600mhz 44 seconds faster on bootup than 266mhz

[Harry]

I am happy to report that my bios flash and processor upgrade from 266mhz to a 600e mhz went smoothly. Just before I made the upgrade I timed my startup from the time I pushed the power button to the time the hour glass disappeared on the desktop. It was 2:24. With the 600mhz it takes 1:40. That's 44 seconds faster on bootup. I'll take it.

[RJ]

It sounds nice ... still, something doesn't seem right with the PC. As long as I have been using PCs, the boot time was 30 to 40 seconds (also depending on the add-on cards like IDE controller etc.), and a long boot time (1 minute and more) indicated that something was wrong.
Fastest boot I've seen was friend's PC with 20 seconds.

What are your PC specs ?
Maybe you have alot of programs that start when Windows starts and you maybe don't need running in the background ?

RJ

[Harry]

Well, I counted about 28 programs installed. I used MSconfig to keep any programs from starting on bootup and the time of bootup still came out to about 1:32. I probably need to reformat the C drive since things did get a little gummed up from all the previous spyware though it was all eliminated by the spy removal programs. I don't seem to be able to startup in Safe Mode and I think it's due to the previous spyware or possibly virus or trojan damage. Windows2000 pro is working fine so I haven't felt the need to reformat.

I am using a 60 gig drive and a 3 gig drive and have 8 partitions. One partition is the 3 gig drive. Maybe the extra partitions slow the system down on startup. That does seem to be the case on my 100mhz Powermac where I have at least 10 partitions.

I have also got an ethernet connection going to my laptop but I have it set up so that I don't have to log on every time I startup. I do that manually when I want to access the laptop and only then will it ask me for a password. That proved to be much more efficient.

One other thing I'm noticing now is that pages on the net seem to be drawing up faster. Because it's drawing up faster, it makes it seem like my net connection is faster but I think it's just the processing speed.

[Vigo]

How much ram (type) for what OS?

[Harry]

I'm using Windows 2000 Pro and 228mbs of ram. The way I use the net which often includes having several apps open and keeping up to 20 web sites open at the same time, I use up about 120 megs of ram. That still gives me some good elbow room.

[Vigo]

Programs don't take a set amount of ram. I use 176 on boot up with F@H running at start up and by opening a few apps I can easily pass 256mb. If I pull one of my 256 chips out though MY computer will no longer use that much memory for my start up and other running programs. Addressed ram is relative to how much is available.

228 is an odd number... You have integrated graphics? 228-256 is a decent amount to run windows 2000 and it shouldnt take you 1 1/2 minutes to boot if you uncheck everything from msconfig. (Better than 2 1/2 though, eh?)

[Harry]

It says 228,920 kb of ram. That includes one 128mb chip, one 64mb chip and one 32mb chip, the sum of which equals 224mbs but somehow it comes out to 228,920 kb of ram. It's probably the same thing as 224mbs.

I'm not sure if I have integrated graphics. but what's installed right on the motherboard is an ATI 3D Rage Pro AGP 2x.

One reason it is not starting up as fast as yours is that this system came out in 1995. There are probably some things on the motherboard that were just not made as well as your more current machine but still, I don't even know of any other computer of 1995 that allowed upgrades to a 1.4ghz processor and 760mbs of Ram. This Dell Optiplex GX1 is one of a kind. It can save you money so you don't have to buy a whole new computer.

[glc]

If you have an Ethernet adapter in there, and it's set to obtain an IP address automatically, and it's not connected to anything that has DHCP services, this will add time to the bootup. Disable TCP/IP or assign it a static IP.

[Harry]

Thanks for the tip. It used to ask me for the password to the laptop on startup but I changed something though I don't even know how and now it only asks for the password when I try to connect to the laptop. If I knew how to disable TCP/IP or assign it a static IP, I would try to do so but I don't. I'm lucky to even get things networked together at all.

[glc]

Start, settings, network and dialup connections, right click local area connection, properties. Uncheck TCP/IP unless you need it. If all you are connecting to the laptop for is to share files, just install NetBEUI on both of them.

[Harry]

Thanks but can't do that because my dialup ISP uses TCP/IP.

[glc]

That doesn't matter - you arent removing TCP/IP from the dialup connection - just the local area connection. You dont remove the protocol, just uncheck it.