SSD takes 35secs to boot in comparison to other people's 7sec

DV2FOX

n00b
Joined
Jan 25, 2012
Messages
33
Specs: (Tower, btw..)

MB: ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING (BIOS -NOT- Updated due to keyboard not working on previous faulty MB when trying to access BIOS after BIOS update. DON'T BOTHER ASKING ME TO UPDATE THE BIOS!).
CPU: Intel i7 6700K
RAM: 16GB DDR4 2133mhz
GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 970 G1 GAMING
OS: Windows 7 64bits Home Premium

SSD1: OS (SAMSUNG EVO 850 500GB) (MAIN BOOT, 1st PRIORITY ON BIOS BOOTING) SSD2: "In case of format, break the glass" (" " 840 250GB)
HDD1: Recordings
HDD2: Downloads

Notes:

1.251GB/500GB free from OS SSD.
2.ALL WINDOWS UPDATES INSTALLED UP TO DATE (WSUS Offline mainly installed, then the rest later).
3.GPU Drivers etc updated (Except motherboard's LAN/Audio/etc due to possible incompatibility messages being annoying. All installed from MB's DVD).

EXPLANATION:

I don't know why but i've seen MANY PEOPLE get able to reach boot up speeds from the moment they press the Power button till they reach the W7/10 desktop in just 7-10secs.

I don't understand WHY MY PC boots up the same way but it takes 35secs around. I bet it's probably because there's many programs, W.Update updates and barely like 3 games installed.

In a beginning i tought it'd be my Keyboard's fault (Logitech G213) for being RGB and having to load up it's internal BIOS or whatever (or the lights too). I'VE TRIED to buy a Logitech MK120 (Wireless KB+Mouse, simple look etc, no gaming purposes) and plugged the new ones. They booting remains the same.

THINGS I'VE TRIED

1.The above Keyboard swapping. Nope 2.Unplugging all SSD/HDD BUT keeping the OS one connected. Same speed (Tought the boot would detect all other drives to check stuff etc).
3.The above but also Unplugging ALL USB/CABLES behind the MoBo eeeexcept for the monitor and speakers. Nope, same thing.

Obviously i did NOT defragged the SSD because it's frigging forbidden. CHKDSK and no faulty errors. Cleaning up space with W7's tool..Nothing.

How come some people can achieve that?...Even an older MB (Sandy Bridge CPU) had the same boot time..

I think even on W10 it had the same thing. UEFI?, SSD format (Not formatting to kill the contents, i mean GPT/MBR)?..WTH could it be?!

Ofcourse i came (i think so) prepared with one of those .etl files from Windows Tools to detect things out (4 parameters chosen from a recommended tutorial).The file/link will disappear in 15 days.

https://www.transfernow.net/256q89z9zklr

Thanks in advance!
 
maybe fast boot. also not all mobos post at the same speed so that will add to the time.
 
Of the 35 seconds, how many are at the UEFI/BIOS screens, how many are the windows spinning circle and how many until desktop appearance? Do you have any add in boards? Is your boot SSD SATA6, m.2 SATA or m.2 Pcie? You don’t say what BIOS you are running but the newer ones have m.2 and SATA SSD optimizations so you many need to update even if you don’t want to. Have you disabled any unused onboard items? Do you have the SSD as the first boot item (USB, CD not first?)
 
You need to be in UEFI mode with fast boot enabled to reach those speeds. Otherwise all the good old bios screens will eat up your boot seconds. And what is so critical that you need those 20 seconds anyway? Like was asked above, where do you spend the most time during boot? Black/bios screens? Windows boot logo? Or actually loading the desktop? Because if you have 800 programs running in the systray at boot, no amount of bios magic will give you a responsive desktop in 7 seconds!

So, compatible mode (or whatever buzzword this is called in your bios) have to be disabled. This should put your computer/bios in proper UEFI mode. Then make sure fast boot is enabled. Reinstall Windows in UEFI mode on a GPT partition (it should do this by default if you wipe your drive before starting the reinstall) if it's not already installed that way. I don't even recall if you can get that ancient Windows 7 to do this properly, I remember having a fight with W7 on several occations while trying for properly working UEFI installations back in the days. Meaning you may be out of luck no matter what, unless you upgrade. The bottomline is: with the latest bios and clean install of Windows 10, which is properly configured for fast boot (meaning uefi mode, secure boot etc active), you can probably get your computer to do this in the requested timeframe, unless you have a hardware issue sneaking around. E.g. I have a "server" running on an i7 2600K (Z68 motherboard, 2x8GB memory, ssd + hdd for storage) and some time ago it started taking 3-4 min to post after something as simple as a reboot. Turned out it was getting old and just needed a slight boost in the voltage to the memory controller (to properly train the ram during post again) and it was back to booting in a few seconds. The point is that there are numerous variables that can hinder your flawless boot sequence.

