Solved Slow SSD Boot with long OtherKernelInitDuration delay

[Raillex]

That's very interesting. I did notice that I got a "found new hardware" notification after I disabled my intel ethernet nic, and I thought the name of the controller changed at the same time. Can I roll the driver back?

 

[essenbe]

iaStor comes from IRST, the intel rapid storage raid program. I use it, but install it then go to services.msc and disable the IRST, but still have the iaStor driver that way without the raid program running.

 

[Raillex]

iaStor comes from IRST, the intel rapid storage raid program. I use it, but install it then go to services.msc and disable the IRST, but still have the iaStor driver that way without the raid program running.

I'm not sure what I need to install, because I already have IRST and iaStor on my system. I disabled IRST in services.msc, and no joy.

What will happen if I simply uninstall the Intel controller?

Edit: I searched for iaStor.sys in my Windows System32 folder and found both iaStor.sys and something called iaStorV.sys, the latter dated 2010 and the former 2011.

 

[essenbe]

Do you have the latest bios for your board?

 

[Raillex]

Do you have the latest bios for your board?

No. Asus came out with a newer one about a month ago and I haven't updated it yet. Suppose that's next on my list.

BTW, I uninstalled the Intel ACHI driver and replaced it with the MS one, and no joy there either. Reinstalled the Intel driver and now back to square one.

 

[cluberti]

At this point, it probably time to make a backup, remove everything from the machine short of enough RAM to boot, the CPU, a video card, and the SSD, and start testing to see what happens after installing the OS (and take good notes). It could still be a hardware issue, but as to what, it'd be hard to say.

 

[Raillex]

Well, I'm finally starting to make some headway.

One anomaly that continued to bother me was why Intel's IRST utility identified my WD storage drive as being the "system drive" while the SSD was clearly the system drive. On a hunch, I unplugged both SATA cables from my board, and then plugged the SSD into the SATA 6GB/s port formerly occupied by the WD. I hit the start button, and BAM, the SSD booted into Windows in nothing flat. I opened the IRST utility, and what do you know, the SSD was correctly identified as the system drive.

Adding the WD drive to the other 6GB/s port, unfortunately, slowed my boot back to a crawl. Unplugged it again, and the SSD was off to the races.

I'm wondering whether placing my temporary internet files and Google cache file on the storage drive (via a junction) is causing the OS to see the WD as a second system drive and screwing up my boot. Very weird.

Edit: Moved the page file and temporary internet file folder back to the SSD and uninstalled Google Earth. No change. Disconnected the WD and move the SSD back to port 0, blazingly fast boot. Plugged the WD into port 1, slow boot again, but at least the SSD is detected by IRST as the system drive again.

Why would the simple addition of a HDD storage drive cause boot slowdowns? I don't get it.

 

[Layback Bear]

Just a though, use IDE instead of ACHI and no RAID.

 

[Raillex]

I hate to say it, but either there's a problem with the Intel storage driver, or you have a configuration or hardware problem with the disk subsystem.

I enabled the Marvel SATA controller and put the WD drive on it to see whether segregating the two drives would have any affect. Sadly, no.

Any suggestion as to why the disk subsystem would work fine with just the SSD but stall with the addition of a second drive?

 

[Raillex]

Just a though, use IDE instead of ACHI and no RAID.

Are there any drawbacks to changing from ACHI to IDE after the OS is installed? I just want to make sure I can safely return to ACHI mode once I've made the change.

 

[essenbe]

Your Z68 board supports an SSD assist to the hard drive. Do you have that set up?

 

[Raillex]

Your Z68 board supports an SSD assist to the hard drive. Do you have that set up?

No.

 

[Raillex]

Just a though, use IDE instead of ACHI and no RAID.

I put the WD drive on the Marvel controller and set it to IDE. Still no dice. Looks like the mere presence of the WD in any SATA port on any controller in any mode is causing the delay.

 

[essenbe]

Run Western Digital's Diagnostic program on the WD drive.

 

[Raillex]

Run Western Digital's Diagnostic program on the WD drive.

I did, and it passed.

I also updated the bios to the latest version, and still the same problem.

Short of putting both drives on the Marvell controller (or doing a fresh Windows install, which I'm not interested in doing at the moment), I think I'm about out of options.

 

[essenbe]

If the SSD runs good alone and the only time you have problems is with both drives attached, it seems to me that there is somthing wrong with the WD drive or the sata controllers on the board.

 

[Raillex]

I checked my Diagnostics-Performance logs to see whether getting my SSD properly recognized as the system drive made any difference in boot times. That one change seems to have fixed the OtherKernelInitDuration problem but created another, albeit less time consuming, delay in a metric called SessionInitOtherDuration. My total boot time dropped by six seconds in the exchange.

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what SessionInitOtherDuration is supposed to be measuring? It increased from 345 to 19358 milliseconds.

[FONT=&quot]-[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]EventData[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootTsVersion[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootStartTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2011-10-25T00:14:04.624800200Z[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootEndTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2011-10-25T00:15:59.527641700Z[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SystemBootInstance[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]130[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]UserBootInstance[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]124[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]36659[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]MainPathBootTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]23859[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootKernelInitTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]21[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootDriverInitTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]227[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootDevicesInitTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1221[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootPrefetchInitTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootPrefetchBytes[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootAutoChkTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootSmssInitTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]20632[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootCriticalServicesInitTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]290[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootUserProfileProcessingTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]366[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootMachineProfileProcessingTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootExplorerInitTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]855[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootNumStartupApps[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]11[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootPostBootTime[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]12800[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootIsRebootAfterInstall[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]false[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootRootCauseStepImprovementBits[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootRootCauseGradualImprovementBits[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootRootCauseStepDegradationBits[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootRootCauseGradualDegradationBits[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootIsDegradation[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]false[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootIsStepDegradation[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]false[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootIsGradualDegradation[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]false[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootImprovementDelta[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootDegradationDelta[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]0[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootIsRootCauseIdentified[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]false[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]OSLoaderDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]563[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootPNPInitStartTimeMS[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]21[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BootPNPInitDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1239[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]OtherKernelInitDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]161[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SystemPNPInitStartTimeMS[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1391[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SystemPNPInitDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]208[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SessionInitStartTimeMS[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1609[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Session0InitDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]875[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Session1InitDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]398[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SessionInitOtherDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]19358[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]WinLogonStartTimeMS[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]22242[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]OtherLogonInitActivityDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]396[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]UserLogonWaitDuration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]141[/FONT]

 

[cluberti]

It measures the time it takes winlogon to start, minus smss.exe start time, minus session 0 and session 1 init time. If you take another trace and look at the Boot Phases graph, you should see what I'm talking about.

 

[Raillex]

Uploading the new Boot Trace report to Rapidshare right now. I'm wondering whether this is some sort of logon related delay.

 

[Raillex]

It measures the time it takes winlogon to start, minus smss.exe start time, minus session 0 and session 1 init time. If you take another trace and look at the Boot Phases graph, you should see what I'm talking about.

Here is my latest Boot Trace report. I don't have the skills necessary to interpret the results, much less formulate an opinion as to what might be causing the high SessionInitOtherDuration reading. Could you help?

https://rapidshare.com/files/106346...CE_PERF_COUNTER_POWER_PRIORITY_REGISTRY_1.etl