Relevant Specs:
Intel I7-4820k
32GB G.Skill Ram
2x GTX 770 in SLI
ASRock Extreme6 X79
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
I recently got this rig together and am trying to install Win7 64 bit. I've had a ton of problems getting the OS installed via USB with this new system for some reason but finally got it up and running. What prompted part of my desire to do another clean install after my first attempt was the fact that my virus program corrupted my hard drive and caused an infinite boot load screen. During the repair process things got work and eventually the computer wouldn't even boot to safe mode. I decided to just start over since my data was all backed up.
I was originally trying to do SSD OS drive RAID on the 2x Intel SATA3 slots provided on the motherboard using Kingston Hyper 3k SSDs. I was absolutely sure not to use the ASRock SATA3 connectors. The board absolutely would not install the F6 RAID drivers and I got a BSOD every time. I tried removing extra SATA connectors, updating the BIOS, resetting, trying different IRST drivers, etc. but nothing worked in regards to preloading the RAID drivers during install. I finally gave up on that and decided to just trying a single SSD boot drive on the Intel SATA3 port since I'm told performance gains are marginal on a boot drive in SSD RAID. I used the new Samsung SSD for this single drive configuration. It finally worked after some more troubleshooting, and while I'll leave out the details I feel confident in saying that the reason I couldn't get RAID to work was with the drivers, not the SSDs. I have since tested all drives and they appear to be fine.
So, in the process of installing to a single SSD, I restarted and did a clean install with reformatting and everything. In the BIOS I switched the SATA mode from RAID to AHCI (Samsung Magician doesn't like SATA mode set to raid apparently and was causing system freezes), and got the install to work. I verified that I was in fact booting into the EFI environment like I want. I tested, and the system seemed stable and consistent. Since my virus program corrupted my drive last time (it was during system updates too which is probably part of it) I was sure to install everything before an programs including this one. I think I may have messed this part up too...
As far as drivers go, I simply loaded the LAN driver and installed every Windows update available next. After that was done I went back and installed the rest of the drivers--SATA3, chipset, USB, etc. I fear that I should have done this first but am not sure if it would have any real effect in the end. After that, I started to install programs, including the virus one that corrupted me to begin with. I was relieved when it all worked. I should add that I tried to install Intel RST after all of these via the .exe method and it still would not work. It will let me install and says it's successful, but after restart it will BSOD every time. I have to restore to a point before the install and it will work again... Not sure why the system hates IRST so much, but I decided it wasn't necessary and moved on.
So finally, to my real problem. My boot time is around 9.5 minutes every time--ridiculous. My old setup would do it in <1 min and this is an even beefier setup. It shouldn't take more than a minute. I worry that maybe because I installed the drivers after Windows updates, I have messed something up. Since I'm confident the SSD is okay, my first thought is that this is a driver or configuration issue. The computer will boot the Windows logo fairly quickly, and will sit there for more of that boot time. Once the computer is up and running it seems to move very quickly and run like normal. I ran Soluto to see what was taking so much time in boot, and it is the main Windows program files--responsible for over 8 minutes of that time.
Troubleshooting I've done so far:
-Installed and ran Slimdriver. It found a handful of chipset and system drivers that were outdated. Installed the new ones, but it didn't help boot time.
-Used Windows Event Viewer - nothing bad showed up and it all looked fine
-Ran a full disk check and analyzed the drive via the Samsung software post boot. It all reads as "okay." I even tried initially doing this with a Kingston Hyper SSD and got the same results. I'm 90% sure this isn't an SSD problem by itself as I've mentioned.
-Updated SSD firmware to the latest version.
Ideas I still have:
-Try moving the SSD to another Intel SATA3 port - It doesn't hurt to try, right?
-Completely disconnect my Blu Ray drive (currently on an ASRock SATA3 port) - I've heard this can cause issues.
-Remove all but one stick of RAM. I've read that sometimes memory timings can slow things down but since the sticks are all the exact same and from a kit I'm not sure this would do it.
-Verify that the BIOS is correct. I installed the latest v3.0 release but noticed in the System Info pane that it was displaying smBIOS as v2.8. I don't know if this matters or how they differ.
-Lastly, I can try to do another clean install but be sure to update all drivers before installing Windows updates. A lot of work for something I'm not sure even matters much.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be thorough. Do any of you have ideas or does anything that I've done really stand out?
