4:20 minutes from power-on to desktop. Why such a long boot time on i7 system?!

KatanaDV20 · 30 Sep 2010 at 13:16

Hey guys...

My specs are in the sig. Any of you with similar systems...whats your boot time?

By that I mean pressing the power button -----> Desktop with a quiet hard drive. I used a stopwatch to time mine and stopped the clock ONLY when the hard drive stopped reading and I was on the desktop.

This was 4min 20sec :confused:

C'mon fabled Windows 7 are you THAT slow! What boot times are you guys seeing?!

In my msconfig startup tab, I see this list:

Catalayst
Comodo Firewall
HydraGrid
Microsoft Security Essentials

You mean these four programs make an i7 system take this long to get going?

My laptop runs Vista and is on the desktop with a resting hard-drive from power-on in about 70 seconds! And that laptop is also running Microsoft Security Essentials & Comodo Firewall.

Any geeky ways to shorten the boot time...ok it aint life or death but heck I can make a coffee and come back up and its still bootin (well the drives still reading away!).

KatanaDV20 · 30 Sep 2010 at 14:35

Hmm thanks for the all the replies guys I will dig around some more in msconfig to see what I can do. Will also check to see what Services are firing up.

Which part is taking a long time for you, is it the bios checks or the windows load ?

BIOS checks are quick but once they are done....there________is__________a ________long_______pause________and then the Windows log-in screen appears! I put in my password & then..well I go do the dishes for 5mins or so to wait for the boot to be done.

The OP is timing until all HDD activity has subsided.

Hee hee yes you put it so much better than I said it. If I try to use Start Menu etc while the HDD is reading - it aint happening. Hourglass mouse cursor. Only once the HDD has stopped will the menu appear.

Try unplugging all the USB stuff on your PC and reboot.

I have a small USB hub and a joysticks connected to that. Apart from that the mouse & keyboard are the only USB thingies attached (and they are plugged into the PCs USBs not the hubs)

KatanaDV20 · 30 Sep 2010 at 14:42

Just use S3 sleep. Your issues will go away.

Ok I can see Sleep on the Shutdown menu but I admit I dont know what "S3" is hee hee

KatanaDV20 · 30 Sep 2010 at 15:50

S3 basically shuts everything off apart from the ram, so the machine is basically 'off' but can start back up immediately

Nice 1 m8 will that out!

otherwise you can binary search for the problem:
- find and shutdown all programs/scripts that run when you login
- check that login is healthy again
- enable 50% of the programs
- check login again - if healthy - problem is in remaining 50%
- keep doing that

Also a great idea...I will uncheck all the startup items and see what happens, will be interesting to see the boot time then.