Alc889a slows down startup of Ga-ep45-ud3r

[pointertovoid]

Hello!

Got a Gigabyte ep45-ud3r in my new config (+E8600 +Seagate 7200.12 500GB) and Windows' bootup is slowed down by the integrated audio. Not just a bit: nearly 10 s (TEN THOUSAND MILLISECONDS), both with W2k and Xp, with both Ntdetect versions. Drivers are properly installed for Intel's Azalia channel as well as Realtek's Alc889a, KB888111 is also present.

When I disable the integrated audio in Bios settings, the config is less slow. At least it boots a bit faster than my PIIIs 1400MHz then, but nothing brilliant (38s for W2k as for Xp, very disappointed). The difference appears at the phase when the progress bar stops and peripherals successively blink, for instance the keyboard - I believe Win detects hardware and loads drivers in this phase.

Has someone an idea?

As the driver for the Alc889a weighs over 10MB I suspect it could take time to load. Did someone find and try a faster one?

Or is there something I can do?

Without a better response, I would disable the integrated audio and put an old Ac97 audio card in one Pci slot. I don't care these sound gadgets anyway, and I dislike the DRM that comes with KB888111 and High-Definition Audio. If I didn't want to save my Pci slots it would already be done.

[Zenskas]

Hello!

Got a Gigabyte ep45-ud3r in my new config (+E8600 +Seagate 7200.12 500GB) and Windows' bootup is slowed down by the integrated audio. Not just a bit: nearly 10 s (TEN THOUSAND MILLISECONDS), both with W2k and Xp, with both Ntdetect versions. Drivers are properly installed for Intel's Azalia channel as well as Realtek's Alc889a, KB888111 is also present.

When I disable the integrated audio in Bios settings, the config is less slow. At least it boots a bit faster than my PIIIs 1400MHz then, but nothing brilliant (38s for W2k as for Xp, very disappointed). The difference appears at the phase when the progress bar stops and peripherals successively blink, for instance the keyboard - I believe Win detects hardware and loads drivers in this phase.

Has someone an idea?

As the driver for the Alc889a weighs over 10MB I suspect it could take time to load. Did someone find and try a faster one?

Or is there something I can do?

Without a better response, I would disable the integrated audio and put an old Ac97 audio card in one Pci slot. I don't care these sound gadgets anyway, and I dislike the DRM that comes with KB888111 and High-Definition Audio. If I didn't want to save my Pci slots it would already be done.

Man you love your miliseconds, as I saw from your 9600GSO taking a whole extra 5secs! Really 38secs to boot up win xp is pretty quick. If you want fast bootup try using an nlited OS with startup items disabled, services tweaked, fast and defragged HDD, and disable onboard features in the BIOS you don't need (IDE, floppy, serial ports, LAN ports, and place the HDD as the first boot device) If you want really fast bootup get an Intel SSD. I know my system is fairly similar and boots up in around 40secs. Nothing wrong with that.

Is it really 10secs faster when you disable the audio? If you dont really need good audio you could always buy one of those cheap USB laptop sound cards which have a speaker and mic port and just plug into your USB port. I have the same integrated audio and have not issues.

Edited June 27, 2009 by Zenskas

[pointertovoid]

Yes, ten millions microseconds!

Well, the Bios setups are already optimized pretty much as you suggest, and the OS seemingly doesn't take that long. My impression is that this mobo boots slowly because hardware detection is so slow on it.

I've had a look again at the driver for this Alc889a: Realtek gives only one edition which weighs 68MB (sixty-eight billions millibytes...) once expanded, of which each OS needs the most part. This looks huge enough (nearly as big as W2k itself!) to explain the added boot time, which would just be driver load time.

SSD: I'm still comparing prices and try to compare speeds - as MB/s aren't the whole picture. Probably the next step. But if hardware detection takes the most time, I'd improve the shortest part.

I really like your idea with the Usb speakers. I still don't have speakers for this machine, and have 8 Usb directly at the rear side plus a handful on the mobo. Looks great. Thanks!

[Zenskas]

Yes, ten millions microseconds!

Well, the Bios setups are already optimized pretty much as you suggest, and the OS seemingly doesn't take that long. My impression is that this mobo boots slowly because hardware detection is so slow on it.

I've had a look again at the driver for this Alc889a: Realtek gives only one edition which weighs 68MB (sixty-eight billions millibytes...) once expanded, of which each OS needs the most part. This looks huge enough (nearly as big as W2k itself!) to explain the added boot time, which would just be driver load time.

SSD: I'm still comparing prices and try to compare speeds - as MB/s aren't the whole picture. Probably the next step. But if hardware detection takes the most time, I'd improve the shortest part.

I really like your idea with the Usb speakers. I still don't have speakers for this machine, and have 8 Usb directly at the rear side plus a handful on the mobo. Looks great. Thanks!

Not USB speakers, but a USB sound card which you plug your speakers into. You can then uninstall the realtek drivers and disable onboard audio. The actual drivers are not 68MB once installed. Unless you really want fast bootup I would not recommend buying a SSD right now as if you really wanted to cut the time down then buying a new sound card, faster CPU and faster GPU could cost less than an Intel SSD!

[pointertovoid]

Size of the driver: I don't have this computer running right now, but the exe and dll for 32b Win total 50MB - they're common to all 32b Win in this Wdm driver.

Sound card: if I still observe the effect on boot time I certainly switch off the Alc889a.

Faster Gpu: yes, one that doesn't waste time a power on. Probably a smaller Gpu with a less noisy fan.

Faster Cpu: it's already an E8600 - I believe the fastest one on single and double task. I haven't pushed it at all up to now, it runs 1M digits SuperPi in 13s.

Intel Ssd: I'll have first try a Raid-0 since I've two disks, but this doesn't improve boot time much, usually. The Ssd is certainly an option.