Acer Aspire AS 1410 slow to boot Windows 7

I installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on my Acer Aspire AS1410. Maybe it's normal, but the hard drive LED is solid on for about 30 seconds before it boots into Windows 7 during the floating windows screen. Is this normal?

 

Did you update to the latest BIOS? Mine takes less than a minute to log on to desktop after switching on.

 

@htwingnut
Sounds like a driver problem. I'd install all newes drivers first and maybe disable automatic update.

@wyemarn
I thought you had the 4810t?

 

How did u activate or did u hack-tivate ?

 

Check out this tip-it may solve your problem...

http://discuss.gdgt.com/acer/aspire/1810t-timeline/tips/Windows-7-and-AHCI/

 

I have a TechNet Plus subscription with a fully legit Windows 7 RTM. I have installed all the latest drivers using the thread by "der_mali":

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=419117

I have not updated the BIOS. What issues does it solve? I'll have to time it because it may not take more than a minute overall to get to desktop.

 

I like that - Hack-tivate. I'm going to have to use that term lol.

 

I had the same issue with a Ubuntu Remix install. I switched the BIOS to IDE and without even having to reinstall Remix it solved the problem, but then Vista wouldn't boot. So I reinstalled Vista with the BIOS set to IDE and now both OS boot fine. Not sure if it will help the OP, but it might be worth entering the BIOS set up, switch the SATA driver to IDE mode and see if it Windows 7 boots and if there is any improvement. If it doesn't work then just put the BIOS back to AHCI mode.

 

Ah good. Now that it's mentioned, I belive I've heard of this issue before. I figured with new hardware and new OS, it would have been solved. I thought AHCI was supposed to be an improvement over IDE, but maybe not.

Edit: I switched to IDE mode and a BSOD popped up, and rebooted immediately, then it asked if I wanted to do a Windows 7 System Repair and I did but it couldn't fix it. I hate to have to reinstall Windows. Maybe I will.

 

My 3810T takes about 25 seconds to the logon screen of Windows 7 64 bit from when I switch on the notebook (so including the bios screen) and other 6 seconds from the logon screen to the desktop after that I inserted the password. The boot process is pretty fast for me and without any installed applications it was faster too.
I found that MyDefrag helped a lot to speed up the boot process ( http://www.mydefrag.com/), I disabled some unused services and I haven't installed any Acer utility. I also upgraded bios to version 1.14 and all the drivers excluding the audio ones.

 

Hmm, I uninstalled the Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers and it boots up in less than 30 seconds now. I tried to switch back to IDE mode but it still BSOD.

A bunch of questions:

(1) Can someone confirm the proper Intel Matrix Storage Drivers for Windows 7 HP 64-bit? I was using 8.9.0.1023 (7/17/2009) for GS45 chipset.
(2) Do I really need these? What advantage do they have over the stock ones installed with Windows 7?
(3) If I reinstall Windows 7 with IDE option activated, will I get the same benefit with the Matrix Storage Drivers installed in IDE mode as AHCI or can I switch to AHCI mode after I installed in IDE mode?
(4) If the boot time is 30 seconds longer but I get better performance and cooler and less power usage of the hard drive, then I guess it's a fair trade off (again, what advantages does it offer?)

I really don't want to have to reinstall 7. I already activated, configured, and backed up the system how I want it. I hate to waste the time and another activation because of this.

@BYRoN_ITA:
What option did you use, IDE or AHCI, and did you install the Intel Matrix Storage Drivers? Thanks!

 

I used AHCI and I installed the Intel Matrix Storage drivers (AHCI_Intel_v.8.9.0.1023_Win7x64).

 

So you installed Windows 7 with AHCI enabled followed by the Matrix Storage drivers once you got into Windows 7? Did you do a clean install or upgrade? I asked because if it was an upgrade then it may have carried over the AHCI drivers from Vista.

The more I read about this on the web, the more I am finding that you have to do an install using "IDE" mode and then switch to AHCI *after* you install the drivers. At least this eliminated issues for most people.

Edit: Even check out the review at newegg the user Dalhectar noted the same thing:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16834115605

 

This looks like something for the tweaks thread. If you get it to work please post what you did and I'll add it to the tweaks thread.

 

I give up. I did a reinstall with IDE mode, and while it installed fine, when I switch to AHCI, I get the same BSOD and system reset as before. I can't install the AHCI drivers until I switch to AHCI mode either. I'm just restoring my configuration as it was intially and live with the longer boot time or not install the Matrix drivers at all. I still am not sure if there is any real benefit to them otherwise it seems that Intel would have included them with the Windows 7 RTM build since the drivers available were for RC1 anyhow.

 

No real advantage IMO. There is a potential disadvantage though, a "bug" in these drivers was causing freezing and slowdowns in some Acer machines not so long ago. Of course Intel has released at least one version after that but yeah, I won't be surprise if that problem still appear in some situations.......

I'd just install under AHCI and use W7 build-in drivers.

 

Thanks, that's what I'll do. For some reason though people tend to say how important the matrix drivers are. I think they're supposed to run your drive cooler (undervolt or something?) and reduce power usage.

 

Never heard of that. IMO these drivers are important if you're running RAID array for example.

 

I did a clean install from a dvd drive (over USB) and all the hardware were recognized prefectly.. At first I updated only video card driver with the one in the tweak tread than I updated all the other drivers few days ago as soon as Acer uploaded them on the website (I used the 4810T section on acer.us to download them) including the Matrix storage driver.
All is working smooth and fast

 

Ah ok. I was using the drivers from the Intel site. I'll try the ones on the Acer site. Everything else I downloaded from the OEM sites, but for the Matrix, I'll try the Acer ones. I'll update the BIOS too and see if that helps.

 

I'm not sure if you guys are aware, but there are AHCI drivers you can use while installing windows. In vista during the step that you are choosing a drive to install windows to there is a button called "driver" (i think that's the name). If you click it, a dialogue will open asking you to browse to a driver. The driver you want to point it to is the "64-bit Floppy Configuration Utility" (from intel's website in the storage Manager Section) unzipped in a folder on your flash drive.

Whenever I install with AHCI mode enabled I use this process. Then once I get into windows I install the intel infs and the matrix storage manager. I've never run into any problems using this process.

 

You must be talking abut Windows XP installation, right? Windows Vista and Windows 7 has that driver integrated, no need to load it during the install process. The problem here is that the SATA drivers are causing unexpected slowdown during W7 boot..

 

Just a note that I updated to bios 3117 and the 30 second boot lag is gone with Intel Matrix Storage Manager Drivers.

 

is the system slower or less responsive since the new bios update? audio from speakers quieter? any issues? fan quieter?

 

No difference I've noticed except it boots as quickly with the Matrix Storage drivers as without. That was my original issue and reason for this thread. Honestly haven't paid much attention to much else yet from the updated BIOS. Just remember to reset all your BIOS settings too because it resets them to default.