Win 98(non SE) boot question

[palee72]

Just a quick question...

When my PC boots (See sig below), After it posts, it goes to the splash screen and sits there (I hit ESC to get to the black screen with blinking underline cursor in the upper left...it just sits there and blinks)

It will sit there for (what I feel) is a long time, Upwards of 1-1.5 min. before booting to the logon screen (home networked).

If I wiggle the mouse after it has been on this screen, it seems to "wake it up" and boot faster...

Anti-Virus is off (actually uninstalled and removed all trace in REG and). It has done this since the inital OS install, so there aren't any programs in the background that would cause this..

It isn't a major problem, it is just the slowest booting system I have ever had...

 

[minoukat]

what I think is happening is Windows trying to contact a Domain Controller, and the time it isn't doing anything is exactly this, it's trying to connect to it. then, after it didn't get an answer back from the server, it just continues. The only way to cure this, I think, is either to remove the NIC, or to upgrade to a different OS (Windows ME doesn't do that, Win2k and WinXP don't do that, and I think Win98SE takes less time to load, but I'm not sure really)

 

[zachj]

It could also be the BIOS or Windows looking for RAID controllers and such. If you've got the RAID controller and no RAID devices, just turn off the controller in BIOS and see what that does. Mine does that too, but it displays what's happening while it waits. I turned off RAID and no more wait.

Z

 

[palee72]

Nope, no Raid on here... As for looking for domain controller, We don't use one. We are networked with a smart cable (Only 2 computers in network), no server or hub....

 

[minoukat]

exactly, that's maybe why it's taking so long : Windows itself doesn't know yet (during bootup) that there isn't a Domain controller or a server at the end of the cable, and looses time searching for it. Just try removing the NIC (for testing purposes only), and see if it boots up faster. If it does, you just found your "problem". Also, try defragging your hard drive, as fragmentation slows down an install