[SOLVED] Computer takes a long time on post screen before booting or loading the BIOS

[ziptol]

Hi,
I recently began having issues with my computer startup. I have to wait 1 min+ between the time that the Post screen appears (Asus ROG, press del or f2...) and when the computer either enters the BIOS (when I want to go into the BIOS) or boots to windows. Any suggestions or further troubleshooting ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Background:
A couple days ago I started having issues with windows startup, and after a bunch of troubleshooting and attempts to restore Windows 10 boot, I ended up reinstalling Windows. I may have thought that the issue I am having currently was an issue with Windows, and if so, this problem began randomly after a routine restart. Before this issue my PC went from power button press to windows login in about 5-10 secs.

Info:

• My boot drive is first in the boot priorities.
• I have checked all of the connections inside my desktop.
• Specs:
  • Intel i5 8600k @4.6GHz
  • ROG STRIX Z370-I Gaming
    • BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc. 1002 (7/2/2018)
    • SMBIOS Version: 3.0
  • MSI Duke GTX 1080
  • 16GB Team Vulcan RAM
  • Kingston SA400S37 120G (Boot drive)
  • ST3000DM001-1CH166 (2TB secondary drive)

Thanks All!

 

[SparkyTech934]

Hi,

I have a couple ideas for you, we'll see if anything plays out.

1. Do you happen to have any USB storage devices attached to the PC such as enternal HDDs, flash drives, etc? Or do you have a CD/DVD drive with a CD/DVD currently in it? Sometimes POST screens can take a long time if the PC is trying to initialize external drives along with other components.

2. Can you check the SMART values on the drives to make sure that there are no warnings? A drive may be going bad if you've had other issues.

3. You can try to clear CMOS as well, that may fix the problem.

Hope this helps

 

[ziptol]

I ended up getting it working properly. It seems that whenever I change the hardware configuration, for the next couple of restarts, it takes a long time to post and to boot into Windows. After about 3 restarts, it began working properly. Thanks for the help!

 

[ziptol]

I ended up getting it working properly. It seems that whenever I change the hardware configuration, for the next couple of restarts, it takes a long time to post and to boot into Windows. After about 3 restarts, it began working properly. Thanks for the help!

I'm not sure what happened at the time (perhaps after all that waiting I got used to the long boot time and it seemed to go faster), but for the last week this issue has persisted.

I tried all three of SparkyTech's suggestions, but after removing all non-essential USB devices, checking the SMART values on both of my drives (OK for all), and clearing the CMOS, the problem is still there.

At this point I've hit a dead end, and again, any troubleshooting advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[SparkyTech934]

Hi,

I'd be more than happy to try and help you figure this out some more. So, does your motherboard by chance have any digital codes when it is initially POSTing? They would either be on the motherboard physically, or on the ASUS splash screen in a bottom corner probably. If so, look to see if there is a code that is taking a while to get past during the 1+ minute standby period. If you see it getting hung up on a specific POST step, you can look in your motherboard's manual to see what the code means.

Secondly, you could try to remove every single HDD/SSD except the boot drive and see if that helps the boot time at all.

Let me know if you have any success. Hope this helps

 

[retroforlife]

What speed is your ram and is xmp enabled sounds like memory keeps retraining

 

[ziptol]

My RAM is 2400 MHz, and XMP isn't enabled.

 

[Zizo007]

Also did you enable ultra fast boot in bios?

 

[ziptol]

Ultra fast boot is not enabled. Only fast boot is, and I have not seen any difference between it and normal boot.

 

[Zizo007]

Ultra fast boot is not enabled. Only fast boot is, and I have not seen any difference between it and normal boot.

Ultra fast boot is faster for me so idk.

 

[SparkyTech934]

If you still haven't been able to remedy the problem, I see that in your initial post, you list you BIOS as build 1002. I looked on the manufacturers website and found that there are 9 newer versions of the BIOS, some of which claim "better system stability." I would definitely look into updating the motherboard's BIOS to the latest version, which I see as build 2401 (07/18/2019). A link to the support page is below. If you do update the BIOS, you can also try clearing the CMOS once more after the new version is installed. Keep us posted on how things go!

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-Z370-I-GAMING/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Hope this helps

 

[ziptol]

It's been a bit, but I seem to have isolated the problem. When I remove my second drive (HDD), the computer boots normally and quickly.

The SMART values come out as OK for it, but when I try to initialize, I get a "Device which does not exist was specified" error. Luckily, I don't have any important data on it, but now I've got a whole new problem... 😑

I'm going to ask this question (linked here) in the HDD forum to see if I can get any answers, thanks for all your help guys!

 

[SparkyTech934]

Sounds good man, I'm glad you were able to isolate the problem. If you're done with this thread, it would be good to choose a post as the best solution. Let us know if you have any other questions!