Slow boot

[ElJerid]

My PC (Core 2 duo 8400 @ 3.6 Ghz, 4 GB Corsair DDR2, Intel SSD, XP Pro)
normally boots in 12 sec (from POST to Windows welcome screen).
After mounting a Matrox RT-X100 video card, the boot time has increased to
45 sec. That means 33 seconds just for identifying a single card ! Once
booted, the PC runs perfectly.
No applications or programs and only 22 services are running (including
Avast AV).
Can someone explain the reason for this long boot time, and perhaps also how
to reduce it ?

 

[Ken]

My PC (Core 2 duo 8400 @ 3.6 Ghz, 4 GB Corsair DDR2, Intel SSD, XP Pro)
normally boots in 12 sec (from POST to Windows welcome screen).
After mounting a Matrox RT-X100 video card, the boot time has increased
to 45 sec. That means 33 seconds just for identifying a single card !
Once booted, the PC runs perfectly.
No applications or programs and only 22 services are running (including
Avast AV).
Can someone explain the reason for this long boot time, and perhaps also
how to reduce it ?

Have you checked the Device Manager to see if the correct driver is
installed for your card? That might be the reason. You might also see
what else is loading in startup for MSCONFIG.

 

[Jan Alter]

Have you checked the Device Manager to see if the correct driver is
installed for your card? That might be the reason. You might also see
what else is loading in startup for MSCONFIG.

As mentioned by the previous poster it's possible that the new graphics card
is not only loading its driver but other graphics supporting programs as
well, which are causing the extended boot time. What you could note are the
programs that are now loading at boot when you check on msconfig, and then
do a system restore before you loaded the drivers for the new card. Before
you do that though you might want to create a restore point so you can
return to your current configuration without software error messages.

 

[ElJerid]

As mentioned by the previous poster it's possible that the new graphics
card is not only loading its driver but other graphics supporting programs
as well, which are causing the extended boot time. What you could note are
the programs that are now loading at boot when you check on msconfig, and
then do a system restore before you loaded the drivers for the new card.
Before you do that though you might want to create a restore point so you
can return to your current configuration without software error messages.

Thanks for your answers.
No changes in Msconfig after installing the Matrox card. Only Avast
antivirus as startup item.
In device manager, no errors. But of course, there is one more device marked
as "unknown", and containing 5 Matrox drivers. All of them are "working
properly" and the Matrox RT-X100 card works normally.

 

[Andy]

My PC (Core 2 duo 8400 @ 3.6 Ghz, 4 GB Corsair DDR2, Intel SSD, XP Pro)
normally boots in 12 sec (from POST to Windows welcome screen).
After mounting a Matrox RT-X100 video card, the boot time has increased to
45 sec. That means 33 seconds just for identifying a single card ! Once
booted, the PC runs perfectly.
No applications or programs and only 22 services are running (including
Avast AV).
Can someone explain the reason for this long boot time, and perhaps also
how to reduce it ?

12 seconds to boot is abnormally fast, 45 seconds is about right. Stop
worrying

Andy

 

[Brian Cryer]

No changes in Msconfig after installing the Matrox card. Only Avast
antivirus as startup item.
In device manager, no errors. But of course, there is one more device
marked as "unknown", and containing 5 Matrox drivers. All of them are
"working properly" and the Matrox RT-X100 card works normally.

An "unknown" device is almost as bad as one which is showing errors - in
both cases Windows knows of the device and it isn't working correctly. In
the case of "unknown" Windows is simply saying that it doesn't know what it
is, no device driver is loaded for it and hence it isn't working.

Under "Display adapters" (in Device Manager) do you have your new RT-X100
card listed? If not then I think it isn't being used - or is being used as a
"generic VGA card", so not to its best advantage.

Sometimes by deleting the unkown device and then Action -> Scan for hardware
changes, you can get Windows to search afresh for the correct device driver
and sometimes this helps. Otherwise, I suspect that your card came with some
device drivers and that the correct ones aren't loaded - it might also be
worth going to the Matrox website to get the latest drivers for the card.

If it isn't using the right drivers then that might account at least in part
for your slower bootup as (i.) it is treating it as a generic vga card and
(ii.) windows might be searching (and failing) to find the right driver.

Hope you get it sorted.

 

[Paul]

An "unknown" device is almost as bad as one which is showing errors - in
both cases Windows knows of the device and it isn't working correctly.
In the case of "unknown" Windows is simply saying that it doesn't know
what it is, no device driver is loaded for it and hence it isn't working.

Under "Display adapters" (in Device Manager) do you have your new
RT-X100 card listed? If not then I think it isn't being used - or is
being used as a "generic VGA card", so not to its best advantage.

Sometimes by deleting the unkown device and then Action -> Scan for
hardware changes, you can get Windows to search afresh for the correct
device driver and sometimes this helps. Otherwise, I suspect that your
card came with some device drivers and that the correct ones aren't
loaded - it might also be worth going to the Matrox website to get the
latest drivers for the card.

If it isn't using the right drivers then that might account at least in
part for your slower bootup as (i.) it is treating it as a generic vga
card and (ii.) windows might be searching (and failing) to find the
right driver.

Hope you get it sorted.

His card is used for video editing. It may be a combination capture
card and MPEG compressor for example.

http://images.digitalmedianet.com/2002/06_jun/features/cw_rtx100/matroxrtx100card.jpg

There is a HINT chip on board, which is a PCI bridge chip. The card
is PCI (universal keyed). The HINT chip, means there are multiple
PCI chips on the other side of the bridge. The "unknown" device
could be one of those PCI chips inside the card. For example,
if there was a Firewire chip for camcorder hookup, that could
be sitting on the other side of the bridge.

I couldn't find any technical articles, describing what all the
chips were. The available pictures don't show enough chip numbers.
Only the word "HINT" on top of one of the chips, tells me
it is a bridged PCI to PCI design. And that means, multiple
PCI chips are located on the other side of the bridge. They
don't use or need a bridge chip, if there is only one PCI
chip on the card. A bridge chip is used, if there are multiple
chips that need to be connected to the bus.

Paul