Boot time help!

[EndTwist]

Hello,

My boot time is horrendous! This this a 400mhz PC with 320MB RAM. I need to shorten it by a lot. Any tips?

Here is the rundown:
30 seconds for the BIOS/POST
56 seconds for Windows 98
--------------------------------------
Total: 1 minute 26 seconds to load!

[papaschtroumpf]

see if you BIOS has a fast boot option, that might help...
get a faster hard-drive?
See what gets loaded at startup, do you have a bunch of crap in your task bar?

[EndTwist]

This is really a stripped-down fresh install of 98. I have "QuickPOST" on, so I truthfully have no idea why this happens!

[Odonadon]

30 second POST?  Dude, something ain't right.  Try setting all your IDE channels manually (instead of auto).

As for Windows.  Try that 98lite program.
http://www.litepc.com/

OD

[papaschtroumpf]

what's your motherboard? What is being displayed during the 30s wait, or just before or just afer?
I agree with Odonadon, IDE device destection sounds like a possible culprit.
Intel AL440LX mobo is famous for that, for example.

[EndTwist]

It's a Compaq mobo, Intel P2 400Mhz. During the 30 secs, I see the "Compaq" screen for about 10 to 20 secs, then a "Searching for SCSI boot device...  SCSI Boot Record Not Found!"

I'll try the IDE stuff, but does anyone know how to turn off SCSI detection? I'm going to try and remove the card, but if anyone has a better idea?

[paigeoliver]

First remove that scsi card. Second remove some of that ram. There isn't a game in Mame that will run on a 400 that needs anywhere near that much ram (less ram means less ram for it to check).

Set your first boot device to hard drive 0, so it isn't checking your floppy, cdrom, and scsi first.

Finally, just let it run all the time, and simply turn the monitor off when you aren't using it. a 400 mhz computer has an ebay value of like $20, so it isn't a really big deal if you wear it out.

Btw, both my cabs take that long to boot too. It doesn't really bother me at all.

[barfybuffet]

remove your scsi card.

no need to remove ram. go into the bios and look for an option to check the ram at post - disable it.

delete or rename the file drvspace.bin (unless you are compressing the hard drives this should not hurt - if you are compressing the hard drives that is slowing you down)

delete or rename the file logo.sys
(this could be perceptual, but without the splash screen it ~seems~ like it is loading faster.

run msconfig - on the startup tab uncheck everything you dont need. the only thing you need to run windows is systray, really.

turn off active desktop (this makes older systems run like ass)

go into system properties (right click on 'my computer' -> properties) on the performance tab click on 'file system' choose 'network server'.

download and install tweakui from microsoft. turn off all animations, autorun notifications, etc.
you can also set it to log you into windows automatically - which speeds things up even more.

defrag your hard drive.

if you have a background image on your desktop unload it.

---------- all of these things are best after a clean install of windows.
98lite is also recommended. especially if you remove internet explorer integration (requires a windows 95 cd...).