really long bootup time?

[Louds3]

Hey all,
I just finished my first build and everything went smoothly except for the following problem. here's my specs: XP Home, Asus A8N-Sli, Aopen 6600, 2x512 ValueSelect, WD Caviar SE 80gb HDD (ide, primary master), Lite-On DVDRW, Xclio 450bl

When I power on my computer, the Asus logo (splashscreen?) stays on the screen for about 45 seconds (the screen that says hit DEL to enter bios on the bottom), then I get the post screen and it scans for PCI changes for about another 40 seconds, seems to recognize everything I have installed, then I get a black screen for 30 more seconds and finally it goes to the Windows XP logo splashscreen and windows starts. Once windows is up and running, all seems well (good temps, voltages I believe are solid, no error messages)

I installed the chipset drivers from the asus CD including the IDE drivers that was recommended for nForce4. Should I update the bios? The version on the CD was released in October of 2005. Are there bios settings I need to change to speed up the process or anything? The boot order I have set is Removable (no floppy installed), then Hard Drive, then Optical. It seems that the hard drive isn't accessed at all the 1st full minute or more I power on. sorry for the long post, any help much appreciated. thanks

steve

[Amazin Caucasian]

you could streamline the boot sequence, for 1st boot device set hard disk, then disable the rest. You won't want to update your BIOS just yet, its a risky process....I can't make any guarantees that this will make a large difference, but it is a common technique to speed up teh boot.

[blue60007]

BIOS update probably won't do you any good.

Some other things would be to enable fast POST (it disables the memory check), that might speed things up a bit.

[Amazin Caucasian]

is that also called Quick Boot....if so I think on Asus boards its automatically enabled...but still check it out.

[Louds3]

ok, i will check this stuff when i get home tomorrow morning. any other thoughts welcome, thanks guys

steve

[Louds3]

thanks for the help so far, but none of that stuff worked. Quick boot was enabled, and I set my hard drive as the first and only thing in the boot sequence, didn't speed things up at all. will try different IDE cables and power connectors, but I wouldn't think that will make much of a difference. Any other ideas about what this could be?

steve

[Louds3]

ok well here's an update so far. I changed IDE cables (had been using a 40 pin) to the 80pin that ASUS gave me and switched the power connector. Not sure which one of those helped but the first ASUS screen and the next screen (post i think?) are much quicker. However, after it leaves the POST screen the screen goes completely black for like 40 seconds, then my Hard Drive case LED's start to flicker and the Windows XP logo screen comes on and boots normally and pretty quickly. Anyone have any idea why I am getting that black screen and my hard drive doesn't seem to do anyhting for a little while after post? this is driving me nuts, any help much appreciated.

steve

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Louds3 ok well here's an update so far. I changed IDE cables (had been using a 40 pin) to the 80pin that ASUS gave me and switched the power connector. Not sure which one of those helped but the first ASUS screen and the next screen (post i think?) are much quicker.

Most likely the change to the 80 wire IDE cable. 80 wire IDE cables are capable of higher data transfer rates.

Originally Posted by Louds3 However, after it leaves the POST screen the screen goes completely black for like 40 seconds, then my Hard Drive case LED's start to flicker and the Windows XP logo screen comes on and boots normally and pretty quickly. Anyone have any idea why I am getting that black screen and my hard drive doesn't seem to do anyhting for a little while after post? this is driving me nuts, any help much appreciated.

I think the screen going black for awhile is normal but the amount of time will differ according to what's in your computer. If your computer has a NIC but it's not connected it will delay boot up as the NIC searches for a network. Windows might also be taking an inventory of all the USB ports.

Cricket

[jayb1234]

Take a look in device manager and see if any of the hardware there is flagged. You might have a problem with a driver.

[Louds3]

just checked the device manager and nothing is flagged, I believe all the correct drivers are installed. As cricket said, there could be nothing wrong but I am just really surprised at this delay, my P4 1.5ghz machine booted to windows desktop in 40 seconds I'd say this is taking about 1 1/2 minutes with a 3200+ and the same hard drive. maybe I will give asus a call. How risky is updating my bios, I think there is a set of nForce4 drivers and a bios update I could do. thanks

steve

[Louds3]

This is an old thread but I wanted to add a new update. After switching to a faster boot hard drive, there is no longer any lag between the post screen and the initial Windows Splashscreen. I am not sure why this problem went away, but I was using and IDE hard drive and now switched to a SATA II, that is the only difference, the copy of windows is the same (cloned from the old drive).

steve

[scomac]

Just a note that I thought I would add to this. I realize that this is an older post and that you have since fixed your problem. One thing to check is to see what transfer mode the primary IDE channel is running at. I have worked on computers where the IDE channels will be operating in PIO mode due to disc errors. This can cause EXTREMELY long load times since PIO is the slowest mode. The primary IDE channel should be running in Ultra DMA 5. Very simple fix for this though...uninstall the IDE channel, reboot and Windows will recognize the new hardware, reinstall the drivers and the problem is fixed. To do this, you would go to device manager and under IDE/ATAPI connections, right click on properties and then advanced.

Scomac

[glc]

It could also be taking its jolly time looking through all the bioses - you have a lot of controllers on that board. Not much you can do with that except disable what you aren't using.

[Louds3]

good point, which is why one of the first things I did was disable anyhting I wasn't using, onboard LAN (i have wifi), firewire (till i get my external drive), serial port, floppy drive, parallel, game port, midi port..etc... there is a nice setup guide for this board (a8n-sli) over at the hardware analysis forums.

steve