Win7 on solid state drive - much slower boot when headphones plugged in

[luger]

Dell XPS 8300 running Win7 SP1 64-bit. Had a boot hard drive, which I just switched out for a SATA III SSD. I did a fresh install of Win7 on the SSD along with drivers and Windows updates. Windows boots quickly if no headphones are plugged into the jack (onboard Realtek audio). But if headphones are plugged in, boot time slows to a crawl, going from ~20sec from power button pressed to Windows login prompt to ~2min.

The audio drivers in the old setup (which I'll refer to as the "HDD system") and the new setup ("SSD system") are as follows:

HDD system audio drivers in Device Mgr:
- AMD High Definition Audio Device
- Intel(R) Display Audio
- Realtek High Definition Audio

SSD system audio drivers in Device Mgr:
- AMD High Definition Audio Device
- High Definition Audio Device
- Realtek High Definition Audio

Other than this, all drivers between the 2 systems look the same. I'm not sure how the HDD system got the Intel(R) Display Audio driver as I used the same Dell audio driver package for both installs, but the HDD system has been in use for a couple of years, so lots of Windows updates and who knows what other changes.

Now the SSD system is booting up quickly even with the headphones/speakers plugged into the audio out jack. But it would load slower if the power on the speakers was turned on. But that only lasted for a few power cycles. After that, it booted at the same speed whether the speakers plugged into the audio out jack were powered on or off.

Confusing and frustrating. Windows load times from one boot to the next can be different, with all obvious conditions remaining exactly the same. I guess I'll press on and load up my software and hope the slow boot doesn't return.

 

[luger]

So much for pressing on. Got another slow boot, with the following message:

Failed to connect to a windows service.
Windows could not connect to the System Event Notification Service service.

There's a huge thread on this in the Microsoft Community forum with no certain resolution: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...em-event/e8de1ee3-159f-4dae-9e9e-9a648cd85478

I swear my next computer is going to be a Mac!

OK, so I'm thinking this is related to the audio driver difference as that's the only obvious driver difference between the SSD and HDD systems.

 

[Anteaus]

Maybe try a dedicated sound card? I'm curious if this is actually a motherboard related issue. Problems of this nature are often related to specific hardware/driver combinations.

Another question, were you running in AHCI mode before the SSD or switch to it after the install?

 

[luger]

Maybe try a dedicated sound card? I'm curious if this is actually a motherboard related issue. Problems of this nature are often related to specific hardware/driver combinations.

Another question, were you running in AHCI mode before the SSD or switch to it after the install?

I'm running the same machine - only hardware difference is switching from HDD to SSD. So I don't think it's a motherboard or any other hardware issue. I think it's a driver/software issue.

The BIOS on this computer only has two modes in the SATA setting - AHCI and RAID. I had it on AHCI before the Win7 install.

 

[luger]

Starting to wonder if the issue isn't my brand spanking new SATA III Sandisk SSD. One slightly odd thing I've noticed relates to the physical SATA connection - the SATA cable has a little locking tab (the kind you press to release the tab so you can pull the connector out of the port), and this connector fully seats on the SATA port on the motherboard such that you can hear a slight 'click' as the locking tab engages. No such click when connecting to the SSD. In fact, once when I thought it was connected, the system didn't find a boot device. Turns out the cable wasn't fully seated. But without that locking engagement, it's hard to tell when it's fully seated.

Though I'd think a loose connection would result in boot device not found errors, not the kind of slow (and variable) boot time issues I'm seeing.

But I'm at a loss for what else could be the issue, so might try to get another SSD or connector or both to try.

 

[Ketchup]

I would try another cable. Other than that my only other recommendations would be make sure device manager isn't reporting problems and errors in device manager. You might want to see what a SMART test reveals.

 

[luger]

I would try another cable. Other than that my only other recommendations would be make sure device manager isn't reporting problems and errors in device manager. You might want to see what a SMART test reveals.

Yeah, I think that was the problem. I switched from the original cable, which had a straight connector (with locking tab) going into the SSD, to a cable with a 90* connector going into the SSD.

Night and day difference in how solid the connection felt in my hand. Even without a locking tab, it was obvious when the cable was fully seated. On first boot after changing the cable, there was a noticeable improvement in responsiveness - no lagging, no hesitation, just smooth and fast.

Rather than build on a system installed using that lousy SSD connection, or go back to an earlier backup image made under the same lousy connection (who knows what errors were introduced), I redid a fresh install. When I installed the drivers, the restarts were much quicker. Running Windows Update now and getting ~170 updates. This will be the true test as to whether the connection was the sole problem, as I really started running into slow boots after getting all these Windows updates the first time around.

Lesson learned - a shoddy connection need not result in fatal and obvious errors (like "no boot device"). It can introduce much more subtle errors, which in some ways are worse because they are so random seeming! The boot times with the lousy connection would vary from blazing fast to slower than my HDD, all without my making any changes from one boot to the next, which was driving me nuts. With the solid connection, boot times are consistently fast.

 

[Ketchup]

Good to hear!

 

[luger]

Just to wrap this up, I pulled all the Windows updates, installed a bunch of apps, and the SSD is showing very consistent boot times from one power cycle to the next. Totally different behavior than what I experienced with that bad cable connection, where boot times and general responsiveness varied wildly from one power cycle to the next.

 

[Compman55]

I wonder how a loose connection allowed the system to operate. If this was working, I am surprised there was not data loss / corruption.

 

[luger]

I wonder how a loose connection allowed the system to operate. If this was working, I am surprised there was not data loss / corruption.

Yeah, as mentioned earlier, I'm very surprised that there was this level of functionality, rather than just a 'No boot device found' type error.

There was definitely corruption. In addition to the highly variable boot times, there were various errors, such as the "Failed to connect to a windows service." error I posted about. I was going nuts trying to research all these errors and find Windows hotfixes, etc. That was what led me to suspect the SSD or connection. I've done dozens of fresh OS installs and never experienced these kinds of problems.

I wasn't really using the system beyond installing Windows and drivers, but I'm sure if I were using it, more errors would pop up. That's why I started the OS install from scratch once I discovered the cable connection issue - no way to know how many gremlins were hidden away in the build using the faulty connection.

But yeah, definitely an eye opener that a faulty hardware connection would yield such a non-binary result.

 

[Ketchup]

I found this out with the system in my sig, SSD's are VERY sensitive when it comes to data cables - data is just going through them much more quickly compared to hard disk drives.

Story time - I switched from a WD Black to my SSD on the same sata cable (which was fine on the Black), and started getting freezes (got maybe 2, several weeks apart). Upon reboot, the system didn't see the SSD until I reseated the cable. I switched to a newer SATA cable and haven't had a problem since. I spoke with a friend of mine who has had similar experiences.

 

[luger]

I found this out with the system in my sig, SSD's are VERY sensitive when it comes to data cables - data is just going through them much more quickly compared to hard disk drives.

Makes sense. Crazy that it will 'mostly' work because that can set one up for disaster via data corruption. Much better if it would fail outright (i.e., not boot).

In my case, outright failure would have taken mere minutes to diagnose vs hours wasted because I experienced high, but slightly flawed, functionality.