Boot Time SM961 M.2

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doutee

Active member
Hello

I have a new system from pcspecialist, all fantastic, very happy. Just wondering if I should be expecting faster boot times though. I have a 256GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, and cold boot of around 30 seconds. I had imagined this was about right for a normal SSD, but that for an M2 drive it should be a bit faster? I've seen some claims of figures closer to 10 seconds?

Thanks for your help!
 
D

doutee

Active member
Might be useful to have the rest of the spec:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six Core CPU (3.4GHz-3.6GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B350-PLUS (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 480 - HDMI, 3 x DP - DX® 12
1st Hard Disk
NOT REQUIRED
2nd Hard Disk
2TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
 
J

jerpers

Master
That does seem quite slow, mine is closer to 10 seconds. I have read some issues with ryzen and some motherboards. It might be worth contacting PCS to see if you need a bios update.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
You might also want to check in your BIOS setup what type of POST you have. If you have the maximum POST set it will be checking all ports and it might take some time. I have the SM951 SSD as my boot drive, I also have the maximal POST set (because I want to know the thing's working before I boot Windows) and my boot time is pushing 30 seconds too.

It's easy to see whether it's POST that causing the 'delay' because Windows doesn't begin to boot until you see the Windows rotating circle graphic. I actually never see that on mine because Windows boots so fast I go straight to the desktop login screen.

Try experimenting with your POST options to prove that this is the cause. :)
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
ubuysa said:
You might also want to check in your BIOS setup what type of POST you have. If you have the maximum POST set it will be checking all ports and it might take some time. I have the SM951 SSD as my boot drive, I also have the maximal POST set (because I want to know the thing's working before I boot Windows) and my boot time is pushing 30 seconds too.

It's easy to see whether it's POST that causing the 'delay' because Windows doesn't begin to boot until you see the Windows rotating circle graphic. I actually never see that on mine because Windows boots so fast I go straight to the desktop login screen.

Try experimenting with your POST options to prove that this is the cause. :)
Click to expand...

Mine is around 25 seconds but I would have though it was due to the number of programs starting in the background (corsair link, steam, asus utilities....)
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
Oussebon said:
Why do you have Corsair Link? I didn't think the RMx supported it.
Click to expand...

Corsair utility sorry. Mouse Matt, mouse, keyboard and headset all corsair :). I get a warning from kaspersky regarding Dashlane slowing down the start up. I assume there is a Samsung utility to verify everything is working fine.
 
D

doutee

Active member
ubuysa said:
You might also want to check in your BIOS setup what type of POST you have. If you have the maximum POST set it will be checking all ports and it might take some time. I have the SM951 SSD as my boot drive, I also have the maximal POST set (because I want to know the thing's working before I boot Windows) and my boot time is pushing 30 seconds too.

It's easy to see whether it's POST that causing the 'delay' because Windows doesn't begin to boot until you see the Windows rotating circle graphic. I actually never see that on mine because Windows boots so fast I go straight to the desktop login screen.

Try experimenting with your POST options to prove that this is the cause. :)
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for the reply. Not entirely confident in how to do this, in the UEFI (ASUS) what exactly am I looking for to check this?

Also just to note, cold boot can also be 1m10sec, seemingly when it has been turned off for a few hours (no idea why this should make any difference).

I know it's best to keep the bios up to date, especially with Ryzen, but having not done this before I'm not very confident about how to do this. Any tips on the simplest (idiot guide) way of doing this?
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
keynes said:
Mine is around 25 seconds but I would have though it was due to the number of programs starting in the background (corsair link, steam, asus utilities....)
Click to expand...

They won't start until Windows does.

On mine I run Macrium Reflect and I have a boot option installed to optionally boot the Macrium Recovery Tool instead of Windows, so at boot time once POST has completed I see a boot menu with Windows 10 and Macrium Reflect Recovery shown. I've not timed how long it takes to get to that menu from power on but it's in the region of 25 to 30 seconds I think. That's all BIOS time (mostly POST I think). Once I select Windows 10 the desktop appears almost instantly and that's the Windows boot time from the SSD.
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
doutee said:
Hi, thanks for the reply. Not entirely confident in how to do this, in the UEFI (ASUS) what exactly am I looking for to check this?

Also just to note, cold boot can also be 1m10sec, seemingly when it has been turned off for a few hours (no idea why this should make any difference).

I know it's best to keep the bios up to date, especially with Ryzen, but having not done this before I'm not very confident about how to do this. Any tips on the simplest (idiot guide) way of doing this?
Click to expand...

