Super Slow OS Loading, Missing DVD Drive & More!

[Optix]

Ok,

Things were peachy until I switched over my gear for an upcoming review. The only change was that the 640GB drive was put in a hot swap bay and the DVD drive is a special slim drive provided for the review. Here is what I'm seeing:

- Insanely slow loading of Windows 7. The glowing Windows logo pops on and hangs there for 20-30 seconds. There is no hard drive activity until during that time. Once the activity light comes on, it's 3 or 4 seconds before I'm at my desktop like normal. It's almost like the command to load the OS isn't given straight away.

- The DVD drive is no longer showing up in Windows. It shows in the BIOS but not in the OS. I would switch out the cables but it uses a special mini-connection.

- The yellow USB ports on the back side of the motherboard appear to have died. Maybe the board is about to give up the ghost but I'm going to reinstall drivers and see how that goes.

Any suggestions on either issue? I'm not so concerned about the USB ports unless it turns out to be the beginning of the end for the board. The slow loading is brutal, especially since I just bought the SSD, and I do a fair bit of work from the DVD drive.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

Try switching the SATA mode in BIOS, make sure it's in AHCI mode. If it's in this mode, change it to IDE or RAID, since it could be causing a conflict with the OS (common problem with WD drives).

Since you are having other issues like with USB and the the DVD drive... it might be better to either re-install win7 from scratch (With a different SATA mode maybe) or find a spare board. Normally, slow OS boot load can be attributed to 3rd part Firewalls and Anti-Virus getting in the way.

 

[Optix]

I did the SATA mode flip and have the same problem regardless. There are some posts floating around that mention WD external drives causing problems but sifting through them to find something useful is a lesson in futility. My 640GB was installed in the hot swap bay so I'm not sure if that did anything funky although I don't see how since all that is on there is games and storage.

I'll kill off my anti-virus on start up and see what happens but I may just start fresh.

More to come...

 

[Optix]

So here's a wonky update.

I switched all of my gear over to my new Lian Li PC-50WB and the lag on startup is gone and the two USB ports in the back are also working. Surprise, surprise! My DVD writer is showing up as well.

Don't know, do care because I may have to make some notes once the review is posted for the case where the parts came from.

 

[Kougar]

Was it a new install or no? Might've been a simple cabling issue too, like if something's not seated right...