Your computer is slow to start up.
Your computer is slow to start up.
I recently changed my CPU motherboard and RAM. I upgraded from an i5-4460 to an AMD Ryzen 5 3600x, a gigabyte H97m-HD3 to an ASRock B450M Pro4, and increased my RAM from 8GB to 16GB. Before these changes, my PC would boot in about 10 seconds using an SSD. Now it takes between 40 and 110 seconds. I don’t understand why this is happening. Could it be because my Windows isn’t activated? I’ve installed all the required drivers.
Assess whether a BIOS update is required, perform a defragmentation on Windows, check if the system feels outdated, eliminate unnecessary startup applications, and carry out a clean installation to refresh storage.
It might be the motherboard itself. Switching from an MSI z370-Pro to an MSI MEG z390 ACE caused longer startup times because of the BIOS setup and other factors. However, I’m still using the same Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB NVMe SSD. If only the boot times are affected, consider replacing the SSD; otherwise, it’s likely the hardware is the issue.
Maybe it's the BIOS or the socket speed. There are many factors involved; I just suggest using an SSD as the boot device and cleaning up the system, along with all the other steps I mentioned.
Honestly, if the delay is only a few seconds longer, I wouldn’t fret much. Most people don’t restart their computers hundreds of times daily. If it affects things like slower game loads or installation speeds, I’d consider it worth checking. But a simple 30-second extra boot time? I’d just accept it.
I believe the key factor is the motherboard. I’m using Windows on an extremely fast 970 Evo Plus NVMe SSD, but it still takes around 25 seconds to fully boot—despite being one of the quickest SSDs available at the time. The SSD itself isn’t faulty; it works normally in everyday tasks and benchmarks. However, the boot process varies depending on the motherboard. With my slower ADATA 256GB SATA SSD paired with a less powerful MSI z370 Pro board, it booted more quickly than when using the faster SSD and motherboard (MSI MEG z390 ACE).