Fast booting

how do all the compaq, dell, and hp computer boot so fast? someone i know has a hp with the same processor as me, but a little slower memory and video etc.. but it boots in like i second.. it doesn't even show any bios... you turn it on, and right away pops up the windows xp boot screen

Maybe they have it in stanby and just wake it up...

There are options in some BIOSes (especially on OEM systems), that allow you to disable memory checks and other things. If I turn it on for my system, boot time will drop from 2 or 3 minutes (this board has LONG memory testing) to around 5 seconds.

Also, on some BIOSes are options to hide all the BIOS screen stuff and either show nothing, or the manufactuer's logo. I haven't seen that option yet on a normal mobo, but there must be some out there with it....

JigPu

OLMI said:

how do all the compaq, dell, and hp computer boot so fast? someone i know has a hp with the same processor as me, but a little slower memory and video etc.. but it boots in like i second.. it doesn't even show any bios... you turn it on, and right away pops up the windows xp boot screen

Click to expand...

check
:Geek.com they have lots of tricks and tips for windows and what not.

JigPu said:

There are options in some BIOSes (especially on OEM systems), that allow you to disable memory checks and other things. If I turn it on for my system, boot time will drop from 2 or 3 minutes (this board has LONG memory testing) to around 5 seconds.

Also, on some BIOSes are options to hide all the BIOS screen stuff and either show nothing, or the manufactuer's logo. I haven't seen that option yet on a normal mobo, but there must be some out there with it....

JigPu

Click to expand...

ASUS, MSI and a few others have "MyLogo" features that allow you to flash a moderately sized image for use as a BIOS startup image.

But, BIOS flashing isn't particularly fun and I don't see the point since I prefer to see a problem before I get into windows.


Enabling quick boot, disabling mem-check, AND predetecting the IDE configuration (so it doesn't have to search for devices every time it boots) will allow any system to boot alot faster. THere are obviously a dozen other settings, but they're usually rather obvious.

The fastest booting systems I've ever seen were Socket 7.

OEM Manufacturers use custom BIOSes. No fancy displays, just show logo and boot the OS. We have some DELL PCs at the school that dont even have the logo. They turn on, display three lines of text for a second and then boot the OS.

Also, they use slightly different hardware sometimes.

David