Horrible boot times

Anyone getting these horrible boot times with the 5400 disk that came with the laptop? Its literally taking me several minutes to boot into a useable desktop. Even my 2 year old laptop with a 5400 drive can boot up in less then a minute. I think its this bogged down windows install that comes with it. Would a fresh windows 7 install help at all? Also what would i absolutely need to have if i did that? like the hybrid drives, alienfx to be able to turn lights on/off..

 

I went ahead and timed it booting up:

power button to login screen - 41sec on clock
desktop finally shows up - 1:55 on clock
login sound from windows - 2:33
alienfx load to turn off lights - 3:34
firefox finally loads - 3:40

This is getting to be a bit ridiculous.

 

The preloaded version of Windows 7 will take much longer to boot than a clean copy of Windows every time.

First, Try and modify the start menu by taking off such items as AlienFx and other programs that do not necessarily need to startup with Windows. If still not satisfied:

Install an OEM version and you should see 1/2 to 1/3 of that time. Mine currently takes about half that time with the preloaded version of Windows, but I do have a 7200rpm drive and a few things turned off in Windows startup.

Post back times with both when you do.

 

I have the same issue. I cut down my boot time a little by using this software to disable/delay some start-up applications.

Soluto ? Anti-Frustration Software

Granted, the boot-up and responsiveness of my M11x is still not up to par, IMO, the program did lower my boot time somewhat.

 

^ that is a awesome program !! It will definitely help your boot times, and tell you want you should and shoulnt have in your boot. I gained at least 15 off my boot time

 

Its been a while but seeing as I didn't see you mention it. On my 5400 drive defragging shaved off a good 10seconds+ easily.

 

i just went into run comand and typed "msconfig" and edited the start up programs from there. that along with a cleaning from ccleaner and a defrag from defraggler cut my boot time in 1/2. went from like almost 70 processes down to like 45.

a fresh install is always the best awnser imo.

 

Really? It seems like the M11x boots up pretty quick. I usually turn mine on, go do something for a moment, and when I come back I can log in. I dunno, maybe I'm just patient considering my older laptop isn't usable for a good 5 minutes.

 

1) Yes, a fresh install would definitely help. When I first got my Alienware M11x, I uninstalled all of the apps I didn't want, until my machine was configured to my liking. I then did a clean format, and installed all of the apps I did want, until my machine was configured to my liking. The clean format was MUCH faster at bootup, despite having the same final configuration as the "uninstall" method.

2) If you really want performance improvement, get an SSD. Check this out. I load Windows 7 plus all 27 applications installed on my work laptop in about 1 minute - faster than most machines with mechanical hard drives can even boot to the Windows desktop.
YouTube - Why I love my SSD - Windows 7 boot + loading 27 applications in about 1 minute.

 

Always sleep FTW.

 

I have the 7200rpm 320GB HDD, but I get 1:22 minutes from full off to the desktop, and that was writing the log in password, maybe some 15-20 seconds more to load some startup programs, but I can already use IE or some other programs at soon the desktop shows up....

Like I said in other topic, is not that fast, but is sure not a lot of time.....

 

Thanks guys, i have a windows 7 install dvd laying around somewhere. Ill try that when i get some time and post some results. Hopefully theyll be good ones.

 

Good news, with a fresh install of windows 7 ultimate, i reach login screen by 32 seconds and the desktop is fully loaded and ready to go by 55 seconds . This is such an improvement over the alienware install of windows 7, although there's a lot of drivers that have to be installed.

 

Only thing now after i reinstalled windows, battery bar is reporting that the laptop is consuming more power. discharge rate is around 9k, used to run 7k idle before. Any ideas? I ran thought all my power settings and its all the same as ive had it.

 

SSD FTW. Push of the button to usable desktop in 31 seconds.

 

SSD is definitely nice, SSD with a clean installation boots in 15-20 seconds.

 

If never seen a 15 second boot of one of these machines. Video or it didnt happen.

 

Haha reminds me of 4chan, pics or it didnt happen.

 

You're talking about a completely fresh install with just about every unnecessary background service and application missing with a SSD that's over 90% empty.

 

Someone here has a super quick startup time in their sig. I forgot who it was, though.

 

You rang?

I have 2 vids... one is pure startup from cold boot. Another vid is cold boot + loading 27 apps in about 1 minute, to show the extreme multitasking performance of SSDs.

If you are measuring boot times, you need to measure boot times to a *usable* Windows desktop. Getting to just desktop is useless if your comp is still chugging along loading startup apps. And if you are measuring pure boot times, you need to discount about 8 seconds for POST.

 

Seriously, who's shutting down their laptops more than once or twice a week? Come on, people.

 

Uhhmmm, me. Like my startup is only 1.03min on an original(but modified) win7 Dell install with MySQL server, Apache server and etc. Guess I should be proactive and cull all those Adobe, powerDVD and etc startups.

But hay, that one minute gives me a chance to have a sip of coffee and that's not a bad thing.

Any quicker and I'd try and type with coffee in hand and this one time I did that, the outcome was less than favourable.

 

Every day before going to bed....


I removed the login password in my m11x, to have a exact time from full off to desktop (just to show the desktop) and it was done in 56 seconds, and I have some stuff that can be removed to improve times, but for me is not that long....

 

Still don't believe it. I have tweaked my startup process a lot. And cold boot from the time I press the power button to a usable desktop is around 30 seconds. You're talking half that time. Considering it takes 5-10 seconds just for the machine to POST, I still say vids or it didnt happen.

I've seen Kent's videos before today and its the fastest Ive seen on one of these machines - about 5 seconds faster than mine. You're telling me you managed to get yours to boot 10 seconds faster than his? I call bluff.