Vista 64 w/ 4gb ram = 4min boot. w/ 2gb ram 1min boot???

[eno]

Ok I just built a new PC for my fiancee.

Intel E6300 (1.86ghz)
Intel DG33TL Motherboard
Adata 4gb PC6400 2x2gb (4gb)
Hitachi Deskstar 80gb Sata 150
Vista Home Premium 64bit
Antec 900 case w/ Antec 380watt Earthwatts

I have loaded Vista 32 and 64bit before and above average(imo) in my PC build knowledge.
So I loaded Vista Home Premium 64bit on this system on Friday. Noticed the system booted very slow. Much slower then my Vista 32bit Media center and other Vista loads that I have done. The slow down is during the Vista boot screen. It takes FOREVER 3-4mins. (not actually timed) I did load all current intel drivers and made sure I defragged the drive after all was done. Still super slow boot. WHen I ran the Vista performance scan it came back with a 5.5 score for the Hard drive. While in the system it runs very good and no signs of poor hard drive performance.

So I reload my new system tonight since I figured maybe there was an old install of a OS on the drive. So I quick format 3x and deleted main partition and recreated it. Install the same Vista 64 OS and right after install is done I shut down and boot up. AGAIN the issue is there. SUPER slow boot times.

So next I have a NIB Seagate 320gb 16mb Sata 2 drive that I figured I would test in this system. Same install, same results. Super slow boot.

Next I start thinking MB,CPU or RAM. So the easiest is the RAM. I pull out one of the 2gb sticks and boot up. BAME! The Vista boot screen that usually takes a few minutes is on screen maybe 10secs tops before I see my mouse cursor. Wow I figure my RAM stick could be bad. So I test it again by shutting down without changing anything. BAME it boots up nice and fast again. So I put the 2gb stick back into the system and SUPER slow boot again.

So now I test the 2nd stick by it's self in slot 1 and it runs fine. I put the other stick back into the system and now the two sticks were swapped in position (slot 1 and 3) and SUPER slow boot comes back.

So I know each stick by it's self boots up quick. If I add both sticks to the blue color slot then the system will take a long time to boot. I just tried one more thing. Instead of running the sticks in the blue slots , I ran 1 in blue and 1 in black which I know is not ideal but just to check. Same slow boot with all 4gbs of ram. It did give me a performance warning for not running them both in the right slots. So next I run them both only in the black slots with the same slow boot issue.

What would cause this? I was thinking maybe the prefetch feature in Vista. Maybe with 4gb of RAM the system is loading so much into prefetch but with 2gb it doesn't bother with all the extra loading. I really doubt it and don't think prefetch really would work that way in regards to performance but I am all out of ideas on this. Hope I didn't confuse anyone.

2gbs of ram in this system boots great. 4gb no matter how you test it boots slow. Why?

*EDIT* - Just updated the BIOS and still have slow boot with 4gb.

 

[deaden]

What are you memory timings? The motherboard might not be reading the SPD correctly with both sticks in place. Try manually setting the timings and see what happens.

 

[eno]

Good idea. WHen I first put the system together while under Auto settings they came back as 667 4,4,4,etc. But this is 800 ,5-5-5-18 memory. So I did manually set it at first. WHen I just loaded optimat defaults in BIOS I noticed the BIOS now detects it correctly as 800mhz and 5-5-5-18 under the AUTO settings. Would you suggest just swapping it to manual anyway and maybe different timings? I can check the memory in system with CPU Z. Good idea I will try that later today when I get a break.

 

[soccerballtux]

Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: deaden
What are you memory timings? The motherboard might not be reading the SPD correctly with both sticks in place. Try manually setting the timings and see what happens.

RAM timings aren't going to add 3 minutes to boot times.

I have 8GB of RAM and my boot times didn't chage at all from when I had 4GB. It's under 4 minutes for x64 Ultimate.

I'd say there must be something going on with your board. By updated BIOS, do you mean download the latest version and flash it?

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

What are you talking about? NEVER remove ram from a running computer.

 

[BoboKatt]

Not sure if this helps but under the initial install of Vista, right on the Vista help site Microsoft states never to install the OS with 4 GIGs or RAM. Install Vista with 2 GIGs and then put the other sticks of RAM. Not sure if you already did this but I have had NOTHING but issues till I found this out. Once I formated and installed with just 2 GIGs... did all the Vista updates (including the ones specifically to address the 4 GIG issue) and then installed the rest of my RAM, it ran just fine.

