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Boot up time is more than 5 minutes.. Wanna help me reduce it?

post #1 of 58
1/12/13 at 10:19am
Thread Starter 
So, I have a pretty bare-bones boot. Arcsoft TM server, mobile mouse, media browser service, Cyberlink services, logmein and X10 commander server.

I've gone through and disabled everything I don't need with msconfig and defragmented my registry as well as cleaned it with ccleaner. There is plenty of space left on the boot drive and I'm still at around 5 minutes before I can launch media center.

I know the most obvious answer here is going to be "get a better hard drive" or SSD..

Before I make that investment, I'd like to know what else can be done to reduce boot time.

It's an e6600 with an EVGA 780i and 4GB of OCZ sli memory and a 80gb caviar blue boot drive. The processor is over-clocked to 2.8 with a stock cooler on it. (retired my water cooling system).

So, yes, it might need a little upgrading, but I can play 3D movies, record 3 things and have the commercial scanner running with 2 workers but boot time is dreadful.

Thought about tightening up my memory timings, currently they are 5-5-5-12@2T but I seriously doubt that is going to help.

The over-clock is linked and sync'ed for the qsb, can't remember the ratio. Probably 1:1. I'm familiar with other ways to over-clock. That was just the easiest and didn't have a lot of time to dink with it.

I am guessing we could start of with some unneeded services..

What do you suggest?
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post #2 of 58
1/12/13 at 10:32am
Get a SSD. It would be pretty simple to just clone your boot drive if you didn't want to do a clean install.

The other option is to just do a clean install.
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post #3 of 58
1/12/13 at 10:35am
Thread Starter 
I just did a clean install less than a year ago. I will be upgrading to an SSD but in the meantime, I figured I could do something with my current setup
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post #4 of 58
1/12/13 at 12:49pm
+1 for a SSD. Your boot times will reduce dramatically, especially with a SATA III SSD and compatible motherboard. You could also consider going with (eek.gif) Windows 8. It boots up ridiculously fast. It's a shame the UI sucks so bad. Nothing about the OS is intuitive or familiar. So much for continuity.rolleyes.gif
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post #5 of 58
1/12/13 at 12:59pm
I'd do a little troubleshooting if I were you to find out which of those services are taking so long to initialize. Turn them all off and add them one at a time as you reboot or turn them off one at a time until you get a reasonable boot time. My moneys on one (or more) of the remote programs is taking a long time to connect.
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post #6 of 58
1/12/13 at 2:05pm
Do you happen to have recordedtv HD installed?
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post #7 of 58
1/12/13 at 2:12pm
When was the last time you saw an 80GB HDD? Its the cause. I wouldn't put an SSD in that system as you wouldn't reap the full benefits of SATA_3. I'd sell off that system and start afresh.
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post #8 of 58
1/12/13 at 2:43pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by drtdiver View Post

Do you happen to have recordedtv HD installed?

Yes, but boot times were ridiculous before I installed.

I was pondering an SSD drive a few years ago, it will definitely be in my new system but was looking at the 320 series Intel SSD this morning.. Still considering it.

Does Intel still make the best of these or should I look elsewhere?
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post #9 of 58
1/12/13 at 3:39pm
Only reason I asked about recorded TV HD was because I had an issue with its service causing a hang on start up of about 2 minutes. I set the service to delayed start and it stopped hanging. But yes the HDD is your main bottle neck
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post #10 of 58
1/12/13 at 4:11pm
Windows 8.
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post #11 of 58
1/12/13 at 4:20pm
Thread Starter 
Should I get a WD black or SSD? Intel still the way to go?
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post #12 of 58
1/12/13 at 4:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnthonyB View Post

Should I get a WD black or SSD? Intel still the way to go?

Get an SSD if you can afford it. Any SSD is substantially faster than the fastest of hard drives.
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post #13 of 58
1/12/13 at 6:09pm
Thread Starter 
In the meantime, how do I check how long services are taking to start up? If I went to the services snap-in, that is a long list and you can't really tell by scrolling the window up and down repeatedly and having the time to write all those services down
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post #14 of 58
1/12/13 at 6:11pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karyk View Post

Windows 8.

That will be a cold day in hell, lol
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post #15 of 58
1/12/13 at 6:21pm
Your HTPC, as you describe it, doesn't really seem to me to be "bare bones". Lots of additional stuff going on between Arcsoft, cyberlink and X10. Can any of that stuff be offloaded somewhere else on your network? I wouldn't screw around with memory timings or overclocking.. you're just going to introduce instability into a system that you really need reliability. I think the biggest performance boost will come from an SSD, then look at some of this extraneous software you're running on top of windows.

.I use Regcure (http://www.regcure.com/) on both my HTPC's. I've found that keeping the registry free of broken & missing links has helped a lot as far as boot time and general responsiveness is concerned. I have also used Tune-up utilities with good results too, but regcure is probably better for increasing speed.

If the system in question is a dedicated media PC, a fresh install is probably the best route to take. Use regcure to keep it clean.
Edited by ajkrishock - 1/12/13 at 6:31pm
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post #16 of 58
1/12/13 at 6:49pm
I would take a look in event viewer right after a reboot and you are able to use the PC and see if any items are reporting a hang on startup. Registry cleaners and all in one clean up tools in my opinion can do a lot more damage than good so use wisely if you do.
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post #17 of 58
1/12/13 at 7:15pm
Thread Starter 
How much of PowerDVD's services can I disable? And Arcsoft?

