Win7 64:- Insanely long boot-up time

Amien

Amien

Level F
Hello,
This is sort-of a follow-up thread to this one:-
http://www.techenclave.com/operating-systems/win7-boot-drive-format-182153.html

^Formatting the partition allegedly solved the issues. However, the PC now tends to take an insanely long amount of time to boot-up. On pressing the power button the display starts up and hovers at the boot-up screen (showing BIOS version, options etc) and stays there for 30+ seconds until the memory testing completes. Once the OS is loaded, it stays at the "Windows is starting screen" for another 30-60 seconds before the desktop appears. The entire boot-up would take less than 1/3 the amount of time it does now when the PC was freshly assembled.
Now, I've faced a similar issue in the past on a different system where there was a compatibility issue with some low latency RAM. However, relaxing the timings, reducing the RAM clock below rated or adding a bit of extra voltage seems to have no effect. HDD is the primary boot device with all others disabled.

What do you guys think is causing the problem? Should i RMA the RAM?
PC specs:-
Gigabyte 880 USB3
X2 555 BE unlocked to x4 B55(Also tried going back to X2)
G.skill 1600 MHZ DDR3 2x2GB CL9 Ripjaws
Seagate 7200.12 1TB HDD

As before, many thanks for your help! :)
 
I am not sure if the RAM sticks are the culprit. I'd doubt the hard drive port if I were you. Could you borrow a spare stick of RAM and test it? I am sure someone from Bombay around your locality can help you out. I am assuming you have your hard drive connected to the primary SATA controller of the board? Any luck interchanging this port or even the cable? Sometimes even cheap cables seem to cause troubles which are hard to diagnose. A cable replacement solves it.

While you are at it, do you have a spare hard drive?
 
I do have a spare hard drive.
I'll try different ports and change the SATA cable. I'll see if i can borrow a spare RAM stick as well. Thanks a lot for your suggestions. :)
Anything else I should try?
 
RAM shouldn't be the culprit for a slow startup IMO. I had a RAM breakdown once and the symptom was Winrar could never un-rar a compressed folder without errors. Later BSODs happened once in a while. Ultimately, I decided to give Memtest86+ a shot and it did indicate that the RAM was faulty. As a last measure, I'd advise you to run this test if nothing else helps in diagnosing the issue.

Anyhow, keep us posted. :)
 
Gannu said:
RAM shouldn't be the culprit for a slow startup IMO. I had a RAM breakdown once and the symptom was Winrar could never un-rar a compressed folder without errors. Later BSODs happened once in a while. Ultimately, I decided to give Memtest86+ a shot and it did indicate that the RAM was faulty. As a last measure, I'd advise you to run this test if nothing else helps in diagnosing the issue.

Anyhow, keep us posted. :)
Click to expand...
Will do, thanks again. :)
 
There are many things you can do.

1. Clean your hard disc temp folders - Use CCleaner (Freeware)

2. Clean your registry - ( " )

3. Defrag your hard disc.

4. My Laptop contains a software to defrag the registry too (Seems that too get fragmented) . Hope there is some software out there which does the same.

Previously in Win Xp - you could have removed files in prefetch folder in the Windows directory to somewhat speed up the process. - But you had to reboot once or twice after this. Don't know about Win 7 .

Also there was Bootvis in xp which checks what was happening in the background during boot time. There _might_ be something like that for Win7.

If you have courage , you can mess around with bios too. Just remember, you can reset the bios to factory default if you feel there is some problem.

You might have some option in the bios for quick boot and skip post or so on, which may speed up the boot process. Also setting the boot priority to the primary HDD will help. Some MB's check the devices connected to the system during booting and that may take some time. You can disable the ports which are not in use . Since I don't know the make of your MB or bios , you may check other online guides for more help.
 
sonic414 said:
There are many things you can do.
1. Clean your hard disc temp folders - Use CCleaner (Freeware)
2. Clean your registry - ( " )
3. Defrag your hard disc.
4. My Laptop contains a software to defrag the registry too (Seems that too get fragmented) . Hope there is some software out there which does the same.

Previously in Win Xp - you could have removed files in prefetch folder in the Windows directory to somewhat speed up the process. - But you had to reboot once or twice after this. Don't know about Win 7 .
Also there was Bootvis in xp which checks what was happening in the background during boot time. There _might_ be something like that for Win7.
Click to expand...
I've formatted and re-installed Windows.

If you have courage , you can mess around with bios too. Just remember, you can reset the bios to factory default if you feel there is some problem.
You might have some option in the bios for quick boot and skip post or so on, which may speed up the boot process. Also setting the boot priority to the primary HDD will help. Some MB's check the devices connected to the system during booting and that may take some time. You can disable the ports which are not in use . Since I don't know the make of your MB or bios , you may check other online guides for more help.
Click to expand...
Most of that is done already. Motherboard make/model is in the OP. The entire setup was exactly the same before (i.e. first installation). Thanks for your reply though.
 
>>Once the OS is loaded, it stays at the "Windows is starting screen" for another 30-60 seconds before the desktop appears.

go to Run -> MsConfig -> Startup and see what all services are checked to run at boot time, un-check all unnecessary services and see if it makes some difference.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

I personally just select AV, Firewall and sound service.
 
Have you tried updating your BIOS? I have a 880G board too and the BIOS it came with out of the box was quite bad, couldn't read RAM timings, installing Windows took light years, any USB device plugged in would delay the memory testing phase during initial bootup.

I'm currently on F8 which is pretty much flawless :)
 
adi_vastava said:
>>Once the OS is loaded, it stays at the "Windows is starting screen" for another 30-60 seconds before the desktop appears.

go to Run -> MsConfig -> Startup and see what all services are checked to run at boot time, un-check all unnecessary services and see if it makes some difference.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

I personally just select AV, Firewall and sound service.
Click to expand...

nish_pinto said:
you might want to use the freewrae CCleaner to remove unwanted startup programs. It worked for me.
Click to expand...

The problem occurs before windows even begins loading. Thanks though
RD274 said:
Have you tried updating your BIOS? I have a 880G board too and the BIOS it came with out of the box was quite bad, couldn't read RAM timings, installing Windows took light years, any USB device plugged in would delay the memory testing phase during initial bootup.

I'm currently on F8 which is pretty much flawless :)
Click to expand...
I will certainly give that a go, although, like i said it worked perfectly for a while/during the first install. Thanks.
Gannu said:
Amien, any updates? :)
Click to expand...
Tried everything else except the spare HDD/RAM. I'll be over at the friend's place soon, will try it then. Thanks for all the help. :)

@ultra vires and vivacious_tg
Will post details from event viewer when possible. Thanks!
 
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