i want an instant-on computer
 

Is there such a thing as a computer that is ready for action right when you turn it on? (not 5 minutes later)

I really want one.

If one doesnt exist they should get on that asap. Frankly I dont give a crap about extra mhz or ram or cpu blah blah blah if they put all that energy they spend squeezing out a few extra mhz into making a computer that turns on like a TV id upgrade tomorrow.

Don't turn your computer off! Wee!

For the record, my iMac starts up in 40 seconds, I'd bet. If I can't find something to occupy myself for 40 seconds...well... I'd consider it a sad day.

Newer windows systems with a clean OS actually boot up pretty quick, but certainly not instantly. With Windows systems it really helps to do a clean install every year (or more frequently) to clean up all the garbage. A large number of programs (MS Office, RealPlayer, for example) install something that has to be started at boot-up that can severely degrade performance.

try the suspend option, on my laptop that can be in windows before the screen turns on

just don't turn off the damd computer. I don't know windows that well, but I bet that there is an option in there to "powersave" your monitor, so it will go off after 15 minutes or so. When you move the mouse *bang* your right back on.

hey its what us linux guys do.

I timed my win xp boot up at 25 seconds

Ya i know mine boots up in 25-30 seconds, whats the big deal about waiting that long? I agree with the others though, i leave my computer on 24/7 and only reset when its necessary.

I find that suspend for a desktop and hibernate on my laptop is the way to go.

my gameboy advance boots up in about 2 seconds

Best bet is a Macintosh (of course). But don't shut her down...put your Mac to sleep! You can put new Macs to sleep at the touch of a button (either on the computer or on the monitor). It will come back within 5 seconds.

hibernate is the way to go indeed.

i would say a proper hibernate restart takes < 10 secs easy on a good pc. (< 5 is also attainable)

Never turn it off like me. Five minutes for a startup is slow. I swear my old PC was that bad. My new PC starts up in under a minute. :D Makes me happy.

There is actually alot of research going into this very issue. Essentially what 'takes so long' is seeking the hardrive for data and loading said data into memory. Hard drove speed has been improving as has memory access speed, but it will still take time.

The solution. It's called NVRam...Non-Volatile Random Access Memory. Memory that does not loose it's contents when powered off. That way nothing needs to be re-found on the hard drive or re-loaded into memory when powered back on.

It's certainly a few years off...but rest assured your interest has been heard and being worked on.

-bear

Ya i read about that NVRam that looks insane instant start up for windows that will be hot when it hits the market X # of years from now

If you're implying that computers should boot up faster, ...

bootvis.exe is a great program for making your windows OS boot up omg fast. it's like ZOOM!

i just tried one of my latops, it recovers from a hibernate in 3-5 seconds. and only that long coz it goes to the welcome screen first, (thats 5 seconds from off to back to where i was)

BeOS can do it. It takes about 9 seconds give or take. Also a stripped down linux version can do it. Also, depending on what version of windows you use, you can do it. Try here for more info.

my xp pro runs about 25-30 for bootup not something that bothers me that bad.

i can deal with it

I have several unique issues with my bootup. It takes 5 minutes (ive timed it) Something is wrong somewhere in all those transistors so that each time I reboot I have to reprogram in my hd settings which takes about 1 minute with autoset. BIOS saves all its other settings except that one so go figure. SB Live is the other culprit. It automatically loads a dos emulator which I never ever need or use. I can disable it, and it will be fine for 1 reboot which then only takes 20 seconds, but somehow it programs itself back into startup memory like one of those evil birthday candles that light back up every time you blow them out.

I dread lockups and I punch walls when the power goes off for a split second.

Just keep the uptime growing :)

Yep, i never turn mine off... Works great. I reformat about once every other month, and restart as im going to bed every 14 days. Dunno why its every 14 days, old habit i guess. If it does lockup, takes a little over 30 secs to restart.

On my linux computer, it takes maybe a good 20-30 seconds. That's also including the login. I run a copy of Libranet and I run IceWM-Experimental and it takes no time at all.

I don't see what the purpose of an instant on computer...
Maybe I'm to old school and use my moms computer to much where I need to wait at least a minute for it to boot up. I mean, if you can't wait at least a minute for the computer to start, calm down and lay off the coffee maybe...

9:36pm up 163 day(s), 11:23, 6 users, load average: 1.11, 1.06, 1.05

'nuff said

This may interest some of you...to pass Microsoft WHQL certification, a PC has to POST *and* boot WinXP Pro/Home all within 30 seconds, resume from standby in 5 seconds, and resume from suspend in (I think?) 9 seconds.

The biggest obstacle we had in passing the resume tests? finding a monitor that woke up fast enough!

My Tibook starts up almost as quickly as I can lift the lid on it if I leve it in suspend mode. Can't get much quicker than that.

But wouldn't that make it hard to format properly? From what I understand, you use a boot disc to prevent the computer from loading anything into the RAM so any possible viruses don't get back on the RAM before you format your HDD. With NVRAM, the virus could still be in the RAM as your format your HDD. How do you make sure the NVRAM loses its contents for this situation?

Since I never turn my comp off I dont have to do this, but with my comp (1.2, 512 ram, XP) when I turn it on, it takes about 15 seconds from when I hit the button, till when I'm searching for porn. I also have over 200gig of HD space. Yummy

My powerbook is ready as soon as I open the lid. My wife's Sony Vaio laptop takes much longer to be ready when opening the lid.

Mine takes a very long time to boot, but thats cuz of the RAID array having to be authed, and the fact that every PCI slot on my 6 slot mobo is taken up......the more things that have to start up, the longer it will be ;)

I've heard this term before, but what does it mean?

pocket pc
 

my pocket pc is "instant-on"

POST stands for Power On Self Test.

Run "msconfig" and click on the Startup tab. Uncheck all the stuff that you don't want to automatically start when you boot. This is by far the best way to increase boot time.

I personally don't use hibernate or standby, because my monitor's fucked. I use a program called Coloreal Bright to make my monitor's brightness normal. It runs in the systray, but takes up immense amounts of RAM, so I normally close it and the effect stays. But if I hibernate or suspend, I need to re-run the program.

Windows ME boots up like almost instant. But it is a terrible OS.

I feel sorry for the people who still use ME.... I use XP and it boots up just fine, jiggle the mouse and its up (Oh you mean after i shut it down?? ~30 seconds).... Although, XP sucks cause it has too much bloat-ware in it. Oh well, 24/7 up time to thank for it. It will be awhile before we have 'instant on' computers, this is because even though computers are getting faster, the ammound they have to do at start up and store in ram is also growing and will likely keep syncronized for some time to come. The reason we restart is to flush the ram and it takes time to fill that ram back up at boot.

I see an instant-on computer in your future. It will be using polymer memory technology secretly being developed at AMD. :cool:

http://www.siliconstrategies.com/art...cleId=13000187

I run Windows 2000 on a laptop and hit the "sleep" button every once in a while. One keypress and 3 seconds later, and W2K is up and running.

I'd call that instant.

since it will be at least 8 years (my guesstimate 5-10) till we get "instant on computers" i'll just deal with waiting the minute. it lets me clean my desk or get some juice.

if you can find a big enough flash memory card (like used for a digicamera), there are flash card -> ide adapters. install OS onto the flash card and it boots up damn fast (as tested w/ win98 boot disk: I imagine it'd still be fast w/ a whole OS, though not as much). not having to spin up the hard drive helps :)