Question Unnaturally long boot times with an M.2 NVMe SSD ?

[Hallow69]

Hello there,
These are my pc specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 Gaming X
RAM: 16 gb ddr4 3200mhz
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600x
GPU: Galax GTX 1060 6GB
SSD: 250 GB Kingston NVME (C drive)
HDD: 2 TB Western Digital
PSU: Gigabyte P650B 650W
OS: Windows 10

When I built this system in July 2021, the boot time was just 6 seconds. As time has progressed, the boot time kept getting slower and slower. I didn't really mind it much, because I was quite busy and didn't really bother looking into it, I'd just switch on my pc and do something else until it turned on. I finally decided to look into the problem today. The boot time has gotten to 2 mins 30 seconds now (yikes), I have friends who have physical hard disks with lesser boot time than my m.2 nvme ssd.

I have no clue as to why this is happening, I ran chkdsk and other troubleshooting tips mentioned on forums. I updated my drivers and windows, and I enabled AHCI and fastboot in the BIOS. I also went ahead and performed a trace for my boot 3 times using Window's performance recorder. I don't really know how to analyze the results, I saw applications I don't use that much taking up a lot of IO counts, so I went ahead and disabled them. One thing to note was, my CPU idle time was approximately 84% of my boot, and none of my disks are maxing out, and I can't see any signs of IO blocking. I don't really understand why this is happening, Even after all these attempts, my boot times is still 2 mins and 30 seconds, there is no change to it.

I don't really want to do a clean install of windows. I used to do it before when I just had a hard disk and no ssd (different pc). I would get results temporarily, but it'll eventually end up slowing down overtime again. I don't want to do it here as well as it very much feels like a temporary fix for me. My laptop is a year old, and still starts in 10 seconds, so I don't think reinstalling windows every 6 months for fast boot times is the solution here.

I don't think it has to do anything with my SSD either, my read speeds are still 2000 MB/s, and my write speeds are 700 MB/s. Can someone please explain why this is happening to me? Why is the boot time so insanely high, and what I should do to fix it? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm going insane over here.

Google Drive folder containing the boot trace data

 

[Lafong]

In the startup tab of Task Manager:

What is shown in the upper right corner for "Last Bios Time".

Can you post a screen shot of that entire tab?

Does the PC eventually boot with the HDD disconnected?

 

[Hallow69]

In the startup tab of Task Manager:

What is shown in the upper right corner for "Last Bios Time".

Can you post a screen shot of that entire tab?

Does the PC eventually boot with the HDD disconnected?

Here's a picture of the startup page on my task manager

https://imgur.com/Fk58O9k

View: https://imgur.com/Fk58O9k

The bios says 17.3 seconds, total boot time was 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
The HDD doesn't have anything related to the OS in it, I don't see why the system should boot without it eventually, although I haven't tried it yet.

 

[Colif]

Try unplugging any unessential items at start up such as extra USB items, speakers.. external hdd.

bios still checks everything at start so could be drive, or anything else really.

Its likely that the cause is bios waiting for something to respond. As an nvme isn't going to be that slow.

have you got latest chipset drivers? https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/b550

Updated BIOS?

 

[Hallow69]

Try unplugging any unessential items at start up such as extra USB items, speakers.. external hdd.

Its likely that the cause is bios waiting for something to respond. As an nvme isn't going to be that slow.

Hi, the only thing I haven't tried yet is disconnecting the internal sata HDD, I don't have any external HDD connected to mine.
With all USB devices connected to it, it boots in 2 minutes 30 seconds, without any device connected to the system, it still boots in 2 minutes 30 seconds only. I don't see any difference whatsoever.

 

[Colif]

have you got latest chipset drivers? https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/b550

Before you disconnect the drive, can you right click start
choose disk management
expand next screen to show top/bottom sections with all drives
take screenshot and upload to image sharing website and show link here
Just curious where boot partition is. As pc might not boot if its on the hdd.

 

[Hallow69]

Before you disconnect the drive, can you right click start
choose disk management
expand next screen to show top/bottom sections with all drives
take screenshot and upload to image sharing website and show link here
Just curious where boot partition is. As pc might not boot if its on the hdd.

Hello again,
This is the disk management page

https://imgur.com/a/KLcamFf

View: https://imgur.com/a/KLcamFf


Regarding the BIOS drivers and the motherboard drivers. I'll give you an update shortly. I did a driver update with Driverbooster, but I don't think it includes the motherboard drivers. I'll go ahead and downlod the drivers in the link you have given.

