C:\Users\mohit\Desktop\AssamUniv\New Folder\Journal_(Physical

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ASSAM U
RSITY
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Assam University Journal of Science &
Technology : Physical Sciences and Technology
Vol. 5 Number II
38-44, 2010
Comparing Performance of some Brands of Laptop Computers with
special Reference to Booting Time
Hemanta Saikia, Chayan Paul, Dibyojyoti Bhattacharjee1
Department of Business Administration, Assam University, Silchar
Correspondence; 1e-mail: dibyojyoti.bhattacharjee@gmail.com
Abstract
Selecting the brand of computer especially laptop is a tough task to do. When a new laptop is used, it starts
up really fast. As the computer becomes old, the startup time increases. There are several reasons responsible
for the slow booting of the computer viz. speed of the processor, size of the RAM used, the operating system
installed, number of software installed in the computer, amount of free disk space in the secondary memory
etc. This paper takes into consideration three popular brands of laptops available in present market viz.
Acer, Compaq and Lenovo and compares their performance in terms of booting time. There are a number of
exercises that can decrease the booting time of the computer. The improvement of booting time of computers
of the above mentioned brands on performance of the exercise are compared.
Key words: Booting Time, Regression.
Introduction
In computing, booting is a boot strapping process
that starts the operating system when the user
turns on a computer system. When a computer is
turned on the hardware reads the first sector of
the first track of the boot disk into memory and
executes the code it finds there (Tannenbum and
Woodhull,1997). The boot loader typically loads
the main operating system for the computer. A
computer’s central processing unit (CPU) is only
capable of executing the programs found in the
read only memory (ROM) and random access
memory (RAM). Modern operating system and
application program code and data are stored on
nonvolatile data storage devices such as hard disc
drives, CD, DVD, USB flash drives etc. When a
computer is switched on, it does not have an
operating system in its ROM or RAM. The loading
of the operating system is achieved by a special
program called boot (Godbole, 2006).
memory (Nutt, 2006). Typical modern personal
computers (PC) boot within one minute. Of the
one minute, around 15 seconds are taken by power
on self-test (POST) and rest by loading the
operating system. Pre OS time can considerably
shorten by bringing the system with core boot;
whereas large servers may take several minutes
to boot and start all their services.
Once the machine has completed the bootstrap
phase and is operating normally under software
control, this operating system can set the PC to
any program executing that has been loaded into
iv) If the first sector of the floppy disk is absent,
the BIOS reads the first sector of the hard
disk in the computer (also called the master
booting record, or MBR);
Shen and Huang (2001) stated about the following
process through which a computer undergoes
before it becomes ready for use.
i) Enabling basic input/output system (BIOS);
ii) Executing power-on self test (POST) to enable
the hardware of the computer;
iii) After the POST is completed, the BIOS reads
the first sector of the floppy disk in the
computer (also called the booting sector);
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Comparing Performance of some.........
v) Loading a booting program from the first sector
of the hard disk into the memory of the
computer, and then loading it into the booting
sector provided by the operating system stored
in the hard disk; and
vi) Entering the operating system and completing
the booting of the computer.
Objectives of the study
The main objectives of the study are
i) To search the factors those are responsible for
slow booting of computer system.
ii) To compare three different brands of laptop
computers (viz. Acer, Lenovo and Compaq)
based on their booting time.
Factors effecting the booting time of a
computer
When a new laptop is used, it starts up fast but
with time the time required to start the computer
becomes longer. Microsoft XP was designed to
boot within 30 seconds. However if multiple
services are enabled the startup time may go up
to several minutes. Bloated configuration,
spyware problem, virus attack, Adware problem,
Adware infections, registry errors, slow antivirus,
fragmented files are some of the prime factors
for increasing the booting time of a computer. In
this paper, we consider some important factors
which are responsible for slow booting as stated
below:
i) Hard Disc: Hard Disc is a non-volatile storage
device, which stores digitally encoded data on
rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces.
In the 21st century, HDD usage expanded into
consumer applications such as camcorders, cell
phones, digital audio players etc.
ii) Central Processing Unit: a central
processing unit or CPU is an electronic circuit that
can execute computer programs. This broad
definition can easily applied to many early
computers that existed long before the term CPU
ever came to widespread usage. The form, design
and implementation of CPUs have changed
drastically.
iii) Recycle Bin: in the Microsoft windows,
operating system the Recycle Bin is a holding area
for files and folders that are held before final
deletion from a storage device. Typically, the
Recycle Bin presented as a special file directory
to the user allowing the user to browse and restore
the files and folders that have been deleted
temporarily or by mistake. Within a thrash
directory the record of files’ original locations are
maintained. The files are required to taken out of
the thrash folder to access them.
iv) Random Access Memory (RAM): Today
it takes the form of circuit that allows the stored
data to be accessed in any order thus refer to the
fact that any piece of data can be accessed at
any time regardless of its physical location and
weather or not it is related to previous piece of
data. The word RAM is mostly associated with
the volatile type of data.
v) Temporary files: In computing, a temporary
folder is a directory used to hold temporary files.
