Slow Boot time on New PC

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Z

zudzguy

Jul 3, 2018
30
0
30
Hi all. I have recently built a gaming PC with the following specs:

i7 8700k CPU
Asus ROG GTX 1060 6gb
Samsung m.2 960 EVO 500gb
Asus Maximus X Hero Wifi-AC mobo
EVGA SuperNova G3 650W PSU
GSkill 16gb DDR4-3200 Trident-Z RGB memory

I am a little weary about my new system. From a fresh power-up of my PC i get a boot time of about 40 seconds.My last BIOS time in task manager is listed at 16.4 seconds. I have watched numerous youtube videos of people booting into windows with a similar system and the same i7 8700k processor in less than 20 seconds. Any input would be very much appreciated

Zudz
 
Solution
Frag Maniac


No I didn't mean to imply it was loud. Only reason I mentioned sound levels is solid front panel cases as a rule are generally quieter. I have an Antec DF-85, and while it's not the best looker, it's awesome for airflow, and very easy to clean.

Funny you should ask about coolers, because I was using a Corsair H50 on my previous CPU...
Sort by date Sort by votes
Might have to do with what type of and how many startups you have enabled. Bring up Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and check your startups in the Startup tab. Not sure how PC savvy you are but many seem to think they need to have all the programs they use enabled as startups, but that is rarely the case. I only have Windows Defender and my Logitech mouse software enabled as startups, and I get a boot up time of about 30 seconds on a 500 Mbp/s SSD.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I have everything disabled in the startup tab of task manager. I was able to tweak a few things and it improved but just slightly. My "Last BIOS time" in the task manager is showing as 12.1. I've seen people with this time of <5 seconds. I want to know why even though i spent 2 grand on a system I'm not seeing lightning speed times! It is frustrating
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have Windows 10 installed on dual 960 evo's running in raid. I just used a stop watch to see how quickly it boots to Windows...

0m06s.42


Granted your setup is slightly different... but you should be getting less then 20.

Have you updated your BIOS? Updated the firmware on the SSD? I'm assuming it's a clean Windows 10 install. It probably doesn't matter but I'm on Windows 10 Pro.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have everything updated. Bios, SSD firmware, all of that. I’m almost positive it has something to do with my motherboard. I’m curious if people have the same Asus board and what their boot up times are.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've read that on Gigabyte boards they disable pretty much everything at the startup when fast boot is enabled so that's probably why your boot times are so fast. I still need an answer to this somewhat-of-an-issue
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just out of curiosity, are you aware the x4 speed nvme drives need to use one or two SATA ports depending on MB used and which m.2 slot it's plugged into and which mode it's on?

For instance my Prime Z370-A on m.2 slot 1 uses SATA port 1 when in SATA mode. On m.2 slot 2 it uses SATA ports 5 and 6 when on Pci-Ex mode. Note you have to configure the correct mode in your BIOS. Refer to your manual.

So if all your high speed SATA slots are used up, or even just the ones your nvme needs, or if you just don't have the mode set right in the BIOS, it's not going to run at x4 speed.

Note I just read the m.2 info on the pfd manual of your MB and it says pretty much the same exact thing.

C14lyYN.jpg


Source: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/ROG_MAXIMUS_X_HERO_WI-FI_AC/E13646_ROG_MAXIMUS_X_HERO_WI-FI_AC_UM_V2_WEB.pdf

(refer to page 10)



 
Upvote 0 Downvote
For the hell of it, I went out to the PC in my living room and used the stop watch testing it's boot time. It's an older i5-4690k, 16gb ddr3-12800, gtx 1070 Ti… the hard drive is either a Micron or a Mushkin(forget which one) standard 2.5" ssd that has Windows on it. I also don't recall the model # of the motherboard, but it is also a Gigabyte.

Anyway, this is how long it took from pressing the powering buttom to it being ready to go:

0m23s.60


So regardless of what sata mode you're using, there is something wrong.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

It's not just a matter of using the right mode (SATA or Pci-Ex, not type of SATA), it's whether the SATA ports it needs for the m.2 slot you're using are open or not. However if you so much as select the correct mode for the m.2 slot you're using, it's supposed to disable those SATA ports. However I'm not 100% sure it would do that if the MB detects those ports already in use. It might just revert to x2 speed instead.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Ie6omPt

moz8fVU.jpg

SOsjv9a.jpg

eYb1kcE.jpg

21Ni2CG.jpg

HE2JAzj.jpg


Here are some photos of what I've tried tweaking. I've already set up everything as you've guys said to make the speed x4.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Actually it looks like you don't have it set right. For one it's best to use the m.2 1 slot because it only uses 1 SATA port instead of 2. It also needs to be set to SATA, not Pci-Ex like you have it. Furthermore m.2 slot 2 is showing only x2 speed, not x4, but again, you should use m.2 slot 1 to retain as many SATA ports as you can. Just disable m.2 slot 2 to make sure it's not using up any SATA ports.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I changed it to SATA instead of PCIE and when I save the changes it boots straight into the BIOS. When I revert it to PCIE, it boots into Windows normally. Something's up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


There is no way to disable the m.2_2 slot. Only to configure bandwith as either x2 or x4
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Also, the manual doesn’t say to run the first slot in SATA, it’s simply saying that if it is run in SATA, SATA port 1 will be disabled. The purpose of running it in PCIE is to not lose a SATA port and also take advantage of the PCIE 3x4 this SSD is capable of
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


After reading it again, it appears it does confirm Pci-Ex mode is required for x4 speed, but it looks like you have to use m.2 slot 2 for that, and although you DO have slot 2 configured to Pci-Ex mode, you have it set at x2 instead of x4. The problem though is to do that you can't use SATA ports 5 and 6 for storage drives because it requires their bandwidth and thus has to disable them for anything else. It clearly states that in the blue highlighted pic I showed above where it says "SATA ports 5, 6 will be disabled". It says the same exact thing in my manual.

