(By pure coincidence with the user name).
I have a Pico Envoy 665 running W98. 192MB RAM and a 6.4GB HDD. PII 400 processor.
Right from when I bought it (about 2 weeks prior to the company going into receivership
) the start up process, from when I press the button to when the machine actually displays the W98 desktop, takes anywhere from 20 seconds (unusual) to 3- 4 minutes (a bad day). Average I suppose is about 2 minutes.
My only explanation is that there is a temperature sensor on the processor, which doesn't let it run on full power until it's come down to a certain temperature. this would seem to be logical as the initial DOS screen only gives way the the W98 initialisation screen once the fan has stopped running. I also suspect this because when the computer has only been power off for a few minutes, the power up sequence takes minimal time.
So, that's my explanation- however I reckon that this is a long shot. Anyone got any better ideas?