long pause in win 2000 boot [Archive]

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30-09-2002, 11:44

Hi,
I've just set up a new pc over the weekend, (Shuttle SS51 2.4ghz 256Mb DDR) I've applied a few performance tweaks and the system is running nicely. I installed Windows 2000 and have noticed a long pause whilst it's booting. The system POSTs fine but when it gets to the "Starting Windows 2000" splash screen the progress bar reaches about 60% then pauses for 50 seconds, during this time the hard drive is sitting idle and nothing much seems to be happening. After 50 seconds the login prompt appears and the OS runs fine from this point on. Any ideas?

Thanks

The Pimp

30-09-2002, 11:49

Sounds like it is attempting to grab an IP address from a DHCP server. You are not using NTL cable by any chance are you??

30-09-2002, 11:57

No 'fraid not, it's just the shuttle and my old pc (win '98) connected via a hub, neither machine are connected to a service provider at the moment. I checked the DHCP over the weekend just incase it was trying to obtain an address from somewhere, it was set to "auto" so I dissabled it but no joy :( Both machines are currently on internal static IPs.

Thanks

Alan

30-09-2002, 15:02

At that stage of the progress bar (9 blocks) 2k is doing stuff connected with network settings. There is usually a delay before the progress meter finishes but the 50 second delay means Windows is trying to get something and going through the built in "re-try" routines before continuing.
If your network card drivers are properly installed and the Device Manager shows no problems then it could be the IP address.
If your machine does not face the internet, try giving a static IP address of say 192.68.0.1 to your machine and see what happens to the boot time.
If you disable DHCP but still don't give it an IP address you will get a delay.

30-09-2002, 16:24

At that stage of the progress bar (9 blocks) 2k is doing stuff connected with network settings
Thanks, at least I now know what Windows is "thinking" about during the pause. Regarding the DHCP, I initially dissabled it but when that didn't make any difference I set it back to "auto" again.

IP address wise, I've currently got the win 2000 machine at 10.0.0.1 and the '98 machine at .2. However if I dissconnect the 2000 machine from the network and remove all the network settings I still get the same delay during boot up, this is after a fresh install of windows as well. Will windows still check for network settings if you've got a NIC with nothing plugged into it?

Alan

30-09-2002, 18:25

Yes

Graeme*Kustom*

01-10-2002, 00:37

I've seen a similar delay caused by some RAID cards, but I don't think that's what's happening here?

The Pimp

01-10-2002, 01:05

Originally posted by Graeme*Kustom*:
<STRONG>I've seen a similar delay caused by some RAID cards, but I don't think that's what's happening here?</STRONG>

The RAID delay is normally right at the very beginning of the boot sequence, especially if you are booting from them. I noticed an increase in boot times from moving the HDD's from the standard IDE's to the HPT controller.

01-10-2002, 11:56

No RAID cards installed. I haven't had time yet to check all the network stuff as Alan suggested. I didn't have this problem on my old PC so it could be motherboard specific, I'll have to hunt out the latest drivers for everything, not sure how up to date the shuttle supplied ones are. Also I need to have a look through Services to see how much stuff I can switch off.

In the mean time I just switch the PC on, then go off and do something else while it boots. It has been suggested that I just set it to hibernate and never switch it off, that's one option I suppose :)

[ 01 October 2002: Message edited by: ed ]