.

Thanks again...
Ray

 

[Bob I]

That "timer" isn't part of windows so you would need to see if there is
a "SteadyState" parameter that is being set. Otherwise perhaps pick a
"long one" and a "short one", then remove SteadyState from those two and
then compare Configuration and Boot time and see if that is where the
SteadyState configured the timer from.