This has been driving me nuts for quite some time.

At work, I use a Dell Dimension 2400 desktop PC. It has the following specifications:

- Intel Pentium 4 2.20 GHz processor (Intel 845GV chipset)
- 1GB RAM 266-MHz or 333-MHz DDR SDRAM (non-ECC)
- Maxtor 6E040L0 DiamondMax Plus 8 ATA-133 7200RPM IDE HD

At home, I use an HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop. It has the following specifications:

- Intel Pentium 4 3.20 GHz processor (Intel i915)
- 2GB 400MHz DDR II SDRAM
- 5400RPM IDE HD

How is it that the desktop boots quicker than the laptop? Is the extra 1800RPM THAT much of a difference for the HD speeds? I can't remember how long it takes for my laptop (which is over a minute), but I just timed the desktop and from pressing the power button, it takes 20 seconds to get to the login prompt. (I don't use a login prompt at home... it goes straight to the Welcome screen and then logs me in.)

Keep in mind that this time is from turning the machine on (before POST) to Windows XP's login screen (either the login prompt or the Welcome screen). This DOESN'T include the time when you actually log in, so processes and startup programs aren't a factor.

Anyone can answer this for me, or suggest how I can figure out why my slower desktop PC is faster than my better laptop?

This post has been edited by rayzoredge: Jan 25 2008, 03:53 PM

I have a similar thing going on with my pc and laptop.

The computer is better but going slower to boot up. Also, it takes longer to open programs such as microsoft word and publisher.

My laptop is crap but has one account on it so my better computer is actually slower. It's not all RAM and processers but also hard drives!

You might think this is rubbish but this 1.8kRPM is probably what makes the difference (although you cant be completely sure). Me too, have asked many people why laptops are slower loading than PCs. And this is the reason i prefer a PC over a Laptop!

Considering that the difference is 25% (5400 RPM compared to 7200), I'd say that indrazam is right. It IS a pretty big difference.

If you're talking about starting up, you might want to check your prefetch and see how much stuff you have starting up when you power up...

I just about cleaned out everything out of my pre-fetch so nothing that I do not need starts up. It made a huge difference.

Just open up MSConfig and go to the prefetch tab and look through that list. If it's huge, there's your problem.

I have found that laptops use a power saving feature and don't use the full capabilities of their hardware, now this limiter should be automatically turned off when it's plugged in, but I can't be sure, I have always found my laptop isn't as fast as it's desktop counterpart, it may just be the extra drivers it needs to use the different features on a laptop.

There are many factors that determine a computers boot speed and your harddrive speed difference is not the issue. Just like others have said, check to see what all is loading on your home pc. At a work computer this will be a minimal ammount. You can do this by going to run --> msconfig and checking prefetch and startup programs. Also, go to the startup folder in your start menu and remove all items that are not necessary.

Next, run a registry cleaner because a corrupted or unorganized registry will slow down one's pc. I use registry mechanic but many are available and are free.

Next, go to pcstats.com and use their 101 tips to increase performance in xp and you will notice a difference.

Now, what you need to do is decrease your profile size because this is a huge hit on performance when logging into your pc. Your profile is basically all of your items in your my documents, music, etc. folders. What you want to do is move them from My Documents and put them in folders on the C drive or anywhere else. If they are not stored in the profile, not only will it increase loading performance during bootup but it also will allow an professional or (you later on) to access these files from a separate computer if yours breaks becasuse otherwise they are encrypted and can not be accessed in this manner.

Lastly, download and run bootvis because it optimizes your booting and thus will help your computer load faster.

All of these things are either done by the professionals at work when setting up the computer or the majority of them are done before you ever get the computer. Mainly, you tend to store your files at work on a NAS or mounted folders rather than my documents and the startup prefetch items are very limited due to how work lets you access programs / what they actually install on them. Good luck, these will help tramendously.

There's a reason why I made that statement in bold:

The time that I'm taking into consideration is from POST (the second I turn the sucker on) to the login screen/Welcome screen. It does not take the time that Windows loads your profile into effect, so MSCONFIG won't help me in this aspect.

I just timed my machine and from POST to the time that the Welcome screen went away, it was just under two minutes (1:54), which then proceeds to the 20 or so seconds to load up startup programs, etc.

I will look into a registry cleaner and see if that helps, since the registry is loaded up during the OS boot process.

Does BootVis look at post-login or does it actually look at how the OS boots?

Thanks guys.