ASUS Z170 Deluxe Slow Boot Times

[ismithers]

I have completed a new build with this board and have noticed a huge difference in boot times compared to my ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 board. I have gone from around 10 seconds boot time with the ASRock board into Windows, to 25+ seconds with the ASUS Z170 Deluxe board. I can't believe this is right, so feel like I have misconfigured something. Does anyone have an idea as to what affects the boot time so drastically? Just to confirm I have the following set:

Fast Boot: Enabled.
Boot Priority: Only M.2 SSD available, all other drives disabled.
MRC Fast Boost: Enabled
MCH Full Check: Disabled
Boot Logo: Auto
POST Delay: 0 secs

Are there other notable options? Windows 10 Bios Mode is UEFI.

[ismithers]

To add, my Windows 10 restart/shutdown time is also around 20-30 seconds. Which is oddly long, I feel like there is something amiss. Any help appreciated.

[Dedi]

I had +30sec boot times on my z170 Pro Gaming when I installed my m.2 950 Pro. It became slower than before with my 850 Pro.

But what fixed it for me was that when I installed the m.2 I did a cloning from my old 850 Pro SSD to the new m.2.
Did not know if that was the problem at first so I decided to do a clean install directly on the m.2 drive, and I enabled fast boot. Then all of a sudden it boots up in ~10sec.

[ismithers]

Dedi wrote:
I had +30sec boot times on my z170 Pro Gaming when I installed my m.2 950 Pro. It became slower than before with my 850 Pro.

But what fixed it for me was that when I installed the m.2 I did a cloning from my old 850 Pro SSD to the new m.2.
Did not know if that was the problem at first so I decided to do a clean install directly on the m.2 drive, and I enabled fast boot. Then all of a sudden it boots up in ~10sec.

Thanks for the post, I don't have my old SSD OS install still. I am going to try installing on one of my regular SSD's tonight, but my suspicion is that the M.2 is the cause...

[ismithers]

So I ended up reinstalling Windows 10 Pro, again. Third time. Quite annoyed.

I then disabled everything in UEFI including things like wireless, bluetooth, HD audio, USB ports, SMART testing HDD, Direct Key, MCH Check (under DRAM settings) I then installed Windows 10 and updated it. After which I began installed apps and services one by one, with a reboot between each. So far I have everything other than the ASUS AI Suite installed, and the boot time is pretty solid at 10-12 seconds. Really fast restart and shut down too.

Now since then, I've enabled some USB ports naturally, I have enabled the Direct Key function - I think that one is a red-herring, and don't think it affects things at all, but it appears to be mentioned on other threads around the internet, so I gave it a shot. I have all my SATA drives installed, but only one enabled for boot.

I am wary of installing the ASUS programs at this stage.

[Chino]

If you don't plan of using any of the ASUS programs, just skip them.