Slow Boot Times on Gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3

[nickjer]

This is my first HTPC build so be a bit patient with me, hah. First off, the problem:

50% of the time after I restart the computer the Gigabyte splash screen at bootup stays there for an extremely long time (about 30 seconds, compared to typical 5 seconds). If this happens, then the Windows startup screen also stays up for almost a minute, instead of the typical 5-10 seconds. The other 50%, everything is fast. By the way, once windows boots up, everything runs perfect. I have run it days straight and nothing bad happens. So it is only the bootup.

My attempts at finding the problem:

1) Scanned hdd for bad sectors: found none.
2) Ran memtest86+ for a few passes: found nothing bad.
3) Ran wprime for an hour to check CPU stability: ran hot, but fine.
4) Made sure the hdd was the first boot option, check.

So now I am thinking this is a motherboard problem. I contacted Gigabyte's technical support, and they don't seem to ever respond back. So now I don't know if I should return it to Newegg to get a replacement or stick with it and just be patient at bootup.

Suggestions or comments?

My Machine:

Motherboard: GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
HDD : SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Case: LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C37B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

P.S.: Before anyone asks why I paired up a K series CPU with an H67 motherboard. A short and quick answer: I wanted the better graphics of the 2500K and wanted low power consumption, e.g. no discrete graphics.

 

[Athadeus]

Is your HDD (and optical?) on the SATA 2 or 3 port(s)? Is your drive controller configured as AHCI? If you can separately disable the controller/ports you are not using, do that.

 

[Diogenes2]

Turn off the splash screen and see what is going on during this delay -..

I had a Gigabyte X58 board with AHCI enabled - during this " Verifying DMI Pool " thing, it probably took a full 30secs to run ...

 

[nickjer]

Is your HDD (and optical?) on the SATA 2 or 3 port(s)? Is your drive controller configured as AHCI? If you can separately disable the controller/ports you are not using, do that.

The HDD (and optical) are on the 3Gb/s. The HDD is configured as AHCI. Will try disabling the ports not used and get back to you.

 

[nickjer]

Turn off the splash screen and see what is going on during this delay -..

I had a Gigabyte X58 board with AHCI enabled - during this " Verifying DMI Pool " thing, it probably took a full 30secs to run ...

It tells me first the CPU (basically i5 2500k and 3.4GHz). Then CPU id and patch number. Then pauses (this is the slowdown)..... Then memory testing flies by along with other stuff.

 

[nickjer]

I am unable to find the settings in the BIOS to disable the unused SATA ports. I have scanned the manual as well and can't find it: http://download.gigabyte.ru/manual/mb_manual_ga-h67ma-ud2h-b3_v1.1_e.pdf.

The only place that looks reasonable close is the CMOS features, where it lists IDE channels. But they are all set to NONE anyways. If it helps, as stuff scrolls by it says my dvd drive is on port 2 and hdd is on port 4 (which I am sure is the 3Gb/s ports since I remember plugging them into the correctly labelled ports).

EDIT: Also, the "Starting Windows" screen holds for about a minute before that little animation of the microsoft logo kicks in (only happens when the Gigabyte bootup is slow). Not sure exactly what Windows is doing during the time before the logo animates.

 

[Synomenon]

I've had this problem with other PCs before. Google:

Verifying DMI Pool

and you'll get lots of results regarding that and it affecting boot times. I haven't noticed this slowdown with my GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3. Also, I don't think you can selectively disable SATA ports if AHCI is enabled.

 

[Athadeus]

Yeah, I thought it might not be possible since they are all part of the one Intel controller. Based on quick reading, it sounds like the next easiest troubleshooting steps to take are reseating memory, expansion cards, and data cables, and to clear CMOS. Could be bad hardware, but it is worth doing all the easier stuff first.

 

[nickjer]

Thanks for all the help. Here is an update.

1) I removed and re-installed the RAM (didn't work).
2) Swapped the SATA cables into different ports (didn't work).
3) Even tried plugging SATA cables into 6 Gb/s ports (didn't work).
4) Pulled out battery to reset CMOS (didn't work).
5) Downloaded the BIOS from Gigabyte website and reflashed the bios being sure to remove DMI in the QFLASH options (didn't work).
6) Set the correct timings on RAM in BIOS, since I noticed they were off from the packaging (didn't work).
7) Downloaded the Samsung hdd utility on a cd and tried to boot off of it to check the hdd. During the boot off of the cd it started complaining about something called TURBODSK and never ran, so was a dead end.

