A Snug-fit Boot

Why don’t you read The Beginning of Life before this post, cause this post is like the next volume for that post.

So, after the bootloader hands over control to the operating system, it begins to load itself. Before your BIOS performs the POST, and you get to login and use your PC, there’s this little interlude. In Windows, you can see the little bar moving from left to right, again and again.

What Windows is doing at this point of time, is a mystery to many people. However, I hope to clear that cloud with this post. What you see, namely, the Windows logo and the moving bar, are all part of the splash screen. The splash screen is what is generally shown while something is loading and working in the background. In fact, it exists for almost all major applications, and games. Like, when you start an office suite like Microsoft Office or OpenOffice, for a few seconds, you’ll be shown this little screen in the middle of your screen. That’s your splash screen, while the suite loads its components in the background. It’s also a way for the developers to make themselves known, like in Adobe Photoshop.

Anyway, a number of things happen behind the scenes, while the Windows splash screen works. Firstly, the basic OS is loaded. The kernel, which helps applications to communicate with hardware, basic input/output drivers, and most importantly, the third-party drivers.

The reason is why the 3rd-party drivers are important is because…that’s what decides how long you are stuck, staring at the splash screen. Oh, by the way, I propose to create a new imaginary unit of time. Call it one cycle, and it’s basically the amount of time the loading bar takes to go from left to right on the splash screen.

So, if you’ve got your third-party drivers installed well, and tuned up, and you’ve got fast RAM and hard drive, then you shouldn’t need more than 6-7 cycles. However, this can go into 30-40 cycles for badly maintained computers. Plus, this can change in an unpredictable manner, if you recently installed some Windows Updates, because the installation of this little things occurs during both shuttting down as well as booting up…God knows why! Linux doesn’t even need a restart!

I think you should first know what drivers are. Drivers are programs that are shipped along with your product, on that CD, remember? Those programs tell the operating system exactly how to work with the hardware. This is because there are so many different kinds of hardware, and so many variations is design and so on, that the operating system cannot ship with pre-loaded software on how to handle all of these. Of course, if you’re lucky, your hardware might not need drivers to work, but it certainly won’t be as efficient as compared to the drivers shipped by the manufacturer. If you have a branded PC, the drivers might be pre-loaded with Windows. Then you won’t have driver CDs.

So, there are several ways you can make sure your drivers are working just fine.

Disclaimer: These are unofficial, friendly tips. If you follow these, and your PC refuses to boot (which it shouldn’t) don’t banter me. Plus, if you’ve got a branded PC, call up customer support or use the God-forsaken recovery CDs. If you decide to go ahead with my method, keep the driver CDs that came with your PC next to you, you’ll need them.

Step 1 : Uninstall

Sounds simple enough? Well, it’s not. You need to be careful about what you uninstall. And in what order. First should go the audio driver, then the video driver, and then the motherboard drivers. Also, if Setup asks you to restart your PC after each of these uninstalls, do it! It makes sure that the drivers are completely removed from your PC. Your PC might be still uninstalling the driver when you shut down or restart your PC..you know…certain leftover stuff it can only do while restarting.

One small note, you should note your network configuration, because after reinstalling the drivers, the settings will be lost. I’m assuming that you’re using an Ethernet connection to either connect to your ADSL model, or directly connect through cable to your Internet Service Provider. Go to Start -> Control Panel. If you’re in Category View, select Switch to Classic View in the top-left. If there’s Switch to Category View, you’re already in Classic View. Now, double-click on Network Connections. Double click on Local Area Connection. There might be others like connections for WiFi, Bluetooth. I can’t give you instructions on how and if you need to store the settings for those, because I myself don’t have either WiFi or Bluetooth. Once you double-click Local Area Connection, select Properties. In the list in the new window, scroll down and double-click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Write down all of the settings in the new windows. In case all of the fields are grayed out, then it’s OK. This means that you have DHCP enabled. Read this article to know more – Basic Netorking.

Also, you’ll need to know what your screen resolution is. Right-click on an empty space on the Desktop and select Properties. Click on the Settings tab, and remember the screen resolution and color depth.

If you did everything right…your PC will be using the default drivers that are shipped with Windows. These drivers are very generic, that is, they are designed to work with a wide variety of devices, but are unable to provide advanced support for any devices. You might encounter problems, like your resolution and color being at low settings. This is normal. Also, you’ll go nuts trying to scroll down windows using these generic video drivers. Your audio might not work. Your internet will most probably not work, because the drivers must be part of the motherboard drivers which you uninstalled.

Right now, Windows will most likely take a lot of time to load. This is normal.

Step 2 : Reinstall

Just reinstall those drivers back. Start with the most basic ones. Motherboard, then video, then audio, then anything else you might’ve had to uninstall. Reinstall if setup asks you to.

This should most likely reduce your splash screens cycles to something really low. In my case, it went from ~30 cycles to 6 cycles. Now, that’s an improvement!

Once your restart, re-enter your network settings through the same method I mentioned earlier. Also, change your resolution and color depth back to normal. They would’ve been lowered when you switched back to the default Windows drivers.

Anyway, this should have given youa a snug-fit boot. Later…