And the sad truth may be that you are stuck on a bugged, old bios version that is causing some delays too. So you may have to find a computer shop you can pay to upgrade your bios to the latest version. In my 20+ years of doing bios updates I can count on one hand the times I've had issues that was not fixed with either a cold-boot, clear cmos, or both. So having had one poor experience is not a good reason for stopping altogether.
 
mwroobel : Check this vid below as to how my PC boots (It's recently recorded and it might give you a better idea of how it boots etc.

Btw, if it helps, here's an ETL file with a booting recording.. It might help somehow https://www.transfernow.net/256q89z9zklr

No, there are no added in-boards like you say. SSD is connected to a SATA6 port (If ya have seen wich SSD i am using you'd notice it's an SSD and not those m.2 SATA/PCIE tiny cards but a 2.5" SSD.

BIOS is the one that came with the board by default. The 2003 x64 from 19/9/2016. Why not updating the BIOS you may ask?..Because when i did it on my older Z170 board (wich's the same as the actual one) , it caused my USB Keyboard (Logitech G213) to not be able to get into the BIOS late (aka spam DEL the hell out on power button pressing)...And if that happens again then i won't be able to make any changes to the BIOS no matter what...And that's a big issue incase i have to make USB Booting to install W7 via USB, right?..

For Onboard items i'm afraid i don't follow. I only disabled the LAN startup checking (or "Boot from Network Devices" because if i changed anything else it wouldn't reach the W7 loading screen (The one BEFORE the Desktop one comes).. The values from "Boot from Network/Storage/PCI-E/PCI Expansion - Devices" are set on Legacy except the Network Devices one. Touch one of these and W7 won't load. Launch CSM is Enabled and "Boot Device Control " is set to "UEFI and Legacy OPROM". Also, OS Type was at "Windows UEFI mode".

You might already know but trying to install W7 (Original ISO) on a Z170 board causes the mouse/KB to NOT work on the installation...That's why ASROCK had an ISO patcher to include specific KB/M drivers to work on the installation ISO, then put that ISO on a USB Pendrive for install booting on startup..

The SSD is set as the 1st Boot Item, with the DVD Drive below it.

Pandur : Fast Boot's enabled. UEFI mentioned above too unless you want me to take a photo of specific areas of my BIOS. It takes time on the W7 logo mainly, but check the video below for more. And what do you suggest me to do with programs that i use Daily?..Those are Blizzard's Client, Adobe CC, Skype, Discord.. And ofcourse the needed drivers for KB/M, GPU etc.. And i've tried to install the Intel drivers from ASUS site and updating old drivers into new ones but NOTHING HAS CHANGED..

How do i know my W7 Installation USB is UEFI/GPT ready?...Anything else i should know/check before i try to do a format etc?..

Why is 20secs so critical?...Why many people that might've got their PCs with Windows Updates installed and their games installed get 7-9secs so fast, WITH THE SAME SSD, and not me?...

You might wonder why i don't install W10?..Simple.. Besides no matter what i change, it keeps being a pain for me, even with Classic Shell etc.. But the worst is:

In my W7, if i grab my personal folder from my OS SSD to the 2nd, backup SSD, once the "Detecting" window pops up, it takes 3 seconds to ask me if i want to overwrite.. I click yes, then 2-3 secs after it asks for the "Overwrite all" checkbox prompt.. Clicking "Overwrite all" and clicking Accept and you can leave the PC doing it's thing while doing other things

IN W10....It has to detect aaaaaaaaaaaall the folder and it takes minutes...FOR DETECTING...Only for whenever it's done after minutes it comes up with the pop up to overwrite all..THEN TAKES MORE TIME ...

PS: Besides, on a previous, NON Z170 board, wich was a Sandy Bridge one, i updated the BIOS and the booting on SSD WAS STILL THE SAME...So it cannot be a BIOS update!

