w7 pro slow boot

[lancstech]

dual booting on xp desktop & vista laptop. laptop is booting faster, and a lot slower (+3 minutes) on my "old desktop".

desktop pc took 25 secs of windows animation, 2 mins of blank screens eg to logon, 30+ secs to desktop display. assume blank screening is video card (ati x300) related.

after tweaking got desktop down to 90+ secs.
replaced ms security with av6 free av, stopped indexing, disabled services using black viper recommendations.
when happy with w7 will try tweaking ati driver.

similar experience anyone?

 

[BadBigBen]

Nope, desktop without tweaking 93 seconds from pwr switch to full Desktop...

Laptop, 2min 5 seconds, has a slower drive!

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[lancstech]

hi bbb, post tweaks on my old dell 8400 i'm about there too but do you get any blank screens?

my desktop spec is
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
System Model Dimension 8400
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz HT
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A09, 07/07/2006
Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series (MS - WDDM)
Adapter RAM 128.00 MB (134,217,728 bytes)
Installed Drivers atiumdag.dll,atiumdva.cap,atitmmxx
Driver Version 8.56.1.15

my experience scores are 4,5.1, graphics=2,3.2,5.4

from memory my w7 enterprise score for the video card was 2.4/2.5 suggesting its driver is more uptodate/better!.

 

[BadBigBen]

Yes, I do get a blank screen, that is normal as it switches between the standard vga driver to the display adapter driver...



Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz[tab][tab]6.2
Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB[tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab] 6.2
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS [tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab] 6.7
Gaming graphics 2431 MB Total available graphics memory[tab][tab]6.7
Primary hard disk 15GB Free (37GB Total) [tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab][tab]5.9


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[lancstech]

hi bbb, i get multiple blank screens on w7 boots.

am considering buying (a) new video card (cheaper)
or (b) a new base desktop pc with 64bit and/or intel/amd hardware vt cpu

 

[BadBigBen]

In your case, and of course allowable budget, I would opt for option B with the 64bit version of W7...

that is what I use at present, it is just as fast as my XP install on the same machine, in most cases (everyday apps and games), and I am contemplating on upgrading to an i5 system in the near future...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[lancstech]

before spending any cash,
i am going to start the long/tiring haul
of adding base apps to my w7 systems.

i feel that w7 is faster than vista on my w7/vista laptop,
but not sure about my w7/xp desktops.

if xp apps load then xpmode/vt capability will not be as useful. will advise on progress.

 

[SteveLord]

I have some funky/legacy apps. All work fine.

 

[lancstech]

tried an update to ati video driver (no w7) but legacy.
works but no improvement in boot time. less blank screen but longer welcome!.

might try some more tweaks but i think 90 secs is about it on this pc/setup.

 

[whosrdaddy]

if you got the cash:

ditch your laptop HDD for an SSD (intel G2 drives are fine)

My boot (W7 enterprise) : 45 seconds (this includes loading a 1.5Gig RAMDisk)

This SSD has been my best investment ever (enjoying it every minute)

/Daddy

-----------------------------------------------------
What You See Is What You Get
Never underestimate tha powah of tha google!

 

[lancstech]

my vista laptop sits in the lounge, and is lightly loaded,
so general performance is good. the w7 start up performance boosts eg for boot, hibernate are noticeable.

since the world is switching from desktop to laptop, i should consider a new laptop rather than desktop, but i'm old school.

 

[BadBigBen]

since the world is switching from desktop to laptop

I would not put my money on that...

though I would agree, that mobile broadband is the key constituent in this picture, and that it is causing the rise in sales that we have seen over the past few years (2008 and continuing into 2009)...

and the fact that due to the recession PC sales have dropped...

so stick with what is comfortable to you...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[SteveLord]

Laptops depreciate 3x as fast as desktops and have a higher rate of hardware failure.

They're only great investments for those who actually have to use them every single day.

 

[lancstech]

mobile is the future but it hasn't arrived yet.

being a cheapskate, i usually buy a basic spec desktop
that has good upgrade potential
and add extra h/drive/memory etc.

a cpu spec that allows 64 bit & vtx is an option.

 

[donb01]

lancstech, I haven't seen anywhere that you said how much system RAM is in that Dell 8400 - I wouldn't run less than 4GB on anything these days - even XP after SP3 came out really works best with a minimum of 2....

Your video card shouldn't slow down the system boot too ungodly of an amount - how much video processing is there in the startup process? You display the opening logo, load a bunch of junk off the hard drive and then when finally ready slap the desktop up on the screen. I could see the screen drawing really slow, poor scrolling and other video affects, etc being caused by the video card, but not booting so much.

I haven't messed with W7 much yet, but in Vista you can shut off the Aero interface to gain performance, get rid of background images on the desktop, and other things to increase video perforance if needed. You can go into control panel and play with the system performance settings to make them less video intensive. Those are some other things you could try.

 

[lancstech]

hi donb01, my dell 8400 has 3gb ram, and has not been reinstalled for years, full of rubbish, is quite responsive, and doesn't crash... so why do i want to upgrade? - i fell for the £30 w7 pro upgrade offer.

w7 upgrade advisor does not like my ati x300 128mb video card/driver.

first w7 boots were 3 mins, with lots of blank screen time. after fiddling its now 90 secs which is liveable with if the w7 benefits are real. looking to the long term i can see the benefit of having a w7 home group of pc's (future ms updates may allow vista/xp pc in home group).

contemplating reinstalling xp and running in dual boot with w7 with "identical setups".... but acronis 2009 seems to be a problem on w7. could use xp to back up w7 at least temporarily (w7 backup is very vista like ie slow).