Gigabyte Start-up Logo Displayed for Too Long Before Loading Windows

[foxfaisal]

Good day,

Few weeks ago, I've purchased and received a used Gigabyte GA-EP43T-S3L Revision 1.1 from a seller in China through ebay, as shown in the link below:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EP43T-S3L-rev-10#ov

The motherboard that I receives works well within the 1st week after obtaining it. Every time I switched on the system, the Gigabyte start-up logo was displayed within 5 seconds before the Windows 10 is loaded. The photo of the logo is shown below:


On the second week onwards however, I noticed that the Gigabyte start-up logo is displayed for 35 seconds before Windows 10 is loaded. I tried remove the hard disk, CMOS battery, ram etc., but the Gigabyte start-up logo is still displayed around 35 seconds before Windows 10 is loaded.

I also updated the bios from version F3 to version F7 (the latest version), but still no improvement.

Does this means that the BIOS (or the motherboard) is faulty? I have requested for a refund/replacement of the item through ebay. If this thing is not an issue, I will cancel the refund/replacement request for this item on ebay.

 

[EarthDog]

Disable it in the bios and see what is taking so long to POST.

I doubt anything is wrong with it...not sure why you are returning it (and asking for help).

 

[wingman99]

The only thing to try is reseat the memory. I would refund/replacement after all the troubleshooting you have done it is taking to long to post.

 

[foxfaisal]

Disable it in the bios and see what is taking so long to POST.

The system is at my office and I am currently at home. I will do this on Monday and post the photo here.

I doubt anything is wrong with it...not sure why you are returning it (and asking for help).

The reason why I requested to return this item is because I thought the BIOS is faulty. If you think it is not faulty and can be solved by adjusting the setting in the BIOS, I will adjust the setting and cancel the return request if the setting works. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[EarthDog]

Id troubleshoot before i sent it back is all.

Reseating the memory is a good idea.

Did you install new applications, or did windows update? Boot gets longer after driver installs, etc. But if you disable that image on screen it should show what the POST is doing and you may be able to see where it is hanging.

 

[foxfaisal]

Id troubleshoot before i sent it back is all.

Reseating the memory is a good idea.

Did you install new applications, or did windows update? Boot gets longer after driver installs, etc. But if you disable that image on screen it should show what the POST is doing and you may be able to see where it is hanging.

I made the purchase on 20th April and seller allows me to return the item within 60 days from purchase. The reason I requested the return/refund is because I was panic because the 60 days period is almost over

Anyway, I should have asked about the problem in this forum and troubleshoot it earlier, but at that time I was busy with something else (plus I was demotivated when the start up logo becomes like this after spending money purchasing the board).

I will disable the logo and show to you the photo of what is beneath the logo on this monday (because I am currently at home and I left the system at my office).

Btw, beside accidentally changed the setting in the BIOS, is there any other possible cause for this problem? For example, the system is exposed to strong impact/vibration or too much moisture/humidity?

- - - Updated - - -

Few more things:
1) May I know how to set the BIOS?
2) I do update the windows, but I don't think this is the windows problem because this screen is displayed even before the windows is loaded.

 

[EarthDog]

Accidentally changed what option in bios?

Moisture and humidity wouldnt do it, no.

1. Default is fine... set bios defaults.
2. That splash screen should come off, yes.

 

[Mpegger]

Sounds like it's possibly hanging on some hardware detection at boot up, or hanging on detecting a storage device. You can disable the splash screen at boot from the Bios/UEFI menu. On some Bios/UEFI you can also change the time it will wait for input before handing over control to the boot OS.

If its not a issue of the timer having been changed, have you run any kind of diagnostics on the installed hard drives/SSDs? Have you installed any recent add-in cards? Does it have any add-in cards that you can re-seat? Is it using ECC ram and hanging while doing its boot-time ram diagnostics?

 

[foxfaisal]

I have recorded the video when I on the computer (before and after disabling the on-screen logo) and uploaded to youtube. Please find the video in the link below:

Sorry for taking quite some time to share the video. My camera automatically adjust the focus after I disable the on-screen logo, causing the sentence written underneath the logo cannot be read clearly. Feel free to inform me if you need me to record the video all over again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[EarthDog]

Yeah... I can't read squat. Just set the focus and leave it and you only need to record the video without the splash screen.