 

[Colif]

Yeah, you can remove hdd without any problems. I was just trying to avoid the PC not booting

 

[Hallow69]

Yeah, you can remove hdd without any problems. I was just trying to avoid the PC not booting

Hello there!
First of all sorry for the late reply, I had exams, so I didn't want to risk anything by trying to troubleshoot this. It just got over, the first thing I did was to boot the system without the hard disk

Well, boot time: 2 minutes 30 seconds exactly (still, 0% difference by removing a hard disk 10 times slower than my ssd)

I'm really confused as to what it is that is happening here, I'm almost certain this is a software issue at this point. Getting 2 minutes and 30 seconds boot time every single time I boot seems too specific to be a hardware issue.

 

[Bob.B]

Hello there,
These are my pc specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 Gaming X
RAM: 16 gb ddr4 3200mhz
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600x
GPU: Galax GTX 1060 6GB
SSD: 250 GB Kingston NVME (C drive)
HDD: 2 TB Western Digital
PSU: Gigabyte P650B 650W
OS: Windows 10

When I built this system in July 2021, the boot time was just 6 seconds. As time has progressed, the boot time kept getting slower and slower. I didn't really mind it much, because I was quite busy and didn't really bother looking into it, I'd just switch on my pc and do something else until it turned on. I finally decided to look into the problem today. The boot time has gotten to 2 mins 30 seconds now (yikes), I have friends who have physical hard disks with lesser boot time than my m.2 nvme ssd.

I have no clue as to why this is happening, I ran chkdsk and other troubleshooting tips mentioned on forums. I updated my drivers and windows, and I enabled AHCI and fastboot in the BIOS. I also went ahead and performed a trace for my boot 3 times using Window's performance recorder. I don't really know how to analyze the results, I saw applications I don't use that much taking up a lot of IO counts, so I went ahead and disabled them. One thing to note was, my CPU idle time was approximately 84% of my boot, and none of my disks are maxing out, and I can't see any signs of IO blocking. I don't really understand why this is happening, Even after all these attempts, my boot times is still 2 mins and 30 seconds, there is no change to it.

I don't really want to do a clean install of windows. I used to do it before when I just had a hard disk and no ssd (different pc). I would get results temporarily, but it'll eventually end up slowing down overtime again. I don't want to do it here as well as it very much feels like a temporary fix for me. My laptop is a year old, and still starts in 10 seconds, so I don't think reinstalling windows every 6 months for fast boot times is the solution here.

I don't think it has to do anything with my SSD either, my read speeds are still 2000 MB/s, and my write speeds are 700 MB/s. Can someone please explain why this is happening to me? Why is the boot time so insanely high, and what I should do to fix it? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm going insane over here.

Google Drive folder containing the boot trace data

Install this
UBM

Reboot and wait a few mins.
Run ubm and post a LINK to the results page.

 

[Hallow69]

Install this
UBM

Reboot and wait a few mins.
Run ubm and post a LINK to the results page.

Hi There!
Here are the results:
UserBenchmarks: Game 50%, Desk 92%, Work 47%
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - 86%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060-6GB - 53.8%
SSD: Kingston SA2000M8250G 250GB - 105.1%
HDD: Seagate ST2000DM005-2CW102 2TB - 61.9%
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB - 66.3%
MBD: Gigabyte GA-B550 GAMING X


Here's the link for the result page:

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

 

[Colif]

20% background activity after a restart?

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

update your bios, its a few versions behind - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550-GAMING-X-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios

scores should be closer to this and even then it doesn't like my ssd for some reason - https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/65467824

 

[Bob.B]

Hi There!
Here are the results:
UserBenchmarks: Game 50%, Desk 92%, Work 47%
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - 86%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060-6GB - 53.8%
SSD: Kingston SA2000M8250G 250GB - 105.1%
HDD: Seagate ST2000DM005-2CW102 2TB - 61.9%
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB - 66.3%
MBD: Gigabyte GA-B550 GAMING X


Here's the link for the result page:

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

Piece at a time.
Make the startup group skinny you have too much stuff loading.

Enable xmp your running the ram at base speed.

 

[geofelt]

Is it possible that bitdefender is doing a virus scan at startup?
The free windows defender is quite good as an alternative.

 

[Hallow69]

20% background activity after a restart?

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

update your bios, its a few versions behind - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550-GAMING-X-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios

scores should be closer to this and even then it doesn't like my ssd for some reason - https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/65467824

Hi, that 20% might be on me actually, I ran edge and whatsapp web while running the test (sry)

Here's the test result, clean boot + no other apps

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

Startup time after clearing all background apps: 2 minutes 16 seconds

 

[Hallow69]

Is it possible that bitdefender is doing a virus scan at startup?
The free windows defender is quite good as an alternative.

