Slow bootup - Fresh Install

Ok, this is really annoying me. I have a raptor, known for their speed and all. And its fast on everything I do. Except for booting windows. I did a fresh install today, and even on that, it takes anywhere from 20-30 seconds on the Windows loading screen. What gives?

Windows sometimes "forgets" to enable busmaster DMA. That perhaps?

Not sure, would that be the same as going into the device manager, finding the IDE chains, and setting them to DMA mode? Or, is busmaster DMA something different? And, if so, how do I enable it?

Googled it, and its the same thing

Yes it is DMA mode. Best way to check is using a benchmark utility like hdtach. If hdtach says your CPU utilization is high, usually 90%+, you have a problem.

Yea, I doubt its that, but I will check it when I get home, then update. Thank you.

Midnight Dream said:

Ok, this is really annoying me. I have a raptor, known for their speed and all. And its fast on everything I do. Except for booting windows. I did a fresh install today, and even on that, it takes anywhere from 20-30 seconds on the Windows loading screen. What gives?

Click to expand...

I am not sure how long booting normally takes.

I shall try timing how long it takes for the loading screen to disappear at next boot.

I use Windows 2000 operating systems.

I've got an extended boot-up delay with a fresh install of Windows XP MCE.

I'm running a 2x74GB Raptor RAID 0 and it takes about 70 seconds to boot, but everything else is very quick.

I've checked HD Tach and get the following results:

Burst: 225.3 MB/s
Average: 124.9 MB/s
Random Access: 8.3 ms
CPU Util: 3%

I've tried running Bootvis too, but I just cannot improve boot up time. Until I installed MCE, my previous XP booted very quickly, (10-15 secs)

It seems to hang during the boot-up process, but I cannot think why. I used the latest nVidia RAID drivers during install and the long boot-up has happened ever since installation.

Don't know what else to try.

Start | Run | Type msconfig, and click OK | Under the "Boot.ini" tab of the System Configuration Utility, put a check next to /BOOTLOG and click OK | On next reboot a file called Ntbtlog.txt will be created in the Windows directory. The log file may be able to help lead you in a direction in which to look regarding your slow boot problems. This is only used for troubleshooting, as the generated log file will keep increasing in size after each subsequent reboot... so make sure to uncheck the /BOOTLOG option after you determine you don't need to continue logging.

The following MSKB articles may also be of some help to you...

How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

space--coyote said:

I've tried running Bootvis too, but I just cannot improve boot up time

Click to expand...

AFA your slow bootup issue, and using Bootvis to try and diagnose it (or even using Bootvis at all to try and optimize your boot performance)... it's no longer supported by MS, and is no longer available for download from their site. The following quote is taken from the MS article I've linked to below...

"Please note that Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users. Contrary to some published reports, Bootvis.exe cannot reduce or alter a system's boot or resume performance. The boot optimization routines invoked by Bootvis.exe are built into Windows XP. These routines run automatically at pre-determined times as part of the normal operation of the operating system."

Click to expand...

BootVis.exe Tool for System Manufacturers
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/fastboot/bootvis.mspx ... in addition the so-called optimizations that Bootvis makes to your system are irreversible.

Go to the bios and set "siI3114 Raid" to disabled. It worked for me.