[Smokey]

I installed bootvis, and was wondering if it was safe to use. I had heard some rumors of it crashing systems, and thought maybe it was the culprit for my old system restarting automatically when it gets to the xp boot logo screen . So, is it safe to run on my main system without trouble?

Thanks,
Nathan

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Okay, I bit the bullet, ran it (not before creating a restore point!), and got results. 27 seconds down to 18. Admin and/or Tazz, have you ran bootvis, and what do you have to say about it?

Thanks,
Nathan

[Smokey]

Okay, I bit the bullet, ran it (not before creating a restore point!), and got results. 27 seconds down to 18. Admin and/or Tazz, have you ran bootvis, and what do you have to say about it?

Thanks,
Nathan

[Smokey]

Hey, I just thought of a great idea! I'll run it on my secondary system! (64 MB RAM w/ XP) It has to improve the length it takes to boot that slug (eternity!). I'll post back the before and after times friday.

Nathan

[Smokey]

Okay, I just found out I don't have the latest version of bootvis, will downloading the latest version shave off even more seconds? Or will running bootvis again ruin my system?

Thanks,
Nathan

[admin]

Talking to yourself Nathan?

I've used bootvis, and found it to be very safe. However don't expect miracles. Microsoft now claims bootvis is not intended to reduce boot time. It is very useful to identify drivers that are hanging, or taking too long to load.

A newer version is less likely to harm your system, probably not reduce boot time.

[Smokey]

I don't know why Microsoft says that because it does reduce boot time .

I ran it on my slug and got from 101 seconds down to 80. I will definitely try to get a ram upgrade on this system. (64 MB up to 128)

[Smokey]

Well I got my all-time best, 17.04 seconds. Umm, I think I'll keep it at that.

[Smokey]

After the update to 128 MB RAM (from 64) my secondary system boots in 25.31 from 80 seconds, now I call that a miracle !

[admin]

Both very impressive times. How are you mesuring it? From the push of the start button, 'till Windows finishes loading?

[Smokey]

I go by what bootvis tells me by using the "Trace Boot" option. They were both measured after a defrag and I also disabled all unnecessary services thanks to Black Viper. These might have something to do with the lowered start times. I no longer get that line that gradually goes down the screen after a window and after the "Welcome" screen disappears. The line was the top of the old screen minimizing to show the new screen. It's supposed to just disappear. Yeah, that's the truth, it was that slow! Another plus to the added RAM is that I will now be able to play my newer games, NBA Live 2004 and Madden NFL 2003 (both need 128 MB for XP), on this system. Another plus is that they either require 16 or 32 MB of video RAM, and now I have that thanks to my latest video driver download. Remember that admin? My first experience with Crucial was a disaster. the memory ruined my first Dell, and I had to send it back after having it for only a couple weeks . That was back in the fall of 2002. This experience with Crucial RAM as been outstanding so far !

P.S. What kind of startup times do you get?

[admin]

I don't know? I'll have to check when I get some time.

I put together a P4 2.6 that I've overclocked to 3.51 with an ASUS mobo, HyperX PC3500 memory... all the goodies, but I also have a stock Dell P4 2.4, and I know it boots faster. Worst yet, the Dell outperforms my other system in PCMark 2004. However, the Dell currently has an ATI 9800 Pro, and my other system has a 9700 Pro. I should switch the video cards.

[Smokey]

Update:

I don't think I can get NBA Live on this system. It crashes at startup even tough I have closed all the other running tasks and the included "EZInfo" reconizes my video card as only being 8 mb, even though everything else claims it is 32 mb (this might have something to do with it).

[admin]

Have you run AIDA32 and/or Belarc Advisor to see what they report for your video memory?

Also, SiSoft Sandra is very good at identifying hardware and resources.

[Smokey]

Belarc didn't have what I wanted. AIDA32 said I had 32 MB video RAM as well. What would make the game crash on startup like that? I closed all other running applications, including AVG.