The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Boot time slowed waaaayyyyy down

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by frozenarcticguy, Aug 9, 2011.

  1. frozenarcticguy

    frozenarcticguy Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    178
    Messages:
    704
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    My R2 used to boot in 15 seconds or less but last week it slowed down when booting especially on the black screen just before the desktop screen. I have the Intel X25-M 128gig with the latest firmware and the read speeds have stayed the same, about 250. I just ran boot timer and it took over 115 seconds, slower then a hhd. I haven't changed anything, no spyware or anti-virus. I would hate to reformat since I've had the drive for about nine months.

    Any suggestions would be appreciated.
     
    frozenarcticguy, Aug 9, 2011
    #1
  2. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

    Reputations:
    1,370
    Messages:
    3,110
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    116
    A secure erase can work Miracles man. If your read and writes are fine and your Random reads and writes are fine. Then check to see which program is causing you to have a slow startup. Disable the startup items one by one and see what is causing it. Also, are you using a secondary HDD for downloads and other minor writes?
     
    Mechanized Menace, Aug 9, 2011
    #2
  3. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

    Reputations:
    7,383
    Messages:
    8,222
    Likes Received:
    182
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Check process' and start up items.
     
    DR650SE, Aug 9, 2011
    #3
  4. frozenarcticguy

    frozenarcticguy Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    178
    Messages:
    704
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Welp, disabled everything in start up and even tried disabled wireless but nothing is working, grrrr. Thinking of just reformatting and doing a clean install, Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it. Reps

    Heck, when it recharges
     
    frozenarcticguy, Aug 10, 2011
    #4
  5. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

    Reputations:
    1,370
    Messages:
    3,110
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    116
    Don't do a Reformat Do a Secure Erase!
     
    Mechanized Menace, Aug 10, 2011
    #5
  6. frozenarcticguy

    frozenarcticguy Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    178
    Messages:
    704
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I've never heard of a Secure Erase, what is that?
     
    frozenarcticguy, Aug 10, 2011
    #6
  7. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

    Reputations:
    1,370
    Messages:
    3,110
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    116
    https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase

    It is better for a SSD than a format it basically erases all the cells of the SSD bringing it back to factory state.

    It uses HDPARM. I use Gparted to perform the secure erase.

    A note if the Drive shows up as frozen you can do a hot unplug/plug to get it to a Not Frozen state or you can use a desktop to do it.

    Here is the thread I created about my SSD when it was performing bad

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/513784-extremely-bad-performance-samsung-ssd-2.html

    bottom of that page is the links to GParted.


    http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/gparted-live-stable/OldFiles/0.5.1-1/

    that is the version I use for my Samsung SSD
     
    Mechanized Menace, Aug 10, 2011
    #7
  8. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

    Reputations:
    7,383
    Messages:
    8,222
    Likes Received:
    182
    Trophy Points:
    231
    I is a notable usb drive with Ubuntu. Just do it through the terminal
     
    DR650SE, Aug 10, 2011
    #8
  9. Brabostaan

    Brabostaan Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    238
    Messages:
    1,452
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Run CCleaner and cleanup/fix register faults.

    Helped on my dinosour laptop.
     
    Brabostaan, Aug 10, 2011
    #9
  10. frozenarcticguy

    frozenarcticguy Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    178
    Messages:
    704
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Welp, I reformatted and it's running like brand new. Good to go, thank you gents
     
    frozenarcticguy, Aug 10, 2011
    #10
  11. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

    Reputations:
    1,370
    Messages:
    3,110
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    116
    Glad you got it sorted!
     
    Mechanized Menace, Aug 10, 2011
    #11
  12. T2TFITNESS

    T2TFITNESS Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    25
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Try installing some free software called Soluto. It works great and breaks everything down for you so you can see excactly which programs are slowing you down. Search my video on YouTube. M17xR3 vs. XPS17-702x
     
    T2TFITNESS, Aug 15, 2011
    #12
  13. aarpcard

    aarpcard Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    606
    Messages:
    1,129
    Likes Received:
    284
    Trophy Points:
    101
    Sounds to me like it's Service Pack 1 for 7 just got installed. Service Pack 1 slowed my boot times down from 35 seconds to 4 minutes. A lot of people on many different computers are having/had the same problem after service Pack 1. There is no fix as far as I or a lot of others could find.
     
    aarpcard, Aug 15, 2011
    #13