In short, nothing worked. I am thinking I never saw this in the beginning when I first installed windows, so maybe I should reinstall windows (such a pain to backup everything). Or another possibility is just to ignore the problem, since I leave the HTPC on 24/7 and never need to reboot it. I just hope it isn't a problem that will grow

 

[bk.6690]

This is my first HTPC build so be a bit patient with me, hah. First off, the problem:

50% of the time after I restart the computer the Gigabyte splash screen at bootup stays there for an extremely long time (about 30 seconds, compared to typical 5 seconds). If this happens, then the Windows startup screen also stays up for almost a minute, instead of the typical 5-10 seconds. The other 50%, everything is fast. By the way, once windows boots up, everything runs perfect. I have run it days straight and nothing bad happens. So it is only the bootup.

My attempts at finding the problem:

1) Scanned hdd for bad sectors: found none.
2) Ran memtest86+ for a few passes: found nothing bad.
3) Ran wprime for an hour to check CPU stability: ran hot, but fine.
4) Made sure the hdd was the first boot option, check.

So now I am thinking this is a motherboard problem. I contacted Gigabyte's technical support, and they don't seem to ever respond back. So now I don't know if I should return it to Newegg to get a replacement or stick with it and just be patient at bootup.

Suggestions or comments?

My Machine:

Motherboard: GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
HDD : SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Case: LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C37B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

P.S.: Before anyone asks why I paired up a K series CPU with an H67 motherboard. A short and quick answer: I wanted the better graphics of the 2500K and wanted low power consumption, e.g. no discrete graphics.

HEY i m also facing the exactly the same problem and my configurations are nearly equals to u...

So got any solutions...????


plz help..

 

[el-Capitan]

Hi,

I had the same problem for the Z68 version (GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3). Very long boot times, with some 20secs before the Windows logo, and another 30secs to boot (on an SSD RAID 0 thats a long time).

Took me too many days to realise it : Unplugged my external WD from one of the USB 3.0 ports. Problem solved.

Do you have any external storage?

 

[Von Peep]

I realize this thread is a bit old, but I am in the process of reinstalling my OS, and I have been forced to face my Gigabyte super slow boot problem. The solution was somewhat unexpected, simple, and well, silly. el-Capitan was onto something. It is a USB-related issue. I have a logitech USB keyboard and USB wireless mouse. The keyboard was in a rear USB port and the mouse receiver was in a front port of an add-on card reader. The fact that they were each in a separate set of USB ports caused the boot delay. If they are both plugged into the rear ports, or if they are both plugged into the front ports, the computer boots normally. But if I separate them, one in front, one in back (doesn't matter which is in front or back), the boot problem occurs. I determined this by process of elimination with a whole lotta booting with different external device configs. Hopefully you find this helpful.

 

[jonp2]

I found removing an android phone I had connected via USB solved this issue. No idea why though.

 

[prateik.aj]

well its sounds stupid but give a try, defrag "c" drive ( or where u intsall ur OS ) twice or 4-5 times, google it ( if had a Windows OS search for KB or Fix It for perticular problem )
remove any kind of USB peripherals(phone, ipad, flashdrive) except keyboard & mouse.

 

[janerl]

Hi,

I had the same problem for the Z68 version (GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3). Very long boot times, with some 20secs before the Windows logo, and another 30secs to boot (on an SSD RAID 0 thats a long time).

Took me too many days to realise it : Unplugged my external WD from one of the USB 3.0 ports. Problem solved.

Do you have any external storage?

Just wanted to say thank you for posting this, el-Capitan. My problem also disappeared when I removed a USB card reader. (With my infrequent restarts, it probably would have taken me a while to figure out that was the new thing slowing down the boot times.)

 

[Charlie98]

I have the Z68MA-D2H-B3 Giga board/2500K setup and don't have any problems like that at all... and I have sometimes 2 external HDD's plugged into the rear USB3 ports. I did have a problem with it forgetting the USB mouse and/or wifi adapter plugged into the USB3 ports... so I don't do that any longer.

Thanks for posting the update... I'll know where to start if my board starts acting up.

There is also an Etron USB3 driver update that helped out my functionality...