Using Samsung 840 Pro Series, but boot times are still slow.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530
GSKILL Ripjaw series DDR3 1333 8GB and 4GB

ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core

OCZ StealthXstream II OCZ700SXS2 700W

ASUS GTX650TIB-DC2OC-2GD5 GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB

SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB

I am using SATA 6GB cables.

Windows 7 Ultimate.

I also have secondary hard drives that were not connected when I installed the OS.

I have a laptop that I put in an OCZ Vertex 3 that boots Windows 7 in a fraction of the time (~10 seconds).

My first time posting at Tomshardware, so hopefully I didn't screw it up. Thanks for the help.
 
Solution
MC_K7
Is this a new build? Maybe something else is slowing down the boot process and it's not the SSD. This is why I asked if it's a new build to see if the computer was booting faster before with a HDD?

Also make sure it's connected in the right SATA port on your mobo. It should be connected to your port 0 or 1 becaue they are faster and give higher priority to the device. Sometimes port 5 and 6 are slower (only 3Gb/s) so this could be the bottleneck, this is where you should connect your optical drive.

So I understand you did a clean Windows install? I take for granted you did install the latest chipset drivers?

How is your Sata Mode configured in your BIOS? It should be set to AHCI. This will increase the performance of both the SSD and...
Sort by date Sort by votes
biohazrdfear

biohazrdfear

Honorable
Mar 1, 2013
340
0
10,860
If you put a different drive in your unit, but your boot times are still slow, it sounds like it could be a hard drive issue. Alot of times when you get a failing or dead hard drive, you system boot times will be horrendous. If you manage to boot into Windows, Windows will be insanely slow and unresponsive. It can even blue screen.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530


I probably should have mentioned this in the OP, but that was my original idea, because previously I had a Corsair Force Series GT in my system and thought that maybe the reason because I didn't have a good enough SSD in my system, so I went with, one of, the best, in the 840 Pro.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
biohazrdfear

biohazrdfear

Honorable
Mar 1, 2013
340
0
10,860
I probably should have mentioned this in the OP, but that was my original idea, because previously I had a Corsair Force Series GT in my system and thought that maybe the reason because I didn't have a good enough SSD in my system, so I went with, one of, the best, in the 840 Pro.
Click to expand...

That's what it sounds like to me, good buddy. Samsung has some pretty nice drives, but in my opinion, go with another brand. I have a Kingston SSD NOW solid state drive that I got for around $80USD. They have a 240GB for $130USD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721108
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MC_K7

MC_K7

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2008
1,908
0
20,460
Is this a new build? Maybe something else is slowing down the boot process and it's not the SSD. This is why I asked if it's a new build to see if the computer was booting faster before with a HDD?

Also make sure it's connected in the right SATA port on your mobo. It should be connected to your port 0 or 1 becaue they are faster and give higher priority to the device. Sometimes port 5 and 6 are slower (only 3Gb/s) so this could be the bottleneck, this is where you should connect your optical drive.

So I understand you did a clean Windows install? I take for granted you did install the latest chipset drivers?

How is your Sata Mode configured in your BIOS? It should be set to AHCI. This will increase the performance of both the SSD and the HDD. I don't understand why some BIOS have it set to RAID or IDE mode by default, I've seen this many times and it leads to performance issues sometimes.

Careful if you change to AHCI and Windows is already installed you'll probably get a bluescreen. Here is how to do it without having to reinstall Windows:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Finally, I would also look for a firmware upgrade if available for your SSD. Even if it's not the cause of your problem, it's always a good idea to be up-to-date. Same thing with your motherboard BIOS you could check if a new version is available.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530
I'm not sure which SATA port it's connected to (I'm not at home currently) but I do know they are all 6GB ports, the MOBO doesn't come with any. The times that I'm referring to are after Windows Update and drivers (including chipset, VGA, Audio etc..) before I installed any other programs.

