Long delay before my PC POSTs?

Google'd this one and it seems that a lot of ATI 5xxx users, me included, are having this problem where it takes 20+ secs after turning on the PC before it actually starts POST. After that 20+ secs I get the single POST beep and everything goes swimmingly.

It's just a little thing that's nagging away at me, not a big deal I know, but I'm curious as to why this is the case and whether anyone else here is having this issue? Also, is there a way to fix it?

I've heard that mobo BIOS updates could fix it but I'm reluctant to fiddle about with flashing my mobo's BIOS in case I do something horrendously n00b-worthy and brick it! It's been a long time since I flashed one...

Also heard that an update for the graphics card's BIOS might fix it, but as of yet I haven't been able to find any updates.

1) Look in the BIOS manual for the meaning of the beep

2) check to make sure you've enabled 'quick POST' in the BIOS

I had a good 10 second boot hang on my other P55 mobo, updating it to latest BIOS sorted that right out.

It was with a GTX275.

Originally Posted by Weetabix

1) Look in the BIOS manual for the meaning of the beep

2) check to make sure you've enabled 'quick POST' in the BIOS

1) It's just the normal beep that shows it's still alive and that POST is starting

2) Been enabled since day 1

Originally Posted by Sinnyowns

I had a good 10 second boot hang on my other P55 mobo, updating it to latest BIOS sorted that right out.

It was with a GTX275.

Damnit, don't wanna flash the BIOS! Oh well, should be okay as long as I don't fudge it up and hopefully it'll sort it out.

Oddly, as far as I've googled, it seems to be only Asus mobos that are having this issue. Was your other P55 an Asus one?

Got any USB hard drives attached? They can take a while to spin up.

Nope. Only external devices attached are monitor, keyboard, mouse, router, headphones.

Yeah I generally only buy ASUS.

Updating the bios is easy

As Sinny says, try updating your BIOS see if that sorts it out. One beep on your mobo most of the time means everything OK so it just sounds like your BIOS is taking its time. You could always try booting off multiple cores to see if the does anything.

Originally Posted by Weetabix

Got any USB hard drives attached? They can take a while to spin up.

Along the line of what weets said, try removing all USB devices except the kb/mouse....just to check. My last two MBs had issues with different devices attached. Flash memory can really mess the post speed up for me.

Originally Posted by DragonSVD

Along the line of what weets said, try removing all USB devices except the kb/mouse....just to check. My last two MBs had issues with different devices attached. Flash memory can really mess the post speed up for me.

Keyboard and mouse are the only USB devices I have attached

I'm gonna flash the BIOS at some point and see if it fixes it.