Startup time

[hhmcsv]

On my T60 (see details below), I am experiencing the following startup-times:

Power on to log-on picture: 45 secs
Log-on to desktop showing: 15 secs
Desktop showing to Firefox launched showing my Google Calendar: 10 secs.

So a total of 70 secs. to an operational machine, not bad compared to my old T41 with XP.
Are these values typical for this Thinkpad, and what are the scope for improvements (other HDD?)

[RealBlackStuff]

That's very fast, indicating there is not much else running on that T60, other than the OS.
An SSD is about as much as you can do there.

[hhmcsv]

Yes, Realblackstuff, I have taken great care of disabling everything in the "startup" slice of msconfig that is not needed on startup. I notice, that most suppliers of software thinks that precisely their particular software should startup together with windows - with the likely benefit of faster response when actually needed. I have the opposite viewpoint, that I'm quite happy to wait for the program i actually need to use than suffer longer startup of about 10 systems which I might og might not use.

[Norway Pad]

Yes, Realblackstuff, I have taken great care of disabling everything in the "startup" slice of msconfig that is not needed on startup. I notice, that most suppliers of software thinks that precisely their particular software should startup together with windows - with the likely benefit of faster response when actually needed. I have the opposite viewpoint, that I'm quite happy to wait for the program i actually need to use than suffer longer startup of about 10 systems which I might og might not use.

AMEN! After every software install, I monitor bootup time, and do corrections in msconfig/bootup and services if any unwanted processes are started.

Interesting to see your numbers. In case you want to have a comparison, I just monitored my bootup times on the T60 right now:
0 seconds: Power button pushed
1-7 seconds: Lenovo splash screen,
9-35 seconds: XP splash screen,
37-48 seconds: XP startup screen (I have automatic login)
So 48 seconds after power up the XP sound is played and desktop is visible.

When the desktop appears, it takes another 10-15 seconds before everything, like battery indicator and wireless is up and running. This is laptop out of docking station, no external drives attached. Those things seem to add another 10-15 seconds to boot up time.

[zern]

I have found Startup Delayer very helpful in speeding up my startup times.
http://www.r2.com.au/page/products/page ... startdelay
(No, I am not affiliated with them in any way.)
I have many processes delayed for up to 1.5 hours before starting up.

[Johan]

... another option to (try to) reduce the boot time is the Soluto - Anti-frustration Software. There is a very good video about Soluto - here. Its entirely free!

I have been playing with it for a while (on a T60 under XP, and with an Intel X25-M SSD), but removed it again... try Google yourself for other users opinion.

Johan

[Brian10161]

On my T60 with my Intel SSD, I'm about 40 seconds cold boot to having Firefox open. And about 11 seconds to shut down. I never timed it with the 5400 RPM HDD, but I know the SSD made a huge difference.

It's unreal the difference an SSD will make. 70 seconds with an HDD is a great time IMO.

I have an Intel T2400, with 2GB ram and the 40GB SSD in my T60. Makes a pretty respectable computer.

[ArtShapiro]

I'm envious of you folks. It's sometimes as long as five minutes before I can do useful work on my XP T61 or my Win 7 T60p. There's so much hard drive activity at boot that generally the fingerprint logon gets rejected and it is simply easier to use uc / pw text entry.

What you're describing would be a joy!

Art

[hhmcsv]

Hi Artshapiro!
I had the somewhat naive perception, that with Win7 this very well known degradation of boot time would have disappeared. I think that one of the culprits that can be solved by ourselves is to be very critical of what programs are loaded at startup.
Most programs (or their designers) assume, that their particular product is the universal answer to all prayers, and therfore at installation a shortcut is placed on the desktop and the box "start when Windows are started" is ticked by default. I have had some succes in limiting this behaviour using the start tab of msconfig to untick everything that is not neccesary at startup. As you can see, the number of programs are minimal, and a fair amount have been deliberately unticked

[ArtShapiro]

Hi Artshapiro!
I had the somewhat naive perception, that with Win7 this very well known degradation of boot time would have disappeared.

I'm well aware of those nuisance, egotistical programs that want to autostart themselves. I've got them well under control and installed that nifty "StartupManager" freeware utility to alert me when they try to do their thing.

On the T60p, a main culprit is corporate Symantec AV, which is mandatory to connect to my work network. (We've discussed it in the past here; its hundreds of thousands of I/Os at boot don't seem to have a visible effect for some other folks here.) On the T61, I decided my sanity was more important than connecting to work, so I replaced Symantec with MSE. It is far less intrusive, although it can still rack up a lot of I/Os on boot.

I probably should attack this issue with more rigor - perhaps that Microsoft boot tracking software (is it something like bootviz.exe?) should be installed.

Anyway, I'm not trying to hijack this thread.

Art

[hhmcsv]

Today I installed SP1 from Windows Update (Win7). it seems that my boot-time has increased by 50secs (from 70 to to 120). I find that a huge degradation - anybody with similar experiences?

[Johan]

Today I installed SP1 from Windows Update (Win7). it seems that my boot-time has increased by 50secs (from 70 to to 120). I find that a huge degradation - anybody with similar experiences?

This question is also raised in the thread Microsoft ruined my Thinkpad - SP1 so it's perhaps best to keep all answers in one place? My personal suggestion is to keep this Windows7-related question in the above-mentioned thread.

Johan