Windows 98 SE takes a long time to boot.

[CamTron]

I have a Dell Dimension 4300 with Windows 98 SE and Windows XP. Windows XP takes about 15 seconds from the POST screen to the login screen. When I first installed Win98, it booted in about the same time as XP did. Now, Win98 takes about 45 seconds to boot. I don't know what I did that caused this, but I'd like it to boot as fast as it used to. Does anyone know how I can fix this? I don't really know what's needed in msconfig, so here are some screenshots.

 

autoexec.bat and config.sys are blank. I can upload the contents of system.ini and win.ini if they are relevant.

 

Another thing I've noticed (probably unrelated) is that when I tell the computer to shut down from the start menu, it reboots instead. Pressing the power button makes the computer shut down like normal.

Edited December 14, 2014 by CamTron

[jumper]

Create a boot log and check it with BootLogAnalyzer bla.exe.

Networking is a likely suspect.

[CamTron]

Sorry for the long delay, I've been quite busy these past few days. I found a copy of BootLog Analyzer and ran it on my Win98 SE machine. This is what it says.

BLA-LOG.TXT

It looks like it's spending an awfully long time starting TCP/IP, and "enumerating" the floppy disk controller and monitor. Any ideas on how to make it faster? I'm not too familiar with the Windows 9x boot process.

[jumper]

If you use DHCP to assign a dynamic IP address, your router must be up and running before Tcpip loads or you get a long delay. Assign a static address or disable the adapter if the network is not always available at boot.

[CamTron]

I did set a static IP address, but it didn't seem to improve the boot time much. The computer is in a different room than my router, and I don't have any wireless cards for it, so when I need internet access, I share the connection from my laptop. Disabling "Fast Shutdown" fixed the rebooting problem (and my PC still shuts down in less than 5 seconds) . What exactly is Windows doing when it "enumerates" devices? Could changing IRQs have an effect? I've noticed that booting in Safe Mode is slightly shorter, but still takes a considerably long time.

[jumper]

>I did set a static IP address, but it didn't seem to improve the boot time much.

Disable the network adapter in Device Manager. That should speed the network boot delay and you can reenable it on-the-fly in Device Manager when you need it.

>What exactly is Windows doing when it "enumerates" devices?

Synchronously loading each device driver one at a time, waiting for each to complete before loading the next.

>booting in Safe Mode is slightly shorter

Not everything is loaded. Safe Mode without networking should be even faster.