VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

[Spyone1]

Howdy.

I have what may be several inter-related problem with my new build which all involve the SSD and booting that I am hoping I can get advice on please.

As my signature says, I have installed Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1 on the SSD. My BIOS has been updated to P2.90 (with the major help of some very good advice from Wardog).

1. The BIOS does not seem to recognize my SSD, even though it does eventually boot from it.
When I go in to BIOS and go to the BOOT options, the SSD is not listed under the "Boot Order" where I set what devices I boot from in what order. It did not list it under the original BIOS or the updated BIOS.
Strangely enough, I was able to install to it and I boot from it, so the system MUST see it somehow, just not list it as a boot device in the boot order.

2. If I set Fast Boot to "FAST" in BIOS, the system says there is an error with the boot drive and asks me to insert the CDROM and run repair instead of starting Windows.
I have to turn "FAST BOOT" off so I can boot from a USB device, there is no optical device in this PC. Once I have done that and inserted the USB device I installed from and rebooted, Windows loads fine without running a repair, from the SSD. However, re-enabling FAST BOOT simply gives me the same error message. I still get problem 1. above whether FAST BOOT is enabled or not.

3. The system takes an eternity to go from the AsRock spash screen (the one with the F2, F6, Delete, TAB options) to "Starting Windows".
This is regardless of settings in BIOS. The time is a couple of minutes. It is like it is taking forever to actually identify the drives and then boot from the right one. Again, this happened under both versions of the BIOS.
It happens regardless of whether FAST BOOT is enabled or not.

I cannot help but think these are all related somehow.

For information, the SSD is plugged into SATA 3_2 port.
One of the 2Tb HDD is plugged into SATA 3_1 port, the other into SATA 3_4.

The only settings I have modified in BIOS since putting the system together is to
a) change the onboard video setting so it is using 2Gb of the RAM for video,
b) update the BIOS to P2.90,
c) turn on (and back off) the FAST BOOT option.

I have not turned on X-Boost.

Once the computer gets in to Windows, it seems to be running well.

[- wardog -]

Re: VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

Did it behave this way prior to flashing 2.90?

[Spyone1]

Re: VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

Yes.

[Spyone1]

Re: VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

Sorry about the abrupt answer, I was on my way to bed.

Yes the slow boot has done it since after I first installed Windows. The SSD discovery I didn't find out until after I had installed Windows. The boot problem I didn't discover until I went to set FAST BOOT, which was after installation.

I can live with it, as I don't reboot the computer all that often, they usually run 24/7, it is just annoying to think I have done something wrong in setting up the system.

[parsec]

Re: VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

I had a vaguely similar experience with a different SSD on my ASRock Z87 board, not recognized in some areas of the UEFI, but I did see it in the boot order and the PC always booted fine. A firmware update for that SSD (Intel 530) resolved that issue. But relating my Intel system to yours is not appropriate to find your problem.

About problem 3, do you have the SATA mode set to AHCI on all the ports you are using for your drives?

What SATA driver are you using?

Did you install Windows on the SSD with a HDD powered up in the PC? The booting problem with Fast boot enabled may be related to that. Meaning the HDD has not had time to wake up, and it may have your OS's MBR on it, the wonderful side affect of installing Windows when more than the target OS drive is powered up in the PC.

Using Fast boot can cause other things in the UEFI to change, and if you do not have a UEFI booting Windows installation (which does not just mean you have UEFI firmware instead of BIOS firmware, and you would know if you configured a UEFI booting installation) that adds to the potential confusion.

Also, IMO given what I have read in this forum about the new AMD "8x" chipsets, they are quite different than previous AMD SATA implementations. For example, the RAID configuration on them is completely different than in the past, and somewhat complex. So I would not be surprised if a bug or two like you are seeing is related to the new chipset and their drivers. Or really, a slight incompatibility between some drives and the drivers.

