Question Very Odd Slowness

[TangoDown87]

I Built my PC back in 2018

Spoiler: Specs

AsRock x570 Steel Ledgened (Most Up-To-Date Bios)
Amd Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core Processor, 3739 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processer(s)
EVGA Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Intel 660p Series M.2 2280 1TB PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 3D2, QLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB(2x16)
G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB (2 x 8GB)
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Internal Hard Drive HDD
Asus Optical Drive
ASUS PCE-AC56 Dual-Band 2x2 AC1300 WiFi PCIe Adapter with Heat Sink, Detachable Antennas, and Antenna Base
Asus 24x DVD-RW Serial-ATA Internal OEM Optical Drive DRW-24B1ST
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G3, 80 Plus Gold 650W, Fully Modular, Eco Mode with New HDB Fan
Operating System Windows 11 (Recent Full Clean Install)

When I boot up it can take a full 20/30 seconds. I realize that that's probably a pretty good number, but I feel it should be faster than this. I've also been trying to install Linux onto a USB drive and run into nothing but issues with it running properly. (Mostly my Wifi Card doesn't work. But in Endeavour OS I can use the wifi fine in the Live CD Mode)

Any Suggestions/Tips would be Much appreciated I have tried digging through my Bios Settings to see if anything would fix it (apart from overclocking I built it with these specs to my needs so I wouldn't have to overclock)

Thanks For Reading

 

[Darkbreeze]

Is the only problem with "slowness" that you are experiencing happening during boot up or are you seeing performance and slowness issues during actual usage as well?

Unplug that HDD and optical drive and see if you still have slow boot times. Truthfully, unless boot times are extremely long, it's not something most people should be that concerned about. 20-30 seconds out of the number of hours the average PC gets used in a day is really not a major concern. Now if it was taking MINUTES to boot, that would definitely be a different story.

Also, there are a few things we can try to decrease your boot times by making a few changes in the BIOS if you wish.

 

[TangoDown87]

Some programs are slow to load Even though every Program is installed on the C Drive with a few exceptions (most of my Steam Games are on the Baracuta Drive) and Once Windows gets to the point where I can log in it does take another 15+ seconds to fully load in once I put in My password with additional time for apps to Load up. (I have disabled Most programs from loading when I log in).

And Yes any Bios tweaks I might be missing that you could suggest changing would be appreciated.

 

[Grobe]

One thing that may clear up - will the performance be affected if the hdd is disconnected ? (note: this may be pointless if many apps and/or dependencies for apps are located on the hdd)

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, generally the biggest time consumer during the POST process is memory training which it will do EVERY time unless you configure it not to, except it seems that none of the ASRock X570 boards have MRC fast boot (Memory controller fast boot, which disabled the memory training after a stable configuration has been achieved so that it doesn't re-train every time you reboot) so it can't be disabled.

What you CAN do though, is enable Fast boot on the boot menu in the BIOS but I would avoid enabling Ultra fast boot or you will likely end up having to clear CMOS to get back into the BIOS again later because it will go through the POST process too quickly to get in there for most people.

Also, make sure your memory modules are installed in the A2 and B2 slots. If they are not in those two slots, which are the second and fourth slots over from the CPU socket, then they should be moved.

Also, in the BIOS take a look and see if CSM (Compatibility support module) is enabled, if secure boot is enabled and take a look at the properties for your drives in disk management and see if they are configured with GPT or MBR partitions.

 

[Darkbreeze]

One thing that may clear up - will the performance be affected if the hdd is disconnected ? (note: this may be pointless if many apps and/or dependencies for apps are located on the hdd)

While it's fine for game files to reside on a secondary drive, applications should be installed to the same drive the OS is on, so if removing a drive breaks the dynamic links or dependencies, then there were problems with the way things were configured to begin with. It is never recommended to install actual applications on secondary drives.

 

[Grobe]

While it's fine for game files to reside on a secondary drive, applications should be installed to the same drive the OS is on, so if removing a drive breaks the dynamic links or dependencies, then there were problems with the way things were configured to begin with. It is never recommended to install actual applications on secondary drives.

Yes, excactly. Meaning if OP already have installed several games/apps and make the instaler locate some of those on the hdd, then the test cannot be performed unless Windows is re-instaled and in clean condition.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, unless the EFI boot partition is (Wrongly) located on the HDD rather than on the same drive Windows is installed on (Which happens sometimes when Windows already exists on one drive and a new installation is performed on a new drive) then disconnecting secondary drives shouldn't have any impact on just the boot process.

 

[TangoDown87]

To clear things up All Programs are installed on the C drive. I have 1 Game located on the D Drive but Steam itself is on the C Drive. Other Programs like VM Ware and Chia are installed on C Drive but have data Saved on the D Drive.

DarkBreeze I went in and changed CSM to on and both options were set to UEFI only. There was only one 2 option for fast boot (Disabled or Super Fast Boot)

As far as GPT vs MBR, While I was trying to figure out how the heck to get windows 11 installed through my ignorance did not know I had to use GPT so once I figured I went ahead and converted that within the CMD using the mbr2gpt command. Also, I forgot to note that I did buy a TPM 2.0 Module and installed that onto my motherboard and have it to SPI.

Edit: I timed the boot up it takes a full 1 minute and 5 seconds to get from completely off to the point where I can enter my password

 

[Darkbreeze]

No, I didn't mean you should turn CSM on. Whenever possible, unless it MUST be enabled because you have legacy hardware installed, CSM should be disabled.

The conversion process tends to bork up the fluidity of the boot management and POST process. I would highly recommend, if the boot time really concerns you and at over a minute I think it would irk me too, that you start over. Back up anything important on the C: drive. Disconnect ALL other drives (Of course you'll have to have a USB flash drive or optical drive attached to install Windows from, but all other drives aside from the drive you are installing Window TO should be disconnected from the motherboard).

Enable secure boot and any other "Full UEFI" options. This will ensure that Windows is installed on a GPT partition and that it is a full UEFI installation.

Boot to the USB drive with the Windows installer on it and begin the installation process. When you get to the option to choose how to install Windows, choose the "Custom" option. On the screen where it asks you WHERE you want to install Windows, select and delete ALL of the listed partitions until there is only a single unpartitioned, unformatted disc remaining. Select that and click next. Windows will automatically create all required partitions including the C: partition, the hidden EFI boot partition and the Recovery partition and will perform any necessary formatting, automatically. So long as all the UEFI options have been enabled in the BIOS and CSM is disabled, it will automatically create GPT partition for the Windows installation.

I realize you probably don't want to have to reinstall everything again, but this is my recommendation if you want to get the system working properly without any half measures like you get with the mbr2gpt mash up. A clean boot partition and Windows installation is how that is accomplished.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[TangoDown87]

Takes a long time to shut down as well (even if I shut down every program). Guess I'll have to reinstall and hope that fixes it.

Thank You for all Your help Darkbreeze

 

[Darkbreeze]

For sure man. Let me know how it goes.

 

[Grobe]

A little advice: When installing the OS over again, it's a good idea to only have the ssd connected, no other harddrives. This will ensure that Windows doesn't try to put boot sector or any other dependencies on a slower drive.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Right. I said that. Specifically. But it's worth repeating.