Dell Laptops are booting slowly :(

[mrmike16]

So I have an Inspiron 5547 and an Inspiron 5559.

5547: This laptop was sent in for repair once, and I got it back weird. They actually have in their records that they did nothing to the laptop, when in fact they did. They not only wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows 8 onto it (It had Windows 10), but the boot time is WAY slower. The boot screen actually changed, as well. It used to show the Dell logo and a loading circle instead of the Windows logo and the loading circle- It would then go straight to the log in screen. Instead, it shows what Windows 7 Dells show- a good old blue loading bar. Now, the looks don't matter- but once that loading bar is completed, it then shows the Windows 10 (I upgraded it again) boot screen.
In other words, the laptop now takes twice as long to turn on due to it now having 2 boot screens to load through as opposed to 1. Dell won't help- it's out of warranty.
- 1 TB HDD, Intel i5 CPU, 8 GB RAM, 15 inch screen

5559: This one is interesting- First of all, it has almost no indicators. No power light (although the power button has a spot for one, Dell decided to take out the LEDs for Inspirons). No hard drive loading light. Only a battery indicator. I hate that.
Anyways, once I press the LED-less power button, nothing happens for about 3 seconds. Then the keyboard backlight turns on. Only then does the screen finally turn on, showing the Dell logo. None of this is probably included in the 18 second recorded boot time according to Windows. I really can't figure out why this is, and neither can Dell.
- 1 TB HDD, Intel i7 CPU, 16 GB RAM, 15 inch screen

Putting an SSD in either of these would probably not be as fast as it should be, because this isn't even hard drive related. This is before Windows even starts to load.

I would appreciate any help and suggestions.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[smorizio]

on the first laptop see if they replaced the mb. check the unit bios rev make sure it up to date. if dell reimaged the unit did they put the right image onto the laptop. I would call customer support speak with a level two-three person or a manager. have them send you the restore disk for your laptop to make sure you have the right image on the laptop.
one stick to see if it not the right image boot into safe mode go into device manager if there muilt devices mike 5 or 6 mouse then thye used the wrong image. on the second laptop look online see if there a small power board/on swich. if it is it may be a bad board or how the laptop was set up. a lot of newer laptop use a small electinic power switch and there can be issues if the board is bad or the cmos battery is weak. also on both unit check for call action lawsuits over the years there have been some for bad nvidia chipset and bad system board in dells.

 

[snowctrl]

It sounds like you've had your laptops seriously messaed around with, but if they run ok once in Windows, isn't that ok?

Adding SSDs will significantly help boot times, and that may be enough to make these laptops good enough for you...?

 

[wpgwpg]

On the 5547 it does sound like you may not have all the right drivers. I'd check for ! or ? to the left of any entries in the Device Manager.

On the 5559, I have that laptop myself and I can tell you how to turn on the disk activity light. After turning the power on, press Fn+H. That makes the little light on the left front corner show disk activity. This is documented in the Inspiron 15 5559 Reference Guide that you can download from Dell's web site. How Dell came up with something so obscure beats me, but I did miss having a disk activity light until I found it in the reference guide.
Re boot time on the 5559, you can turn secure boot off in the UEFI/BIOS and save 30-45 seconds. Booting most laptops from hard drives is slower than desktops because most laptop drives rotate at 5400 rpm vs desktop drives rotate at 7200. My laptop takes 3-4 min. to boot, but remember that Startup items can make it slower. To check that, start Task Manager and click the Startup tab. You can right-click entries there and disable them.

Good luck.

 

[mrmike16]

Wow, thank you for the answers guys!
No, these laptops were not messed around with much. Only by Dell themselves.

I don't think I was clear about the 5559. I know about startup items. The bootup time to Windows isn't really the issue, it's the Dell boot screen that takes a while.

As for the 5547, I believe I got the wrong motherboard. I wish there was a way to update the thing to be a Windows 8 laptop again and not Windows 7...

As I think I said, they have up to date drivers.
I will try your suggestions and I shall keep you updated

 

[smorizio]

there are programs like spacy from people that make ccleaner. that read the system hardware info. then google the service part numbers for you laptops. see if they match up. if they were repaired by dell under warranty or out of warranty use your states lemon laws.

 

[mrmike16]

there are programs like spacy from people that make ccleaner. that read the system hardware info. then google the service part numbers for you laptops. see if they match up. if they were repaired by dell under warranty or out of warranty use your states lemon laws.

The Lemon Laws are for motor vehicles, no?
Correction: The program is Speccy, not Spacy.
I did as you said, and the part numbers show up as the same, save for a 0 in front of one of them. I don't think the 0 counts.
I wonder if there is a way to update the boot screen, then? The BIOS is from Feb 2015, but it seems to be the most recent version.

 

[smorizio]

no there are product and repair laws that each state has. i used our a few years back when sears tried to repair a tv of mine. had it more then 30 days and used a lot of parts..still could not fix the unit in those 30 days. used the sate lemon law and go a cost of the tv back from sears. most states it a set time or a number of times trying to repair a issue.

 

[mrmike16]

no there are product and repair laws that each state has. i used our a few years back when sears tried to repair a tv of mine. had it more then 30 days and used a lot of parts..still could not fix the unit in those 30 days. used the sate lemon law and go a cost of the tv back from sears. most states it a set time or a number of times trying to repair a issue.

Well, it isn't broken, just slower to start with an older-looking BIOS.