That said, a couple of things...

1. Your system seems to be running in single channel mode for the ram. Assuming you have two sticks, make sure they are in the proper slots (see your manual for which slots).
2. Seems to be hanging right after it says 'single channel' for memory. Then it says something else I cannot see.
3. Enable quick boot and see if that helps.

 

[foxfaisal]

Yeah... I can't read squat. Just set the focus and leave it and you only need to record the video without the splash screen.

I've recorded more videos. This time, I recorded the video in the dark (without lights on) because I think my camera tries to focus the image reflected by the shining monitor screen whenever the screen is black.

1. Your system seems to be running in single channel mode for the ram. Assuming you have two sticks, make sure they are in the proper slots (see your manual for which slots).

Previously the splash screen was displayed within 5 seconds (or lesser) even though I used the same single channel memory configuration. However, I will still try the dual channel configuration by the time I'm at the office tomorrow (because I'm already at home and I left the desktop at my office).

3. Enable quick boot and see if that helps.

I did the following things:
1) Set the Quick Boot from Disabled to Enabled (suggested by you and people from other forum)
2) Set the First Boot Device from USB-FDD to Hard Drive (suggested by people from other forum)
3) Set the Init Display First from PCI to PEG (suggested by people from other forum)

So far this setting gives no improvement and is shown in the video in the link below. Please take note that there was an error while loading windows after exiting the BIOS setting at the end of the video - this thing also starts to happen since few days ago (before you suggested to change the BIOS setting) and I am not sure whether it is caused by faulty motherboard, other faulty components, or corrupted windows. I will reformat the PC again and see if the windows loading error still happens.

The only setting change that I did after getting the board all this time are as follow:
1) Changed the SATA AHCI mode from IDE to AHCI.
2) Changed the SATA Port0-3 Native mode from Disabled to Enabled (might not be necessary because I think this setting is only applicable if I use IDE instead of AHCI, but I changed it anyway).
The video of this 2 setting changes are available in the link below.

My other current BIOS setting is also shown in the video in the link below. Please advice if there is any other setting that I should do before reformatting the desktop.

Moisture and humidity wouldnt do it, no.

Lastly, I mentioned in my first post in this thread that the Gigabyte On-screen logo was displayed normally within 5 seconds (or lesser) when I was using it for the first week. However, the following things happened after I used it for 1 week:
1) I accidentally dropped the computer case (together with the motherboard in it) from the height of 0.5 metre.
2) The computer case that I use for this motherboard has been used since 2002. The dust accumulated in the case was sticky and cannot be removed just by wiping/brushing/blowing. Therefore I decided to take out all the electrical contents from the case so that I can wash the entire case using soap water. I did dry the case by wiping it with towel and put it under the hot sun for more than 1 hour. While reinstalling all the electronic components inside the case, I was confident that there was no more water remained, even between the joints in the case. After reinstalling all the electronic components, I even left the desktop on for 2 continuous days so that the airflow produced by the fan inside the case removed any remaining moisture/excessive humidity.

Just in case if you think that the board is faulty because of excessive vibration/impact or moisture/excessive humidity, please let me know and I will not proceed returning the item to the seller because this thing happened due to my own mishandling. If you think that this problem is not caused by excessive vibration/impact or moisture/excessive humidity however, I will proceed requesting for the replacement.


Thank you and have a nice day.

 

[EarthDog]

Previously the splash screen was displayed within 5 seconds (or lesser) even though I used the same single channel memory configuration.

right.. the point wasnt to fix the issue, but to get you running in dual channel as its supposed to be.

1) I accidentally dropped the computer case (together with the motherboard in it) from the height of 0.5 metre.

tbis would have been good to know first.... that may very well be it...

Perhaps reseat the memory as it hangs there just before its looking for drives.

Was windows installed in ide or ahci mode?

Can you please list your hardware specs?

 

[foxfaisal]

right.. the point wasnt to fix the issue, but to get you running in dual channel as its supposed to be.

Understood. Will run the system with dual channel after working hour on Monday.

Perhaps reseat the memory as it hangs there just before its looking for drives.

