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Why Do Computers Take So Long to Boot Up?
An anonymous reader writes "Computers take too long to boot up, and it doesn't make sense to me. Mine takes around 30 seconds; it is double or triple that for some of my friends' computers that I have used. Why can't a computer turn on and off in an instant just like a TV? 99% of boots, my computer is doing the exact same thing. Then I get to Windows XP with maybe 50 to 75 megs of stuff in memory. My computer should be smart enough to just load that junk into memory and go with it. You could put this data right at the very start of the hard drive. Whenever you do something with the computer that actually changes what happens during boot, it could go through the real booting process and save the results. Doing this would also give you instant restarts. You just hit your restart button, the computer reloads the memory image, and you can be working again. Or am I wrong? Why haven't companies made it a priority to have 'instant on' desktops and laptops?"
It is because until now, you haven't submitted your question to Slashdot.
How about being a little more patient? 30 seconds is not that long. It takes food in my microwave longer to heat up.
If your only concerned about fast startups, why don't you just install Windows ME. It will take less then 15 seconds to start up, your friends will be amazed, plus an added bonus of bluescreens ever 30 seconds.
It all stems from the human brains inability to deal with the orders of complexity inherent in the Vonn Neumann architecture.
Hate to imagine the amount of human lifetimes lost on slashdot...
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
As a friend of mine used to say ...
I used to boot up my computer when I had nothing to do.
Now I have nothing to do when I boot up my computer.
All I ask is a warm bed, a kind word, and UNLIMITED POWER
If Windows didn't go through the complete boot process each time how would it come up with random reasons to crash?
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
honestly, this is like the dumbest possible way to ask why we can't have faster boot times.
Ok, maybe not. The dumbest possible way is probably something like:
"why can't the compujigger turn on faster, like the whatchamavision?"
but still, it's pretty damn close.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
I mean, all those gears and counterweights can't be that slow, now can they? Wait...
Well, if everybody just stared at their screens and drooled while they booted, I guess you could say something was being wasted. Except for all the quality drooling time, of course.
Too bad we can't we have an emulator that emulates your actual machine. It'd report all your (virtual) devices as ready, so at least the initial boot would go quickly. I know some work's being done with cacheing startup files too, but it seems to break down fairly quickly in practice -- you aren't just reading, you're writing log files and configuration settings and other things that eventually have to be written back to the disk once its up.
It might not be a quick as restoring a hibernation image of a freshly-booted system, but I've never heard how those schemes handle things like providing the proper date and time[0], or a machine that's on a network other than the one it's configured for in the boot image (esp, if the configured network has a static IP, and the machine's on a network that requires DHCP).
+++
[0] Especially if you've got some kind of monitoring program that grabs the system time on startup and logs all messages with a time delta. You'd wind up with a log with the first date being the snapshot date, and all the deltas being several million seconds later, when the code read the real clock...
Just junk food for thought...
I'm sure you can fix that with a reboot.
I just spent 30 seconds reading your post.
YOU BASTARD!
I can tell you weren't born in the early days of TV when it took several minutes for the tubes to warm up enough to show a picture on the screen. Patience sonny; instant-on computers are probably only a couple decades away!
On a good day I can boot the Encore 32/67 machines at work in under a minute, but at least with a Windows PC I don't have to punch raw machine code into the front panel to clear memory and run the IPL.
Here in the future hibernation isn't needed anymore because computers boot instantly with everything kept on a 100TB flash drive that runs at... well I won't get into all the tech stuff but, Everything runs on Vista 7 since Bill Gates became president And outlawed Linux under the PATRIOT Act.
The only problem now is that you have to Activate Windows every boot and reinstall the latest version of the Genuine Advantage software then call the 800 number to verify your Proof of purchase and enter your newly assigned 25 digit key then login with a retinal scan to be approved by Microsoft. Only takes about 5 minutes once you get the hang of it.
Absolutely right. After your machine has been off for an hour almost all the oil has drained back into the pan, so it isn't lubricating the engine like it should be. You're better off letting it idle over your lunch hour.
Dean
She said you should meet her at the file cabinet, she wants you to help her with some drawers.
Yes, I didn't want to mention that, we refer to it as a rectal scan. If you say it fast it almost sounds the same. Handy to know when logging on to a public terminal.
Read the following at 2X speed;
"Just a sec Joe, gotta do the retinal scan!"
and
"Just a sec Joe, gotta do the rectal scan!"
See, you almost can't tell the difference!
It was Bills final hoo ha to the Linux crowd since they had been giving it to him the same way for years.
Ah. Obviously this is some new meaning of the words 'plain old text' that I wasn't previously aware of.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I can beat that!
I use windows XP and within 11 seconds of starting up windows crashes at its loading screen!
You youngsters, with your fancy 5 minute boot process. My abacus is always on and ready for computation. I bet your energy-saving mode doesn't use 0 watts.
... and then they built the supercollider.
And it never crashes either. Those computer things are like magic.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
SO take it up with the management - there's no need to go pissing on fellow posters.
.......
Some people's kids
...or you can just go into Quicktime's config and disable the startup option. You don't get that same feeling of beating The Man, though.
MenuetOS can beat your 11seconds. grin. raw assembler gives it raw power.
http://www.menuetos.net/
Good stuff for routers and other miniboxes.
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
No, that was Miss Cellaneous.
Now that's an interesting opinion. And by interesting, I mean stupidly narrow-minded. I know quite a few brilliant mathematicians and physicists who don't give a shit about operating systems, or how software interacts with hardware. By your reasoning, these people are "stupid" because they expect a tool to work as advertised. That sounds pretty dumb to me. I give you five points for your well-crafted troll. Bravo.
I am scientifically inaccurate.
I know quite a few brilliant mathematicians and physicists who don't give a shit about operating systems
Yeah, I know really. I know a lot of astronauts and presidents myself, and ninjas. I haven't been able to get them to care either.
I use windows XP and within 11 seconds of starting up windows crashes at its loading screen!
So, apparently, you don't really "use" windows XP.
As for Adobe, they just don't like you.
"Her idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing."
Ah, the yonder days of yore, when you could boot up a TI-99/4A or a Commodore 64 in a mere 2-3 seconds.
Sure, you only had 64 K of total RAM (16 K with the TI; unless you had a PE).
Sure, the Commodore 1541 floppy drive was only slightly faster than handwriting machine code and typing it into the machine.
Sure, the OS wasn't upgradable (by any software means).
Sure, my cell phone's processor could run circles around their CPUs.
But you gotta admit, they booted FAST!
Hibernation in Windows XP is fine.
Except my keyboard goes dead after the PC wakes up, and I have to restart.
But aside from this crippling flaw, it's great.
free speach
Did you mean: free speech