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    Chipset drivers / BIOS setting

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Scottyboy99, Oct 5, 2011.

  1. Scottyboy99

    Scottyboy99 Notebook Consultant

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    Hi guys,

    Am still battling with my slow boot problem on my M17r3. It's still hanging for about 30 secs at the 'Welcome' screen. Changing boot to verbose shows that this a cover message for 'Preparing Desktop' during this time. I have tried so many things short of re-installing Windows 7 without success. Event viewer reports an overall boot log average of about 120000ms (2 minutes approx).

    What I wanted to ask is, should I try updating the chipset drivers (motherboard???)? I don't know how to tell what to update though. I have a single 7,200 rpm drive. Looking on the dell drivers and downloads website I would of thought I already have the latest drivers as they are all listed as initial release drivers and dated back to January (which is several months prior to ordering my laptop). I don't actually know what 'HM67 Cougar Point chipset' or 'Management Engine Interface' means and whether they are even relevant to me. Under SATA drives there is again an initial release for 'STMicroelectronics - DE351DL Free Fall Sensor'. Again no idea how relevant this is to me. Trying to cross check against the device manager in Windows 7 doesn't really give me an idea if I already have these drivers installed and whether I need them.

    The second question, is under the BIOS (A08) settings my hard drive mode is listed as 'RAID' which I guess is the default option. I have been assured this is normal but there are also options for AHCI & ATA from what I can remember (sorry typing this from work!). Should I switch the mode? I would say ATA is more relevant to me what with having a single 750 gig 7,200 RPM drive but still totally unsure. I worry that switching modes can result in a blue screen error and no way of getting back into my Windows.

    Would doing any of the above possibly help the slow boot I am having? From cold boot BIOS to Windows 7 login it's pretty quick. Once I hit the desktop it's also pretty quick to build & become responsive. But it's the inbetween 'Welcome' screen stage that is slow, it looks like there is HD activity so it's not hanging but surely it should be quicker. I know I don't have an SSD drive so am not expecting miracles or 20 second boots but when I google to see that even low-end netbooks can boot into Win 7 in about a minute it does leave me puzzled. I tried doing a clean boot and the issue still exists so it's not a start up item (unless it's a MS service but the boot log does not report any problem start up program).

    Many thanks,
    Wayne
     
    Scottyboy99, Oct 5, 2011
    #1
  2. Dr. J

    Dr. J Notebook Deity

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    Which GPU drivers do you use? The version that came with your rig?

    Put your spec's in your sig.
     
    Dr. J, Oct 5, 2011
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  3. Scottyboy99

    Scottyboy99 Notebook Consultant

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    Hi,

    GPU drivers are the AMD 11.8 drivers. Graphics performance is all fine. Once Windows 7 loads in everything is spot on, it's just the slow boot.
     
    Scottyboy99, Oct 5, 2011
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