The time it takes to boot

TonyCzar · Wednesday at 5:50 AM

When I restart or reboot, I like to allow the computer to install all those processes that are loaded at startup. This can take several minutes. As there are several experienced engineers on this Board, I wonder if someone can answer a question I've had for some time: If electricity moves at nearly the speed of light, why does it take a computer more than a second to boot?

XxXxX · Wednesday at 5:59 AM

TonyCzar said:
When I restart or reboot, I like to allow the computer to install all those processes that are loaded at startup. This can take several minutes. As there are several experienced engineers on this Board, I wonder if someone can answer a question I've had for some time: If electricity moves at nearly the speed of light, why does it take a computer more than a second to boot?

HDD and SSD cant transfer data at the SoL they can only transfer data at the given speed which relates to CPU, system bus, memory and SSD.
all of which are unable, at this time, to transfer the data for the system to start at the SoL ..

neves · Wednesday at 6:18 AM

TonyCzar said:
When I restart or reboot, I like to allow the computer to install all those processes that are loaded at startup. This can take several minutes. As there are several experienced engineers on this Board, I wonder if someone can answer a question I've had for some time: If electricity moves at nearly the speed of light, why does it take a computer more than a second to boot?

Because.... your computer and all the parts involved are not made of Pure Energy (might take a 4th Dimension experience - for that to be possible). Each hardware component (software too) - has its own limited speed/capabilities of processing data. If it takes several minutes - the main bottleneck (slowest hardware component - which the faster ones like CPU and RAM - have to wait for till it catches up) - it's probably your HDD (or a really slow SATA3 SSD). Modern NVME SSDs can manage same task in seconds - depends how many (heavy) apps you have set for Start-up (especially OEM bloatware). Also helps - to use a software trick/feature called Fast Start-up - where your system won't ever shutdown completely - so said apps are already started/preloaded (kinda similar to your TV - which has the motherboard on if not fully shutdown - and the led is on) - in standby. So at the press of a button - it simply resumes the process. Tho, for a PC - there's room for issues - if never properly shutdown (so, it's slower - but safer this way).

abactuon · Wednesday at 9:48 AM

"In a medium, light usually does not propagate at a speed equal to c; further, different types of light wave will travel at different speeds. The speed at which the individual crests and troughs of a plane wave (a wave filling the whole space, with only one frequency) propagate is called the phase velocity vp. A physical signal with a finite extent (a pulse of light) travels at a different speed. The overall envelope of the pulse travels at the group velocity vg, and its earliest part travels at the front velocity vf."

"In exotic materials like Bose–Einstein condensates near absolute zero, the effective speed of light may be only a few metres per second. However, this represents absorption and re-radiation delay between atoms, as do all slower-than-c speeds in material substances. As an extreme example of light "slowing" in matter, two independent teams of physicists claimed to bring light to a "complete standstill" by passing it through a Bose–Einstein condensate of the element rubidium. The popular description of light being "stopped" in these experiments refers only to light being stored in the excited states of atoms, then re-emitted at an arbitrarily later time, as stimulated by a second laser pulse. During the time it had "stopped", it had ceased to be light. This type of behaviour is generally microscopically true of all transparent media which "slow" the speed of light."

A computer can be thought of as a “black box” with a “black hole” inside. Gravitational forces prevent electrons from traveling at high speeds.

glasskuter · Wednesday at 10:36 AM

Tony, if your restart time is minutes, you need to look into the "why" of it. From all your posts, I know you have all quality late-model systems, so IMO it shouldn't take that long. I have fast startup off. My cold boot time is 30 seconds. My restart time is 45 and my hardware is 4 years old. (Timed by eyeballing the clock from power on until desktop) I know some computers boot in the single digits these days.

Granted I have stopped a few things from auto-starting, but not enough to make that much of a difference.
I'm no hardware guru so what do all the rest of you think? Am I whistling Dixie?

MrPig · Wednesday at 10:39 AM

Eh? What just happened? :boom:

glasskuter · Wednesday at 10:43 AM

MrPig said:
Eh? What just happened?

????
Don't understand. I was just advising the OP to look into it.

Winuser · Wednesday at 10:54 AM

glasskuter said:
????
Don't understand. I was just advising the OP to look into it.

I think post #4 went over their head. I know it went over my head.

