How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

[jojesa]

My BIOS takes 21 seconds to POST, How do I reduce that time?
There is a way?
GA-EP35-DS4 (ver 2.1)

Thanks

[SolidBladez]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

• Update the BIOS.
• Disable any unneeded connections (eSATA, firewire, floppy, IDE, third-party SATA).
• Enable AHCI.

[jojesa]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

• Update the BIOS.
• Disable any unneeded connections (eSATA, firewire, floppy, IDE, third-party SATA).
• Enable AHCI.

I have the latest BIOS.
I had already disabled all these connections:
Floppy, firewire, audio, serial, parallel, legacy USB and screen logo.

[randomness]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

turning on AHCI is a nono...

it will take even longer because it wil have to run the intel RAID BIOS, which takes a billion years to detect drives.

Slow post probably means the motherboard is detecting something but its taking quite a bit of time. It could be a faulty hard disk or something along those lines.

[wazza300]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

you can set hd delay time from the standard 10sec to 0 in the bios,that will save 10seconds on boot up

[jojesa]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

turning on AHCI is a nono...

it will take even longer because it wil have to run the intel RAID BIOS, which takes a billion years to detect drives.

Slow post probably means the motherboard is detecting something but its taking quite a bit of time. It could be a faulty hard disk or something along those lines.

Yep, you're right, it takes longer with AHCI enabled, but windows boots faster.
I tested the hard drives and memory and they past with no issues.

[jojesa]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

you can set hd delay time from the standard 10sec to 0 in the bios,that will save 10seconds on boot up

Did not find that feature on this mobo (GA-EP35-DS4)

[VorLonUK]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

Did not find that feature on this mobo (GA-EP35-DS4)

That's right, it's not found on all boards.

[jojesa]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

These are 2 images of the BIOS at POST.

1- On this image the BIOS takes around 12 seconds


2-This one comes next and I see "Init device parameter failed"
What does that means?


Below is a video of the BIOS at POST

<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v219/jojesa/?action=view&current=BIOS-2.flv" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/jojesa/th_BIOS-2.jpg" border="0" alt="BIOS-AHCI" style="width: 160px;"></a>

[Psycho101]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

Any text at the bottom of each drive is a SMART error/warning. This may indicate the HDD could be about to fail or there may be a cable fault, settings error etc.

Does that HDD still function OK? I assume it's the boot drive? Are you getting good performance and not hearing any strange noises/vibrations from the drive? If possible, install Windows on another drive, remove the drive with the error message and see if AHCI detection goes quicker.

I recommend downloading and running CrystalDiskInfo. This will give you a readout of SMART data along with a general idea of disk condition by indicating either "Good", "Warning" or "Danger".

A picture of the screen you should see when running Crystal is here:

Pay special attention to the things I've circled, but remember, all SMART values should indicate good ideally. A blue circle next to them means Good, Yellow or Red is not good, not good at all.
24 seconds is too long to be waiting with only 4 devices. AHCI 1.07 is slow but should not be that slow.

See if there is a beta BIOS in the latest BIOS sticky thread. The latest AHCI (1.20E) is virtually instant when it comes to drive detection.

[jojesa]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

Does that HDD still function OK? I assume it's the boot drive? Are you getting good performance and not hearing any strange noises/vibrations from the drive? If possible, install Windows on another drive, remove the drive with the error message and see if AHCI detection goes quicker.

I recommend downloading and running CrystalDiskInfo. This will give you a readout of SMART data along with a general idea of disk condition by indicating either "Good", "Warning" or "Danger".

Pay special attention to the things I've circled, but remember, all SMART values should indicate good ideally. A blue circle next to them means Good, Yellow or Red is not good, not good at all.
24 seconds is too long to be waiting with only 4 devices. AHCI 1.07 is slow but should not be that slow.

See if there is a beta BIOS in the latest BIOS sticky thread. The latest AHCI (1.20E) is virtually instant when it comes to drive detection.

I ran CrystalDiskInfo (see image below) and it looks OK.
This drive in question is a storage drive, the boot drive is 3rd on the BIOS list. Should the boot drive be first or it doesn't matter?

By the way the storage drive is the fastest HDD in my system (108 MB/s seq write / 96 MB/sec seq read).

[wazza300]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

I ran CrystalDiskInfo (see image below) and it looks OK.
This drive in question is a storage drive, the boot drive is 3rd on the BIOS list. Should the boot drive be first or it doesn't matter?

By the way the storage drive is the fastest HDD in my system (108 MB/s seq write / 96 MB/sec seq read).

set your boot drive as first in the boot list

[KayossZero]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

Any text at the bottom of each drive is a SMART error/warning. This may indicate the HDD could be about to fail or there may be a cable fault, settings error etc.

Does that HDD still function OK? I assume it's the boot drive? Are you getting good performance and not hearing any strange noises/vibrations from the drive? If possible, install Windows on another drive, remove the drive with the error message and see if AHCI detection goes quicker.

I recommend downloading and running CrystalDiskInfo. This will give you a readout of SMART data along with a general idea of disk condition by indicating either "Good", "Warning" or "Danger".

A picture of the screen you should see when running Crystal is here:

Pay special attention to the things I've circled, but remember, all SMART values should indicate good ideally. A blue circle next to them means Good, Yellow or Red is not good, not good at all.
24 seconds is too long to be waiting with only 4 devices. AHCI 1.07 is slow but should not be that slow.

See if there is a beta BIOS in the latest BIOS sticky thread. The latest AHCI (1.20E) is virtually instant when it comes to drive detection.

You can also use SpeedFan's "Perform an in-depth online analysis of this hard drive" button on the S.M.A.R.T tab to get a report like this S.M.A.R.T. hard disk status and hard disk failure prevention fairly useful I'd say.

[Psycho101]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

Yes, Speedfan will do this and it is useful indeed. :thubsup:

You can also use Crystal to perform a SMART disgnostic, either Quick, Full or Full with surface scan. It will generate a similar report which I believe is exportable to Excel (a function for IT professionals).

[jojesa]

Re: How do I shorten BIOS POST time?

You can also use SpeedFan's "Perform an in-depth online analysis of this hard drive...fairly useful I'd say.

Yes, Speedfan will do this and it is useful indeed. :thubsup:

You can also use Crystal to perform a SMART disgnostic, either Quick, Full or Full with surface scan. It will generate a similar report which I believe is exportable to Excel (a function for IT professionals).

I do not have any issues with the HDD, I ran several tests including the one available from the manufacturer (SeaTools) and the hard drive is just fine.

I search online for that error "Init device parameter failed" and Gigabyte and I found other users with the exact same issue. It appears that if a HDD is connected to the first SATA port in AHCI mode that error shows. Some others are not able to boot.
A couple of post talked about a BIOS F6d, which is not available anywhere but it supposed to fix the issue.