System boots slow when left powered off for long

itsakjt · Sep 5, 2018

Hi all,

Since the last month, I have been facing a strange problem. Suppose I have the system powered off for > 1 day. The next time I power it on, Windows boots very slowly (the rotating dots will rotate 6 or 7 times) and the lock screen and desktop will come slow as if it is booting from a HDD with fast startup turned off. However if I power it off then and power it on after 2 hrs, it will boot fine (rotating dots only twice).

Things I have tried:
Remove, clean, reseat GPU, RAMs, reset CMOS, turned off overclock, cleaned entire system -> No effect
Power on system after two full days, directly go to BIOS and go here and there, wait for some time and exit without saving - Windows boots fine and quick.

Things I have noticed:
When the system boots slow (that is after I power on after a long time), for the first few seconds, there is no disk activity. After it boots up, if I right click and refresh, even that is slow.
If I keep the PC plugged in to mains with the switch on (that is with standby power supplied), the system boots fine even after 2-3 days.
All disks are recognized in BIOS at any given time.
System is rock stable once booted into OS (be it slow or quick). If it boots slow, it will eventually make its way to the OS and when left for sometime (hardly 2 mins), return to normal speed.

I suspect:
Some component, the operation of which is dependent on standby power or the PSU itself.
I have checked CMOS battery voltage and it is at 2.98 V. So I think that is fine.

Info: System specs as on signature, Windows 10 installed on the Kingston HyperX 3K 240 GB SSD. No RAID config done. SMART status of all drives are fine.

Anyone having any ideas?

Devil1950 · Sep 5, 2018

This is on pure guess, as I saw for new ssd from Samsung EVO from gamernexus and testings how hot they get (around 50*C?), probably as SSD is cold its slow? As it heats up to its operational temperature it works better?
Im on pure guess.
Try windows on HDD if possible, or leaving only windows SSD/HDD plugged in motherboard.
Sorry for stupid reply.

IceScreamer · Sep 5, 2018

I'd try checking the PSU itself first if you have a replacement. I'd also try booting a live linux distro off a USB to see if it has something to do with the drives.

itsakjt · Sep 6, 2018

Devil1950 said:
This is on pure guess, as I saw for new ssd from Samsung EVO from gamernexus and testings how hot they get (around 50*C?), probably as SSD is cold its slow? As it heats up to its operational temperature it works better?
Im on pure guess.
Try windows on HDD if possible, or leaving only windows SSD/HDD plugged in motherboard.
Sorry for stupid reply.

It makes sense in general but the thing is I have noticed that the problem does not happen when standby power is supplied to the system. SSD operation is not dependent on any standby power.

IceScreamer said:
I'd try checking the PSU itself first if you have a replacement. I'd also try booting a live linux distro off a USB to see if it has something to do with the drives.

I will give this a shot. So if it doesn't exhibit the problem, what exactly might be wrong with the current PSU?

Mussels · Sep 6, 2018

CMOS batteries are 3.3V when new, despite the 3V label on them - its still possible thats part of the issue

going through this with a mobo that uses a non-standard battery, reads 3.2V at idle, but throw some load on and it droops low enough to partially reset the BIOS, keeps corruptign the time (windows was rather confused it was the year 2037)

Caring1 · Sep 6, 2018

If the PSU checks out ok, then test the power from the wall socket is what it should be, it may be under powered.

enxo218 · Sep 6, 2018

something is happening with bios settings I think in particular relating to drives attached and boot device ie when no hdd activity is observed could be the delay for boot device recognition and confirmation, it's either that or the boot device is having power up issues after being off for a long time. try booting from another device first

itsakjt · Sep 6, 2018

I will get a new CMOS battery first and check since that is quite obvious (what Mussels said).
The bad thing is that it will take 24 hrs before I can actually test it, that too without the PC.

DeathtoGnomes · Sep 6, 2018

If you see the dots in a circle animation, you are already booting windows. Cold boots do take longer mainly because your volatile memory has lost its data and must process it again. Like a car that needs to be warmed up in cold weather.

itsakjt · Sep 6, 2018

DeathtoGnomes said:
If you see the dots in a circle animation, you are already booting windows. Cold boots do take longer mainly because your volatile memory has lost its data and must process it again. Like a car that needs to be warmed up in cold weather.

