Windows 7 - Slow Bios boot up

Hi there

I am starting to experience really slow boot up. I have tried ensuring boot and removing all USB devices. I suspect its the hard drive but when it finally boots up checking returns no problems and the machine runs ok. It freezes at the detecting devices and says its checking for IDE even though its a SATA hard drive. Also, the clock speed has gone back to 2.88 from 3.08. Could it be the BIOS settings have reset?

Thanks in advance

I'm not sure what you mean by "BIOS bootup".

If you are referring to a slow boot process, have you looked at the checked items in the startup tab of msconfig?

Type "msconfig" in the start box to access it.

Uncheck everything except your anti-virus and see if your boot speed improves.

No no no, IDE is alright. In Bios you can either choose the old fashoined IDE setup or the newer AHCI, but both work, even for SATA connected drives.

I don't know what the problem is, but if you changed the IDE settings most likely you wouldn't even be able to log into windows. It could be you overclocking and yes, the BIOS settings resetting o.0

IDE is fine for HDDs (generally), but to realize the effectiveness of SSDs, AHCI is recommended, but you will have to enable it before you install windows, unless you want to traverse a long arduous process.

It is always a good idea when you get symptoms like that to first reset your BIOS defaults (note your preferred settings beforehand so you can set them back) and if that does not provide the wanted result then try clearing the CMOS (or CLRTC). If you are overclocking anything then scale back your overclocks.

Also, check your 3.3v CMOS battery. When they get weak some strange behavior can happen.

If you suspect your hard drive then download a hard drive diagnostic utility from your hard drive manufacturer, burn it to CD, and run it at boot.

You can test the BIOS boot time by disconnecting the boot drive (data cable) and let it boot till you get the 'no OS' error message. Then test without another drive, do them one at a time.

Once Windows starts to load it's a whole new ballgame, so be certain of where the delay occurs.

The OP might have a motherboard with separate IDE and SATA controllers, where the IDE controller can be enabled or disabled from the BIOS. If enabled, the IDE controller would then add quite a bit of time to the POST process if no IDE drives are attached to its ports.

Note this has nothing to do with running the SATA controller in IDE vs. AHCI mode - I'm talking about an actual IDE controller that lives alongside the SATA controller. In this case, simply disabling the IDE side should bring the POST time back down to normal.

(Of course, if the OP then notices the CD/DVD drive vanishing from sight then IDE will have to be re-enabled...)

Thank you all. I re-sited the DVD rom sata cable. BINGO running like it was before.

Always nice when it's an easy fix! Congrats.

Yay!

just need to work out why my 8800gt will only run in the x8 slot. everytime i try x16 it goes for a while then monitor shuts down, i suspect drivers :-) good yo know you guys are here, thanks again

well good on you. and why can't you get the drivers, is it because the newest ones perhaps aren't working correctly, or because you can't find a recent driver?