The other issue generaly is that you will require (at least in my experience) a bit more Votlage to the RAM when running 4 GIGs. Not much but say it requieres 1.8V stock then I run mine at 1.85 and even 1.9. then it all runs great.

If none of this helps, disable your NIC or wireless card and try that - just to test. Also on my board, I have a Jmicron SATA and eSATA controller. For some reason that hangs my system for a good 2 minutes and then boots normally. When I removed my drives from that controller and placed the sata cables on the normal SATA ports (Intel ones) and disabled the Jmicron SATA RAID ports in BIOS.. wham bang much faster boot up times.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: BoboKatt
Not sure if this helps but under the initial install of Vista, right on the Vista help site Microsoft states never to install the OS with 4 GIGs or RAM. Install Vista with 2 GIGs and then put the other sticks of RAM. Not sure if you already did this but I have had NOTHING but issues till I found this out. Once I formated and installed with just 2 GIGs... did all the Vista updates (including the ones specifically to address the 4 GIG issue) and then installed the rest of my RAM, it ran just fine.

The other issue generaly is that you will require (at least in my experience) a bit more Votlage to the RAM when running 4 GIGs. Not much but say it requieres 1.8V stock then I run mine at 1.85 and even 1.9. then it all runs great.

If none of this helps, disable your NIC or wireless card and try that - just to test. Also on my board, I have a Jmicron SATA and eSATA controller. For some reason that hangs my system for a good 2 minutes and then boots normally. When I removed my drives from that controller and placed the sata cables on the normal SATA ports (Intel ones) and disabled the Jmicron SATA RAID ports in BIOS.. wham bang much faster boot up times.

I installed Vista with 4GB of RAM and it works great.

I also have both JMicron and Intel controllers, have stuff on both of them and eSATA ports and it works fine.

I boot in about 1 minute or so, and at the desktop, everything is pretty much fully loaded after 2 minutes or less.

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

What are you talking about? NEVER remove ram from a running computer.

gullibility

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

What are you talking about? NEVER remove ram from a running computer.

gullibility

Go troll somewhere else.

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

What are you talking about? NEVER remove ram from a running computer.

gullibility

Go troll somewhere else.

Hi, I'm an Ancient Greek God, and I don't know a joke when I see one.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

What are you talking about? NEVER remove ram from a running computer.

gullibility

Go troll somewhere else.

Hi, I'm an Ancient Greek God, and I don't know a joke when I see one.

If you want to joke around, go do it in Off Topic.

Oh, and Odin was a Norse god. Good try though.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

What are you talking about? NEVER remove ram from a running computer.

gullibility

Go troll somewhere else.

Hi, I'm an Ancient Greek God, and I don't know a joke when I see one.

If you want to joke around, go do it in Off Topic.

Agreed, the OP was asking for help, not for a jerk to show off his shitty joke skills. Soccerballtux, go somewhere else with your lame jokes please.

Odin, 1 minute boot times? Man I can't stand when boot time is more than 20 seconds (in XP) Is vista that slow in booting?

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

What are you talking about? NEVER remove ram from a running computer.

gullibility

Go troll somewhere else.

Hi, I'm an Ancient Greek God, and I don't know a joke when I see one.

If you want to joke around, go do it in Off Topic.

Agreed, the OP was asking for help, not for a jerk to show off his shitty joke skills. Soccerballtux, go somewhere else with your lame jokes please.

Odin, 1 minute boot times? Man I can't stand when boot time is more than 20 seconds (in XP) Is vista that slow in booting?

Well a lot of that is BIOS related. I have to go through the regular BIOS, then my JMicron BIOS, then the Intel Storage BIOS. It adds on quite a bit.

I've been meaning to get a kill-a-watt to see what it uses in sleep mode, as that would be super quick.

I haven't specifically timed it though. Could be less than I think.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Odin, 1 minute boot times? Man I can't stand when boot time is more than 20 seconds (in XP) Is vista that slow in booting?

Well a lot of that is BIOS related. I have to go through the regular BIOS, then my JMicron BIOS, then the Intel Storage BIOS. It adds on quite a bit.

I've been meaning to get a kill-a-watt to see what it uses in sleep mode, as that would be super quick.

I haven't specifically timed it though. Could be less than I think.