The slowness I am referring to is uncomfortably slow. Like the first boot after a long time takes around 80 seconds and restart or turning on after say 2 hrs takes 15 seconds. Moreover, it never used to happen before.

silentbogo · Sep 6, 2018

itsakjt said:
The slowness I am referring to is uncomfortably slow. Like the first boot after a long time takes around 80 seconds and restart or turning on after say 2 hrs takes 15 seconds. Moreover, it never used to happen before.

There are some features in Windows that are responsible for this behavior. "Hybrid Sleep" and "Fast startup" are the most prominent.
It's quite normal to see a 15sec startup time after short period of time versus 30sec on cold boot. The difference became even more noticeable since 1803.

Though, 80 seconds is a bit too dramatic, don't you think (especially if you say Windows only does 5-6 circle animations)?

Caring1 · Sep 6, 2018

Faulty Ram can also cause slow boot issues, I suggest testing one stick at a time.

kastriot · Sep 6, 2018

How about you test your system after 2 days with another cloned ssd or hdd?

itsakjt · Sep 6, 2018

silentbogo said:
There are some features in Windows that are responsible for this behavior. "Hybrid Sleep" and "Fast startup" are the most prominent.
It's quite normal to see a 15sec startup time after short period of time versus 30sec on cold boot. The difference became even more noticeable since 1803.

Though, 80 seconds is a bit too dramatic, don't you think (especially if you say Windows only does 5-6 circle animations)?

Yeah but even after that, the lock screen, the desktop (after logging in with password) takes time to come. Fast startup is turned off since I built this PC.

Caring1 said:
Faulty Ram can also cause slow boot issues, I suggest testing one stick at a time.

Yeah true. But how come system is rock stable after booting up? Also if I power on system after a short while or power on after a long time with standby power supplied, system starts up quickly? RAM does not get any standby power as far as I know.

kastriot said:
How about you test your system after 2 days with another cloned ssd or hdd?

This I will try. Firstly, I am changing the CMOS battery.

Caring1 · Sep 6, 2018

itsakjt said:
Yeah true. But how come system is rock stable after booting up? Also if I power on system after a short while or power on after a long time with standby power supplied, system starts up quickly? RAM does not get any standby power as far as I know.

DRAM Training, system with standby power won't have the issue.
So change the CMOS battery first then see if it is resolved.

Mussels · Sep 6, 2018

Do you have features like IRST (intel rapid start) or anything with similar wording in the BIOS? Some of those functions are designed in similar ways to hibernation, and that partially working/failing could also be a cause

itsakjt · Sep 6, 2018

Mussels said:
Do you have features like IRST (intel rapid start) or anything with similar wording in the BIOS? Some of those functions are designed in similar ways to hibernation, and that partially working/failing could also be a cause

Not that I know of. I will try looking for it once I get home. Carrying a CR2032 while I am typing this.

Found the reason: Came back home and turned on system (almost 24 hrs since last shutdown) and directly went to BIOS. Even BIOS scrolling and menus were slow. Suddenly noticed that the CPU frequency is 800 MHz (ROG BIOS, shown on right) and shortly after it jumped to 4200 MHz and never came down again. Rebooted system using ctrl+alt+del and went to BIOS again. CPU frequency was still at 4200 MHz. Booted up Windows. Booted in less than 15 seconds. Typing this from the exact PC. What can be the issue?

hat · Sep 7, 2018

I don't get it. Sounds like power saving features that clock down the CPU when under light load... but as far as I know, that shouldn't be happening when in BIOS. Nor should it be happening when you're booting Windows. Maybe check if there's a BIOS update for your board?

itsakjt · Sep 7, 2018

Okay. Here's what happened. Replaced CMOS battery yesterday, removed CPU, cleaned and reapplied TIM. On booting the system first after cleaning and CMOS reset, the following messages came:

New CPU installed!
Speed 800 MHz.

Same behavior exhibited as before. Everything in BIOS was slow for sometime and frequency then suddenly triggered to 4200 MHz.
Powered off system at 1 a.m. in the night.
Powered on again at 8 a.m. Windows booted very slow. After getting to the desktop, opened up power options and set to high performance.
Opened up CPU Z, speed was 800 MHz at 0.702 Volts. Opened up AIDA 64 and did a FPU stress. Frequency was still at 800 MHz. After about a minute, it went up to 4200 MHz and stayed. Everything became normal as if nothing happened.
Before leaving for office, I downgraded the BIOS to version 3703. After I come back home, I can check it again.

hat · Sep 7, 2018

I would expect a little weirdness after replacing the battery and reinstalling the CPU, but setting it to high performance should make it run full speed all the time, at least once Windows is loaded.