'Reseat' means take it out and put it back again, right? I have done that, but I will do it again as confirmation after I finish working on Monday.

Somebody from other forum suggested me to try the following things, but I need some time to do it:
1) install the memory stick on different memory slots and the power-up the computer.
2) power-up the computer with different memory stick.
3) perform memory test on the current memory stick to check if it is faulty (I don't know how to do this, but I will google about it later).

Was windows installed in ide or ahci mode?

Originally it was installed in IDE mode on my 1st week of using the system (at this time, the system was okay and the Gigabyte splash screen was only displayed around 5 seconds or lesser). Then I changed the setting to AHCI and reformat the computer on the second week of using the system. I only noticed that the Gigabyte splash screen was displayed for 35 seconds after 2 days reformatting the system.

The seller of the motherboard told me to change back the setting to IDE. I already did that (without reformatting the Windows because I was busy), but so far there was no improvement. I even 'Load Optimised Defaults' to restore the BIOS to factory settings (also without reformatting the Windows because I was busy), but so far there was no improvement.

If you want, I will reformat the Windows in IDE setting.

Can you please list your hardware specs?

1) Board - Gigabyte GA-EP43T-S3L (rev. 1.0)
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EP43T-S3L-rev-10#ov
2) CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650
3) Graphic card - NVidia GeForce Galax GT1030
4) Memory - Hynix 4 GB (shown in the photo below), single stick installed on the 1st out of 4 slots.


Please let me know if there is any other detail that you would like to know about the system.


Others:

People from other forum told me to do the following things:
1) Powered-up the computer with no USB device plugged-in (including mouse and keyboard, because they suspect the USB devices might be the one causing the Gigabyte splash screen to be displayed for a very ling time) - no improvement.
2) Replacing the Logitech wireless mouse + keyboard with 2 different sets of wired mouse + keyboard (Logitech set and Dell set) while powering-up the computer (also because they suspect the USB devices might be the one causing the Gigabyte splash screen to be displayed for a very ling time) - no improvement.
3) Changed the 'halt on errors' setting from 'keyboard only' to 'none' - no improvement.
4) Changed the "SATA AHCI mode" from 'AHCI' to 'IDE' (suggested by the seller of the motherboard himself/herself) - no improvement.
5) Clicked the 'Load Optimised Defaults' to restore the BIOS to factory settings - no improvement.

These people also suspect that the memory stick might be faulty and told me to do the following things (but I will do it after finish working on Monday):
1) install the memory stick on different memory slots and the power-up the computer.
2) power-up the computer with different memory stick.
3) perform memory test on the current memory stick (I don't know how to do this, but I will google about it later).

Please also give me suggestion if there is any other thing that you would like me to do.

Thank you and have a nice day.

 

[EarthDog]

4) Memory - Hynix 4 GB (shown in the photo below), single stick installed on the 1st out of 4 slots.

If you only have one stick, dual channel isnt possible.

You say first slot, but is it the RIGHT slot for using a single stick (see in manual)?

 

[Mpegger]

Did you try booting without the drive? A mechanical hard drive can be easily damaged from a small fall. I've had a drive quickly die after the small tower it was installed in fell over, nothing more then 1 foot. And I also have experienced long boot times because of a failing drive taking long to detect at boot up.

 

[Alaric]

A memory issue should give a short and long beep POSTing. The manual doesn't specify any slot for single channel , dual channel is 1 (leftmost) and 3 or 2 and 4, so it probably doesn't matter in single channel. You went from IDE to AHCI, etc., are you using the SATA cables to the board since the board has IDE and SATA? What OS are you using? I think Windows 7 originally needed the AHCI added to the OS at install for it to work (pre SP!?) Plus the eifcg folder dealie. To check for HDD damage, open the Properties tab for the drive and click Check Disk For Errors. A second menu should open asking if you want to check for bad sectors. Check 'Yes' and make sure you tell it fix errors if found. Then reboot and let it do it's thing. It can take quite a while depending on drive size and speed, but if the drive sustained some minor damage from the fall it may fix that for you. Also, before that, open a command prompt window (run as administrator) and type sfc/scannow and hit Enter. If it says it found errors it can't repair there may be bad HDD sectors.