PS2: My USB install for W7 , when pressing F8 on boot, it's shown as "UEFI", so whenever i made that Z10 patch on the USB etc it was set to UEFI already.. One thing to worry less.

PS3: Why does it says i have 5 hard drives (my 2 SSDs and 2 HDDs) with the 5th one with 28GB...?

https://scontent.fmad3-2.fna.fbcdn....=820eab0a93d78030643ccc148df1a1a5&oe=5B64D824

 
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There’s a program (forget the name) that you install, it watches the next boot process and gives a report. The report breaks down what took how long to load etc.
Looks like a device / driver of some sort is the weak link here. You don’t even need UEFI to boot crazy fast. I’ve had many systems boot near instantaneously without doing the UEFI thing. I do it now of course, but this isn’t that.

Read this - the software might not be free anymore:

https://superuser.com/questions/930338/how-to-monitor-programs-and-services-on-windows-startup
 
I tried "Process Manager" . Here's the results of it www.transfernow.net/73jxq1t1dydr

In my reply before yours (Brahmzy ) i already placed a link at the beginning lines wich's a Boot Log done with "Windows Performance Recorder", if that also helps you read 'em and see what's wrong.

I used the Windows tool back then by someone's suggestion on some other forum, and it said (back then) that it was the Intel Drivers for SSD or SATA whatever.. Uninstalling them made the boot load at the same time, aka no success...(And i repeat, i did a power on with 1 SSD (OS) and all USB cables back there disconnected... So where could it be the issue?...Even the DVD drive!
 
BIOS is the one that came with the board by default. The 2003 x64 from 19/9/2016. Why not updating the BIOS you may ask?..Because when i did it on my older Z170 board (wich's the same as the actual one) , it caused my USB Keyboard (Logitech G213) to not be able to get into the BIOS late (aka spam DEL the hell out on power button pressing)...And if that happens again then i won't be able to make any changes to the BIOS no matter what...And that's a big issue incase i have to make USB Booting to install W7 via USB, right?..
This is a quite common issue with USB keyboards and modern UEFI bios in my experience. Make sure you are plugged into the motherboard directly (on the back of your computer usually). And preferably through a USB2 port, not a USB3 port. If you still have this issue, unplug your computer power for a short while. This way your computer will do a full P.O.S.T. next time you turn it on, and you should be able to get your keyboard to register before the OS starts loading as part of that process. If that don't help either, I suggest getting hold of another, less fancy, keyboard that you can plug in if this problem arises again (I keep an ancient PS/2 keyboard on the shelft for this purpose myself). It can also help to clear cmos while having your computer unplugged, but this will of course reset all your bios settings and further complicate things.

Launch CSM is Enabled
This is the legacy bios mode. CSM stands for Compatibility Support Module, which means your Windows is not installed (or in some cases, running) in UEFI mode when this is enabled.

How do i know my W7 Installation USB is UEFI/GPT ready?...Anything else i should know/check before i try to do a format etc?..
First part is kind of answered above. To install (and boot) Windows 7 and above in UEFI mode you have to disable Launch CSM in your bios. Your GPT question is answered in your diskpart screenshot, the right column says GPT, an asterix there means your drive is formatted as such. Your screenshot shows it is not. So to make sure your Windows is installed as UEFI you have to disable Launch CSM in your bios. This will by itself improve your boot time because it removes the old school P.O.S.T. screens. But if your Windows is not installed in UEFI mode this will also result in a failure to boot. So the next part is to wipe your OS ssd clean (the clean command in diskpart will do wonders). If you decide to go this way I would suggest that you unplug all other drives while doing this, until you're done reinstalling Windows, in accordance with the K.I.S.S. rule. Windows will automatically format your drive to GPT if you select it during the setup process after it was cleaned by diskpart (or other means). This is the adviced way to do it, since UEFI and GPT also requires a couple tiny separate partitions for it to work properly. And this way Windows makes those for you.

A word of warning: Windows 7 is the first generation Microsoft OS that can be installed in UEFI mode, and it's not exactly flawless. Afaik it has no proper support for Secure Boot, so you have to disable this for UEFI mode to work at all. And even then you may find that it's still just plain refusing to co-operate.
Windows 8/8.1 (eeewww) is better in this particular aspect. And Windows 10 really knocks it out of the park in comparison.

