New SSD, boot hangs at Starting Windows

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ngwylie

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Hi everyone,

First of all, here's the specs I'm working with -
OS - Win 7 x64 Home Premium
Mobo - ASRock Z77 Pro4
SSD - Mushkin Chronos SATA III (Boot Device)
HDDs - 2 WD SATA III in Raid 0

I'm having an issue with a newly installed SSD.
I just got one yesterday and I have it formatted right now. It works great, very fast etc - but only once it's booted up.

I have 2 HDDs in Raid 0 behind the SSD. I also wiped the partition on it before I formatted my SSD.
I have the 2 HDDs in the Z77 SATAIII ports that support RAID, and my SSD is plugged into my 3rd SATAIII port driven off of the ASMedia controller.

When I get to the "Starting Windows" screen, it hangs there. The Windows logo does not show up for ~1+ minutes. As soon as the Windows logo comes up, it instantly boots to desktop with no other wait times.

I believe when it is at the Starting Windows screen, that is the process when drivers are being loaded(?).

I've checked all of my motherboard/chipset drivers from both my manufacturer and Intel and they are all up to date. Windows updates are all installed, video drivers are current, etc.

I've checked my storage devices in the BIOS and made sure that only my SSD is set there as a boot device, and I have no types of external storage or media hooked up.

I feel like I've covered a lot of the bases... but any suggestions or answers would be GREAT! My last alternative is to format my RAID array as the boot device and put the SSD behind that, and see if that gets rid of the issue, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
 
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You installed Windows fresh on the SSD right? Did you unplug the other drives before installing Windows? Any other drives have to be disconnected first.

Have you optimized your OS for an SSD?
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You installed Windows fresh on the SSD right? Did you unplug the other drives before installing Windows? Any other drives have to be disconnected first.

Have you optimized your OS for an SSD?
 
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ngwylie

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I did not have my other drives unplugged when formatting. The partition was deleted and I disabled the RAID array prior to installing OS on SSD.
Do they really need to be completely disconnected before formatting, and if so, why?

What do you mean optimized my OS for an SSD?
 
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Yes the other drives need to be disconnected or Windows will try and put files ( the boot partition ) on them during installation and then get confused when booting.

Here is a pretty good optimization guide.

http://www.thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/
 
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I have had the exact opposite experience. In fact installation has never worked correctly with another drive installed.
 
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ngwylie

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I followed that guide you posted. I already had a lot of that stuff done - it didn't make any difference in my boot time unfortunately... Timing my boot, it takes me about 2 minutes to get to desktop. It's not the worst thing in the world... but I'd just like it to be faster.

I'm in the IT industry professionally, and installed a good amount of HDD/SSD combinations and I've never come across this issue before after a clean install (while having all drives plugged in). But I have heard of people saying that before...

I really don't feel like formatting again right now, but I may try it out tomorrow by unplugging my HDDs while formatting my SSD. Actually right now, I'm going to try unplugging my other HDDs and booting without them and see what happens.
 
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ngwylie

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I just disconnected my HDDs. The issue went away. I booted to desktop in 35 seconds.
You may be right about the HD disconnect thing. I'll try reformatting again tomorrow. Pain in the ass...

Thank you for your suggestions. I'll let you know tomorrow
 
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ngwylie

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Ok actually... I plugged my HDDs back in... And now there's no issue. Still booting in 35 seconds...

Can't really explain that... but unplugging them and rebooting and then plugging them back in and rebooting resolved the issue.
Still might have something to do with installing OS with all drives connected(?).
 
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That is odd. Windows will generally install the boot partition on any secondary drive and then not be able to find it. I've had at least one SSD since 2011 and done numerous installs and the few times I forgot to unplug any secondary drives I have had problems and had to reinstall.

My desktop is ready in 13 seconds after the BIOS initializes with my 500Gb 840 Evo. It took maybe 16 or 17 seconds with the old 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 I replaced it with.
 
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ngwylie

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Hmm so mine is still slow in comparison... Not sure why.

Yeah, if it installed any system boot files on my secondary partition, it shouldn't have been able to boot at all... so that doesn't seem to have been the issue.

I'm plenty happy with 35 second boot rather than 2 minutes but I'm curious why I'm not around 15 seconds.

It's a Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236

Tech specs are very fast... benchmarks were great. I know my brother has a SATA II SSD and he boots in about 45 seconds...
 
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Exactly. POST is your motherboard. Nothing will make that faster. Starting Windows to desktop with everything ready to go is what you are talking about when you say Windows boot time. 14 seconds is pretty good for a 120GB Sandforce drive.
 
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ngwylie

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This is a Storage thread and I wasn't expecting to explain my reasoning for other hardware choices...

My main PSU preferences are 1. Antec 2. Corsair
I was on a budget and I wanted to get rid of my nearly 10-year-old Antec Trio because it didn't have sleeves.

I picked Raidmax because they're cheap and I've built dozens of systems with their PSUs that have been running fine for several years with no issues... that's why I picked it. I don't just read other peoples' forum threads and reviews, I build with my own experience and reliability history.
If I had extra money, I probably would have gone with Antec again. My Antec Trio had no issues at all other than the fan dying out once... I just got tired of having un-netted cables everywhere with no modularity.