As far as x10.. I *might* be able to use a different machine but x10 commander is extremely lightweight. Not sure about the drivers and services to run the cm15 but I cannot imagine that is the problem, I'll try to disable the services and see how it handles it.
Edited by AnthonyB - 1/12/13 at 7:47pm
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post #18 of 58
1/12/13 at 7:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj View Post

Get a SSD. It would be pretty simple to just clone your boot drive if you didn't want to do a clean install.

The other option is to just do a clean install.

5 minute boot? Something is wrong, I sure wouldn't clone it.
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post #19 of 58
1/12/13 at 7:45pm
Like I said a dozen posts ago, get a startup manager like this: http://startupmanager.org/ and shut an item off...reboot...is it quicker???no???lather...rinse...repeat. An SSD is not going to significantly speed a 5 minute boot. Figuring out what is hanging up will. Then get the SSD.
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post #20 of 58
1/12/13 at 7:49pm
Thread Starter 
You said to disable the services but I wasn't sure exactly how to do this, I mean, if I disable a service, windows might never boot again
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post #21 of 58
1/12/13 at 8:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnthonyB View Post

How much of PowerDVD's services can I disable? And Arcsoft?
Do you even need PowerDVD?

Maybe I'm missing something ... I have it on a Dell I bought, but never use this machine for watching DVDs. I didn't put it on the HTPC I built running Win7 ... and it plays DVDs just fine.

W.R.T. boot up time... the i3 I used in my HTPC with SATAIII and a Samsung 830 boots up into Media Center in under 10 seconds. But that was a clean install. The systems I cloned onto identical 830s take over 30s and over 60s, respectively.
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post #22 of 58
1/12/13 at 8:36pm
Thread Starter 
I need PowerDVD because I have 3D.
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post #23 of 58
1/13/13 at 5:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnthonyB View Post

I need PowerDVD because I have 3D.
Then why do you have Arcsoft as well? What OS are you running anyway?
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post #24 of 58
1/13/13 at 5:34am
How long to get into safe mode?
Back in XP days there was a third party utility that would track and time each service, driver program at startup to allow cleanup.
Edited by Ruiner - 1/13/13 at 5:40am
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post #25 of 58
1/13/13 at 6:48am
While all these suggestions are good, they are more for "optimizing" your system, than "fixing" your problem.

Problem: Your system takes 5 minutes to boot. - That is just not right, even with your hardware.

To give you a benchmark - My "servers" at home are running on P35 based boards with lowly E2160 type CPUs and generally about 4GB of RAM, and typical 7200 rpm SATA HDDs (most of them are a few years old, I see no reason to upgrade them just yet). Each of these servers, from push button power on to desktop is on average 30-40 seconds.

Side note: So, why do I still use these old boards for servers.....is a whole another story and unique to my setup. One word - S3 sleep.

Anyway, I'd reset your overclock to stock (remove it from the equation), put another HDD in and install a vanilla Windows installation, with motherboard drivers. Don't install anything else just yet. See how long boot takes. Then overclock, and benchmark again. Only after you have solved any plain vanilla issues, start debugging any additional devices and drivers.
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post #26 of 58
1/13/13 at 7:39am
I guess the biggest question is just how often do you have to reboot the PC? I leave mine on 24/7 and about the only time I need to reboot it is after installing Windows updates or possibly an updated driver. Once it's up, I just leave it alone.

I agree with kapone. Overclocking on a HTPC is totally unnecessary. Put your CPU clocking back to stock configuration.

Based on my experience using older SATA drives vs. SSD's, the difference in boot times is phenomenal. I had been using an SSD in my PC for quite some time and then I decided to upgrade my motherboard and CPU. Rather than replace everything at one time I put the new motherboard and CPU in a spare case and installed Windows 7 on a standard 160GB 3-1/2" SATA drive. The darn thing took so long to boot I thought there was a problem with either the Windows installation or the new hardware. I soon realized it was the older drive that was the bottleneck. I dug out another SSD that wasn't being used and reinstalled everything on the SSD. Needless to say, boot times were night and day. The older drive was taking close to 5 minutes to boot with nothing but Windows installed on it and no other drivers or software. With the SSD, it booted in under 30 seconds.
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post #27 of 58
1/13/13 at 7:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by captain_video View Post

I guess the biggest question is just how often do you have to reboot the PC? I leave mine on 24/7 and about the only time I need to reboot it is after installing Windows updates or possibly an updated driver. Once it's up, I just leave it alone..

Same here. That's one of the main reasons I don't install Win8 on my HTPC. Boot time is one of the main benefits of Win8, but I don't care about boot time. It's not worth the hassle or even the minor expense of upgrading.
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post #28 of 58
1/13/13 at 7:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj View Post

Get a SSD. It would be pretty simple to just clone your boot drive if you didn't want to do a clean install.

The other option is to just do a clean install.

+1
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post #29 of 58
1/13/13 at 9:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj View Post

Then why do you have Arcsoft as well? What OS are you running anyway?

Win 7 ultimate, and I use TMT for HD-DVD
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post #30 of 58
1/13/13 at 9:23am
I just threw together a build from a bunch of leftover parts this morning.

H67 ITX motherboard, G530 CPU, Samsung 840 120GB SSD, 4GB RAM, Win 7 Ultimate. My boot time is easily under 10 seconds.
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