New build, extremely long load time.

[KingLou]

Hello ladies and gentlemen. I have a dilemma I am hoping to get some guidance with.

I am building a PC for my dad (basically the most recent "mid range" system suggested in general hardware..with a couple minor differences...larger ssd, more ram).

The motherboard is the Gigabyte GA-z97x-sli rev 1.1. The operating system is Windows 7 Pro. 12 gigs of gskill ram. SSD is Crucial BX100 500gb. Storage hard drive is not currently installed. Powercolor Radeon 290x is the video card, which is installed but currently no drivers.

Upon initially building the system, everything seemed fine. After installing the AMD catalyst drivers for the 290x it started taking extremely long for the computer to start up from a cold start. A restart would only take about 11 seconds. But if I fully powered off, and powered back on....it would take 54 seconds before even showing the BIOS screen, then it would load as normal.

I tried uninstalling the catalyst drivers. No luck. I tried a full deep clean of the catalyst drivers. No luck. I finally decided to do a complete reformat and reinstall of win 7 pro.

Again, initially everything seemed fine. Then it started with the very, very long load times again. 54 seconds to show the BIOS screen. About 1 min, 5 seconds total to boot into windows from a powered off state. Restarts still only took 11 seconds.

Difference this time is that I had not loaded ANY catalyst drivers. Which of course now make me think it was just a coincidence that I first noticed it after installing the catalyst drivers and in fact has absolutely nothing to do with those drivers.

I have tried doing a BIOS flash to the most recent version. No luck. This is extremely frustrating and something I have never encountered before. I am wondering if this is a BIOS issue....some kind of hardware issue I'm not thinking of........or simply a bad motherboard.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback you may be able to offer. Thank you!

KiL

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is there a really long delay before the PC starts to POST, from when you press the power button on the case? If so, the problem is the board or the power supply.

If the delay is from POST to Windows loading, then the problem is likely the SSD. (Did you remember to use SATA6G-approved cables? Try a different, new, cable.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

But if I fully powered off, and powered back on....it would take 54 seconds before even showing the BIOS screen, then it would load as normal.

SSD or power supply.

Edit: If it takes another minute from POST, until Windows loads, then it's probably the SSD or cable. If everything is speedy, once you get to POST, then it's probably the power supply.

 

[Ketchup]

VirtualLarry has a very good idea with the SATA cable as a first, easy thing to replace.

Do you have a speaker plugged in for beep codes? I would be interested to know if it is doing a double post here, which Gigabyte boards will do if there is a BIOS setting they don't like.

If your CPU has built-in graphics, it should be easy to determine a power issue by taking your video card out of the equation.

Did you notice if this happened to coincide with the installation of the Intel Rapid Storage driver?

 

[KingLou]

Ok guys. Thank you for the suggestions. So here is where I am at. When you asked me if it was before or after post, I realized, I have NO IDEA. Why? Because there's no speaker. I think this is the only case I've ever bought that doesn't have a speaker in it. Is this a new or common thing? It's the Corsair 200r.

Anyhow....going off it possibly being the PSU, I took the 290x video card out and am just using onboard Intel Graphics. It boots up fine. So I'm guessing this is, in fact, a power supply issue? Should I assume the power supply is bad? Or simply insufficient for the task?

This is the power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151096

 

[Ketchup]

The PS "should" be plenty. From what I have read a decent system with a 290x is going to draw a little over 400 watts. And of course the brand is quite good.

Now does that mean a bad unit could have left the factory? sure.
Does that mean you have a bad card? possibly.

If it were me, I would go somewhere in town with a decent return policy and see if a new power supply clears up the issues.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

There is another possibility. Is catalyst control center trying to connect at boot?

 

[KingLou]

No catalyst drivers are currently installed.

 

[KingLou]

ketchup....luckily, I am building my dad two separate computers, and have a second of this same exact PSU currently being unboxed to find out.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

No catalyst drivers are currently installed.

Drivers and ccc are two separate things.

 

[KingLou]

no catalyst ANYTHING is currently installed. I did a fresh install of Windows 7 and have not installed anything for the video card.


Ok, so I swapped out the PSU with the same exact model, brand new, Seasonic 620watt PSU. Same thing happens. With the video card out, it boots fine. With the video card in....takes over a minute to boot.

So is this still a power issue? Or an issue with the actual video card?

 

[Ketchup]

It does sound like the video card. Out of curiosity, have you tried the card in the second pci-express slot?

 

[KingLou]

I have not. Should I?

 

[Ketchup]

I use the lower slot on mine. Keeps the CPU a bit cooler IMO.

 

[KingLou]

Ok....update. I swapped in a brand new Radeon r270. Same exact thing. 1 minute and 5 seconds to load into Windows. It takes like 11 seconds if I take the vid card out and just use the onboard video. Soooo.......NOW i'm thinking. It's the motherboard. Only one last thing to try.....swap the motherboards. UGH!!! Good thing I'm building 2 computers right? Jesus....

 

[KingLou]

NOW....it's doing it with just the onboard video. I have to think that it's the mobo? Unless.......now we have to go back to possibly considering the SSD?

 

[KingLou]

OMFG!!!! It was the damn multi-card reader!

 

[Ketchup]

OMFG!!!! It was the damn multi-card reader!

I have heard of things like this. I had a cm case for a customer that did a hard reboot every time you put a flash drive in its usb ports. Glad you figured it out. Hate that the card reader is hosing things, but maybe you can find another solution.

 

[VirtualLarry]

OMFG!!!! It was the damn multi-card reader!

Interesting. I don't recall you mentioning a card reader previously. Please try to include all hardware, when posting about a problem. Glad you figured it out.

 

[KingLou]

It completely skipped my mind and I forgot it was even installed. I started disconnecting things one by one to narrow down the problem. My fault!

 

[inachu]

I threw my multicard reader away when I suffered the same fate as this.

 

[dbcooper1]

These often have several drive letters assigned to them; if you have USB first in the BIOS boot order, I can see this causing this delayed boot behavior.

 

[KingLou]

No matter what I do to the boot order in the BIOS there is no change. As long as the card reader is connected the boot time takes over 1 minute. I RMA'd these card readers and ordered new ones. However, I am not optimistic.

EVERYTHING I find on the internet related to this problem has no solution. The only consensus I have found is that some newer motherboards are checking every single connected drive for a boot option; even all the ports in the card reader.

Since my dad is intent on having a card reader, if these new ones don't do the trick...I am guessing he will either have to live with the sluggish boot time, or perhaps an external card reader will work?

I don't know. Does anyone here have any suggestions? I'm kinda at a standstill because I already dropped off the other card readers at UPS to go back to Newegg.

KiL

 

[KingLou]

PS- In the meantime I submitted a support ticket to Gigabyte about this. We will see how that pans out.

 

[dbcooper1]

Is there an option in the BIOS to shorten the time it waits for a drive to come ready, or even set it to 0 seconds and see if that makes a difference?