If you can't set the m.2 slot to x4 speed it might be because you're already using SATA port 5, 6, or both.

The manual is kinda vague because it doesn't actually say what speed you can get on m.2 slot one. I've been considering an m.2 drive for my Prime Z370-A MB, but not if I have to give up two SATA ports.

Also, I've seen nothing in th emanual that indicates running the m.2 drive in PCIEx4 mode doesn't disable any SATA ports. Instead it clearly says it will disable SATA ports 5 and 6.

Furthermore, it's a bit baffling why you are getting the m.2 drive speed you posted (Sequential Read: 3,063MB/s Sequential Write: 1,784MB/s), when your MB configuration shows only x2 speed and your boot times are so slow. Those are pretty good speeds, and would normally be x4 I would think. I am awaiting response from an ASUS tech over the phone currently. I'll let you know what he says.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
OK, here's the deal, and this is exactly what I expected.

First off, the actual speed of the m.2 slots themselves are...

m.2 slot 1 - x4 speed
m.2 slot 2 - x2 speed

This is why the MB states to use PCIEx4 mode on m.2 slot 2 to get x4 speed, because it's the only way to do it. However you DO use up a 2nd SATA port doing so. Some people run two m.2 drives in RAID, each at x4 speed, but it takes up 3 SATA ports to do that.

The guy I spoke to checked with a tier 2 tech to get this info, whom also verified the best way to run one m.2 drive in x4 speed is on m.2 slot 1 using SATA mode, because it only disables ONE SATA port, which is SATA port 1.

What those guys are saying on the forum is totally wrong. I don't know why they would even think you could install an m.2 drive on this MB and get it's full x4 speed without using any SATA ports, because the manual clearly states one or two will be disabled depending which m.2 slot you use.

Also, m.2 slots are just short Pci-E slots. They generally configure them the same way the longer Pci-E slots for GPUs are, whereby the first slot is always higher speed. There are only so many Pci-E lanes supported on a Skylake MB made for Coffee Lake though. It's limited to how many lanes the CPU supports. This is why high speed drives like nvme drives require SATA bandwidth as well.

To do what you want to do (run an nvme drive at x4 without taking up any SATA ports) would probably require using the more expensive X99 platform, which supports more Pci-E lanes. Personally I think it's totally acceptable an m.2 drive with 3 to 4 times the speed can replace my old Plextor SSD that is only 500Mbp/s read, 365 Mbp/s write, and use no more than the same SATA port it's on.

Btw, I asked the tech I spoke to if he could send a suggestion up the chain to make it more clear in the manual what speed each m.2 slot is and that you can get x4 speed by only using 1 SATA port on m.2 slot 1. I told him the way the manual is written is causing lots of confusion. He said he'd pass it along. However ASUS are by no means the cause of or responsible for wild forum assumptions of being able to run an m.2 drive at x4 speed on this MB without using any SATA ports, which is why I LOLed at your trusting that chat you found.

The only thing confusing to me as I said is from the benches you posted, you appear to be running at x4 speed, because Samsung's specs on that drive are 3200 read, 1800 write, and you're getting close enough to that to verify it's at full speed. I would assume the reason your BIOS can only be configured to x2 on m.2 slot 2 is that it's actually an x2 speed slot. However it has to draw that power from somewhere, and running it in PCIEx4 mode should, as the manual states, disable SATA ports 5 and 6.

However IF you really are running at x4 speed, your boot times should be way faster. Check to see if you might have some security software running a scan at bootup, or the BIOS running some checks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I don't have my m.2 in the 2nd slot, that's the thing. I have it in the first slot which is the main slot that came with the heat sink and everything. On Samsung Magician it says I am running at PCIE Gen 3x4 speeds. As you've stated, the speeds I'm getting are relatively high, although why they aren't at the same speeds as they are posted on Samsung's websites specs is beyond me. My boot time currently is showing "Last Bios time at 12 seconds" and I am booting up from a cold boot in about 20 seconds. I've read that it could be because of all the bells and whistles this motherboard has which is what accounts for the slightly longer boot up time. I'm not sure what else I can tweak to bring this down even lower. I am curious if anyone else on this forum has a similar rig and could provide their boot up times and Samsung Magician speeds.

My BIOS is reporting that the second slot is at x2 speeds because I'm not even using this slot. I can set it to x4 but after rebooting it reverts back to x2 because it's not being used I'm assuming. If I switch the first slot configuration to SATA instead of PCIE, I cannot even boot to Windows, it just brings me right back to the BIOS
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


That might be due to your having m.2 slot 2 set to PCIEx4 mode, which uses the bandwidth of 2 SATA ports. Try setting that to SATA mode instead, then reboot, then set the m.2 slot 1 to SATA mode and see if it works. If it doesn't, try powering down completely and installing the nvme drive in slot 1. Then go into the BIOS and set slot 1 to SATA. If it's already on SATA mode, just leave it. It should then boot to Windows and be in x4 speed.

Trust me, though you THINK you have no SATA ports disabled while on m.2 slot 2 in PCIEx4 mode, SATA ports 5 and 6 will not be usable if you try to plug a drive into them, and that you have not confirmed to even having tried.

Careful with static when switching the nvme to another slot. Either wear a wrist strap or at the very least touch metal to ground yourself first, and don't do it while on carpet if you can avoid it.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom