Excessive boot time (continuing cry for help)

[arraknid]

As you can see for yourself, you have a non-RAID setup. I'm somewhat doubtful that that could be the cause seeing as it has been like that since you got the machine.

If there's no discernible point in time as to when things started getting bad - like installation of hardware drivers, or software, my next course of action would be to follow the procedure outlined earlier. You could start by choosing a Diagnostic Startup and see what the boot time is. Anything approaching the 75seconds you got booting into Safe Mode will point the finger at the Services and Startup options. Begin by stopping all entries in Startup and go from there. If necessary, move on to Services and repeat the actions.

I can't explain the lack of a hibernation option in the Power Settings dialogue. It's always worked for me on many different machines. When you open the Window, is there a tab labelled Advanced with a drop down box saying 'When I press the power button on my computer:' and an option to choose Hibernate?

[alwrmcusn]

Hibernate...I found two settings (Buttons) one for "When I press power" and one for "When I press sleep".
I have the "When I press power" defaulting to shut down/power off the computer. The other button "When I press sleep" was set to sleep. When I opened that up it had Hibernate as a choice. I set it to hibernate and then exited out of everything. I pressed the SLEEP button on my keyboard and after a few seconds the monitor, the mouse and then the computer seemed to power down completely. I'm not familiar with the Hibernate feature but have heard a couple of negatives. I waited to see what would happen for about 30 seconds and then pressed the sleep button again. Nothing happened immediately so I pressed the ENTER key, nothing happened immediately. After about 5-10 seconds the computer powered back up, a screen appeared saying "Resuming Windows", then the desktop appeared. Probably about 15-30 seconds total time. Is that what Hibernate does to go the full cycle, down and back up? If so, I can certainly live with that
Hibernate is still not an option on the Start menu path however.

[arraknid]

Hibernate is not available in the standard 'Turn off computer' options, only as you have found listed.

My preferred method is to use the power button option because it's handy, but setting a keyboard button is probably easier for you. Once the computer has shut down, pressing the Power On button should also resume from hibernation. Pressing Sleep + Enter on your keyboard evidently does the same.

The way hibernation works is similar to Sleep mode except that it allocates a block of space on the HD equal to your RAM size. When you go into hibernation, it transfers all data from the RAM to that storage space and shuts down. When you reboot, that data is moved back to RAM and you find the screen exactly as you left it. You can leave programs open, like Word, and it'll still be there when you start up. In fact, UPS units trigger hibernation automatically which means you never lose anything - even in a power cut.

Is that what Hibernate does to go the full cycle, down and back up?

That sort of time for resumption is pretty standard.

You just need to do a proper restart once a week. Maybe another cup of JFG will help.

[alwrmcusn]

Ok, I've tried it three times now and each time the computer powers back up again after 2-5 minutes, the same as it did when I used SLEEP.
The JFG may be causing it to spring to life (smile)

I just noticed your UPS comment. I use an APC 1500 for this computer. What do you mean "UPS units trigger hibernation automatically"? Are there any other things that I should set computer/UPS/software to keep it from coming back on its own?

[alwrmcusn]

Just found one more thing, the Start menu power button can also be set to Hibernate (I never knew that) so I did that just a couple of minutes ago. I then clicked that button, the computer went into Hibernate and then about 20 seconds later, powered right back up again. Drat!! This is driving me to consider a two and a half gainer off the fantail!
I'm giving it up for the day. I think it time for a JD!

[alwrmcusn]

Much time, many restarts later.
Using Diagnostic Startup.....72-73 seconds
Normal Startup..................2 min 45 secs
Selective Startup/Sys Svs...2 min 45 secs
Selective Startup/Startup Items...2 min 45 secs
Going back into Services.msc and using Blackvipers services guide for Vista SP1, I made a few more changes (automatic to manual). Boot remains at 2 mins 45 secs
Current startup is Selective with only System Services checked, no Startup at all checked.
JFI, where does 2mins 45secs fit into the "normal" boot time for Vista SP1 latest updates and a configuration such as mine? Is there a place to find and compare such a thing? Am I really being too picky on this? Doctors appointment and MRI/xrays are going to take up much of the rest of the day but I'll drop by later.

[arraknid]

I had a sudden thought this morning. I wonder if you have the Superfetch service started. It's only available in Vista and actually works very well - surprise, surprise!! This Ed Bott article may interest you.

We have a few Vista-loaded machines and all take between 1½ and 2minutes to load up. The faster starts are for leaner machines.

Hibernating machines should not restart, so I wonder if you are still invoking Sleep mode - which will start up again when activity is detected. If you set the power button on the CPU to hibernate when pressed, it should shut down completely with no activity at all. Only pressing the power button will bring the machine out of hibernation to the state it was in when shut down.

You asked in your first post what was happening whilst the scrolling progress bar was on the screen. There's a way to find out. In your startup options you can Enable Bootlogging - see here. That will create a logfile of all activity called ntbtlog.txt in C:\WINNT folder.

JD or JFG? Mmmmmmmm

[alwrmcusn]

Good morning
I do (and have always had) Superfetch started as automatic. I hopefully now have the Start menu power button set to Hibernate instead of Power Off, I think I have everything except the "anykey" on this machine set to Hibernate .
Another round of Doctor visits today, so I'll be testing my newest configuration a bit more thoroughly later.

[arraknid]

Sounds good. Good luck with the Docs.

[alwrmcusn]

With everything that I have found changed to Hibernate, the computer still springs to life within a couple of minutes, sometimes less, of pressing the button(s). This is going to cause me consider going Mac. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but I may have both a JD and a Jameson!
As for the docs, surgery is now scheduled for the 17th.