PS: Besides, on a previous, NON Z170 board, wich was a Sandy Bridge one, i updated the BIOS and the booting on SSD WAS STILL THE SAME...So it cannot be a BIOS update!
One fact does not make a universal truth. Just because one bios update did not change boot speeds does not equal that no bios updates have ever affected boot speeds. In the era of UEFI bios this is more true than ever, as there's a ton more stuff included in the UEFI than ever was in the old BIOS (like your Sandy Bridge example). For instance the UEFI can provide boot-time drivers for the OS to work with during boot, before loading the OS specific drivers. Which, in an old UEFI firmware version, can be a load of buggy, slow, utterly useless drivers. And guess what, that will show as slow loading times during the Windows logo sequence. Not saying it's your problem, but it's A POTENTIAL problem.

PS2: My USB install for W7, when pressing F8 on boot, it's shown as "UEFI", so whenever i made that Z10 patch on the USB etc it was set to UEFI already.. One thing to worry less.
That would mean you should hopefully be able to get it properly installed with this usb given the above steps.

PS3: Why does it says i have 5 hard drives (my 2 SSDs and 2 HDDs) with the 5th one with 28GB...?
Diskpart shows all drives connected to your computer. Usb storage included, so I would assume you had a usb drive attached?
 
Pandur , add me to Discord, DV2#8411 . We can do it faster over there...

EDIT: No matter what i try, the BIOS won't let me.

Grab the ISO with W7 Patched (it also contains SP1), put it into Rufus, NTFS format (even FAT32), GPT UEFI option.

If i go to the BIOS and disable CSM, whenever i press F8 to choose the bootable device it shows me the Pendrive, with UEFI in it (Back then there was 2, UEFI and the NON-UEFI, ..NON UEFI allowed me to enter setup without issues).

I choose it and shows the "Windows is Loading files" with the bar filling up twice, but whenever "Starting Windows" appears (the supposed loading logo), the logo won't come up, the PC will reboot and an "American Systems?" message comes up saying "Nope, CSM was disabled, let us re-enable it for you"

Even with Secure Boot chosen to "Other OSs" instead of "Windows UEFI", the issue persists.

What's going on?...
 
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On my X99 setup set to defaults it would take around a minute plus to boot up even with a Samsung EVO.

The reason it took so long was that the UEFI/BIOS would do ram training. Now with a 16GB quad DDR4 it took a bit of time. So I switched that off and the boot time dropped by half.

I now have a 3000MBps NVME boot/os drive and it still takes 30 seconds or so to boot due to the fact I had to (and I like to for reliability) switch off all the Fast boot options and hibernation etc.

At least 20 seconds of that boot time is going though the UEFI bios, once that's done Windows comes up in around 7-8 seconds.
 
And where can i disable that "RAM Training" in my MoBo...?

And i take you're using W10?...Since you mentioned Fast Boot and HIBERNATION, something i've seen on google so many times but only for W10, since , again, i am using W7...

If you could provide me some step by step guide to test that on my PC it'd be great...
 
And where can i disable that "RAM Training" in my MoBo...?

And i take you're using W10?...Since you mentioned Fast Boot and HIBERNATION, something i've seen on google so many times but only for W10, since , again, i am using W7...

If you could provide me some step by step guide to test that on my PC it'd be great...

Well yes I'm running Windows 10 because I'm using pretty modern hardware and want an OS that at least recognises it out of the box for best performance. Windows 7 is set for the latest tech of 2008 and is virtually obsolete.

The RAM settings will be in the Advanced/AI Tweaker/RAM section of your BIOS I would imagine. Take a look in your motherboard manual.
 
My ssd is also taking its sweet ass time to boot up.

It used to be crazy fast, then one day I had to boot into safe mode for something, ever since that day my shit takes 30-40 seconds to load up everything.

Ita probably because I have a shitload of startup apps, but still, it did bootup really fast before I went into safe mode.

6700k, Samsung 8fiddy 512gb ssd. 32gb ram
 
I'd say the "Uncheck all startup apps" at Start-> type msconfig then enter -> thing and see if one of them, ticking them one by one, is the culprit... But i dunno. It also happens to me on W10 AFAIK whenever i was playing around with it (until some stuff i didn't liked that W7 does better happened to be noticed)

Let us know
 
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