Hi, was wondering what makes my Pentium dual core boot up so slow on windows 2000? It's about 4 mins time, 2 mins slower than what I used to get on a 3000+? Isn't that a dual core is suppose to make it fly? In contrast the boot time on XP takes only 1 min.

Have you installed Service Pack 4 and subsequent Updates, as well as the latest Motherboard Chipset Drivers/Software ??

Yes, installed all updates and SP4. My motherboard does not have raid. so it doesn't require pressing F6 during installation.

I stated Motherboard Chipset Drivers, this is unrelated to the F6 at Install.

Yes, chipset and including everything software related...

The dual core isn't supposed to make it boot faster. It's good for multi tasking. Windows 2000 is known for slow boot times...but generally in the 60-75sec area depending on the machine and how many programs are installed and how many are in the start up routine. XP is basically an optimized version of 2000 and boots faster by design. All that said....at 4 minutes...YOU GOT ISSUES! Or rather your system does. You don't provide much information but I'll make a go of it. First thought is...it could simply be too many apps starting at once though even that shouldn't slow it down to 4mins bootup. If this is a transfer of an old OS/HDD to a new machine...make sure you installed the motherboard support CD after the transfer or the hard drive controllers will not be optimized for that motherboard. If its an old OS moved to a new machine and its been around a while...Run windows Disk Defragmenter to make sure the drive isn't fragmented. A few percent won't cause that but extensive fragmentation will. Also run full scans for malware, spyware, viruses, trojans etc with MULTIPLE scanners. Trend Micro housecall online, Panda scan, Kaspersky online scan...plus whatever local antivirus software you are running...be it AVG, AVAST, MCAFEE, NORTON. Install Spybot 1.6 and scan for malware/spyware. Install Ad-Aware 2008 by Lavasoft and do the same. Also...whether this is a fresh install to an existing system or a fresh install on a new build...OR...even an old OS moved to a new machine. AFTER you have installed drivers from the motherboard support CD...make sure to check your Hard drive controller settings IN Hardware Device Manager... Right Click on IDE (or sata if applicable) Controllers and go to Properties - Advanced and make sure the controller IS set for DMA mode and NOT PIO mode. Do that for EACH controller channel in both Primary and Secondary channels. Set them all to DMA. IF this IS a fresh install and a new system and you are sure you don't have any spyware, malware, viruses etc....I'd say to check for hardware issues as well. run memory tests from a flash or floppy based ram tester to verify the ram is ok. Run extended tests and let it go for at least 15-20 passes. It may take a while. Also running chkdsk to verify there are no bad sectors on the drive is a good idea. Even new hard drives can be bad. Without knowing more those are my best suggestions. Good luck.