Motherboards Long Pause between pressing the "on" button and actually seeing anything.

Hey people,

I've recently been tackling my boot time issues in the Software section of the forum.
I've successfully cracked the time down by several seconds by disabling certain features of my motherboard.

However I've got one issue left. And I don't seem to be able to solve it through BIOS settings.

When I press the power button on my pc, it all lights up... the fans start whurring, it all looks good... But nothing happens other than this.
The screen stays completely blank for a good 10 to 14 seconds (average of 12).

THEN POST appears, with windows etc. coming up afterwards.

After POST appears and the computer actually starts booting, it only takes 10 seconds before I see a log in screen. Maybe less than 10.

If I can get my Power On Self Test to happen when Power On actually occurred (as opposed to 15 seconds later) that'd be really great!

My motherboard is an Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3


Hope someone will be able to help!
Thanks,

Matt

 

Is the time consistent from a cold boot (mains off) and a warm boot (was shut down, and then started again without losing mains power) ?

 

TBH my M5G takes a good 5 (possibly more) seconds to post, its all the POST tests, as I watch the POST code thingy. I think it may be the 16GB of RAM as it has to test it...

 

I shall have to check this.

It seems to be fairly consistent to be honest with you.
I don't ever remember saying "Oh, that was quicker than normal!" or anything. I always count in my head, and get around 10 seconds (my head seconds are longer than normal seconds, and obviously vary from a stopwatch).

I shall get a stopwatch out and do 3 tests.

1) Turn off PC. Unplug from Mains. Leave 5 minutes. Plug in again. Then try to boot.
2) Turn off PC. Leave 5 minutes. Try to boot.
3) Turn off PC. Leave 5 seconds. Try to boot.

I'm reasonably confident I'll get the same results. But who knows?

Will be back soon with results.

 

Maybe, but as far as I know I don't have error checking RAM.

There's not much point in a standard home desktop (as far as I'm aware).

I'll certainly look into this, and will take out a couple of sticks at some point if my other tests don't help.

 

14.4 Seconds

14.3 Seconds

14 Seconds (Although I think I mucked up the stopwatch on this one, so It's more like 14.4/14.3)

The 14 seconds (ish) is exactly the time from when I push the power button, to when anything is displayed on screen. (Usually it shows a black screen with an underscore, that's when I stop the stopwatch.) The time from that underscore showing to being able to log in is roughly 10 seconds.

Seems to be basically the same length of time each time...

Any ideas?

 

My system probably takes around 10 seconds after switching on, before I see anything on screen. I don't think it's anything to worry about.

 

I'm not overly worried about it.
Like - I don't think it's broken or anything.
I'd just rather not have the long wait. Haha. (long compared to the 10 second boot anyway).

 

I had a similar problem with my P8P67. Have you updated the BIOS recently? That seemed to fix it for me.

I think it was a memory issue, not something I was too pleased about.

 

Have you tried a different screen? I had an old TV/PC monitor that somehow extended the boot time of the PC. Fixed it by getting another screen.

 

Jackypoos, I will update the BIOS as soon as the ASUS site starts working.

Picarro, my monitor is a Dell U2412M... If that isn't good enough I don't know what is. haha!
I'll look into trying another monitor. Or even playing with the settings on this one.

 

Have you tried flashing your bios? According to their website the bios for your board was just updated on 5-29-12 to version 3402.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z68V_PRO/

 

Erm.... Have tou tried pluggingthe pc directly into the wall on its own?. Rather than through a gang unit or surge protector.

It should speed it up for you

 

Have you tried a different GPU? I've noticed that during Mobo Initiation; the GPU clears it's own internal POST and displays for a second before I get the actual POST codes out of the speaker, so it might be possible that your 680 is just taking ages to get its' arse into gear.

 

I have had a similar issue with my socket 775 ASUS Maximus Formula since I got it.

When I power the system on the fans spin up, the power LED is on etc. But then nothing happens for approx 25 seconds. THEN the graphics card is initialized, the system POSTs and everything is normal from that time onwards.

Same thing happens after a reboot, so it's not a cold/warm start issue.

I've never been able to find a solution this issue even though I've bugged everyone I can think of, including ASUS support and also poor Bindi.

 

16 seconds here. Nothing's wrong... it's just how it is. I'm not worried. I'm sure anyone with the same board as me will have the same times.

 

Well, that kinda sucks. Haha.

Do you think this time will ever go down on current cards / boards?
Or are we going to have to wait a good 10 years before we see this time go down

 

I'd swear that my gigabytes mobo POST time is longer now that I have an overclock. The OPs time seems normal enough. Anywho I have it in my head that certain checks can be disabled which can speed up a motherboards post time**edit** (maybe it was in the OP durrrr )**edit**. But as to what or how or if it can even be done for certain, I have no idea. Maybe someone can chime in there. Which brings me to another question: Why is there no measurements for default time from on switch to finish POSTing in mobo reviews.

 

I've had my Asus P6TD Deluxe for some time now and I've noticed it takes longer to get to the BIOS screen than it used to. I've assumed it's down to one or more changes I've made over the years including the SSD(s) I fitted, the PSU or possibly capacitor ageing. I do know that some Asus boards power up twice, the first time briefly to check the power's OK then the normal start up.

 

I don't understand how everyone has such long startup times. I get post within three seconds, then have to wait a little after the BIOS flash screen for the AHCI drive initialisation and SMART, then i'm straight into windows.