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    XPS 15 L521x Swapped mSATA Boot Time

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by OmegaEikon, Dec 17, 2012.

  1. OmegaEikon

    OmegaEikon Newbie

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    This weekend I swapped out the mSATA for a 256GB and bumped up the ram to 16GB. I installed Windows 8 on the mSATA and was hoping for rocket ship boot times but am seeing boot times of 15 to 20 seconds. My BIOS boot settings are Legacy and under the Advanced tab SATA is set to Intel Rapid Start. The system would not boot using any other BIOS settings.

    I am wondering what boot times others are seeing after the swap and what are your BIOS boot and SATA settings?
     
    OmegaEikon, Dec 17, 2012
    #1
  2. c0derbear

    c0derbear Notebook Evangelist

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    I have a Mushkin 120Gb mSATA SSD, original 750 Gb HDD, 16Gb RAM, Win 8 on mSATA

    Cold boot time is 10-15 seconds, easily half of what it was using the older SSD-cached-HDD-Win7-with-rapid-start setup.

    Hibernation restart is similar.

    Sleep wake-up is <5 seconds.

    Time is to the point that <return> takes me to the login screen.

    BIOS settings that come to mind
    - mSATA set for AHCI
    - boot sequence in BIOS is mSATA - HDD - DVD ...
    - protected boot is not enabled

    I do not have any of the intel storage drivers installed (not using rapid start, or rapid response, or smart connect, etc.).

    Did you get the freefall and smart-card reader drivers installed (e.g. no unresolved drivers / unknown devices in device manager)? Some people have noted that disabling the smart-card reader can reduce boot times by a few seconds.

    Have you gone through your system services to minimize those that are started / or at least ensured all that can be are in fact set for delayed-startup if they can't be disabled.

    FWIW, I rarely "shut down" my machine, sleeping it mostly, so for the rare times when a reboot or hibernation is required I think 10-15s is fine.
     
    c0derbear, Dec 20, 2012
    #2
  3. Marshall1975

    Marshall1975 Notebook Consultant

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    I have an mSata 256GB crucial m4, 8GB ram and am using the legacy bios. From pressing the button till the login screen comes up is a constant 9 seconds every time.
     
    Marshall1975, Dec 20, 2012
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  4. Quix Omega

    Quix Omega Notebook Evangelist

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    Bad news, the real fast boot times come from the combination of eUFI, Windows 8 and an SSD. If you want to lower your boot times, make sure you have the newest BIOS version and then:

    • Switch Boot mode to eUFI
    • Boot off a Windows 8 USB Drive or DVD via eUFI boot.
    • Install, you will need to re-partition your disk to GPT to boot from eUFI. Note: This will delete everything on the SSD.
    • Profit.

    There is no non-destructive option, you can only boot to GPT disks from eUFI.
     
    Quix Omega, Dec 20, 2012
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  5. Marshall1975

    Marshall1975 Notebook Consultant

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    Quix in all fairness looking through the posts on ere with people that have UEFI bios and an ssd im yet to see anyone say they are getting single figure boot times. As this is the case I would see no reason to switch from legacy bios as I am on along with an SSD and win 8 which is providing some of the quickest boot times I can find.
     
    Marshall1975, Dec 21, 2012
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  6. is250

    is250 Notebook Geek

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    Agreed. I'm on UEFI (secured boot), have a 128gb mSATA SSD, and Windows 8. It consistently takes me 25 seconds to Windows desktop. I have also both my card reader and Blu-Ray drive enabled. I have no start-up applications except for Dell Touchpad.

    I thought UEFI was supposed to be the faster BIOS option but Legacy seems to boot much faster.
     
    is250, Dec 21, 2012
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  7. elvis7

    elvis7 Notebook Consultant

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    I might as well add an update.

    256gig adat xpg sx300 msata with windows 8 boot uefi. cold boot is 4.4s
    750gig HDD as storage
    8 gig ram
    intel 7260 ac dual band wifi card + bt 4.0
    card reader and bluray drive enabled
     
    elvis7, Sep 25, 2013
    #7