Vista x64: Long startup time

Question

Hey guys,
one thing I noticed from day one is that my T500 takes a loooong time too boot up...
to be exact: my vista needs about 5 minutes untill I can use it and that's only with an AV software starting (Nod32 Smart Security), that I uninstalled to see if that was the bad guy, and the "normal" programs - Windows default or from drivers.
Vista was installed on the original Hitachi 320gb/5400rpm hdd my thinkpad came with...
I did a clean install of Vista Ultimate x64 but it didn't get much better. Right now my vista installation is fried due to some unsolvable windows update error, which is why I installed Win7.
Now with Win7 my t500 needs about 1.5 minutes until I can use it, so the long boot time with Vista can't be hardware related....
Also it can't be related to the AV software or any software - apart from the lenovo ones - that I installed, since I had the exact same setup on my old Dell 9400, which wasn't nearly as powerful as this one....
Once Vista was up and running it was as snappy as it could be, so I was/am quite frustrated by the boot time, especially because the system used to freak due ot the switchable graphics right when I wanted to demonstrate something on my "shiny and oh so expensive and fast" thinkpad. My buddy was sitting next to me with his old T61p and he was booting faster.....
I didn't get any results trying to google my issue, so I'm starting this thread. I used system update to install all the drivers, my BIOS is up-to-date, AMT is up-to-date - I don't use it, but I tried to remove all the possible sources of this behaviour.
I messed around with some other options, too. Disable TPM, disable fingerprint, enable/disable AMT, remove 2nd hdd...
Another thing I noticed is that when I have a second hdd in my ultrabay slot, there is a blinking cursor right after the BIOS screen and before the notebook actually boots vista/win7
It's just a second with a dvd drive or without a drive, but about 10-25 seconds with an additional hdd inserted...
This all just adds up to a computer that's very fast when it's already on, but slower then my old Athlon 2200+ when booting....
I hope somebody can help me with my issues, I'm trying to recover my vista installation the next few days, so I hope I/we can solve those problems of mine.
Thx in advance,
Stefan
Thinkpad T500 2082-7SG

Answer 1

Welcome to the forums
There might be a number of reasons known and unknown.Microsoft acknowledges this.If you check windows update you will notice certain reliability updates being provided from time to time.Installing them can improve your experience.The best option for you is to install the latest service packs as and when they appear in the windows update
you can also go through this known case which is quite similar to your issue.
Microsoft support also has this page where you can solve you performance issues 
Cheers and regards,
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