TraderGary · Wednesday at 11:04 AM

TonyCzar said:
When I restart or reboot, I like to allow the computer to install all those processes that are loaded at startup. This can take several minutes. As there are several experienced engineers on this Board, I wonder if someone can answer a question I've had for some time: If electricity moves at nearly the speed of light, why does it take a computer more than a second to boot?

Click on My Computer below to see what hardware and software I run. I have a lot of software running and when I do a Restart, everything is reloaded from scratch.

I just looked at my clock for a Restart and it took 1.5 minutes from pressing Restart to Windows Hello login and ready to work.

Normally in day to day work I simply close the lid on my laptop and when I reopen it, I'm instantly back to whatever I was doing when I closed the lid. That's Windows Hello, Modern Standby, and Fast Startup in action. I love it!

krism · Wednesday at 12:32 PM

Think about all the heat your cpu etc gives off - in some ways it is just a big resister. Speed of light? not even close. Even quantum computers only move at the speed of electrons changing energy levels, NOT the speed of light!

Yes, look to things like Windows Defender and others that are slowing your device, not just at startup, down. Spend some time looking at Task Manager/Processes, especially when desktop first appears. etc.

Anibor_11 · Wednesday at 12:39 PM

krism said:
Even quantum computers only move at the speed of electrons changing energy levels, NOT the speed of light!

And, if not the speed of light, what speed is that?

Tester · Wednesday at 12:50 PM

TonyCzar said:
When I restart or reboot, I like to allow the computer to install all those processes that are loaded at startup.

Reminds me of when I have to install my coffee in the morning.

starchase · Wednesday at 12:55 PM

From a Google search of: speed of electrons changing energy levels

When an electron changes energy levels within an atom, its speed does not change significantly; instead, its position relative to the nucleus changes, which is what alters its energy level, and this transition happens instantaneously, considered a "quantum jump" with no defined speed during the transition itself.
Key points to remember:

No classical motion:
Unlike planets orbiting a star, electrons don't move in continuous circular paths around the nucleus, so their "speed" in a specific orbit isn't a direct measure of their energy level.

Energy absorption/emission:
When an electron jumps to a higher energy level, it absorbs energy (like a photon of light), and when it drops to a lower level, it emits energy.

Quantum leap:
This transition between energy levels happens very quickly, almost instantaneously, and is not described by classical mechanics.

krism · Wednesday at 1:13 PM

Forget speed. Look at Task Manager/processes to understand what is hogging your computer.

FreeBooter · Wednesday at 4:41 PM

In this video, we delve into the common issue of slow boot times in Windows and how to effectively troubleshoot it using Process Monitor.

TonyCzar · 2025-02-20T17:34:45-0500

FreeBooter said:
In this video, we delve into the common issue of slow boot times in Windows and how to effectively troubleshoot it using Process Monitor.

Since I don't know the URL for your YouTube tutorial, please give me a link for the Process Monitor System tool. Thanks.

KevTech · 2025-02-20T17:37:33-0500

Process Monitor - Sysinternals

Monitor file system, Registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.

learn.microsoft.com

Tester · 2025-02-20T17:39:05-0500

TonyCzar said:
Since I don't know the URL for your YouTube tutorial, please give me a link for the Process Monitor System tool. Thanks.

Process Monitor - Sysinternals

Monitor file system, Registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.

learn.microsoft.com

Or download the entire suite of tools, procmon is included there.

Sysinternals Suite - Sysinternals

The Windows Sysinternals troubleshooting Utilities have been rolled up into a single suite of tools.

learn.microsoft.com

Scannerman · 2025-02-20T17:52:37-0500

This is turning out to be a very entertaining thread. Personally, I don't mind the wait from a cold boot if it's only two or three minutes depending on how extensive the hardware. In fact, I even deliberately increase the wait time from 3 seconds to 9 seconds in my UEFI (BIOS). I like to take the time to read things on a boot. TonyCzar does not seem to have a great deal of hard drives or extensive additional hardware in their PC however. So if it takes more than a couple of minutes to boot I'd say there's an issue. Perhaps an external drive could be causing some lag or some other peripheral. Hard to say but sometimes peripherals will slow down boot times.

krism · 2025-02-20T17:54:42-0500

I still say delete Windows Defender! :)

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