Question Best solution for long boot times on AM5 platform ?

[Z0FT]

Specs:

cpu: 7800X3D
ram: G-Skill Trident Z 6000 AMD Expo (2 x 16gb)
Gpu: rtx 4090
SSD: Samsung 990 Pro
motherboard: MSI x670e Tomahawk Wifi (Bios 1.4 8/10/23)
PSU: EVGA 1000 Supernova
OS: Windows 11

So I’ve seen that long boots are somewhat typical for the AM5 platform, and it personally takes 62.4 seconds (consistently) for my system to boot. The EZ debug LED indicates that the ram is being checked for long periods (probably retraining every boot). I was just wondering what solutions don’t compromise stability whilst improving loading times. I’ve seen some suggestions such as Memory Context —> Enabled, but saw reports that it could lead to blue screens etc…. This is just an inconvenience, but I’d still like to resolve/improve if at all possible.

 

[Lutfij]

motherboard: MSI x670e Tomahawk Wifi (Bios 1.4 8/10/23)
You have one more BIOS pending update;
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-X670E-TOMAHAWK-WIFI/support
See if that helps.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Dont know if this helps, but in my Bios i have the options Fast boot and ultra fast boot. this basically skips checking hardware changes and proceeds with the last boot info or something.

I have enabled ultra fast boot and i boot in 20 sec. about the same time with fast boot.

 

[geofelt]

A long time initializing ram suggests that your motherboard does not like the ram settings you supplied
and needed time to find something that works.
2 x 32gb suggests that you might be trying to use two individual ram sticks and not a single matched kit.
This may not work well since ram must be matched.

Run cpu-Z and look at the ram settings that are working.
Go into the bios and explicitly set those settings. It might help if you upped the ram voltage a bit.

Run memtest86 or memtest86+
They boot from a usb stick and do not use windows.
You can download them here:

MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool

MemTest86 is the original self booting memory testing software for x86 and ARM computers. Supporting both BIOS and UEFI, with options to boot from USB.

www.memtest86.com

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)

www.memtest.org

If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

Running several more passes will sometimes uncover an issue, but it takes more time.
Probably not worth it unless you really suspect a ram issue.

Or, do not boot at all.
Use sleep to ram(no hibernate)
The result is a very low power state and sleep/wake should be a handful of seconds

 

[Z0FT]

A long time initializing ram suggests that your motherboard does not like the ram settings you supplied
and needed time to find something that works.
2 x 32gb suggests that you might be trying to use two individual ram sticks and not a single matched kit.
This may not work well since ram must be matched.

Run cpu-Z and look at the ram settings that are working.
Go into the bios and explicitly set those settings. It might help if you upped the ram voltage a bit.

Run memtest86 or memtest86+
They boot from a usb stick and do not use windows.
You can download them here:

MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool

MemTest86 is the original self booting memory testing software for x86 and ARM computers. Supporting both BIOS and UEFI, with options to boot from USB.

www.memtest86.com

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)

www.memtest.org

If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

Running several more passes will sometimes uncover an issue, but it takes more time.
Probably not worth it unless you really suspect a ram issue.

Or, do not boot at all.
Use sleep to ram(no hibernate)
The result is a very low power state and sleep/wake should be a handful of seconds

Mb it was late - I use 2 x 16 - which amounts to 32 and both are the same kit. Either way I did test my ram earlier and it did pass, and I’ve checked it in games/applications and it does in fact run at 6000 mhz as specified in the bios (all I did was enable AMD expo, which this particular kit advertised itself as being very compatibly with).

I’ve also run tests on my ssd (via the Samsung Magician Software) and there were no errors and it came back as “healthy”. Also the standard Cinebench and Valley benchmarks came back fine.

I’ll try some of the other suggestions listed when I get on my pc, but I may not update bios as users with similar long boots didn’t report any improvement, and I’ve got a lot of settings I’d rather not reset (undervolts + fan curves etc….)

 

[CuppaNutt]

Any luck with a fix for this?

 

[Z0FT]

Any luck with a fix for this?

I actually got to ask Hardware unboxed in a live stream, and it seems to be primarily an msi board thing. Some chatters recommended Enabling Memory Context Restore, as well as power down in the bios to keep the memory from retraining, but it could cause some instability. Gigabyte boards typically have the fastest boots in the am5 platform, followed by asus, and msi at dead last (around 50 seconds in their video a few months ago). I’m personally gonna be a bit cautious, and it’s not too big of an issue for me personally. Hopefully a future bios update makes it so the memory isn‘t constantly retraining by default, until then I will be patient. It seems like even after a year we still have to let the am5 platform mature.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

I got lucky with Gigabyte then.