Hi, the difference between having Bitdefender, and disabling it on startup seems quite minimal (around 10 seconds I think)
Also, I've been using Bitdefender since I built this system, my boot times were around 6 seconds during the first month or so, with BitDefender, the boot time has degraded over time.
Regarding windows defender, I completely agree with you. I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to malware, that's why I have Bitdefender installed 😅

 

[Hallow69]

Piece at a time.
Make the startup group skinny you have too much stuff loading.

Enable xmp your running the ram at base speed.

Hi, I did a clean boot, the boot time was 2 minutes 16 seconds
Regarding the xmp part, I'll do it right now and give you an update shortly 😀

 

[Hallow69]

Piece at a time.
Make the startup group skinny you have too much stuff loading.

Enable xmp your running the ram at base speed.

Enabling xmp had no difference in the boot time
Current boot time: 2 minutes 19 seconds (It wasn't 2 minutes 16 seconds last boot, I think I started the stopwatch a bit late, so around the same I guess)

 

[Hallow69]

Hi, that 20% might be on me actually, I ran edge and whatsapp web while running the test (sry)

Here's the test result, clean boot + no other apps

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

Startup time after clearing all background apps: 2 minutes 16 seconds

Continuing with this thread
While that 20% might have been on me, this test says I had 40% background apps. I swear I had nothing to do with it. I performed the clean boot just as you said.

 

[Colif]

Here's the test result, clean boot + no other apps
Gigabyte GA-B550 GAMING X Performance Results - UserBenchmark Startup time after clearing all background apps: 2 minutes 16 seconds

Background CPU

45%

seems to be getting worse, not better

its not cause anyway.

I did a driver update with Driverbooster, but I don't think it includes the motherboard drivers. I'll go ahead and downlod the drivers in the link you have given.

ugg, running db can make things worse. Its not the most accurate at picking drivers.

is it slow in bios or after windows starts to load?

 

[Hallow69]

Background CPU

45%

seems to be getting worse, not better

its not cause anyway.


ugg, running db can make things worse. Its not the most accurate at picking drivers.

is it slow in bios or after windows starts to load?

I don't really know myself regarding that.
A long time back, it used to show my motherboard logo and my windows logo seperately with the loading icon
Now it shows the motherboard logo for the bios option (barely 1 second or so), then it shows the motherboard logo again but with a loading option, which I assume is the windows loading (I am redirected to the windows lock screen after this), this is what takes most of the time

 

[Colif]

20201231 = BIOS date yet newest on Website for motherboard is 2023
2020 = Year
12 month
31 Date


Are you on F12?

Now it shows the motherboard logo for the bios option (barely 1 second or so), then it shows the motherboard logo again but with a loading option, which I assume is the windows loading (I am redirected to the windows lock screen after this), this is what takes most of the time

the second one is where windows starts to load. Its part of UEFI boot, it shows logo at top and a spinning circle at bottom.
So is it slow before there or after there?

is it any different in safe mode?

1. go to settings/update & security/recovery
2. under advanced startup, click restart now button
3. this restarts PC in a blue menu
4. choose troubleshoot
5. choose advanced
6. choose startup settings
7. click the restart button
8. choose a safe mode (it doesn't matter which) by using number associated with it.
9. Pc will restart and load safe mode

 

[Colif]

You can see what bios version you on if you look on system information app. Shows next to Bios Version/Date header

 

[Bob.B]

Enabling xmp had no difference in the boot time
Current boot time: 2 minutes 19 seconds (It wasn't 2 minutes 16 seconds last boot, I think I started the stopwatch a bit late, so around the same I guess)

I forgot a piece.
Run ubm like this.
Reboot.
Wait a few mins.
Run ubm with the browser closed.
Post a link to the results page.

 

[Hallow69]

20201231 = BIOS date yet newest on Website for motherboard is 2023
2020 = Year
12 month
31 Date


Are you on F12?



the second one is where windows starts to load. Its part of UEFI boot, it shows logo at top and a spinning circle at bottom.
So is it slow before there or after there?

is it any different in safe mode?

1. go to settings/update & security/recovery
2. under advanced startup, click restart now button
3. this restarts PC in a blue menu
4. choose troubleshoot
5. choose advanced
6. choose startup settings
7. click the restart button
8. choose a safe mode (it doesn't matter which) by using number associated with it.
9. Pc will restart and load safe mode

Hello Hello (Typing this on the safe boot)
Boot Time: 2 minutes, 22 seconds (I think the 3 seconds is probably because my gpu has to change it's resolution from my monitor's native one, i don't really know)

Regarding the BIOS version in the system information app, let me try to get a screenshot real quick

https://imgur.com/a/bLyYCJ4

View: https://imgur.com/a/bLyYCJ4
(I hope this works)


Also, I don't know what F12 means, It asks me to click Delete to enter BIOS, spamming F2 doesn't get me to BIOS