Intel tips for a fast boot

**RipplingHurst** · 11-13-2009, 12:09 AM

Well, I have a DG45FC and I'm not very impressed with the boot times I'm getting.

25.8 sec until the beep. (including about 5sec it takes from M4 to start the thing), so to be fair is like 20 secs.

15.2 Win7 resume from hibernation.
total: 41s.

Cold boot:

5 sec. M4
20.7 BIOS
32s. Win7 32
total: 57.7s. from IGN on. Not good, thanks to this Intel Bios.

Fully loaded with all USB ports, GPS, bluetooth, Camera, JoyCon, etc.

So today I came accross some very interesting tips for speeding up the bios side of boot up process from intel. Some are obvious, some not so much - for me anyway. I'll post them all anyway for future reference.

Resolving Slow Boot Times

Check the following tips to speed up the boot time of your computer.

Set the hard drive as the first boot device in the boot order in the BIOS setup (Boot > Boot Device Priority menu).
Enable Intel® Rapid BIOS boot in the BIOS setup (Boot menu).
Disable Hard Disk Pre-Delay in the BIOS Setup (Advanced > Drive Configuration menu).
Disable system functions and features if you do not need them. Examples include:
- Legacy USB - this must be enabled if you use a USB keyboard or USB mouse outside the Windows* environment (Advanced > USB Configuration).
- Unused I/O ports, such as serial, parallel and IEEE-1394 ports (Advanced > Peripheral Configuration menu).
- Event logging (Advanced > Event Log Configuration menu).

Refer to Optimization Tip - Device Boot Order for additional information on reducing boot times.

(here)

And also:

Peripheral Selection and Configuration
The following techniques help improve system boot speed:

Choose a hard drive with parameters such as "power-up to data ready" less than eight seconds to minimize hard drive startup delays.
Select a CD-ROM drive with a fast initialization rate. This rate can influence POST execution time.
Eliminate unnecessary add-in adapter features, such as logo displays, screen repaints, or mode changes in POST. These features may add time to the boot process.
Try different monitors. Some monitors initialize and communicate with the BIOS more quickly, which enables the system to boot more quickly.

Intel® Rapid BIOS Boot
Use of the following BIOS Setup program settings reduces the POST execution time. In the Boot Menu:

Set the hard disk drive as the first boot device. As a result, the POST will not first seek a diskette drive, which saves about one second from the POST execution time.
Disable Silent Boot, which eliminates display of the logo splash screen. This could save several seconds of painting complex graphic images and changing video modes.
Enable Intel® Rapid BIOS Boot. This feature bypasses memory count and the search for a diskette drive.

In the Peripheral Configuration submenu, disable the LAN device if it will not be used. This can reduce up to four seconds of option ROM boot time.

(here)

**jessekilner** · 11-13-2009, 01:58 AM

interesting.. very nice research. Im building a D945 Im giving this post a thumbs up.

**justchat_1** · 11-13-2009, 03:14 AM

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

Choose a hard drive with parameters such as "power-up to data ready" less than eight seconds to minimize hard drive startup delays.

Where is that from? it looks ancient!

Anyway attached is the guide I recommend to people trying to speed up boots-its about as good as you can do short of a custom BIOS (which i've learned not to help people with -it tends to be ugly when it doesn't go well).

**RipplingHurst** · 11-13-2009, 12:20 PM

I wonder how many seconds I'm loosing due to the fact that I use a DVI-VGA adapter. Didn't know that BIOS would care about which monitor I'm using -- as long as there is one, this should be enough as far as BIOS is concerned --, I was surprised to see Intel saying that some can communicate faster than others. I wonder how lilliput and xenarc fare on this regard. I hate the fact there's no drivers/color profile for them. Makes it so difficult to get 16:9 resolutions...

Interestingly, it quantifies how many seconds you lose by not chosing the HD as the first drive. Also it recomends NOT to use the splash screen/silent boot, and it does make sense...my monitor flickers a lot on start up...

Is that a way to get rid of the 5 secs I'm losing with the PSU? I said M4, but actually it's the DSATX - the M4 is for my next project.

