BIOS slow POST on MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk

[Matalke]

Hello there!

I have some sad issue here. Here's my rig:

Mobo: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
RAM: Crucial Ballistic 4x8GB 2666MHz
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Super Gaming X
PSU: Thermaltake Smart SE 530W
OS Drive: NVME Samsung 960 EVO

Here's the deal - around year ago I've replaced CPU, Mobo and RAM. The OS Drive, PSU and GPU worked well on my previous RIG (i5 4690K and MSI Z97 GAMING 3) - time from pushing power to boot was somewhere near 7s I guess.

Now, this time is 36 seconds. There are two phases, first is before seeing MSI splash screen and loading circle, second is time from loading circle to appear and OS start (PIN screen). The first one is around 22 seconds, the second one is around 12-14 seconds. I've narrowed down the second time - when I unplug my old HDD, this goes down to only 7 seconds, which is acceptable. However, there is still the first part. My mobo has some fancy leds to identify the problems, and there I have CPU led which hangs for around 10 seconds and GPU led which hangs for another 10-15 seconds. RAM led just blinks and goes straight to the GPU. I have the newest BIOS available.

Someone on reddit wrote that he has exactly same mobo and cpu and for him the time from push to pin is 6-7 seconds.

I don't have any problems in Windows, I don't even remember if I had any blue screen in the past.

So, I'm looking for a way to reduce that first time down. I believe it is called POST time (until BIOS 'kicks in') but I'm not sure

Thanks for every advice!

[paddy-stone]

Did you reinstall windows after the hardware changes? That seems the most likely culprit from your story.

[Matalke]

17 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Did you reinstall windows after the hardware changes? That seems the most likely culprit from your story.

I think that has nothing to do with Windows, but yes, I've reinstalled windows. Main problem is BIOS taking long time to boot, not windows itself (that's quite fast after disconnecting old HDD).

[GuiltySpark_]

Take out two sticks of RAM but leave the two in A2, B2. 

 

Reset the CMOS and start re-testing and let us know what happens regarding timing. 

[Matalke]

So that's my tests so far:

I've resetted CMOS, unplugged SSD and HDD (only m.2 stayed), changed boot priority, inserted ubuntu install usb drive and got: 16.02 - the MSI splash screen with "press del for bios" is only visible for like half a second, no white loading circle. It's splash screen and almost instantly Ubuntu kicks in.

Then I tried same with M.2: around 21s

Then I tried M.2 with GPU unplugged: around 21s

Then I resetted CMOS, put out 1st pair of rams and M.2 test: around 21s

Switched 1st pair with 2nd pair of RAM: around 21s

Put back two pairs of RAM: around 21s

Put back my HDD and SSD: around 33s

 

Everything is around because I'm measuring time for windows welcome message (only way I could check without inserted GPU).

Generally, the 12 seconds lag with both drives plugged is acceptable for me (I can only switch old HDD to get better results, I guess).

 

So I have two culprits left:

Either motherboard or CPU. Am I wrong? I don't see a way to test that.

[paddy-stone]

On 10/10/2022 at 3:27 PM, Matalke said:

I think that has nothing to do with Windows, but yes, I've reinstalled windows. Main problem is BIOS taking long time to boot, not windows itself (that's quite fast after disconnecting old HDD).

Boot times is time taken to boot into OS... that's why I asked about reinstalling windows. If you had not reinstalled windows there was a chance that the old drivers etc were holding up the system booting faster.

 

What you're actually experiencing is slow POST times. There should be a setting in the BIOS/UEFI for fast boot, and probably another for skipping checking for legacy devices. Be aware that turning on fast boot will skip you being able to enter bios/uefi, and you would need to reset CMOS to be able to get back into bios, and you'd have to re-input bios settings. So my advice would be to first find out how to save your bios settings in case of having to reset cmos before doing anything else.

If the above doesn't sort out your long POST times, then I'd also look into setting your ram to defaults, and see if that fixes it, as it could be trying to load your ram settings at POST, and not being able to, then having to restart with defaults.... as I can't see what you're seeing it's harder to be sure of that, but with the long POST times, it could be possible.