Same mobo -different boot time

[Homer Timpson]

My wife has a 1.2 T/bird/256DDR - I'm on a 1.7XP Athlon/256PC133 - with a Plextor CD-RW as an extra IDE/Sec.master.

Her Win98 boots in 20 secs -with msconfig/startup set to boot virtually nothing other than what is needed.
My system gets to 'checking for boot record on IDE.O...ok, starting win98' and then sits for 30 secs before getting to the desktop.

We have the same standard board and bios revision, different memory, and I've the extra cd rom.

I've checked all the properties I can think of, but she beats me hands down!! Any ideas?

p.s. it's the same win98 cd!!
Brian

 

[svtcobra]

It has to be something to do with the second drive on the IDE channel. I doubt it has to do with the difference in ram. try taking the drive out temporarily. you have to take these things one step at a time to figure then out.

 

[Homer Timpson]

Thanks for the advice svtcobra.

I'll unplug the Plextor and see how things go.

20 - 48 secs are the time differences - not serious, but annoying!!

Thanks again
Brian

 

[svtcobra]

Annoying indeed..I dont blame you for trying to figure it out. I hate a slow boot up.

 

[eddy05]

My Windows 98SE boots in 40 seconds!!! Laugh OuT Loud!

 

[Homer Timpson]

Originally posted by eddy05
My Windows 98SE boots in 40 seconds!!!
Laugh OuT Loud!

My system is taking 45secs - the other- 20 secs.

Tried the cdrw on IDE-1 as master,
On the IDE-0 as slave - no difference.

What do you suggest????

Brian

 

[eddy05]

Other than reducing your startup programmes, I guess there is no way u can do, unless u change another faster hard disk, like 7200rpm, and choose a more reliable brand too! i saw some PC's write at 700mb/min, it was an Athlon XP 1.1ghz. Mine writes at 100mb/min, thats y it's slow

 

[Didou]

What's the rest of your hardware. If you have a network card & you've set it to automatically get an IP adress, it takes a few seconds before windows can boot.

What motherboard are you using ?

I've had an A7V & now I have an A7V266-e, both with Promise Chips & I noticed that some versions of the promise drivers slowed the Win98 bootup when used with certain versions of the Via 4 in 1s I was using.

It's about the same symptom, Windows Boots, I see the logo, the autoexec & then the cursor just blinks there for a few seconds.

Updating to the latest 4 in 1s usually worked.

 

[Homer Timpson]

Athlon 1.7 XP Athlon T/bird 1.2
256MB PC133 256MB DDR
60GB IBM Deskstar 7200rpm 40GB West. Digital Caviar 7200rpm
Elite K7S5A w/o LAN Elite K7S5A w/o LAN
64MB Super ATI Radeon VE 32MB Super ATI Radeon VE
Jetway Artis Sound Jetway Artis Sound
Netvin 10/100Mbs Ethernet Netvin 10/100Mbs Ethernet
(Network cards & xover cable installed - no network yet)
AMR Fax/Modem AMR Fax Modem
We live in hope of cable !!
Delta 52x CD-ROM Generic CD-ROM
Cambridge FPS600 4.1 Stereo Desktops
Plextor 30x12x10 CDRW

Funnny thing happened this morning - I swapped the two sound card and my wifes pc now boots in 46 secs - she now has the dreaded 30 sec logo delay. Her sound card in my pc gave no improvement.
The reason I swapped cards is another saga.
I bought the FPS1600's in a brown box deal for £40 ($56) - and used them on the other pc 'til mine was built - and they worked perfectly.
Put them on my machine and only get 2 speakers - the black output from the card gives nothing. If I pull the green wire on the subwoofer half out - I get 4 speakers - but the plug soon falls out.

Put them back on the other pc and they worked again 1st time - hence this morning I swapped cards. But the 'good' card on my machine gave the same result. I'm now in the process of putting my card in the other pc and seeing what happens then.
I've also tried the drivers on both cd's to no avail.
So, the boot up and sound problem are ongoing - hope I'm not boring you with my endless prattle guys.
Thanks for all input so far.
Brian

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Networking slows 9x OS's down quite a lot if "quick logon" isn't checked in ..uh, it's somewhere in Network properties, the first in the protocol list. It's been a while since I used Windows

 

[boeingfixer]

Originally posted by Homer Timpson
My wife has a 1.2 T/bird/256DDR - I'm on a 1.7XP Athlon/256PC133 - with a Plextor CD-RW as an extra IDE/Sec.master.

We have the same standard board and bios revision, different memory, and I've the extra cd rom.

p.s. it's the same win98 cd!!
Brian

It may be the memory initializing at different times or sound card. Just curious, why don't you put DDR in both boards ??

 

[svtcobra]

mic is correct..network cards slow down the boot process alot.


and for what boeingfixer said..Why dont you? DDR will make a good enough difference that makes it worth the upgrade.

 

[PHATMAN5050]

i was once told that longer ide cables may slow down computers. What about hard drives? what's the difference between the hard drives in the computers. 7200rpm would be faster than 5400rpm, seek times, there are many reasons why one is faster than the other, and why one may be slow. I've finally made my ATARAID133 my first boot and floppy and cdrom the next becuase half of the time i would have a floppy disk in the drive! lol It always scares me though, one time it said that and there was no disk in the drive :dead: i had to write zeros and reformat on that one :dead: :dead:

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Originally posted by PHATMAN5050
i was once told that longer ide cables may slow down computers.

Yes, it takes longer as signals have to travel farther. Some might even get lost during their journey

 

[Homer Timpson]

Sorry for the delay in replying to all the posts - I'd been experimenting with Win2000 - realised I wasn't ready!! - and went back to Win98.

Didn't put DDR in my machine as price had gone from £32 to £92 in the 2 months since I built the 1st pc. I'm using my 256Mb of 133 until it drops again.

Both h/d's are 7200rpm with IDE 100 cables. (IBM & W.Dig.)

Sorted out the speaker problems - same Jetway CD's, but for some reason one loads the drivers that I need. Can't explain it, but now have real suround with woofer - so no complaints.

Disabled my network card in Dev.Mgr. and pc booted in 27 secs!!
Set to auto detect IP. (same as other though.

Will be setting up the network 2nite - so await more posts!!

Thanks again to all who responded.

Brian

(Cold and wet in Scotland. Counting the days to Vistana, Florida in September - the sunshine, Kracken, Jimmy Buffets, Bahama Breeze, Hoop De Doo, etc etc etc

 

[svtcobra]

good to heat that your making progress.