How long does it take for your computer to boot up?

[The Monkey]

Just wanted to compare times...

For me it's one minute from when I press the button until I can log in, and 2 min 50 sec from when I've logged in until I can actually start using the computer.

 

[Escaep]

1 minute including log in. Took me 1 min 30 secs from shut down, to start up, to posting this message.

 

[VirusType2]

I haven't timed mine, but It depends on hardware, how much stuff you have in your startup, and what operating system you have.

I got a laptop with vista from a friend, and it took like 5 minutes to start up, and 5 to shut down. I don't know exactly what was going on, but it was a brick. A laptop is supposed to be something you can open up, do some stuff, and close it up.

anyway, I installed XP on it, and from the desktop, I could restart the computer, be logged in, ready to use in about 15 seconds total.

after installing antivirus, that time doubled though.


If you want it to be fast, the best thing you can do is keep your startup programs to a minimum, disable services that you don't use, keep your drive defraged with PerfectDisc, and even remove tons of fonts because I've heard that windows keeps all of them in memory, and there are lots. I just uninstalled (just move them from the fonts folder to instal/uninstall) all of the wild ones that I will never use.

You could also set up your OS to automatically log you in, so it skips that step, but you may rather have a password

 

[99.vikram]

45 seconds.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

30 seconds. Using firefox in 35

 

[Laivasse]

Well under a minute to boot up, on this nearly 4 year old comp. Like OTCEscape above, it takes me just a few seconds over 1 min 30 to restart and have this thread open in front of me again. I suspect that's slightly longer than usual, though, since it took me an unusually long time to shut down on the trial I just timed.

Keeping your startup items to a minimum and your system tray free of unwanted crappy icons is certainly the key (since having lots of them is basically symptomatic of having lots of stuff running). When mine starts up the only things I have down there are: a CPU temp reading from motherboard monitor, my internet and LAN connectivity icons, volume icon, a sound mixer prog icon, and a 'safely remove hardware' icon that I can't seem to get rid of.

27 processes in Task Manager though, which is slightly more than I'd like.

 

[Musk]

1 minute 45 seconds

 

[PimpinPenguin]

50 seconds, thanks to Norton slowing it down.

 

[Irksome]

30 seconds to get to the login screen, and 3 additional seconds to get logged in and be ready to go.

 

[The Monkey]

30 seconds to get to the login screen, and 3 additional seconds to get logged in and be ready to go.

D:

How do I "keep my startup programs to a minimum"? They start up automatically, not much I can do about it.

 

[Beerdude26]

like 50 seconds

 

[Laivasse]

How do I "keep my startup programs to a minimum"? They start up automatically, not much I can do about it.

For a start, if you have a horrible hornet's nest of icons in your system tray, go through them all right clicking and checking the settings screens for each. If there's a 'start with windows' checkbox, uncheck it.

Another place to check is Start Button > Programs or All Programs list > startup. If there are any shortcuts there for stuff you don't need, just delete them.

Then Control Panel > Administrative tools > services and disable or set to 'manual' anything you know you don't need. Google could be handy there.

Then there's Run > type 'msconfig' > and the 'startup' tab for anything you haven't been able to block by the above methods.

Finally check out task manager and see what's left running after a fresh boot. Try and get familiar with the program names, understand what each of them does, use google for research, and find a way to prevent the remaining stuff you don't need from starting. If a program is being a piece of shit and insisting on starting with windows even if you don't want it to, vote with your feet and uninstall it.

Bear in mind, though, that antivirus can be a big factor in slow start-ups and you don't want to disable that. Well... I don't even use AV, personally, but many people would find that unwise...

 

[Asus]

With boot/memory test and S.M.A.R.T. on but motherboard logo disabled, ~45 seconds to login screen. 20-25 seconds from hibernation.

 

[Que-Ever]

a couple minutes or so. Which is good, because it crashes multiple times a day.

 

[kineaesth]

a couple minutes or so.

Same. My computer needs death or surgery.

 

[Que-Ever]

Whoah, hold up, some of these people have like half a minute? Now I feel super cheated. Not only does it crash fuggin' ten times a day, it takes four times longer than it should to boot. *kills self*

 

[soulslicer]

My newest computer (Dell) takes 20 seconds
My old self built rig the one with 7800GS takes about 26 seconds
My HP laptop takes 20 seconds

Just to bring you to the home screen. 20 seconds to to successfully login and settle and stuff. Que - Ever, what is your system like?

 

[Combine_Advisor]

2 mins max

 

[Sedako]

about 30-40 seconds to be fully up and running. Need to do some tweaking.

 

[Tyguy]

under a minute, but it loads stuff for about 20 seconds

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Yeah I'm pretty sure it takes about 10-15 more seconds to have everything loaded. Thats one thing I love about vista - its priority to user tasks. I can almost gurantee this would take 1 minute or more to get to firefox AFTER a 50 second boot when I had XP

 

[Pesmerga]

60 seconds

But I also have to select which OS to boot. Which acounts for about 10 seconds.

 

[Barney Fife]

40 seconds the entire time. Thanks to my short-list registry.

 

[nurizeko]

1-2 minutes, 3 tops, but when I had only 512MB it took a fair bloody while.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Some reason having a disc in the drive makes it take longer by 10 seconds.