I haven't done a firmware update or a BIOS firmware update, I'll also need to check to see if BIOS are set to AHCI. I'll check on that, will report back later. In the meantime, any other things I should be checking?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
davcon

davcon

Judicious
May 17, 2010
8,860
0
34,960
@MC_K7 has provided some very important information concerning ssd set-up, nice job!
Your 840 Pro comes with Samsung Magician software.
I suggest you use it.
It will optimize your ssd and update your firmware and now includes Rapid Mode.
I have the same drive and it's very fast.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530


Took your advice, and you were right, the drive was set as IDE, corrected it, got Samsung Magic Software, I have the most current firmware, optimized drive and OS for performance, set RAPID mode, did a benchmark test: http://i.imgur.com/th77vxG.jpg

I'm still getting ~90 second boot times.

Edit: Took screenshot of drive info - http://i.imgur.com/ri9tcRy.jpg
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MC_K7

MC_K7

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2008
1,908
0
20,460



At this point I would try to reinstall Windows from scratch (clean install).

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530


I hopefully will get time to do this this weekend, it's not even been a full month since I re-installed a fresh copy of Windows 7. What's the reasoning behind this working? Is it going to function better now that I've changed the BIOS for the hard drive to be AHCI instead of IDE?

Hopefully this works, but in case it doesn't what else is on the drawing board that it could possibly be? Unless there's a large disparity in function between installing windows on an AHCI drive initially or switching an IDE drive to AHCI post installation then I don't see this working.

Doesn't mean I'm going to give up. I'll keep trying any suggestions you guys might have, hopefully you guys don't give up on me. It upsets me greatly seeing other people reporting slow boot times of 26-40 seconds when I can't get faster than 85 seconds with arguably the fastest available.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530


Okay, just did the clean install. I made sure to disconnect all drives except the SSD, did a clean install and upon first boot it was around 45 seconds, all subsequent boot times are back to the normal 85-90 second range. This is before I even put automatic updates on it, which is normal. We'll see how it looks after I've updated drivers and windows updates, but my previous history tells me it won't help.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530


I've done that, I've done the Samsung Magician optimization as well. I'm not sure you noticed my images I posted earlier from my SSD benchmark but my numbers seem pretty excellent. After the long boot, the computer runs blindingly fast. I really don't think the issue is the hard drive. It's hard to say the issue is the OS either, considering it does it from a fresh boot. To me, it seems like either some default Windows 7 Professional setting or BIOS setting is delaying the boot of Windows, then once it actually starts booting, it works.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MC_K7

MC_K7

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2008
1,908
0
20,460
At this point you should contact Samsung tech support. They might be able to find out what is wrong.

But just a few last things I think I already suggested but just wanted to make sure you did try:

- Flash your BIOS to latest version and reset BIOS settings to default (of course change back to AHCI after if it isn't the default option in the BIOS, but that would be the only option I would change after the reset).

- Make sure you install the latest chipset drivers (not the ones provided on the CD that came with your motherboard, but get the latest ones from the Asus website).

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530
Flashing the BIOS may be an avenue I could approach, but could it be another bit of hardware bottle-necking the boot process? The RAM and the MOBO are from the original build I did back in 2011.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MC_K7

MC_K7

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2008
1,908
0
20,460


One step at a time please:

1- Flash BIOS with latest version
2- Reset BIOS to default settings
3- Set BIOS SATA mode back to AHCI
4- Make sure you installed latest chipset drivers (in particular the disk controller driver)

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530
I'm not currently at home, so I can't do it now, but I installed all the drivers on this page:

With the exception of the Utility stuff and BIOS. Could the Utility drivers be an issue?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MC_K7

MC_K7

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2008
1,908
0
20,460


No. I was talking about the chipset drivers.

Utility is something else, I don't even think these are drivers, probably just some Utility/Tools software.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Calabrel

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2011
30
0
18,530
Noticed this was selected as answered, while that's fine, it's a bit misleading, none of those suggestions fixed my issue. I really think it's the motherboard that's limiting me for some reason. I'm in the process of upgrading my MOBO to an ASUS Sabertooth Z87, unfortunately, it came DOA and I'm in the processes of getting a repair. I'll update whether that fixes it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom