Boot up - still 'booting' after desktop loaded

[Martin]

I recently installed Windows 2000 on a new hard drive on a laptop that
previously ran 98SE. (Pentium III 750MHz, 250MB RAM) I'm still in
building it up - naturally, the anti-virus and firewall are installed, as is
Office and all the important Windows updates as well as DirectX 9 and
Windows Media Player 9 but most applications aren't yet installed. (I've
stopped Office loading at startup.) Printer's not yet installed.

I've noticed that, now, as more has been installed, there's a lot of hard
drive activity for a good minute and a half after the logon Ctrl-Alt-Del
popup appears. I've found it best to wait for this to finish before
proceeding. If I don't, the boot up still seems to be going on well
after the desktop and all the system tray icons have finished loading, and
if I select dialup during this period, the icon sticks down for a good while
(minute and a half-ish) before the dialup window appears.

I've looked at event viewer, the bootlog file and also ran the freeware
Filemon to try and see what's happening. Event viewer shows nothing
abnormal. Filemon only loads up in the later stages of the bootup (shows
nothing worrying but is a bit too detailed to make sense of) and the bootlog
file shows only driver loadings and gives no indication as to the time taken
for each one.

The boot up time is still a good deal quicker than the 5 minutes that my
Windows 98SE system eventually grew to - but then on that system, when the
desktop loaded, that was it - it was ready to go. However, I expect as I
install more applications, this 'extended bootup' will become more apparent.

I expect that what's happening is just a function of the system becoming
more bloated as it grows, but I wonder if there's way to get more detailed
bootlog info just to be sure? (There was a nice little tool - Bootlog
Analyser that gave user-friendly details of the Windows 98 boot up, but it
doesn't work with 2000.)

Thanks for any suggestions/guidance.

Martin

 

[Steve Parry]

I recently installed Windows 2000 on a new hard drive on a laptop that
previously ran 98SE. (Pentium III 750MHz, 250MB RAM) I'm still in
building it up - naturally, the anti-virus and firewall are installed, as
is Office and all the important Windows updates as well as DirectX 9 and
Windows Media Player 9 but most applications aren't yet installed.
(I've stopped Office loading at startup.) Printer's not yet installed.

I've noticed that, now, as more has been installed, there's a lot of hard
drive activity for a good minute and a half after the logon Ctrl-Alt-Del
popup appears. I've found it best to wait for this to finish before
proceeding. If I don't, the boot up still seems to be going on well
after the desktop and all the system tray icons have finished loading, and
if I select dialup during this period, the icon sticks down for a good
while (minute and a half-ish) before the dialup window appears.

I've looked at event viewer, the bootlog file and also ran the freeware
Filemon to try and see what's happening. Event viewer shows nothing
abnormal. Filemon only loads up in the later stages of the bootup
(shows nothing worrying but is a bit too detailed to make sense of) and
the bootlog file shows only driver loadings and gives no indication as to
the time taken for each one.

The boot up time is still a good deal quicker than the 5 minutes that my
Windows 98SE system eventually grew to - but then on that system, when the
desktop loaded, that was it - it was ready to go. However, I expect
as I install more applications, this 'extended bootup' will become more
apparent.

I expect that what's happening is just a function of the system becoming
more bloated as it grows, but I wonder if there's way to get more detailed
bootlog info just to be sure? (There was a nice little tool - Bootlog
Analyser that gave user-friendly details of the Windows 98 boot up, but it
doesn't work with 2000.)

Thanks for any suggestions/guidance.

Martin

Office installs loads of fonts etc which do take up space and can slow
things down on a laptop

 

[Martin]

Thanks Steve.

I don't know if Office is loading fonts - I disabled the Office from the
startup list after I installed it, but I have looked more closely at the
bootlog file. Despite the laptop working fine, there are 14
"driver did not load" entries in it.

I'll have a trawl with Google and see if I can make some sense of these
entries.

Many thanks

Martin

 

[Dave Patrick]