I picked Mushkin because they are also very cheap compared to other brands, have good benchmarks and very fast rated speeds... and again it's from my own experience.
 
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Here is a typical Raidmax review. This model at least tries to be 80 Plus Bronze certified. Andyson at their best. And I was really trying to keep you from frying your system not being critical. Truely they are scary bad. Power supplies are one place you want to read reviews. These are not people's opinions on a forum they are hard numbers off a load tester and oscilloscope.

This unit shows 560mV of ripple on the 12v rail in transient load testing. That is way outside ATX specs and downright dangerous to the capacitors on your motherboard and GPU. My Seasonic for instance is 15mV.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/03/18/raidmax_cobra_power_500w_supply_review/9#.VBp9HBZuW_E

Once again I don't mean to offend only educate.
 
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ngwylie

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Sorry, I tend to be like that =).

Antec is by far my favorite PSU Brand... I have 0 complaints with my old Trio - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371001&cm_re=antec_trio-_-17-371-001-_-Product
I bought it right when the first Core 2 Duo came out, it's about 9 years old. It still works great today. I just had very messy cable management and wanted some sleeves...

I see what you are saying with that RAIDMAX Cobra. I'm trying to find some benchmarks on mine, RAIDMAX Hybrid 2 RX-730SS, can't seem to find any like the one you posted.

Customer reviews are 4/5 on newegg but a lot of those can't be trusted (good or bad) imo... I see many of them came DOA according to many buyers or died in a few weeks...

Mine has been in for just 1 day, so time will tell.

But like I said, I have built systems for clients that wanted a budget build many times and they haven't had any issues so far.
But you do make me want to rethink buying them in the future =P.
 
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There are no real reviews for your unit. Jonnyguru, HardOCP and Hardwaresecrets are the good sites that put power supplies through the wringer. There are a few others but unless the unit is put on a load tester and scope and tested in a hot box it's not a real review. Jonnyguru starts scoring against units with ripple higher than 50mV. There are some very cheap units that are great on the market. Any XFX unit for instance is made by Seasonic ( the best ) and their 550w units are regularly on sale in the ~$40 range. Plenty of power for your system.

You really want a tier 2 or up unit on the list I posted above for a system with a GTX 770.

XFX Pro 650w. Based on the Seasonic S/M 12 II platform. Tier 2 and plenty of power for a GTX 780. $55.

http://www.ncixus.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=59616&vpn=P1650SNLB9&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1343

Antec True Power Classic 550w 80 Plus Gold certified and based on the Seasonic G platform. $55. Even better than the XFX above. Very solid tier 2. The only reason it's not tier 1 is the lower quality fan than the high end Seasonic units. Regulation, ripple and noise are almost as good as anything on the market

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371071&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

So you don't have to pay a premium for quality ;)

 
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ngwylie

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I take it that you're a SeaSonic guy ;) They've always been great

I'm glad you aren't one of those people who think you need an 800W+ PSU to run a gaming PC lol. Encountered so many of them.
I'd probably get away just fine with that 550W Antec one (being that I am an Antec guy hehe).

I'm going to really think about returning this one and getting an Antec one again lol... Cause more work for me :(
 
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One last post and I'm done. Your unit has what it says are 24 amps on each of two 12v rails. Amps x volts = watts so assuming it can put out it's rated voltage ( and I really doubt that it can ) that is only 576 ( 48 x 12 ) watts on the 12v rail. Meaning if it was labeled correctly or honestly it would be at best a 600w power supply. The 12v rail supplies power to the CPU and GPU. Everything else really does not matter because of how little power it consumes.

All higher end units provide 100% of their power on the 12v rail. My 660w Seasonic provides a full 55 amps for all of its rated wattage on the 12v rail. So my 660w power supply is literally at least 96 watts more powerful than your 730w power supply.

Right now Seasonic and SuperFlower ( high end EVGA models ) make the best units on the market. Flextronics as well with the Corsair AXi series.

OK I'm done with computer power 101! :lol: Glad we fixed your problem. Enjoy!
 
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ngwylie

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That's to be expected seeing as your Seasonic is 92% efficiency and mine is probably around 80%. 80% of 730 is 584Watts so it's technically "honest", just bad.

A little more info about my OS install -

I originally formatted my SSD with my RAID 0 still in place. It worked fine, but after restarting my PC, I got a disk read error and could not boot back up.
I manually removed my HDDs from the raid array, and then took them out of RAID mode in the BIOS.

I formatted my SSD again. After OS was back on, I set my 2 HDDs back into RAID and added them back into an array. I formatted the RAID array and I was able to restart fine after that.
Then I had the hanging issue at Starting Windows. Evidently unplugging my HDDs and restarting, then plugging them back in and restarting, fixed the issue.

Other than that, I've never had an issue installing an SSD along with a HDD already plugged in. This is my first time installing an SSD with a RAID array plugged in.
 
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Efficiency has nothing to do with the wattage supplied. My 92% efficient power supply takes 713 watts from the wall. Only 8% is wasted as heat. An 80% efficient 660w power supply draws 792 watts from the wall.

If your system works fine with the SSD now then great. I'm not sure how but I guess you got lucky!
 
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