I don't think ubuysa meant for you to update your BIOS but change your settings. If you are not confident I would suggest calling technical support and going through the settings while they guide you over the phone.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
keynes said:
I don't think ubuysa meant for you to update your BIOS but change your settings. If you are not confident I would suggest calling technical support and going through the settings while they guide you over the phone.
Click to expand...

Yes, this. :)

Though TBH I leave my desktop running 24 x 7 so boot time is of little significance, but as I said I'd rather have a detailed POST than a fast boot on a desktop. On my laptop, which I want usable as soon as I power on, it's a different matter.
 
D

doutee

Active member
ubuysa said:
They won't start until Windows does.

On mine I run Macrium Reflect and I have a boot option installed to optionally boot the Macrium Recovery Tool instead of Windows, so at boot time once POST has completed I see a boot menu with Windows 10 and Macrium Reflect Recovery shown. I've not timed how long it takes to get to that menu from power on but it's in the region of 25 to 30 seconds I think. That's all BIOS time (mostly POST I think). Once I select Windows 10 the desktop appears almost instantly and that's the Windows boot time from the SSD.
Click to expand...

Yeah so mine stays at the "PCSpecialist - press F2/Del for UEFI" for around 20-25secs, then pops onto the desktop in a matter of seconds.
 
D

doutee

Active member
ubuysa said:
I'm pretty sure that's POST testing time, IMO it's a good thing. :)
Click to expand...

OK, I can live with that I guess. From what you said earlier I'm guessing you wouldn't advise trying to bypass that as per your previous answer?

I am confused though about the two different times I'm getting: ~30-35sec if I've only recently turned it off. ~1m10sec if it's been off for a while... any thoughts as to why this is?
 
D

doutee

Active member
Having called PCSpecialist, they advised doing a "sfc /scannow" from cmd prompt, which has had no effect. Their advice was to do a Windows reset.... urgh. Then if this has no effect to call them back tomorrow. They also advised that a bios update was the last resort. Guy on the phone said that if the windows reset didn't work, then they could pick it up and have a look... again, urgh.

A bit peeved, as I was hoping this would all be sorted, the whole point of spending the extra on the M2 drive was for the fast boot times. Having searched around it seems like there's lots of reasons it may not be as fast as it should be, but most fixes seem to involve reinstalling windows, ensuring it boots from UEFI mode not legacy.... at this point I'm aware I'm a little over my head! Not keen on having to send the system back and waiting around for it to be sorted though.
 
L

Lez501

Gold Level Poster
Out of interest......

....do you have a CD in the drive when you get the longer boot time - I know my system takes longer in bios post when I leave one in mine, due to scanning the cd for boot info. Also, have you downloaded and installed Samsung's nvme's driver?
 
D

doutee

Active member
Lez501 said:
Out of interest......

....do you have a CD in the drive when you get the longer boot time - I know my system takes longer in bios post when I leave one in mine, due to scanning the cd for boot info. Also, have you downloaded and installed Samsung's nvme's driver?
Click to expand...

No CD in the drive. I haven't tried doing anything with drivers yet. Did just have a look at their site, is this: "This driver supports Samsung NVMe SSD 960 PRO, 960 EVO and 950 PRO" the right one... as in it doesn't list the SM961?
 
D

doutee

Active member
By the way, this is the most useful post I've found about the issue out there in the wild; though it includes steps I'm unfamiliar with so am hesitant to try:

"I was having same issues with my 950 pro.



My fix:



go into the uefi, make sure csm is set to disabled

then secure boot to uefi.

To fresh install on win 10 i had to disable csm and turn secure boot to other os then after the installation, before windows configures, go back into the bios and changed secure boot to windows uefi,



then i downloaded samsungs nvme driver.



My boot time is 8.83 seconds and i have video to show. from when i hit the power button to booted into windows. before i changed the secure boot to uefi i would get 2 splash screens so it literally took more than double the time. "
 
D

doutee

Active member
Just in case anyone else is having similar issue:

Updated the bios (from 1513 to 0609). Now can boot from power on to desktop in 20secs. However.... if pc is off for a while, will take ~50secs.... Any ideas as to why this is?

Timings I have worked out:
Power to first beep old bios: 15s, new bios 7s
Splash screen (F2) to Desktop: Old Bios 20s, New Bios ~12s

The extra delay time when switching on for first time in a while is at the splash screen, this can take an extra 30sec or so, including with the new bios.
 
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