My Gigabyte startup logo is now taking over 20 sec to complete, where as when the pc was new it flashed so fast it was unreadable. Is this reason to be concerned? Is it wearing out...lol, or need flashing or ....?
Thanks for any help.
That normally means that some piece of hardware is not initializing properly. If the behavior happens before Windows starts to load (which it sounds like) then the problem is not with drivers. Drivers only affect Windows startup. The issue is one or more hardware components is failing or conflicting with another.
The first course of action is to disconnect anything not necessary to boot and test. External drives, LAN cable, speakers, USB devices, Printers. Even mouse and keyboard can be disconnected to test.
If the behavior continues then you want to disconnect internal devices, one at a time, and test. Do the CD/DVD drive first, then the hard drive. Of course the system will not boot without the hard drive, but you are only testing to see if the BIOS boot goes faster.
See what you find and then post back.
Has the boot device changed?
Make sure that the HDD is the first device.
On my Gigabyte board, if I have the optical drive set as the first device
and the HDD as the second device, it will boot slower. If I set the HDD as
the first device, the boot time is about 30 seconds faster.
Last edited by Sardonicus; 01 Mar 2012 at 23:49.
Thanks for the replies.
Sardonicus - I changed first device to HDD from the CD. It made about a 5 sec faster change.
TVeblen - Will have to wait for a few days to try your suggestions. Will be out of town until Monday. Will post my results then
Again Thanks.
TVeblen - Tried everything you suggested except the internal hard drive. The option thru Device Manager is to uninstall it. If I do that, how would I be able to enable it if Win 7 doesn't start? The only way to disconnect the hard drive is to take the tower apart and disconnect the cable, which was a hour and a half last time I did this.
Doing everthing so far has lowered the splash screen time to about 16 sec (from almost 30 sec), but has added the shut down time to over 45 sec. Since I leave the pc on 24/7 this is not a great concern except when I have to restart. Oh well........
Thanks for your help.
i have my PC's setup to boot with optical drive first and don't see a slowdown, maybe 1-2 seconds (don't care)On my Gigabyte board, if I have the optical drive set as the first device
and the HDD as the second device, it will boot slower. If I set the HDD as
the first device, the boot time is about 30 seconds faster.
i don't leave a disc in the drive...
can't you just open the case and simply remove one end of the sata cable?The only way to disconnect the hard drive is to take the tower apart and disconnect the cable, which was a hour and a half last time I did this.
If your hardware setup doesn't allow easy access to either end of the HD sata cable, understood...
my PC's may be much simpler (like me) :)
Yes, as mentioned above, you do not need to remove the drives from the case, just disconnect the data cable and power cable.
I can't imagine a home built PC could be that jam packed, or did you do it deliberately to get a small footprint?
The problem is not disconnecting cables, it's the location of the case.
So before I do work of getting to the case, what would be the outcome if, in fact, the hard drive is the problem? Would the HHD have to be replaced?
It could be the hard drive, it could be the CD/DVD drive. If one or the other is responsible for the slowdown then you would first check to see if there was a solution to a repairable problem, and if not, then yes, replacement is your next option.
I had disabled the CD drive in Device Manager before, while checking everything else out, so I figure that it is OK. This leaves the hard drive, and I don't think the extra time to start the PC is worth the time and cost replacing it. Will keep an eye on it just in case this is just a early warning of trouble to come.
Thanks very much for you help with this.
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