You said you downgraded your BIOS... were you already on the latest version?

itsakjt · Sep 7, 2018

hat said:
I would expect a little weirdness after replacing the battery and reinstalling the CPU, but setting it to high performance should make it run full speed all the time, at least once Windows is loaded.

You said you downgraded your BIOS... were you already on the latest version?

Yeah I was on the latest (3804). Now I am at one step before the latest.

DeathtoGnomes · Sep 7, 2018

So either the chip is faulty or the motherboard. after the BIOS down grade, did you load default settings and save it?

Hood · Sep 7, 2018

Did you try disconnecting all your drives except the Windows boot SSD? If Windows detects bad sectors on a HDD it may possibly be running chkdsk in the background? Just a thought, probably not the problem. I even had a bad DVD burner cause a no boot recently (but that was stuck at POST).

itsakjt · Sep 7, 2018

DeathtoGnomes said:
So either the chip is faulty or the motherboard. after the BIOS down grade, did you load default settings and save it?

Yes I did. The system is running at full stock.

Hood said:
Did you try disconnecting all your drives except the Windows boot SSD? If Windows detects bad sectors on a HDD it may possibly be running chkdsk in the background? Just a thought, probably not the problem. I even had a bad DVD burner cause a no boot recently (but that was stuck at POST).

Did once earlier but that is not the issue since that would not cause the CPU to be stuck at 800 MHz during a stress test.
Moreover, all SSD/HDD SMART data are fine with no bad sectors or errors.

eidairaman1 · Sep 7, 2018

itsakjt said:
The slowness I am referring to is uncomfortably slow. Like the first boot after a long time takes around 80 seconds and restart or turning on after say 2 hrs takes 15 seconds. Moreover, it never used to happen before.

Blackviper.com you have something i believe software related slowing down your boot up.

When in doubt, format

System Name	Coffee \| Maximus
Processor	Intel Core i7 9700K @ 5.2 GHz with AVX/4.8 GHz cache \| i7 9700KF @ 5.0 GHz/4.7 GHz cache
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Mouse	Cooler Master MM731 19000 DPI gaming mouse
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System Name	Level 3 mage
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Motherboard	Asus Maximus Hero VII
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System Name	Coffee \| Maximus
Processor	Intel Core i7 9700K @ 5.2 GHz with AVX/4.8 GHz cache \| i7 9700KF @ 5.0 GHz/4.7 GHz cache
Motherboard	ASUS Maximus X Formula \| ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger (modded BIOS for Coffee Lake)+TPM2.0 module
Cooling	Cooler Master ML240 Illusion \| Cooler Master ML120L RGB
Memory	216 GB (32 GB) Kingston Fury Beast @3600 MHz CL17 \| 48 GB (32 GB) HyperX Fury @3200 MHz CL14
Video Card(s)	Zotac RTX 3070 8 GB Twin Edge OC \| Galax RTX 2060 Super 8 GB
Storage	Samsung PM981a 1TB+Crucial P5 1TB+480GB SATA SSD+2 TB HDD \| Crucial P1 500GB+2.5TB HDDs
Display(s)	LG OLED 55 G3, 4K 120 Hz, VRR, ALLM, GSync, FreeSync \| Samsung 43AU9070 4K TV, VRR, ALLM
Case	Corsair Crystal 460X RGB \| Lianli Lancool 215
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster Z SE w 5.1 Home Theater \| Realtek ALC1150 (Supreme FX) w 2.1 speakers
Power Supply	ASUS ROG Strix 750G (80+ Gold) \| Cooler Master MWE 650 V2 (80+ Bronze)
Mouse	Cooler Master MM731 19000 DPI gaming mouse
Keyboard	Cooler Master CK721 65% mechanical gaming keyboard (tactile)
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64 \|Windows 11 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores	Cinebench R20 MT 4200,ST 547 CPU-Z MT 4871, ST 620 \| R20 MT - 4158, ST - 534, CPU-Z MT 4798, ST 603

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System boots slow when left powered off for long

itsakjt

Devil1950

IceScreamer

itsakjt

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Caring1

enxo218

itsakjt

DeathtoGnomes

itsakjt

silentbogo

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itsakjt

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itsakjt

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