GA-EP43-UD3L running very slow on boot processes

[acidd22]

I just bought a Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L.  I had some problems w/ my old motherboard not detecting any hard drive plugged into a particular SATA port.  I ran into problems from the start, including it running VERY slow.  Note: by slow, i don't mean in Windows 7; it actually runs fine in windows, but in the boot processes like detecting drives, etc.

For instance, when I turn on the computer, it takes 2 minutes to detect 6 SATA devices.  I"m running AHCI which i know takes longer to detect devices than emulating IDE, but 2 minutes?  Then it spends about a minute on the Verifying DMI Pool message.  Next the screen goes black for a while.  Its a long time, but when i look again, its in the Windows 7 screen where it checks the hard drive file system (probably from rebooting).  It has  count down where you can tell it to skip the reboot.  Each second actually takes about 5 or 10 seconds. Its almost like the old 386s with the "Turbo" button that you could turn off.   Finally it stops at 1 second and i'm not sure what its doing (maybe it started the scan?)

The BIOS setup screen works fine.  The BIOS upgrade tool doesn't respond to the keyboard; however, if you get into the flash menu from the BIOS setup menu it works.  The boot menu where you choose your boot device doesn't respond to keyboard.  When I try to boot into the Windows 7 Setup CD, it does not respond to anything on the keyboard..  I managed to get GParted to boot but when the menu comes up to start, it doesn't respond to the keyboard.  Even the boot screen that shows your devices and IRQs scrolls on the screen noticibly slower.  But, when i press DELETE to get into the Setup menu, everything including AHCI device detect happens at normal speed!   When it actually gets into Windows 7, it seems to run just fine.  Its just the boot process that is acting really weird.

Other details: I kept the Windows 7 installation from the old motherboard.  I've had mixed results w/ this, but like i said, problems are happening before getting into windows, and when it windows it works fine.  Also, my 5 SATA drives on the old motherboard were IDE emulated, but on this MB they are AHCI.  My OS hard drive is a PATA drive.  i've stripped everything out of the setup including removing all hard drive cables, and taking out each pair of memory to see if the other set is bad.  I've even swapped the processor to see if that affected anything.

any ideas??

[Dark Mantis]

Do you have the BIOS setup properly? Is the floppy disabled?

[acidd22]

I tried failsafe and optimized and turned the floppy off. I figured out two things tonight... I unplugged my ir remote sensor and magicjack and the hardware detects at the proper speed. Also, the reason my keyboard wasn't working is because it powers up for the bios setup but not after that. If I unplug and plug it back in it works. It's a logitech wireless keyboard. I have USB keyboard on in the bios.

Any idea why either of these USB devices would slow detection and why would the keyboard work then disconnect?

[Dark Mantis]

No, it's rather puzzling. I also use a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combo, the MK300, and it performs as expected. Do you have the correct drivers installed for the other devices although I wouldn't have expected that to slow down bios detection.

[acidd22]

I discovered my MagicJack is causing the slow BIOS detection.  But this doesn't explain why the keyboard doesn't stay detected.  I don't have any drivers installed, as it just worked when i plugged it in; besides, this is all before the OS starts.