Strange issue: 20 seconds to POST on cold start?

**Stifle** · January 19th, 2010, 08:10 AM

Disconnected SATA optical drive, 80Gb hard drive still disconnected... No change

**CCT** · January 19th, 2010, 08:33 AM

"near room temperature on CPU"

Say, 70 F ?? That's the critical temp for, say, a Phenom.

So, what specific cpu and what exact temp?

**clauded** · January 19th, 2010, 06:51 PM

(Say, 70 F ?? That's the critical temp for, say, a Phenom.)this is running cool enough,this farenheit and,if it was celsius 70C is on the hot side,beside i would bet on flaky ram module,run a mem check up program and yyou will find the culprit,my 2 cents

**CCT** · January 19th, 2010, 07:10 PM

WOW! Did I screw up - sorry.

Yes, C versus F - I apologize.

**slgrieb** · January 19th, 2010, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by CCT

WOW! Did I screw up - sorry.

Yes, C versus F - I apologize.

People who have made them tell me mistakes can be embarrassing.

Back to the slow POST, I really expected one of the drives going bad and causing detection issues to be the problem. Oh, well. So, clauded's memory theory certainly looks plausible. We should be able to rule out issues with jumper settings because unplugging the drives didn't seem to change the start time.

This might be due to Undetermined Motherboard Weirdness. As in, "I've replaced every single part in this *#%@@! thing, so it must be..." Joking aside, this might just be one of those problems you can't really resolve until some component fails completely. I'm sure it's frustrating, but if the system is stable once it's running, I don't know that I'd sweat it too much.

**Stifle** · January 19th, 2010, 07:45 PM

Ill run a memcheck to be sure on the RAM

I agree that it seems like a triviality however it is somewhat concerning to wait that long...

**Stifle** · January 20th, 2010, 08:02 AM

Memcheck from Windows 7 boot menu turned up no problems with the RAM

As for the temperature issue, my PC idles at around 90-95F, or around 32-37C
Could the CPU be too cold upon start up because of the quite large heat-sink that I have attached?

**CCT** · January 20th, 2010, 11:45 AM

'Could the CPU be too cold'

Nope.

You should, however, have the Bios alert you for cpu high temp and cpu fan fail (PC Health Status area).

Have a look in the Bios under Advanced and what is the boot order?

**slgrieb** · January 20th, 2010, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by Stifle

Ill run a memcheck to be sure on the RAM

I agree that it seems like a triviality however it is somewhat concerning to wait that long...

If you have access to different memory that you know works, I would try swapping the memory in preference to the memory tests. It would be quicker, and probably a more reliable indicator of memory problems. To get fairly reliable results on memory diagnostics, they need to run for hours.

**Guts3d** · January 20th, 2010, 12:41 PM

Quick question, are there any USB drives or devices connected? Is it set to boot from hard drive only in BIOS?

**Stifle** · January 20th, 2010, 01:21 PM

-Boot device priority is set for Hard drive first then CD then Floppy.

-No USB Devices besides Keyboard, mouse, printer, and a couple loose USB or Firewire to connect to camera/video camera.

-I do not have any alternate memory sticks to swap in. I only ran a twice through memory check this morning, I can run it overnight tonight if that would make a difference in noticing any errors in the memory.

**slgrieb** · January 20th, 2010, 01:48 PM

memory diagnostics are the least accurate of all diagnostic software, so running something like Windows Memory Diagnostic in Extended mode, or MemTest 86+ overnight may reveal problems that you won't see in shorter tests.

**pbolduc** · January 21st, 2010, 02:24 AM

This is getting way to technical and I think your problem is really quite simple. Your problem is most likely caused by either a USB printer with a smart card reader or USB IPOD or USB mass storage thumb drive being connected while the computer first POSTS. I've seen this a million times. Try disconnecting any USB peripherals like what i've mentioned then turn on your computer. If that corrects the problem which i am sure it will. Go into your BIOS and disable USB legacy support. As long as you don't use a USB keyboard you'll be fine turning this feature off. Make sure you are using a PS/2 Keyboard. There is also another alternative. Let me know how you make out.

In my initial post I forgot to mention that this could also be caused by an internal\external smart card reader for memory cards. During POST the BIOS attempts to boot or initialize this device as a bootable disk and hangs the system for roughly 25 to 40 seconds before booting to the operating system. By disabling legacy USB you'll stop the BIOS from detecting these usb devices during the POST process.

**Stifle** · January 22nd, 2010, 07:40 AM

Ill try your suggestion Pbolduc, Currently I have a USB keyboard, mouse, printer, a loose firewire 400 dongle and a loose USB dongle attached to the PC at all times.

I can use a PS-2 adapter for the Keyboard and then disable Legacy USB support, though ill need to disconnect the printer(which has an onboard USB port btw...

Ill let you know how it works out

**pbolduc** · January 22nd, 2010, 11:28 AM

I would be very careful with those adapters from USB to PS2. Unless it shipped with that keyboard and that keyboard was made to support those adapters I wouldn't rely on it. I've seen those adapters come faulty right out of a brand new microsoft keyboard retail box many many times. I would test your keyboard using that PS2 adapter before disabling the legacy usb just to make sure the adapter will work first. I honestly cant tell you how many of those adapters i've had to throw out but its more than 200.