i got my car colour coded... just picked it up. it looks hot as... kinda like a verada. tomorrow i am putting a PC in my car. i was just wondering if anybody knows how to make the PC boot faster?

i will post up pics of my car later.

cheers

what OS you gonna use? if your using XP get a cut down version of it. should boot much faster, or even bootvis will help!

where can i get cut down versions from? or do i cut it down myself. i wouldnt want to use bootvis... i have had very bad experiences with it :D

r u just running windows xp? if so theres better alternatives, as xp aint the best for shutting down/starting up the way u do wen u just turn the ignition off!

i'm sure someone here will direct u where 2 look for more :D

*Edit* hehe 380 posts :P

i got my car colour coded... just picked it up. it looks hot as... kinda like a verada. tomorrow i am putting a PC in my car. i was just wondering if anybody knows how to make the PC boot faster?

i will post up pics of my car later.

cheers

a butt load of ram and nothing on the hard drive, that should do it.. or just run dos, hardcore.

Run windows 2000! Its boots faster, takes less resources and you can shut the pc down by just cutting power without destroying data. Nothing would happen in XP either, as its just mp3's that are playing, or video files anyways. Plus, XP has better recovery

Try www.mp3car.com - it's a site dediated to what you are about to do.

Getting XP Lite or other cut down versions of windows apparently does NOT really makes windows boot faster (or only a little faster) - however it does take up less hard disk space.

Here are a few things you can do to boot up faster:

1) Clean install / reformat hard drive with windows
2) Sufficient quantity of ram (as mentioned before)
3) Disable RAM checks, FDD and CD-ROM boot checks in bios
4) Don't load unnecessary services / drivers / wall paper etc...do you really need Norton AntiVirus on your carputer?
5) for point 4) , go to run and type msconfig - it will bring up all the programs that are loaded at startup - read which ones you can safely disable.

Other things you may want to do:
1) get it to autologon
2) have your own boot image instead of the windows image..
3) startup a GPS program or mp3 player automatically...

Also as some mentioned you can use various "frontends" - i.e. programs that replace your traditional windows desktop with something more suitable for a car - whether this improves boot speed I do not know.

I was just customizing my operating system (Windows XP) today and with a P4M IBM T30 laptop - from pressing start to getting CoPilot up is just over 1 minute which is OK with me.

Obviously other options are hibernate and standby!

ok its all in my car. im now posting from my computer in the car. of course i am parked in the shed with a lan cable. i dont have a power invertor yet...so for now i can only run it from DC power... cool non the less.

here are some pics. check out the colour coding of side skirts, door trim and mirrors. i got it all done for $375, and that included fixing a dent in my wheel arch and respraying the front bumper.

pics are here (http://www.mondodev.net/rodney/)

looking good Rod........ any plans to intergrate a touch screen into the dash, with the right software you'd be able to eliminate the need for mouse / keyboard etc?

Didn't see a fire extinguisher in the pics........ would be a shame to loose it all.

let me introduce to you all a specific form-factor of motherboard that is specifically designed to run in 12v applications (not 15v like all others) has a variety of board configurations and onboard componants, and doesnt cost the earth.

www.mini-itx.com

the clasification for a "mini itx" states that it must be within 17cm X 17cm to qualify as "mini" (an even smaller 12cm X 12cm moard is available and is labled NanoITX)

what does this mean for people wanting to install a carputer? well considering it is 12v native, you dont need to run inverters for power (12v power supplies are available), but here's the really exciting bit (also applies to people with regular pc's in the car) when you pre-load a RAM IMAGE of your workspace onto, for example a 4gb flash card (read: solid state storage), you can reduce your bootup time to as long as it takes for the post action to happen on the computer... which is around 12 seconds on a properly configured mini-itx based computer!

thats a shorter amount of time that most dvd based systems take to load!

so with you operating system running from your solid state drive and a 400gb SATA HDD plugged in for media storage, you can have a fast booting, ultra cool car-puter for nix!

and dont get me started on touchscreen lcd's! (HOW CHEAP!!!)


neways, just thought i would share my ideas


Cheers


Zach

I was gonna say the same. That case is too big. Get a miniPC. They are the size about 20cmx20cmx30cm and its a full pc. Room for 1 dvd drive, and has onboard sound, video and network.

By the way. That hard drive won't last long when you have your bass pumping... Better off getting smaller case and move it into the cabin

I made a stripped version of windows XP using a program called Nlite. The ISO turned out to be something like 95mb and on my pc it boots to the desktop in under 15 seconds (even after all my drivers are installed). My PC is 2Ghz and has 512mb ram.

Not recommended for everyday pc use because alot of the **** is deleted and disabled but would be great for a car pc. :)

where can i get cut down versions from? or do i cut it down myself. i wouldnt want to use bootvis... i have had very bad experiences with it :D

If you know what bootvis is I assume that you know about how to edit the timeout value in the boot.ini file?

Also do a Google for startup.cpl , it's a little control panel app that will help you identify things that load as Windows starts up.

Would a Aplle Mini Mac be a good idea?

its apple and damn straight it would

tiny little things, cheap, and sufficient power for anything you could posssibly want it to do.

see more here.

http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebObjects/australiastore.woa/80305/wo/vS4oBay9pJox2xgOkD71dIJeXrO/0.SLID?nclm=macmini&mco=270F214C

its apple and damn straight it would

tiny little things, cheap, and sufficient power for anything you could posssibly want it to do.

see more here.

http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebObjects/australiastore.woa/80305/wo/vS4oBay9pJox2xgOkD71dIJeXrO/0.SLID?nclm=macmini&mco=270F214C

or just get a shuttle pc...more customizable, and the windows system that u know and love :) not like u need to worry bout viruses on a carpc anyways, so they both equate to about the same!