Many operating systems and some software
automatically delete the content of the temp folder
at boot up or at regular interval. A standard
procedure for the system administration is to
reduce the amount of storage space used by
removing the temporary files. When a user opens
an attached file from outlook or other e-mail
utilities, the default save location is often an
obscurely named temporary folder (e.g.,
“C:\Documents
and Settings\Current
User\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files”). Thus it is usually easy after modifying
the, to inadvertently save it and thereupon closing
it and then have no idea where to find it again.
vi) Defragmentation: Defragmentation is
process that reduces the amount of fragmentation
in the file system. It does this by physically
organizing the contents of the disc to restore the
pieces of each file close together and contiguously.
It also attempts to create larger region of free
space using compaction to impede the return of
fragmentation. Fragmentation generally occurs
when the operating system does not allocate
enough contiguous space to store the whole file
as a unit, but instead puts parts of it in gaps
between other files.
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Comparing Performance of some.........
vii) Disk Cleanup: Disk clean up is a computer
maintenance utility include in Microsoft windows
designed to free up disk space on computer users
hard drive. The clean up wizard firstly involves
searching and analyzing the hard drive for files
that are no longer of any use. It then proceeds to
remove the unnecessary files, freeing up disk
space on the hard drive. There are a number of
files the disk cleanup targets while performing the
initial disk analysis. These are compression of old
files, temporary internet files, temporary windows
file, downloaded program files, recycle bin, setup
log files and offline files etc. The above listed files
however are not exhaustive; there are a number
of other files.
viii) Antivirus Software: Antivirus software is
used to identify and remove the computer viruses
as well as many other harmful software’s
collectively known as malware. While first
antivirus was designed exclusively to combat
computer viruses, most modern software can
protect against a wide range of malware, including
worms, root kits and Trojans. While antivirus
software are used to protect the computer system
against malicious software, some antivirus
software can considerably reduce the
performance of the computer system. Sometimes
antivirus software can themselves pose some
security risks as they often run at the System level
of privileges and may hook the kernel.
This paper considers three popular brands of laptop
computers viz. Acer, Compaq and Lenovo.
 Removing unnecessary programs from the
startup.
 Uninstalling the unnecessary application
programs.
 Using good security software and running scan
after regular interval.
 Running the Disc Clean up after a regular
interval.
 Making sure that the computer have at least
20-30% of free disk space on Windowsdedicated partition (usually C :).
Data and Methodology
This study mainly focused on exploring the factors
which are responsible behind slow booting of
computers based on primary data. In order to
evaluate the reasons of slow booting time of
computers, the study considered three different
brands of laptop computers viz, Acer, Compaq
and Lenovo. A sample of 30 laptop was selected
for the study where each of the brand comprised
of 10 laptops and accordingly the relevant data
were collected to achieve the objectives which is
provided in Appendix-A. Collected data was
analyzed using statistical software (e.g. SPSS) to
attain the objectives of the study. The limitation
of this study is to only three different brands of
laptop computer that are used for comparison.
Also the numbers of computers considered under
each brand are limited to 10 numbers only.
Analysis and Results
At the very outset, multiple regression analysis is
done to see the impact of some factors regarding
booting time of the different brands of laptop
computers and accordingly a multiple regression
There are a number of procedures available to equation is fitted by considering ‘Booting time of
improve the booting time of a particular computer the computer’ as a criterion variable and HD size,
system. George Norman (2009) coined the size of RAM, Age of the computer and Speed of
following steps:
the processor as predictor variables.
Table 1 : Model Summary
Procedures for improving the booting time
of a computer
Model
1
R
.434(a)
Adjusted
R Square
.059
R Square
.189
The above table shows that the value of R-square
is 0.189 that implies the predictor variables
considered for this analysis is only 18.9%
Std. Error of
the Estimate
16.57018
responsible to r epresent or determine the
dependent variable.
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Comparing Performance of some.........
Table 2 : ANOVA
Model
1
Regression
Residual
Total
Sum
of
Squares
1595.191
6864.269
8459.460
df
4
25
29
Mean Square F
398.798
1.452
274.571
Sig.
