Boot time difference?

[Guest]

Hi, I've got a question related to laptop PC:

How come my older [Compaq Presario C306US Notebook PC] boots faster than [Acer Aspire 5749-6926] and [HP G50 Notebook PC]?


Specs (don't know if sufficient, just say what is needed):
[Compaq Presario C306US Notebook PC]
Intel Celeron M Processor 430 @ 1.73 GHz
1 x 2 GB DDR2 (PC2-6400)
Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset (total VRAM: 256 MB)

[Acer Aspire 5749-6926]
Intel Core i3
1 x 4 GB DDR3, 1 x 2 GB DDR3 (6 GB total)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (total VRAM: 1+ GB)

[HP G50 Notebook PC]
AMD Sempron SI-42
2 x 512 MB DDR2 (?) ;don't know specific, but know that it is slower than Compaq's
nVidia GeForce 8200M (total VRAM: 319 MB)


All I know that the Acer and HP laptops are slow at the boot logo (noticable lag), but the Compaq is smooth.

Also, I've notice that the Acer and HP have 128 MB Dedicated Video Memory and 0 MB System Video Memory while the Compaq has 0 MB Dedicated Video Memory and 64 MB System Video Memory. Maybe this is what makes it different?

Any opinion is appreciated.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

I'd be expecting the Acer to be the fastest - DDR3 + a Sandy Bridge CPU. If one has a 7200RPM HDD, while the others are 5400RPM, that could explain it though. IO/s is probably the most important factor.

 

[corbeau]

Have you timed your boot time? A healthy fresh installed Windows 7 I3 laptop should boot in around 45 seconds with a traditional hard drive and over time could slow down. If it's too slow I would check to make sure that there aren't a lot of services starting at boot, that there aren't any viruses, and that the hard drive is healthy(a failing hard drive will have slow boot times). I don't think your video memory will affect your boot time much.

 

[Guest]

To be honest, the Compaq (the one I'm currently using) and HP are fresh installed (only OS and drivers, the latter has few/no applications, both have MSE though), the Acer has still OEM software and drivers (correct term?). Acer has AVG.

The Compaq and HP have 5400 rpm SATA hard drives, if I remember correctly. Yet to find out the Acer's.
Also, if it is relevant, the Compaq has 9% free space left (compare to 50%+ [HP] and 84% [Acer]).

 

[Cons29]

slap an ssd there and you'll see the diff

 

[Guest]

Hmmm... maybe next time, don't have the $ for upgrades for now.
It may be possible that SSDs may give incredible performance towards many aspects, but I'm sticking to former technology because of greater storage space.

Also, I was thinking: from my set-up, is 32-bit faster than 64-bit (a bit skeptical here..)?

 

[das_stig]

The old compaq may have less hardware to detect and allocate resources to during post which could also help when having to load drivers and sort their resources out.

Boot of a Linux Live USB on a USB2 connection to even the playing field and then see what the timings are like, newer hardware should be a lot quicker.

 

[jaguarskx]

So exactly how long on average does it take both laptops to boot into Windows 7? I assume both are using the same OS.

My Lenovo Y470 can take anywhere from 40 seconds to 72 seconds to boot into Windows desktop; I type my password as quickly as possible usually it takes 2 or 3 seconds at most. The Y470 comes with a boot optimization program which I run from time to time and it also tells me how long it took to boot into Windows.

 

[jaguarskx]

slap an ssd there and you'll see the diff

While a SSD can decrease boot time. It does not necessary solve the actual problem that may be causing slow boot times. It could be driver related, or hardware related.

 

[Guest]

Hope this rough timing will suffice:

(open laptop to login screen) + (enter password to desktop) + (to usable state) = (total)

[Compaq Presario C306US Notebook PC]
38 sec + 6 sec + 12 sec = 56 sec

[Acer Aspire 5749-6926]
51 sec + 3 sec + 17 sec = 71 sec

[HP G50 Notebook PC]
57 sec + 15 sec + 32 sec = 104 sec



Oh, I forgot to tell something about the HP laptop:
1. I can't find any useful information about the AMD Sempron SI-42 Processor (if it is 32-bit or 64-bit processor), so I upgraded it to Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit), since the original was Windows Vista Home Basic (32-bit), which was VERY SLOW.
2. Oddly enough, it is the only laptop which is close to a freshly renewed system (Only minimum drivers were installed after OS), but also slower than the Compaq and Acer, which has more stuff.

Maybe "1." is the reason?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Yeah, Semprons are gutless. Think competing with Atom for most gutless current chip.

 

[jaguarskx]

Hope this rough timing will suffice:

(open laptop to login screen) + (enter password to desktop) + (to usable state) = (total)

[Compaq Presario C306US Notebook PC]
38 sec + 6 sec + 12 sec = 56 sec

[Acer Aspire 5749-6926]
51 sec + 3 sec + 17 sec = 71 sec

[HP G50 Notebook PC]
57 sec + 15 sec + 32 sec = 104 sec

Well based on the boot up time for my laptop with an i5-2410m, boot time for the Acer seem about right although a bit high. If I do not run the boot optimization app on my laptop, then boot time generally is around 60 - 70 seconds.

Try defragging the hard drive, that should help a bit. But I would say the biggest issue is the 5400RPM HDD.

 

[corbeau]

AVG will also affect your boot time. That was one reason why I swapped to Avast! on my laptop. With AVG my boot time was just over 30 seconds (with an SSD) and with Avast! or when I've used MSE in the past it boots in 23 seconds. I can only imagine how it might affect a traditional hard drive.

 

[Guest]

Might try defragging the drives later tonight (though I may quote that the Compaq has never been defragged for 3 months, has 8% left of free space, and still doing fine).

Say, might disk capacity may also be a factor?

Forgot to say:
HP and Compaq has Windows 7 Ultimate x86
Acer has Windows 7 Home Premium x64