Slow Win 2K Pro boot?

Is it normal for Win 2K Pro to take fully 30 seconds for the splash screen to disappear? It is only after this period of time that the floppy is accessed and the hard drive starts to crunch away.
If this is normal, well, OK. But if not, what can be done to speed things up?
The machine is a Dell Dimension w/PIII, 700mHz, & 256mB RAM.

Thanks.

 

I have the same problem basically, but I have a Dell Dimension / P2 350 MHz / 256 Megs of RAM

I'd like to hear a solution to this too.

 

Do either of you have DSL? I found that after installing my DSL software (Winpoet) that Win2K would take anywhere from 30-60 seconds longer to boot. Now that I have moved to an area where I can't get DSL or cable it boots much faster.

Hex92

 

no DSL

 

Is this slow period before or after the log on screen?

 

I do have DSL and the delay is prior to the log in.
Thanks.

 

Well, I stumbled onto something that knocked 15 seconds off. Seems to have no ill effects.
Control Panel -> System -> Start Up and Recovery -> Uncheck 'Display list of operating systems for X seconds'. In my case, X had been set to 30 and I don't run any other OS's.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

If you don't have any other operating systems that shouldnt have made any difference.
See C:\boot.ini
The setting you are seeing is just a GUI of this file.
Are you logging on to a local account?

 

I did a search for 'boot.ini' and didn't find it. Was I supposed to or is that the problem?
By 'logging into a local account', I assume you are refering to an account on the machine were the OS resides. Which is what I'm doing (this machine is at home).
Thanks.

 

Boot.ini is sitting in %systemroot%. Otherwise, 2K won't know how to start. Hidden file though.

You might try turning off the indexing feature that is enabled by default. Right-click the "my computer" icon, manage, and it should be in the bottom section.

If you have any network drives mapped and they reconnect during startup that can slow you down.

Also check your event logs and see if there are any ugly looking events happening at startup time.

 

A-ha! I stumbled across the fact that if there are non-bootable CD's in the 2 CDROM drives, the boot delay is negligable. I probably should have mentioned that I did swap out the original CRROM drive for 2 others (a DVD & a CDROM burner)a while back, but obviously didn't notice the correlation (I was just happy it worked).
Is there a parameter that says something to the effect of 'hey, stop looking for a bootable CD in X seconds'?

Thanks.

 

Try changing the boot sequence in the cmos table. Sounds like its looking at the cd rom drive first. Might consider changing to read floppy first, then hard drive. In most cases you really dont use a bootable cd unless your reinstalling the op. system.

Just a thought.

 

Thanks for the info. One tiny question: How does one access the CMOS table to change it?

 

I am not 100% sure with your Dell, but the ones that I have worked on will enter the CMOS settings by pressing the Delete key when the Dell splash screen comes on (just after turning the PC on).

 

When you turn the computer on ususally down in bottom left of display it will say either press the del key or f2 to enter Setup. Most bios the order in which it looks at boot devices is in the advanced tab. But if you just go from tab to tab you will find it.