Not a prob, just wanna speed BIOS time
 

Hello all,

Hope you're all have a trouble free PC day!

My question isn't very high priority as the system is working, I just wondered if I can speed up a portion of the start up during BIOS.

At the moment when I press the power on button it takes around 10-15 seconds before the screen comes off standby, the graphics card is logically the first thing to be recognised. The logo follows. I'm really just trying to stop this pointless delay - I did see a website fully listing the start up sequence of a typical system / mobo, but don't recall the URL.

I've been in the BIOS rather a lot and tried to speed things, which it does fractionally, i.e.:

- The usual enabling of quick boot
- boot order doesn't matter (in theory), as I'm focused on pre-OS load
- specified additional details of hardware so it's not 'auto' on graphics, HDD set up, RAM, etc.

The culprit could be the DVI to VGA converter I'm using while I sort out a proper DVI to DVI cable (my monitor does do DVI in).

Otherwise I'm flumaxed. I've done quick searches and it doesn't help when people quote the same mobo manufacturer / near enough spec as me, saying it boots in 3 seconds!

System spec is:

Motherboard: ASUS M2N-E SLI NF500 SLI MCP, S
CPU: OEM AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 6000 3.0GHz 2x1MB
RAM: Crucial 2GB single strip (PC6400)
Graphics: NOVATECH 8600GTS 512MB PCI-E

Other details probably not necessary:
Tower case: THERMALTAKE ARMOUR
CD ROM: SAMSUNG DVD ROM DRIVE SATA
PSU: THERMALTAKE TOUGHPOWER 750WATT (cable manage one, very nice)

Cheers!

Chris

Boot order will matter as it looks at those devices in that order to see if there is boot information. Also if floppy seek at boot is enabled, will add to the boot time.

You also have and option to enable DMA on your SATA channels. I would set those to enable.

Looks like you've set everything else I would.

I have a similar setup to you, mine takes about 25 seconds from powering up on a cold start to being able to use the computer.

You mention standby, if that is what you are using it will take a little longer to start. Standby and hibernate are really only for laptops, and have no use on a desktop computer.

You would be better in setting up the powering off of the monitor after 10 minutes...

I am in agreement with wombat and SnM both. There is just not that many things that one can do to speed up the BIOS.

Thanks to all for responding :sbiggrin:

Yeah sadly I've already change those settings too: no floppy drive so disabled floppy seek, dma and Sata 1,2 enabled, dma and sata 3,4 disabled (just to reduce things further!)

Hmm :( 25 seconds. Yes I have been talking about cold starts. Sorry if I mentioned standby - probably didn't mean to, I avoid standby/hibernate at all costs!

So out of interest, how long does it take from thumbing the button to the graphics card being recognised on your sys? Onboard graphics mobos seem to be a bit quicker...I guess because they have 'some' graphics ability onboard it can check other things first. Hmm.

Thanks lurks, although I wish you hadn't said it! :tongue:

Oh well, it doesn't matter for the time being because I accidentally lost my boot files, so a re-install is called for. Being optimistic, perhaps I just need to burn the mobo in a little bit, before it starts speeding up? Here's to hoping!

Cheers all,

Chris

It would be around the 10 to 15 second mark I reckon, I never have paid much attention to the exact time before the animated spash screen shows.

I have a nVidia 8800 graphics card not an onboard one...

cheers wombat - at least mines pretty much the bench mark. :)