[- wardog -]

Re: VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

@ parsec, Knowing his SSDs controller, and the M4's conroller I have, could I maybe recreate his steps in building and see if the same issue arises?

You know and understand way more than I the intricacies of the two SSDs we have. Is the above possible? Boards I know, drivers I understand, but the ins and outs of SSD's I bow to you oh learned one.

EDIT: Only diffs would be CPU and memory and I don't see that as an impediment in my testing.

[parsec]

Re: VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

First, I would say your idea is a good one in general. Just connect your M4 to your board like a storage drive on one of the standard SATA ports.

There is really nothing you need to do to "allow" a SSD to work with your board. If your SATA mode is AHCI, all the better, and if you use IDE, no problem that is fine. TRIM is enabled by default in Windows, no need to do anything. The only thing is to not run a HDD defragment on a SSD. Not that it would kill it instantly or even for a long time. I have no idea how you have defragment configured on your PC, if you do it manually only, as in on a schedule disabled, then you're fine. I would suggest temporarily disabling scheduled defragment if you use that now.

While both the M4 and spyone1's SanDisk Ultra use Marvell SSD controllers, they are different model controllers. The SanDisk has a newer one in it, and has been used for just over a year. That could make a difference.

The M4 is one of the most respected SSDs ever made, with really only its large file, sequential write speed being "slower" than newer SSDs. It "only" does 200MB/s sequential write. Sequential read speed is a bit over 500MB/s on SATA III, and its other performance areas are at least good compared to the best new SSDs. I would much rather have an M4 compared to some of the new budget SSDs, both going for the same price now.

Another difference could be BIOS settings in the SATA configuration. I have no idea what those are on that board. If you have something like "Aggressive SATA Link Power Management" as an option, disable that one now and forever. I would be interested in any special SATA settings that board has.

Otherwise, I agree the differences are few, same SATA chipset being most important. CPU and memory don't matter.

I suspect spyone1 did the Windows installation with a HDD running, and has the goofy MBR on another drive thing that is at least partially messing him up.

[Spyone1]

Re: VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

I suspect spyone1 did the Windows installation with a HDD running, and has the goofy MBR on another drive thing that is at least partially messing him up.

Yes I did. (hanging head in shame).

Having said that, I just rebooted for like the "nth" time, and lo and behold the SSD was listed in the boot options.
So I selected it, and restarted again. 21 seconds from when the AsRock splash screen appeared to when the "Starting Windows" splash screen appeared.
A damn sight better than over 2 minutes.

I didn't do anything. I didn't install anything new, I didn't remove anything, I did absolutely nothing except let it run for about 10 hours. Maybe it needed to "burn in"?

Everything set in AHCI. Install was done in AHCI. The SATA driver is the standard one that comes with Windows (which, if the date is correct, is old).
Didn't do a RAID setup at all. (Although my NAS is currently doing RAID on my external drives, 18 hours to go, but that is another story).

So I know next time, assuming there is a next time. Only have the boot drive connected when installing.

Thanks for the responses. I continue to learn.

[parsec]

Re: VERY slow boot in Windows 7 on AsRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

You should be able to fix your installation with your Windows installation disk or whatever media you have.

Disconnect power from all drives except the SSD and optical drive if you need it. Boot from the installation disk, and find Repair, might be under Advanced options. Run the Repair, let if finish, and restart BEFORE connecting the other drive(s) again. That should work for you.

Later connect the other disk(s) and you should be able to tell if it boots faster again, as it did before you connected power to the other drives again.

Enthusiasts learned about this wonderful "feature" of Windows through trial and error, no where does MS document this that I am aware of. Super annoying and no reason for it that I can see, except to benefit MS somehow...

Why your PC did what it did is strange, the only thing that would burn in would be that HDD, but that makes no sense. The slow boot IMO was caused by the system waiting for the HDD to start up so it could read the MBR, but why it suddenly was faster is a mystery.