Computer Related > Power On Self Test has become very slow Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Victorbox Replies: 16
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 Tue 31 May 11 10:20 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Victorbox
One for all you PC hardware gurus. 4 year old Mesh PC with ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard with one SATA hard disk and one DVD drive connected. PC still works perfectly once booted into Windows 7, but all of a sudden it takes 30 to 40 seconds completing the Power On Self Test at boot up. The splash screen with BIOS info should normally wiz through the screen a few seconds after pressing power button but now the PC sits there for 30 seconds randomly accessing Hard Disk and DVD drive judging by the lights on each. After 30 to 40 seconds the OK beep sounds, the splash screen shoots through screen and Windows loads normally. I've tried resetting BIOS to default and disconnected DVD drive to see if it was this that is faulty. I've tweaked every setting I can think of in the BIOS including checking that Fast Boot is selected. On the Web it's suggested it could be something as simple as a failing CMOS battery or that either the DVD drive or Hard Disk could be failing and sending confusing info to the BIOS, but any other suggestions welcome. Also is wiping the CMOS by removing the battery and moving the motherboard jumpers to wipe CMOS any different to setting BIOS to default settings? Thanks.
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 Tue 31 May 11 16:09 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - RattleandSmoke
It might be that the settings for fast boot isn't being correctly written. A faulty CMOS does sound likely, I've seen similar problems before. If it was the battery you would loose the time once you remove the power to the power supply.

Make sure that any settings for extending memory testing is turned off.

If the hard drive was so faulty that it was causing the boot test to runs slow I doubt it would work enough to boot into Windows.

Have you tried swapping the SATA cable and also tried using a different SATA header on the motherboard?

I am very familiar with your board and it is a fantastic motherboard but I have seen a couple of failures, usually caused by power supply issues because they are running a full SLI setup with a useless PSU.
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 Tue 31 May 11 19:18 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - smokie
Any external devices connected e.g. USB drive, not necessarily turned on?

And yes, I think wiping by jumpers would be more definitive than resetting in BIOS.
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 31 May 11 at 19:19
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 Tue 31 May 11 19:25 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - RattleandSmoke
Very good point, might be worth checking the boot order too, in case its set to something silly like

1) Floppy
2) USB
3) HD

etc.

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 Tue 31 May 11 20:04 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Victorbox
Thanks for both sets of suggestions. By a faulty CMOS do you mean permanently faulty or one that can be fixed by removing battery and moving jumpers to reset it? I did think about a faulty SATA cable but why would the DVD drive also be reading away at the same time as the hard disk. The DVD drive is I assume IDE?
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 Tue 31 May 11 20:06 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - RattleandSmoke
If the DVD has a grey ribbon then yes that is IDE. Have you checked the RIAD settings and SATA settings in the BIOS?

When you removed the battery did you remove the power cable? If not then you would not have reset the CMOS. Using the jumper is the best way to do it.

Potentially the BIOS can become faulty, it is rare but seen it a few times.
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 Tue 31 May 11 21:24 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - rtj70
Do you mean RIAD as in: Risks Issues Assumptions and Dependencies or more likely RAID as in Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.
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 Tue 31 May 11 21:34 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - RattleandSmoke
I meant RAID, was a typo :).
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 Wed 1 Jun 11 06:56 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Victorbox
>> I meant RAID, was a typo :).

I knew what you meant......
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 Thu 2 Jun 11 09:11 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Zero
Change the battery on the BIOS, it could be loosing the disk configuration between boots.

Also could be

faulty disk (on its way out)
USB device plugged (take all USB stuff out)
A card in the card reader if you have one.
Some motherboards came with an AV in the BIOS, check and disable it if you have one.


Never know a BIOS fail per say, except when flashed to upgrade.

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 Fri 3 Jun 11 15:56 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Victorbox
I solved my problem and created another. I had never connected the longer boot time with the replacement of a dead NVIDIA graphics card with a new ATI Radeon card a while back. Working through the ASUS website I found the latest BIOS update for the P5N-E SLI motherboard fixes an issue with some ATI cards where it takes a long time for information to show up on screen at boot up. Googling the exact quote from ASUS website I found others had exactly the same symptoms as me and had fixed it by flashing the BIOS to the latest version available. Knowing all the risks of flashing the BIOS I waivered on whether to do the update, but did so anyway. Result bad BIOS update and probably ruined motherboard! I'm trying to track down a copy of ASUS Crashfree Bios2 to (hopefully) fix the issue. It comes on the utility CD when you buy the motherboard as a component. It's no good asking Mesh computers as they went bust two days ago! There's a moral here somewhere.....
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 Fri 3 Jun 11 16:41 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Zero
you can overwrite a corrupt BIOS file with another bios file using a floppy boot diskette. - if it boots at all -

If you have a floppy on another machine, format that with the make bootable option, copy the bios file you want to it anbd use the bios tool from there

or

you can make a dos bootable iso cd with the bios on

www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

thats if it boots at all.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 3 Jun 11 at 16:42
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 Fri 3 Jun 11 16:57 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Zero
Replacement Motherboard

cgi.ebay.co.uk/370514521581
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 Sat 4 Jun 11 08:11 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Victorbox
Thanks for all your suggestions. Fortunately this PC is not the main home PC and of course each of my children has to have their own laptop! I'm even considering a CPU upgrade as well looking at some of the motherboard bundles on e-bay.
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 Sun 5 Jun 11 14:38 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - RattleandSmoke
I only ever do BIOS flashing if it is causing a major problem and always tell the clients it is at their own risk. Never had a problem though.

A shame to see a decent motherboard wrecked though :(.

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 Sun 5 Jun 11 20:23 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - Victorbox
>> A shame to see a decent motherboard wrecked though

It's not quite dead yet if I can track down a copy of Crash Free Bios 2 from Asus. It's on the motherboard support CD but replacements are only available to buy in USA and Canada for some strange reason. Fortunately I have a contact. It's a nice motherboard but it is over 4.5 years old so why they are going on ebay used for as much as new motherboards is beyond me.
Last edited by: Victorbox on Sun 5 Jun 11 at 20:24
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 Sun 5 Jun 11 20:55 
 Power On Self Test has become very slow - RattleandSmoke
I had to replace one last year, it was exactly the same as yours. I wanted an identical replacement but I couldn't find one new, I had to get one very similar (based on the same chipset and also SLI) and that cost me £75.00. To make matters worse it also needed a new power supply (the cause of the motherboard failure) so in total I think the bill was around £240.

A lot of money to spend on a 4 year old PC but I explained to my client it was still a good spec, a PC with a high end Asus board in it and a 600w Corsair PSU (the one I fitted) will be better than any of the shelf big brand.
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