**Morpheus2010** · 11-13-2009, 12:20 PM

this is really good information. i just upgraded my pc and need to do this

**popi79** · 11-13-2009, 01:53 PM

So how many seconds did you saved???

**justchat_1** · 11-13-2009, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

I wonder how many seconds I'm loosing due to the fact that I use a DVI-VGA adapter. Didn't know that BIOS would care about which monitor I'm using -- as long as there is one, this should be enough as far as BIOS is concerned --, I was surprised to see Intel saying that some can communicate faster than others. I wonder how lilliput and xenarc fare on this regard. I hate the fact there's no drivers/color profile for them. Makes it so difficult to get 16:9 resolutions...

The bios won't care what monitor your using...notice boot time won't change even with no monitor connected at all.

The only thing video wise that will effect boot time is the video card and its initialization time. Some video cards have a separate bios that can be enabled or disabled and adds to boot time. Do a search on toms hardware for BIOS benchmarks, you'll find a lot of the official tips like disable the logo are complete BS on a modern motherboard (aka no measurable difference).

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

Interestingly, it quantifies how many seconds you lose by not chosing the HD as the first drive.

Absolutely...and IRQ assignment delay is a big one too in that category.

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

Also it recomends NOT to use the splash screen/silent boot, and it does make sense...my monitor flickers a lot on start up...

Monitor flicker and startup time have no correlation....the flicker you see from screen resolution changes on the monitor happens between the video card and the monitor and has no impact on the bios.

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

Is that a way to get rid of the 5 secs I'm losing with the PSU? I said M4, but actually it's the DSATX - the M4 is for my next project.

Couldn't tell you with the DSATX but with the m4 make sure to get the USB jumper with it and you can change every setting imaginable (including startup delay on each of the rails).

**RipplingHurst** · 11-13-2009, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by justchat_1

Where is that from? it looks ancient!

DId you click on the links? It comes from intel. Pages created in 2004 and last updated in Feb 2008, unlike this one you posted above:

Anyway attached is the guide I recommend to people trying to speed up boots-its about as good as you can do short of a custom BIOS (which i've learned not to help people with -it tends to be ugly when it doesn't go well).

Check on the properties on the pdf file: last modified in 2001.

**RipplingHurst** · 11-13-2009, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by justchat_1

The bios won't care what monitor your using...notice boot time won't change even with no monitor connected at all.

The only thing video wise that will effect boot time is the video card and its initialization time. Some video cards have a separate bios that can be enabled or disabled and adds to boot time. Do a search on toms hardware for BIOS benchmarks, you'll find a lot of the official tips like disable the logo are complete BS on a modern motherboard (aka no measurable difference).

Absolutely...and IRQ assignment delay is a big one too in that category. Monitor flicker and startup time have no correlation....the flicker you see from screen resolution changes on the monitor happens between the video card and the monitor and has no impact on the bios.

Couldn't tell you with the DSATX but with the m4 make sure to get the USB jumper with it and you can change every setting imaginable (including startup delay on each of the rails).

Well, even inside windows, with latestest video drivers, you change your resolution, it's not instant. It takes at least a sec. if not two.

I do think this dvi-to-vga dongle is not helping, specially after reading this. And thanks for the info on the M4, very helpful that! Why do they put 5 sec? 2 sec should be more than enough now a days...for whatever reason they do it.

**tripzero** · 11-13-2009, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

Well, even inside windows, with latestest video drivers, you change your resolution, it's not instant. It takes at least a sec. if not two.

I do think this dvi-to-vga dongle is not helping, specially after reading this. And thanks for the info on the M4, very helpful that! Why do they put 5 sec? 2 sec should be more than enough now a days...for whatever reason they do it.

That's likely your monitor adjusting to the change, not the video card or the system. As far as the video card is concerned, it's just allocating more memory than it was before. The bios isn't concerned at all. In fact, the bios will happily continue even if your monitor hasn't displayed anything yet (sometimes my lcd isn't even on before I'm already past post and booting the OS).