A8N- SLI slow boot?

[rugbyguy]

My new system seems to boot slow. Slower than my xp2500. Any suggestions? It benchmarks fine on 3dmark03 and 05 (8600 and 3500 respectively at stock settings). Also, I am guessing that b4 I try to oc anything I need to lock my pci to 33.33? At any rate...I love the board. Was a little hesitant to switch from MSI as I have had very good luck with them.
Here are my specs:

AMD64 3500+
A8N-SLI Deluxe
2x512 PC3200 Samsung
MSI NX6600GT PCI-e 128MB
WD 120G 7200RPM
Antec SL450 Watt PSU
3.3v/28a 5v/40a 12v/20a

 

[nitro28]

By slow, what do you mean 1-2 minutes, 30 seconds? Mine boots in about 15-20 seconds with a similar set up. Do you have a lot of programs that have to load at start-up? Is you HD your 1st boot device?

 

[rugbyguy]

It takes about 30 secs I am guessing...which seems slow to me. I do not have but two or three programs that load at boot. Windows boots quick, its the screen where it gives the commands to enter the raid set-up where it seems to lag. It may just be normal, I am just curious is all.

 

[rugbyguy]

Also, I am guessing that b4 I try to oc anything I need to lock my pci to 33.33?

 

[nitro28]

are you running raid? if not disable the silicon raid controller. that screen sits there for a good 5-10 seconds asking you to enter the raid setup unless you hit enter each time.

 

[rugbyguy]

That fixed it. Thanks

 

[JJLEWIN]

thats a fast boot mine take up to 5 min. to boot have any ideas ??

 

[ahurtt]

JJLEWIN, at what point does it take a long time? Where is it hanging? There is no way anybody can help you with no details. You need to be as specific as possible about what exactly happens when you try to boot. . .what screens you see, etc. . .

 

[JJLEWIN]

Ok sorry im new at this
When windows first starts up ( Black screen with a scan bar in the middle )
Does that help ?

Thanks for the help .

 

[Chism]

My comp with the A8N-SLI Dlx also boots slow. I followed the advice above about disabling the RAID controller. It did speed it up by skipping that screen but I still sit at the first screen that shows the equipment specs. It says it is detecting IDE devices for 1+ minute before moving on. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: JJLEWIN
Ok sorry im new at this
When windows first starts up ( Black screen with a scan bar in the middle )
Does that help ?

Thanks for the help .

Did it always start this slow? What kind of hard drive do you have? Did you do a fresh install of Windows when you setup this system?

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: Chism
My comp with the A8N-SLI Dlx also boots slow. I followed the advice above about disabling the RAID controller. It did speed it up by skipping that screen but I still sit at the first screen that shows the equipment specs. It says it is detecting IDE devices for 1+ minute before moving on. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Does it ever finally detect the hard drive?

 

[Chism]

Yes, it does detect the hard drive and dvd/cd. The hard drive is a WD Caviar 120GB and the dvd/cd is an Artec 16x/52x. Everything is new. It has always been slow at this point in the boot process. The computer appears to run fine otherwise.

Well, there is the problem that it won't come back from standby with the mouse/keyboard, only the power button.

Thanks,

 

[chris935]

How do you disable the silicon raid controller - in the BIOS setup?

 

[eddo26]

same here how do u disable it?? helpppppp
lol

 

[Chism]

To disable the RAID controller:

Go into the bios...follow these menu trees
-Advanced
-On board device config
- Silicon SATA controller
- set to [Disabled]

This only made it skip one step in the boot process. Mine still takes over 1.5 minutes to reach the WinXP boot. Only 10 sec for Wxp to reach the user log on screen. If anyone has a solution I would sure appreciate it.

 

[Savagestorm]

Read this Asus A8N-SLI FAQ. My bios literally takes 15 seconds to post and I'm in windows read to go well under a minute.

 

[Chism]

Which bios version are you using? I'm using 1003 final.

 

[akugami]

A common problem is not having a floppy drive installed but the computer's bios is set to look for one. This can be a problem with slow startups and also when you open up "My computer" since it's looking for a floppy drive when there is none. My system takes less than a minute to get to the Windows desktop from the time I push power.

 

[Chism]

I double checked to be sure...floppy is diabled. Are all the recommended settings for the dvd/cd auto or should I set them to specific values?

 

[Chism]

On another forum, someone told me to set my hard drive to Single instead of Master. It worked like a charm. If I hadn't been a noob maybe I would have known but...

 

[SkyBum]

Originally posted by: Chism
To disable the RAID controller:

Go into the bios...follow these menu trees
-Advanced
-On board device config
- Silicon SATA controller
- set to [Disabled]

Will this cause any problems when using a single sata hard drive or does it only effect raid?

 

[ahurtt]

If you disable the Silicon SATA controller, you cannot use any drive on the Silicon (red) plugs in RAID configuration or otherwise. So yes, it will cause problems if you want to connect your drive to the Silicon controller as it basically turns the whole controller off. Understand that RAID is just a configuration for how you set up your drives. You could have RAID on either SATA or PATA, it doesn't matter. The controller just has to support drives configured in RAID setup. If you turn off the whole controller, of course you cannot use any drives on it.

 

[SkyBum]

Mysata drive is connected on the SATA (black) connection. Just to be sure, turning off the silicon sata controller will only effect the red (sata raid) connections or the red AND black?

Sorry, but this is a bit confusing to me....

 

[akugami]

Disabling the Silicon SATA controller will only disable the red SATA connectors. The black ones will be fine, in fact my boot drive which is a 74GB Raptor is connected to the Black 1 connector.