Add more RAM and the disk thrashing (excessive paging) will stop.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I recently installed Windows 2000 on a new hard drive on a laptop that
| previously ran 98SE. (Pentium III 750MHz, 250MB RAM) I'm still in
| building it up - naturally, the anti-virus and firewall are installed, as
is
| Office and all the important Windows updates as well as DirectX 9 and
| Windows Media Player 9 but most applications aren't yet installed.
(I've
| stopped Office loading at startup.) Printer's not yet installed.
|
| I've noticed that, now, as more has been installed, there's a lot of hard
| drive activity for a good minute and a half after the logon Ctrl-Alt-Del
| popup appears. I've found it best to wait for this to finish before
| proceeding. If I don't, the boot up still seems to be going on well
| after the desktop and all the system tray icons have finished loading, and
| if I select dialup during this period, the icon sticks down for a good
while
| (minute and a half-ish) before the dialup window appears.
|
| I've looked at event viewer, the bootlog file and also ran the freeware
| Filemon to try and see what's happening. Event viewer shows nothing
| abnormal. Filemon only loads up in the later stages of the bootup
(shows
| nothing worrying but is a bit too detailed to make sense of) and the
bootlog
| file shows only driver loadings and gives no indication as to the time
taken
| for each one.
|
| The boot up time is still a good deal quicker than the 5 minutes that my
| Windows 98SE system eventually grew to - but then on that system, when the
| desktop loaded, that was it - it was ready to go. However, I expect as
I
| install more applications, this 'extended bootup' will become more
apparent.
|
| I expect that what's happening is just a function of the system becoming
| more bloated as it grows, but I wonder if there's way to get more detailed
| bootlog info just to be sure? (There was a nice little tool - Bootlog
| Analyser that gave user-friendly details of the Windows 98 boot up, but it
| doesn't work with 2000.)
|
| Thanks for any suggestions/guidance.
|
| Martin
|
|

 

[Martin]

Thanks Dave. Unfortunately, the manufacturer's told me that it is already
at its max. Having said that, once it has loaded up there isn't an
obvious RAM problem, so I'm relatively happy to give it time to boot fully
before operating it.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Yes, I remember an older box I had that had 256 and basically the same
behavior.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Thanks Dave. Unfortunately, the manufacturer's told me that it is
already
| at its max. Having said that, once it has loaded up there isn't an
| obvious RAM problem, so I'm relatively happy to give it time to boot fully
| before operating it.

 

[Martin]

That's very reassuring. Many thanks. I love this Windows 2000 - it's
like having a new computer and already noticably more sturdy than 98SE..

Many thanks for everyone's kind inputs.

Martin

 

[Dave Patrick]

You're welcome.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| That's very reassuring. Many thanks. I love this Windows 2000 - it's
| like having a new computer and already noticably more sturdy than 98SE..
|
| Many thanks for everyone's kind inputs.
|
| Martin

 

[DL]

You mentioned winupdate, but you failed to mention whether you install win2k
chipset and other drivers from your Laptop manu, when you upgraded win 98 to
win2k

That's very reassuring. Many thanks. I love this Windows 2000 - it's
like having a new computer and already noticably more sturdy than 98SE..

Many thanks for everyone's kind inputs.

Martin

Yes, I remember an older box I had that had 256 and basically the same
behavior.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Thanks Dave. Unfortunately, the manufacturer's told me that it is
already
| at its max. Having said that, once it has loaded up there isn't an
| obvious RAM problem, so I'm relatively happy to give it time to boot fully
| before operating it.

 

[Frank Booth Snr]

I recently installed Windows 2000 on a new hard drive on a laptop that
previously ran 98SE. (Pentium III 750MHz, 250MB RAM) I'm still in
building it up - naturally, the anti-virus and firewall are installed, as is
Office and all the important Windows updates as well as DirectX 9 and
Windows Media Player 9 but most applications aren't yet installed. (I've
stopped Office loading at startup.) Printer's not yet installed.

I've noticed that, now, as more has been installed, there's a lot of hard
drive activity for a good minute and a half after the logon Ctrl-Alt-Del
popup appears. I've found it best to wait for this to finish before
proceeding. If I don't, the boot up still seems to be going on well
after the desktop and all the system tray icons have finished loading, and
if I select dialup during this period, the icon sticks down for a good while
(minute and a half-ish) before the dialup window appears.

I've looked at event viewer, the bootlog file and also ran the freeware
Filemon to try and see what's happening. Event viewer shows nothing
abnormal. Filemon only loads up in the later stages of the bootup (shows
nothing worrying but is a bit too detailed to make sense of) and the bootlog
file shows only driver loadings and gives no indication as to the time taken
for each one.

The boot up time is still a good deal quicker than the 5 minutes that my
Windows 98SE system eventually grew to - but then on that system, when the
desktop loaded, that was it - it was ready to go. However, I expect as I
install more applications, this 'extended bootup' will become more apparent.

I expect that what's happening is just a function of the system becoming
more bloated as it grows, but I wonder if there's way to get more detailed
bootlog info just to be sure? (There was a nice little tool - Bootlog
Analyser that gave user-friendly details of the Windows 98 boot up, but it
doesn't work with 2000.)

Thanks for any suggestions/guidance.

There's supposed to be a fair bit of HDD activity when the logon box
appears (before you logon). That's normal. On my machine this lasts
about 30 seconds. Win2k has a chunk of Windows services and Management
software to load at this stage. The bootup does continue a fair bit
after the desktop appears, mainly due to loading up antivirus and
firewall software. If you download MSConfig (which isn't supplied with
Win2k), you can use this to determine what is slowing up the booting at
logon. 256k RAM is more than adequate to run Win2k.