Boot time 790GP-DS4H vs. 790XT-UD4P

[poisonsnak]

I have two very similar systems with very different boot speeds and I was wondering if anyone had any insight into the matter.

	System 1	System 2
CPU	AM2+ 940BE @ stock quad 3.0	AM3 720BE @ quad 3.2
mobo	MA790GP-DS4H (790GX & SB750)	MA790XT-UD4P (790X & SB750)
RAM	2x2GB Corsair DDR2-800	2x2GB Corsair DDR3-1333
HDD	Corsair X32 SSD	Corsair X32 SSD

Both systems have the same PSU, video card, both running  a fresh install of Windows 7 7100, almost the same case even.  Now comparing boot times, you would think they would be about the same, or maybe the 2nd system would be a little faster.  This is what I have measured - stage 1 being from the time you push the power button until the PCI device listing disappears, stage 2 being from the end of stage 1 until the windows login screen appears (basically the time that the windows logo is on the screen during boot).

	System 1	System 2
Stage 1	18.2 seconds	20.6 seconds
Stage 2	10.7 seconds	24.2 seconds

As you can see, stage 1 is about the same for both systems, but stage 2 is over twice as long on the newer system.  It's not like this is a critical issue or anything, but it seems so strange to me I figure I must be doing something wrong.  Since I have had System 2 I have updated the BIOS from F3 to F4 to F5 and it seems to be about the same across the board.  Any ideas would be appreciated!

[Pottypete]

hi
gigabyte BBS, may be the answer,
link,. http://www.gigabyte.bz/Support/Motherboard/FAQ_List.aspx?FAQID=4498
regards

[poisonsnak]

Yes, Gigabyte BBS helped with my Stage 1 a bit.  I tried unplugging my DVD-RW, a spare sata cable connected to nothing, and my speakers, leaving only my USB keyboard/mouse, ethernet, power, monitor, and hard drive connected.  It moved me up from 20.6 seconds to 19.2 seconds, but stage 2 is still very slow compared to the original system.

I will try a few other things (clock back to stock, reinstall, etc.) and report back if any of them work.

[poisonsnak]

Well I finally solved my problem, it was a bit of an odd one so I thought I would share.

I ended up running the Windows Performance Analyzer (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc305187.aspx) and had it run a boot test (xbootmgr.exe), and I saw under "driver delays >=100ms" that "ataport.sys" was the first driver listed at a whopping 12492 ms.  I ran the same test on the other system and ataport.sys wasn't even listed (meaning it loaded in under 100ms).

Since ataport.sys is related to the hard drive controller I thought I would update the drivers for it (found here http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=3010) and sure enough my "stage 2" boot time is down to 9.5 seconds (from 24.2!) , and total boot time has been cut down from 45 seconds to 30.

I've always used the stock MS disk controller drivers since they seemed to be good enough but clearly this is a situation where AMD's drivers are much better.  If I notice any adverse effects I'll post back.

[Beekeeper]

thanks for the info poisonsnak