.246
This is an ANOVA table of regression equation at all significant. This means that the predictor
where the significance of F is 0.246 (i.e. greater variables did not explain the criterion variable
than 0.05) which implies that the regression is not nicely.
Table 3 : Coefficients of the model
Unstandardized
Coefficients
Model
1
(Constant)
measured in GB
RAM measured in GB
age of the computer
measured from date of
purchase
Speed of the processor
Standardized
Coefficients
t
Sig.
B
44.312
.176
7.762
Std. Error Beta
41.676
.110
.329
5.913
.254
B
1.063
1.604
1.313
Std. Error
.298
.121
.201
-.025
.015
-.328
-1.638
.114
-6.409
24.872
-.052
-.258
.799
The above table gives us the result of the regression
equation and the equation would be of the form –
Y = 44.312+0.176 X 1 +7.762X 2 -0.025X 3 6.409X 4
Where Y = Booting time of the computer
X1= HD size
X2= Size of RAM
X3= Age of the computer
X4= Speed of the processor
Another important column of the above table is
the p-value. If the p-value corresponding to any
of the variable is less than 0.05 then we can say
that the particular variable has a significant impact
on the dependent variable. However, p-value
corresponding to any of the predictor variable
considering for this analysis are not significant as
all of them are greater than 0.05.
Comparing booting time of the different
brands of computers
Again, if we look at the standardized coefficient As initially affirmed in this paper, three different
of beta column than we have seen that the most brands of computer namely Compaq, Acer and
dominating factor is the HD size of the computer Lenovo are considered for the study and
that adversely affects the speed of the booting accordingly the following ANOVA test is
time. This means that as the size of the hard disk performed to check whether there is any
increases the booting time of the computer is also significant difference in average booting time of
increases.
different brands of the laptop computers.
Table 4 : ANOVA
Variable: Booting time of the system in sec
Between
Groups
Within Groups
Total
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean Square F
Sig.
637.342
2
318.671
.347
7822.118
8459.460
27
29
289.708
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1.100
Comparing Performance of some.........
The above ANOVA table shows that the value of
F is 1.100 and the corresponding p value is 0.347
which is greater than 0.05. Therefore, we can say
that the average booting times of the computers
are not significantly different for different types
of brands.
Comparing the booting time of the different
processors
The three different types of processor namely
Celeron, Core to Duo and Dual Core are found
to be used by the user for this study. A major
concern of the study is to find out whether the
booting time of the computer varies due to
different processors. For that purpose the
following ANOVA test was performed.
Table 5 : ANOVA
Variable: Booting time of the system in sec
Between
Groups
Within Groups
Total
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean Square F
Sig.
564.093
2
282.046
.394
7895.367
8459.460
27
29
292.421
.965
The above ANOVA table shows that the value of
F is 0.965 and the corresponding p value is 0.394
which is greater than 0.05. Therefore we can say
that the average booting time of the computers
are not significantly varies due to different
processors.
Comparing the improved booting time of
different brands of computer using whisker
plot
To improve the booting time of the computers
some schedule exercise were performed like disk
defragmentation, empty recycle bin and disk clean
up etc. as discussed earlier in this paper and
accordingly new booting times were noted. The
following clustered box-plot was drawn to compare
the improved booting time of the different brand
of computers.
Fig. 1: Booting time of computers before and after
improving booting time of exercise
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Comparing Performance of some.........
In the above diagram, there are three pairs of
boxes and each pair represents the booting time
data before and after the exercises were made.
From the figure it is understandable that even after
the exercises there is not much improvement in
the booting time of the computers and implying
that the exercise performed has no way to improve
the booting time of the computers. In addition, we
can say that the booting time of the Lenovo
computers are to the lead compared to Compaq
and Acer computers even after performing the
mentioned schedule exercises. Compaq computers
are shows the lowest average booting time and
have remained at the forefront compared to Acer
and Lenovo even after performing the exercises.
the analysis, it has seen that the average booting
time of Lenovo computers is higher compare to
Acer and Compaq. However, average booting
time of Compaq and Acer computers are nearly
equal. The study also found that after performing
the different exercises for improving the booting
time of laptop computers the booting time of the
Lenovo computers thus not show any significant
change compared to Acer and Compaq.
Even after performing the exercises that are
supposed to decrease the booting time of
computers the improvement is not very significant.
Thus based on sample the popular practice of
improving booting time fails to show any
significant impact.
Conclusion
The booting time initially takes few seconds when
laptop is new, but it increases with time. Based on
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