If you are going through 3 BIOS, your estimation makes sense. I used to have a SATA card (Highpoint) and it added 10 seconds to boot times. If any of the ports on the PCI RAID card were open, boot times were increased by 1 minute due to scanning ports. I hated that card, so I just got rid of it and consolidated drivers lol.

Kill-a-watt is 20$ now at various retailers (newegg). I bought one and its pretty cool pluggin random stuff in and seeing how much power is getting used up. Refrigerators are the worst culprit usually, followed closely by a computer that is crunching numbers 24/7 (both fridge and comp are 150+ Watts continuous)

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Odin, 1 minute boot times? Man I can't stand when boot time is more than 20 seconds (in XP) Is vista that slow in booting?

Well a lot of that is BIOS related. I have to go through the regular BIOS, then my JMicron BIOS, then the Intel Storage BIOS. It adds on quite a bit.

I've been meaning to get a kill-a-watt to see what it uses in sleep mode, as that would be super quick.

I haven't specifically timed it though. Could be less than I think.

If you are going through 3 BIOS, your estimation makes sense. I used to have a SATA card (Highpoint) and it added 10 seconds to boot times. If any of the ports on the PCI RAID card were open, boot times were increased by 1 minute due to scanning ports. I hated that card, so I just got rid of it and consolidated drivers lol.

Kill-a-watt is 20$ now at various retailers (newegg). I bought one and its pretty cool pluggin random stuff in and seeing how much power is getting used up. Refrigerators are the worst culprit usually, followed closely by a computer that is crunching numbers 24/7 (both fridge and comp are 150+ Watts continuous)

Yeah. I usually just walk in and turn it on when I get home, then go change out of work clothes and grab dinner or whatever. It's fine by the time I come back to it.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Try pulling the ram out right when the bars scrolling while it is booting have just disappeared to the right side of the rectanguarl box, but before they've reappeared in the left section of the box. Tried this and worked for me!

What are you talking about? NEVER remove ram from a running computer.

gullibility

Would have been funny had the OP been in some way an idiot deserving of an electrocution, as opposed to someone genuinely asking for our help.

 

[eno]

Thanks for those who are trying to assist me with this issue. I have not played around with the RAM yet to double check or look for irregular results but let me remind you. The slow boot does not hang up during POST checks, it happens once you get to the Vista load bar. If I have 4gb installed that load bar takes a few minutes, if I run only 2gb that load bar takes 10secs.

By updated BIOS I mean I went to Intel's website and updated the firmware on the motherboard to the most current version.

Right now I am in the middle of packing up and moving into our first home so I don't have tons of time to test and troubleshoot. So far it is running great w/ 2gb but I will still be trying to find a 4gb solution over the next days and weeks. All your help is welcome. Thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

This same problem has been observed in other boards. A BIOS update fixed the problem. I'm disappointed to hear that the same problem plagues Intel's boards, I figured that they were smart enough to avoid the problem. IIRC, it has something to do with RAM amounts and cache, with too much RAM installed, the BIOS was disabling some of the cache, thus the long boot times. If you've tried an updated BIOS, then I don't know what to say other than consider a different motherboard.

You might try testing with Memtest86+, with both a 2GB and 4GB configuration. It displays a small benchmark of the L1 and L2 cache speeds, along with memory bandwidth. It would be interesting to see if the cache speeds were slower in the 4GB configuration.

 

[eno]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
This same problem has been observed in other boards. A BIOS update fixed the problem. I'm disappointed to hear that the same problem plagues Intel's boards, I figured that they were smart enough to avoid the problem. IIRC, it has something to do with RAM amounts and cache, with too much RAM installed, the BIOS was disabling some of the cache, thus the long boot times. If you've tried an updated BIOS, then I don't know what to say other than consider a different motherboard.

You might try testing with Memtest86+, with both a 2GB and 4GB configuration. It displays a small benchmark of the L1 and L2 cache speeds, along with memory bandwidth. It would be interesting to see if the cache speeds were slower in the 4GB configuration.

Thanks for the response. Hopefully they will fix it in a BIOS as well. She is not a heavy user anyway so 2gb will do just fine for now. I will wait to see what Intel Techs say.

Good idea about the memtest. I did memtest the entire 4gb but was not comparing those L1/L2 cache speeds to the 2gb test. When I get some time I will check the Memtest like you suggested. Thanks.