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Faster booting BIOS needed

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 2:36 pm
by Mark N
Hello,

We have an embedded PC application (an automotive information system) which we would like to boot as quickly as possible. At present the Award BIOS takes 16 seconds to boot and Windows98 takes a further 16 seconds making a total time from cold to Windows desktop of 32 seconds. We need to reduce this. We are looking to make the BIOS boot take not more than 6 seconds and so are looking for custom or modified BIOS solutions.

The system is an Advantech PCM-5822 single board PC. The CPU is an embedded NS GXLV-200. The chipset is NS 5530(A). The BIOS is currently Award modular BIOS v4.51PG. The memory is 64Mb EDO. The disk is a CompactFlash 128Mb unit. The VGA interface is onboard, dealt with by the chipset. The board runs a very cut down Windows 98 installation and only ever runs our own bespoke software. There is no networking, USB or CDROM drive but our software does communicate though both RS232 serial ports and the parallel port. The only other plug ins are the monitor and a 4 button keypad. We occasionally replace the keypad with a PC keyboard and connect a 1.4Mb floppy drive for maintenance purposes. The user only ever operates our software through the 4 button keypad. Hardware and configuration changes never take place.

Would anyone be able to help with this?

Thanks,
Mark

mark@mnunn.fsnet.co.uk

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 4:16 pm
by Borg Number One
Hi.


Either: Or:
  • You can get in contact with:
    • apple_rom Image
    or
    • Rainbow Image

Faster booting BIOS needed

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 2:26 pm
by Mark N
Thanks for those suggestions.

I have already managed to extract the component parts of the BIOS with 'Award BIOS Editor v1.0' and cut out unnecessary things like the logo and an LCD driver. I have attempted to disassemble the other components with IDA Pro Disassembler v4.3 but this is where i am unable to proceed any further. I don't know the entry points and don't understand pc assembly language sufficiently well to make much sense of it all. I am trying to target the few second delay where you press Del to enter setup. This could come right down to say half a second or even none at all with hard coded setup values. Would you by any chance be able to disassemble my system BIOS component and reduce this delay? I would be willing to pay you for your time.

Thanks,
Mark
mark@mnunn.fsnet.co.uk

Boot time

Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 7:55 pm
by maverick528
For reducing Win98 boot time, use 98Lite.

In the BIOS setup, several options can be changed to reduce boot time, but I suppose you already did that (like disabling floppy seek at boot, disabling RAM check, instead of using autodetect for HDs use manual setting of parameters, disable SMART for HDs, no keyboard test, etc.).
(I don´t know how to tweak the BIOS itself to help you).
Using a faster CPU also helps, if it´s an embedded board maybe U can modify the speed by changing a crystal....

Faster booting BIOS needed

Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 10:33 am
by Mark N
Thanks for your reply.

As you suspect I have tried all of those BIOS tweaks. I have investigated 98Lite but believe the modifications I have already done to 98 (lots of registry cutting down and file removal etc) will be comparable to using 98Lite.

Mark