Win8.1 Boot/Startup Time: Slow - Win7.1 on Ancient System: Fast

[flexy]

I am entirely perplexed.

My wife's PC is an ancient Q6600 system which doesn't even have a SSD. It has Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

My PC here is a i7 overclocked with an Samsung 840 EVO as my system drive and Win 8.1 Pro x64

"In Principle", we use the same programs for startup, like MSI Afterburner, Kasperski etc. I in addition use dropbox.

I am BAFFLED seeing her boot time and until all programs started is WAY faster than mine. Basically the minute she boots, all the startup programs like MSI Afterburner, Kasperski etc. are already loaded. 3 seconds after she booted to desktop, disk activity stops and her boot is complete.

MY PC which should boot like 9000x faster:

It loads the network, then it waits...10 seconds...loads dropbox...then it loads MSI Afterburner...another delay...loads MSI Rivatuner statistic server. It takes several seconds until all the icons are complete while on my wife's PC there is not even any loading time, everything is pre-loaded the instant she boots on desktop.

I am familar with tools like Autoruns etc....but I am really at a loss! Some prefetching issue (Superfetch) maybe which is disabled on my system due to SSD...but which would do exactly the opposite, slow down my boot sequence?

 

[mikeymikec]

Are you aware of the well-publicised performance issue with 840 EVOs?

There could be other reasons of course but that's the first that springs to mind. I should also point out that I have no first-hand experience of that (840 EVO) problem.

 

[flexy]

yes and I already updated the firmware of the drive and everything.

It's not a general performance problem of my PC or the drive, this is fine. It's more that here it seems programs are not pre-loaded and prefetched and they cause a delay at startup. (Which they dont over at the other computer). I already checked superfetch settings and everything else and it looks fine. Looking into what causes this ATM.

 

[ControlD]

Are you sure your wife's PC is doing an actual full boot and not resuming from hybrid sleep? My system at home looks like it is booting normally, but I have hybrid sleep enabled and what I think is happening is that the system is just restoring whatever state it was in before it went to sleep (all programs in the task bar for example are already loaded and running). If I really do a full power off shutdown or a real reboot then it takes considerably longer for everything to get loaded and ready to go. Is hybrid sleep a thing in Windows 7?

 

[mikeymikec]

A minute would be a slow recovery from hybrid sleep... pre SSD my system would take about 45 seconds to cold boot (including typing in my Windows login password) and settle.

yes and I already updated the firmware of the drive and everything.

It's not a general performance problem of my PC or the drive, this is fine. It's more that here it seems programs are not pre-loaded and prefetched and they cause a delay at startup. (Which they dont over at the other computer). I already checked superfetch settings and everything else and it looks fine. Looking into what causes this ATM.

Have you had a look through the event logs?

Start > Run > eventvwr
Windows logs (system is the most important one to check, followed by application).
I'd look for warnings and errors.

 

[ninaholic37]

Has the booting on your machine always been slow flexy? Did this happen once you installed/upgraded to Windows 8.1, or did it seem to get progressively slower? I would try turning off / disabling your AV and non-essential startup programs to rule that out, maybe they are doing something weird on your machine, or a Windows Update or driver update borked something. I like mikeymikec's idea of looking through the windows logs. Maybe a Windows 10 upgrade will "clear up" whatever the problem is.

 

[Berryracer]

If your system has 2 drives, let's say an SSD and an HDD and while installing Windows, you didn't disconnect the HDD, even though you chose to install the OS on the SSD, Windows has a nasty habit of placing the boot files on the 2nd drive in this case your HDD which could be the reason why your boot time is slow. Is that the case in your situation?

 

[flexy]

In Disk management I see everything relevant is on C: (my SSD), so it doesn't look like any OS related files are on my older HD.

No, I don't remember the system ALWAYS slow at boot but then I dont remember when this delay issue appeared.

What happens:

Kaspersky and Network Center Icons ARE preloaded, they're instantly visible the second I see the desktop.

But now it waits (like the network is trying to connect somewhere)...and there is a delay...and THEN the Icons for dropbox, Afterburner etc. show up after several seconds. (I already tested with disabling dropbox, Afterburner etc.). On wife's PC, all those things are available *instantly*. Eg. MSI Afterburner is "just there" and doesn't take any time to load.

Yes I am positive wife's PC is cold booting and not coming out of Hibernation.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Did you try creating a new user account to test and log into that one after booting to see if that makes a difference? Maybe something in your user profile got corrupted or some kind of hidden malware in there?

 

[Ketchup]

Tell us what motherboard you have, and what other drives you have.

The first step in sorting out this sort of thing would be to disconnect every drive other than the EVO (including external drives) and see what boot is like.

Also, if you have any mapped drives, that can slow the boot process.

 

[flexy]

Asus Z87-Pro, i7, Samsung EVO 840 as System drive, Hitachi HDT725050VLA360, ST3500320AS, two Toshiba MK2035GSS for backups.

It's really not so much a performance issue but WHY certain startup programs load with a delay.. I am using Windows 8.1 Pro x64

 

[Ketchup]

Using the Dark Brown SATA ports may also be slowing down your boot.

 

[B-Riz]

AV is notorious for scanning things as they are loaded... Try turning off AV protection and rebooting.

My boss hog rig became moot when loading Chrome after a cold boot with ~100 tabs to restore and Avast scanning each tab as it loaded...

Also, run MSCONFIG and see what else is in your start up queue.