Intel I7-4820k
32GB G.Skill Ram
2x GTX 770 in SLI
ASRock Extreme6 X79
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
I recently got this rig together and am trying to install Win7 64 bit. I've had a ton of problems getting the OS installed via USB with this new system for some reason but finally got it up and running. What prompted part of my desire to do another clean install after my first attempt was the fact that my virus program corrupted my hard drive and caused an infinite boot load screen. During the repair process things got work and eventually the computer wouldn't even boot to safe mode. I decided to just start over since my data was all backed up.
I was originally trying to do SSD OS drive RAID on the 2x Intel SATA3 slots provided on the motherboard using Kingston Hyper 3k SSDs. I was absolutely sure not to use the ASRock SATA3 connectors. The board absolutely would not install the F6 RAID drivers and I got a BSOD every time. I tried removing extra SATA connectors, updating the BIOS, resetting, trying different IRST drivers, etc. but nothing worked in regards to preloading the RAID drivers during install. I finally gave up on that and decided to just trying a single SSD boot drive on the Intel SATA3 port since I'm told performance gains are marginal on a boot drive in SSD RAID. I used the new Samsung SSD for this single drive configuration. It finally worked after some more troubleshooting, and while I'll leave out the details I feel confident in saying that the reason I couldn't get RAID to work was with the drivers, not the SSDs. I have since tested all drives and they appear to be fine.
So, in the process of installing to a single SSD, I restarted and did a clean install with reformatting and everything. In the BIOS I switched the SATA mode from RAID to AHCI (Samsung Magician doesn't like SATA mode set to raid apparently and was causing system freezes), and got the install to work. I verified that I was in fact booting into the EFI environment like I want. I tested, and the system seemed stable and consistent. Since my virus program corrupted my drive last time (it was during system updates too which is probably part of it) I was sure to install everything before an programs including this one. I think I may have messed this part up too...
As far as drivers go, I simply loaded the LAN driver and installed every Windows update available next. After that was done I went back and installed the rest of the drivers--SATA3, chipset, USB, etc. I fear that I should have done this first but am not sure if it would have any real effect in the end. After that, I started to install programs, including the virus one that corrupted me to begin with. I was relieved when it all worked. I should add that I tried to install Intel RST after all of these via the .exe method and it still would not work. It will let me install and says it's successful, but after restart it will BSOD every time. I have to restore to a point before the install and it will work again... Not sure why the system hates IRST so much, but I decided it wasn't necessary and moved on.
So finally, to my real problem. My boot time is around 9.5 minutes every time--ridiculous. My old setup would do it in <1 min and this is an even beefier setup. It shouldn't take more than a minute. I worry that maybe because I installed the drivers after Windows updates, I have messed something up. Since I'm confident the SSD is okay, my first thought is that this is a driver or configuration issue. The computer will boot the Windows logo fairly quickly, and will sit there for more of that boot time. Once the computer is up and running it seems to move very quickly and run like normal. I ran Soluto to see what was taking so much time in boot, and it is the main Windows program files--responsible for over 8 minutes of that time.
Troubleshooting I've done so far:
-Installed and ran Slimdriver. It found a handful of chipset and system drivers that were outdated. Installed the new ones, but it didn't help boot time.
-Used Windows Event Viewer - nothing bad showed up and it all looked fine
-Ran a full disk check and analyzed the drive via the Samsung software post boot. It all reads as "okay." I even tried initially doing this with a Kingston Hyper SSD and got the same results. I'm 90% sure this isn't an SSD problem by itself as I've mentioned.
-Updated SSD firmware to the latest version.
Ideas I still have:
-Try moving the SSD to another Intel SATA3 port - It doesn't hurt to try, right?
-Completely disconnect my Blu Ray drive (currently on an ASRock SATA3 port) - I've heard this can cause issues.
-Remove all but one stick of RAM. I've read that sometimes memory timings can slow things down but since the sticks are all the exact same and from a kit I'm not sure this would do it.
-Verify that the BIOS is correct. I installed the latest v3.0 release but noticed in the System Info pane that it was displaying smBIOS as v2.8. I don't know if this matters or how they differ.
-Lastly, I can try to do another clean install but be sure to update all drivers before installing Windows updates. A lot of work for something I'm not sure even matters much.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be thorough. Do any of you have ideas or does anything that I've done really stand out?
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