Suddenly PC takes almost 5 minutes to boot. I suspect that the problem is MB-related

[Quiverism]

Before anything, these are my system's components:

• GPU EVGA GTX 980
• MB Asus TUF B360M-E GAMING
• CPU Intel i5 8400
• RAM Team DDR4 8GB T-Force DELTA x2 (both have the same brand, model and size, only the frecuency is different. Old one is 2666, new one is 3000).
• PSU XFX XRT 750w Full Modular.

Everything started a couple months ago when I did a small upgrade to my PC (bought an extra RAM stick and an SSD and did a clean windows 10 install on it). Everything worked perfectly for the first 2 weeks, but out of nowhere my PC would sometimes not turn on unless I cut the power to the PSU for a few seconds. A couple days later I realized it's not that "the PC doesn't turn on" but instead it just takes a LONG time to even post anything.

I don't know if I'm using the the term "post" properly... What I'm trying to say is that it takes almost 5 minutes for the PC to give ANY KIND of visual output to the monitor (though interestingly the RGB on the ram sticks and on the MB do turn on instantly even if everything else doesn't), but once it does the startup process goes super smooth and fast (like I said, Windows is in the new SSD). Other than that... there really isn't any other problems, the PC works perfectly when turned on.

By the way... when I say "sometimes" It was pretty much a 50/50 whether it would take an insane amount of time to give any output.

This is the list of things I tried, but the problem persisted:

• Took everything out (even resit the CPU), gave the case and all the components a good clean with canned air and a brush, and put everything back in.
• Thought maybe the new RAM stick was the problem so I took it out and left only the old one.
• Updated BIOS.
• Bought a new PSU cable (the one i had was pretty old).
• Thought maybe the problem was related to my case, so I unhooked everything case-related from the MB and tried jump-starting the PC with a screwdriver.
• Cleared CMOS.
• I swapped any power cables I had an extra of (XFX XTR 750 is fully modular and comes with some extras): SATA, PCI-E and MOLEX.
• Hooked up the PC to a different UPS and power outlet.

As the days went on I got more worried as the 50/50 chance I mentioned lowered steadily... Got to the point that almost everytime the PC would take a LOT of times to boot.

This is when things get complicated: At this point I thought the ONLY thing I had left to rule out was my PSU, so borrowed my brother's PC. Got his PSU hooked up to my rig and it turned on instantly! I thought this pretty much identified my PSU as the problem, but just to be sure I hooked up my supposedly faulty PSU to my brother's PC... AND IT TURNED ON NO PROBLEM! Honestly I was pretty lost... why would my PSU worked perfectly on my brother´s and not in mine? Didn´t make much sense to me, so I tried hooking my PSU back into my PC... and now it works no problem!? I was at a complete loss, but as long as my PC works I guess I was willing to forget all this.

The thing is... after 2 weeks of this "psu temporary swap fix" the problem has come back, again out of complete nowhere. So yeah... I have no idea what to do now, It doesn't help that the problem is not consistent. My PSU worked perfectly with my brother's PC, so that means it must be the motherboard, right? I think I've ruled out pretty much everything else.

[callmejaccob]

Go into the bios and see if fast boot is enabled, if not, then enable it. Also, do you have your SSD set to the main boot drive?

[nick name]

Do you have any external drives connected via USB?  This can also include your phone.  

[ewitte]

When I changed motherboards it took something like 30+ minutes to boot.  I found an SSD which was disabled in windows (was going to use for Linux) but failed.  As soon as I physically disconnected that drive it booted right up.

[Quiverism]

1 hour ago, callmejaccob said:

Go into the bios and see if fast boot is enabled, if not, then enable it. Also, do you have your SSD set to the main boot drive?

Yes, and yes.

1 hour ago, nick name said:

Do you have any external drives connected via USB?  This can also include your phone.  

Nope.

 

23 minutes ago, ewitte said:

When I changed motherboards it took something like 30+ minutes to boot.  I found an SSD which was disabled in windows (was going to use for Linux) but failed.  As soon as I physically disconnected that drive it booted right up.

After almost everyone asking storage-related things it hit me: Even though Windows is installed in the brand new SSD, pretty much everything else is in the pretty old HDD (now that I think about it... I´ve had for around 6-7 years) and maybe that´s whats causing problems, so decided to check for S.M.A.R.T values on both just to see how they were doing.
Old Seagate HDD S.M.A.R.T values: 

 

New Kingston SSD S.M.A.R.T values: 

Honestly I don´t really know much about reading S.M.A.R.T. values, but someone here could.
When I return later today i will take the Old HDD out and try to turn on the PC to see if that´s the problem.

[nick name]

It may also be the SATA port you're using.  I mention because I've read reports of users installing into the last ports and that caused slow boot issues for them.  It was in a board with 6 SATA ports and they were using either port 5 or 6.  

[Quiverism]

7 minutes ago, nick name said:

It may also be the SATA port you're using.  I mention because I've read reports of users installing into the last ports and that caused slow boot issues for them.  It was in a board with 6 SATA ports and they were using either port 5 or 6.  

Damn, I´m actually using port 5 and 6. Gonna move them and try to see if it´s fixed!

[nick name]

1 hour ago, Quiverism said:

Damn, I´m actually using port 5 and 6. Gonna move them and try to see if it´s fixed!

 Let us know!

[Quiverism]

On 2/27/2020 at 2:32 PM, nick name said:

 Let us know!

Got some good news! @nick name @ewitte @callmejaccob

 

Changed the drives to ports 1&3 (2 is blocked by the GPU) and the PC only takes 30 seconds to actually boot instead of 5 minutes!

 

So... It´s kinda fixed I guess (before I had this problem the PC would boot in less than 10s). But I´m still pretty confused... before it didn´t matter if I used the first few SATA ports (I´m pretty sure I´ve never them), so why would it matter now? Plus why is the problem so inconsistent? Sometimes it boots normally, some other times it just takes longer, and there´s no pattern I can identify.

 

Also, this means the problem is MB-related, right?

[nick name]

1 minute ago, Quiverism said:

Got some good news! @nick name @ewitte @callmejaccob

 

Changed the drives to ports 1&3 (2 is blocked by the GPU) and the PC only takes 30 seconds to actually boot instead of 5 minutes!

 

So... It´s kinda fixed I guess (before I had this problem the PC would boot in less than 10s). But I´m still pretty confused... before it didn´t matter if I used the first few SATA ports (I´m pretty sure I´ve never them), so why would it matter now? Plus why is the problem so inconsistent? Sometimes it boots normally, some other times it just takes longer, and there´s no pattern I can identify.

 

Also, this means the problem is MB-related, right?

HA!  I win!  Glad to see you got it sorted.  

 

And yeah -- motherboard related.