Asus P8P67 Pro - long startup process (not cold boot, not Win issue)

[Lizard_of_Bodom]

I had read many threads about P8P67's cold boot issues and long Windows

boot, but it does not really fit to the problem I am experiencing.
- When I press power button, PC starts up, all fans, LEDs etc starts as

normal, but for about 10seconds or more nothing happens - it just work on

idle without even signal on monitor. After around 10 secs it "beeps" and

show POST screen on monitor and start normal boot-up sequence. Windows

loads up very fast (around 17 secs to fully usable desktop), no issues

with any delays - works like a charm.
When I go for "restart system" on Windows, it restarts in a second,

without any delay, and that issue doesnt seem to hapopen until i switch it

oiff compeletly, wait some time and turn it on again. Then it goes again

with that strange 5-10 sec delay.
Time of delay seem to be varied depending on how long i am not using PC,

it also happens every time its powered-on from off-state.
It does not affect in any way booting of my system or its speed.

Tried various configs - all HD's disconnected, stock voltages, no OC,

single RAM config, all possible devices switched off in BIOS - same thing

happens everytime.

Would appreciate any ireas or suggestions cause it just bothers me not to know WTF...

-------------------------------------
ASUS P8P67PRO rev3 bios v.1502
2x4GB G-Skill RipjawsX 9-9-9-9-25
i5-2500K @ 4.5Ghz
Win7 64bit @ SSD OCZ Vertex2 64GB
Antec HCG-750W
MSI 5870 Lightning @ 970/1300/1.45v

 

[apache_lives]

false start - ABSOLUTLY NORMAL (if its what im thinking), started around the ~965 series intel chipsets onward, my sandybridge build does it, as did my P35/Q6600 build, and as my E6600/965 rig

connect the power - nothing
press the power button - half a second delay, powers up ~2 seconds but no beep/post, cuts out, ~2 seconds later starts up as normal

this is normal

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

The 10 seconds before it beeps is normal -- that's the standard Power On Self Test. The single beep lets you know that it passed the POST.

Whether your screen lights up before then depends on your graphics card. That model might just power on more slowly than others you have used. I suppose it could also be the PCIe slot powering up slowly.

If you have a different PCIe graphics card, try that to see if the delay is still there.

 

[Lizard_of_Bodom]

Good idea with different card - didnt try it, true. Though i dont think card is delayed as when signal goes to LCD it shows the standard POST report (bios ver, mem, keyboards etc). I believe there is nothing to be shown onto screen before "beep" is it?

intrestingly - you say 10 secs is normal? Was thinking of that, as maybe its some new chipset feature, but wasnt expecting its THAT long. My previous P35 with Q6600 had around 2 secs delay, thats all. 10 secs seemed to be very-very long. Is it only Asus-specific or all new 1155 has it?

thanks for feedback, kind of relief now...

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

The delay depends mainly on how much RAM your system has. My POST goes for longer than 10 seconds before the beep, but I have 12GB of RAM.

And it's entirely possible that new chipsets they do a more thorough version of the POST. Or they just have more features to test before allowing the system to boot. I don't remember what the POST delay was for my previous system.

 

[Lizard_of_Bodom]

Had done a small test with a timer in hand to check the POST time as had never previously did it (usually turned it on and went somewhere knowing it takes some time anyway).
I reached a stunning 33secs! before POST beep. That cant be normal, can it?
Time span goes like that:
0 sec - power on
0->11sec - fans starting, HDD spins, LED's flashing etc
11->20sec - USB ports starts (power to Razer keyboard illumination etc)
20'th sec - monitor recieves signal from GPU (starts up, blank screen)
20->33secs - blank screen, nothing happens, everything compeletly idle
33'rd secs - BEEP, AmiBios welcome screen.

That is waaaaay more than I thought... 😱

WTF??

...and I thought 10secs was bad...



ps - apache_lives - stuff you are writing about is not the problem I have. Double starts happens to me ocasionally as well (even Asus admits they created it for reason to discharge condensators ocasionally or something) especially when OC'ed system. Had it on P35, have it now, not worried about that.

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

Most BIOSes have two different memory tests: A very slow and thorough one, and a very quick but basic one. It sounds like yours might be in slow mode. Hopefully there's a setting in the BIOS to change it, maybe something like Quick Boot.

For the record, my POST is about 15 seconds or so on the quick method.

 

[Lizard_of_Bodom]

Yea, something like "quick Power-On Self test" on 486DX when it counted 8MB of memory for a half minute :] WIll look into settings, dont think there is anything like that on Asus's EFI but will double check. Will also make some more tests without peripheral devices and less RAM, will see if its dependant on any of them factors.
Tx for feedback!