Boot Up Time Optimization

[Yakl]

Dear intelligent ThinkPad community:


I have recently purchased a T410 with 128GB SSD and the boot up time seems to be a bit lacking compared to the impressive times I’ve seen here. I think the reason behind this goes to system optimization, considering my T410 is fairly stock. I also have Windows Live and Skype always as startup programs and can’t seem to get around that. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Startup times for similar configurations would also be spectacular.


Thank you all for your time in advance!
Good day

[Marin85]

For anything that is starting up with Windows: Windows Key ('super key') + R -> type 'msconfig' -> startup tab. From there you can disable skype or any other program from starting up. Also, please note that if you disable some of the Lenovo programs there, they may not work properly anymore, if at all, until you enable them back. BTW, Skype has the startup option among its settings: Tools -> Options -> General settings -> "start skype when I start Windows", so this would be an alternative approach instead of "msconfig".

Hope this helps a bit,

Marin

[Yakl]

Thanks a lot! I'm always seeking to learn more about computers whenever I get the opportunity, and yes your post definately helped.

Thanks again!

[howey]

I've disabled some of Lenovo's preloaded services that startup on boot and cut a good 10-15 seconds off of boot time (with a mechanical drive), mainly the "System Update" and "ThinkVantage Registry Monitor Service". You can disable them by hitting Win key + R and typing in 'services.msc', locating them on the list, right click, properties, and set them to 'Manual' mode (I think both of these were set at 'Automatic (Delayed Start)' when I got mine from Lenovo). System runs just fine without these services starting up, the ThinkVantage button still works along with all other Lenovo features and keyboard shortcuts. I was also able to disable the "Lenovo Camera Mute", "Smart Card" and other things that my computer doesn't have.

You can look here for more stuff you can disable to streamline Windows a bit and speed up boot times.

[Colonel O'Neill]

What is your current boot time anyway? I'm managing to do 30ish seconds on a 320GB Scorpio Black. (not including a really annoying 15 second delay between BIOS and Windows )

If you're not using Lenovo's preload Windows 7, then you should make sure all of your drivers are up to date, along with anything special required for SSDs (like better TRIM drivers than the Windows 7 stock ones).

[Yakl]

My current setup runs 33sec from when the ThinkLight flashes till the cursors' loading signal disappears (including BIOS and all that).

Thanks for the advice, but i don't know what you mean by TRIM drivers for SSDs, where to find them, and how to replace the old ones.

Many thanks for the useful reply

[Colonel O'Neill]

You can usually check on the SSD vendor website for drivers.

If you really want to start cutting seconds here and there, you can:
- Disable the animated Windows bootsplash (/noguiboot switch in msconfig)
- Put the SSD as first in the boot priority in BIOS (Startup page)
- Give your registry a quick cleanup using CCleaner (although this doesn't really do much unless you have massive amounts of useless stuff in your registry in my experience)

[Yakl]

I don't have an ultrabay so i think the SSD is as first priority.
I also have tweaked what you wonderful folks have advised earlier. I will boot up now and see the new time

[Colonel O'Neill]

You don't necessarily need an Ultrabay; the BIOS will check USB ports, CD/DVD drive, UltraBay, Ethernet, etc. before checking your SSD for a bootable operating system. Therefore, if you put SSD as first in the list, you bypass checking for all of the other devices first. However, this means you'll need to hit F12 at boot to start up from a CD or the like.

[Yakl]

Oh I see I will try that now.

[Yakl]

Back from BIOS i checked priority from 1-8 and i didn't find an SSD option only HDD0,HDD1...
How do I know which one is my C: ?

[Colonel O'Neill]

If memory serves correctly, HDD0 is your SSD. HDD1 would be the UltraBay drive.

[Yakl]

Nice! I just assumed as in C++ programming count initiates from 0.

Thanks for all the help mate i really appreciate it!

[fasteez]

4 easy parts to check

----- pre login

- drivers : use hardware manager
( i believe that disabling some peripherals in the hardware manager avoid some driver loading/init/stuff, some says it thus reduce power consumption )

- services : use start > run > services.msc to toy around, its mostly safe and dynamic, you can unload/reload as you want
( depending on the software installed and you usage there can be a tons of unneeded ones like remote access to registry, fast user switching support, wifi zero config, network aware stuff etc etc )

----- post login ( mostly things displayed in the systray )

- regedit : same as mentioned in a previous post
- start menu : same as regedit

in case you're an optimization nazi, there's a boot chart program (forgotten name sorry) from Microsoft that generates a big log of everything (so many things that on my old machine I couldnt suffer waiting for XP to finish logging its own boot)

have phun

edit : i never realised /noguiboot could be usefull, I'll sleep less ignorant tonight

[AIX]

[..]in case you're an optimization nazi, there's a boot chart program (forgotten name sorry) from Microsoft that generates a big log of everything (so many things that on my old machine I couldnt suffer waiting for XP to finish logging its own boot)[..]

I think you're talking about Bootvis.
Anyway, here it's an interesting "boot analyzer" software; never used it but looks interesting.

[fasteez]

I think you're talking about Bootvis.
Anyway, here it's an interesting "boot analyzer" software; never used it but looks interesting.

that's him, Bootvis. I only saw its result once, the previous attempts always ended up in either endless loop or far too long boot, so I gave up.
Soluto seems a nice new challenger, have you tried it ? i'm a try it soon enough

edit : for the linux crowd, there's the famous bootchart http://www.bootchart.org/

[AMATX]

neat tips; thanks!

[Navck]

You can usually check on the SSD vendor website for drivers.

If you really want to start cutting seconds here and there, you can:
- Disable the animated Windows bootsplash (/noguiboot switch in msconfig)
- Put the SSD as first in the boot priority in BIOS (Startup page)
- Give your registry a quick cleanup using CCleaner (although this doesn't really do much unless you have massive amounts of useless stuff in your registry in my experience)

1. However, you won't know if your system froze at boot if it does. Well, until 10 seconds in and you realize no dice.
2. It should be set that way but you should always be able to do bootable disks in case you need to. (And most people forget)
3. Fresh T410, more gains would come from setting a bunch of services to delayed autostart instead as well as disabling some of the unnecessary items ("Remote Registry")

[Colonel O'Neill]

Soluto looks very interesting; it recognizes the some of the ThinkVantage tools at startup and gives rather detailed ThinkPad-specific descriptions for such startup processes. It looks promising!

[Yakl]

Hey Colonel, did it give you any results towards a faster boot up time?

[Colonel O'Neill]

It gave a slightly better boot time on my new install on T400. It cut boot by about 5 seconds on an older install on my X100e. Granted the numbers fluctuate significantly every reboot. I've had Soluto report 25 second boots, but usually around the 30 second range. It doesn't measure "to-desktop", but rather some threshold it defines.

Rather, I use it as a benchmarking tool for my defragger, which doesn't apply to SSDs.

Soluto seems like a program to install on OSes which have been heavily used with many programs starting at boot (often the case with umm... novices? that don't know how to mess with msconfig).

[Yakl]

Lol it's all good we all start somewhere and nobody is born with absolute knowledge, but our strive to learn, and improve is what defines us. And that’s why we are all here, set aside the knowledge gaps.

Thanks for the help once again I appreciate it!