Solved Another machine having very slow Win 8 install

[pparks1]

So, I've had a couple of machines now giving me trouble with the installation of the RTM releases that I downloaded with my MSDN account. I tried a computer at home, which failed to display the screen properly during the install of the 64bit version of Enterprise. I switched to 32bit and that worked fine.

So, now I am attempting to install Windows 8 Professional 32bit on a Dell 755 small form factor computer at work and it's taking forever to install. I used this same machine for the 64bit Release Preview and it was just fine.

From Press Any Key to boot from DVD to Windows logo: 1:15
Spinning Circle under Windows logo: 11 seconds
Purple screen until first Welcome dialog box: 4:30
After hitting install now, sat on purple screen with spinning circle saying "Setup is Starting". 6:00
After entering product key to license agreement: 4:30
After hitting custom load, sat with spinning circle to pick my drives for 4:30

So, i'm nearly at 20 minutes at this point and haven't even begun the install of Windows 8 yet.

 

[Mystere]

Are you installing from USB or DVD? Are there any USB storage devices attached? I've seen some bios do this when USB storage is attached during install.

 

[pparks1]

Installing from DVD. the only USB devices that are installed are the keyboard and mouse.

I updated the BIOS from A11 to A19, verified AHCI is enabled, and I disabled the non-existent floppy drive in the BIOS and still having the issue.

The box is an Intel Core 2 Duo, E7200 at 2.53Ghz, with 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM in dual channel, and a 160GB SATA hard drive. Video is whatever is onboard on this box.

 

[tcman50]

My install of Windows 8 Pro 64bit took awhile as well, it's just plain freaky

 

[pparks1]

Ok, got the issue resolved.

In the BIOS on this machine, I had to change the SATA-0 mode from AHCI to ATA. This was where my hard drive was installed.

Previously it took 20 minutes to get to the point where I could begin the install.

Now it took 1:50 to get to point where Windows started to install.

Edit: Installation completed in less than 12 minutes with AHCI disabled.

 

[Haxcid]

Installing from DVD. the only USB devices that are installed are the keyboard and mouse.

I updated the BIOS from A11 to A19, verified AHCI is enabled, and I disabled the non-existent floppy drive in the BIOS and still having the issue.

The box is an Intel Core 2 Duo, E7200 at 2.53Ghz, with 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM in dual channel, and a 160GB SATA hard drive. Video is whatever is onboard on this box.

The OptiPlex 755 in small form factor comes with a POS laptop style cd/dvd drive. They are notoriously slow. You should really install from a USB drive or network location. I did my laptop in 15 min from my network (dell latitude d630) and my home system (custom built i5 system) in about 20 min from usb drive.

A 4gig usb drive will set you back about 5 bucks.
Frys_Flash_Drives

 

[pparks1]

Haxcid: I understand what you are saying, but this wasn't a matter of a slow DVD drive. When I shut off AHCI for my hard drive, it installed Windows 8 in less than 12 minutes from that piece of crap DVD drive.

 

[Haxcid]

Haxcid: I understand what you are saying, but this wasn't a matter of a slow DVD drive. When I shut off AHCI for my hard drive, it installed Windows 8 in less than 12 minutes from that piece of crap DVD drive.

AHCI is not a promise of performance especially with a Dell system, however the DVD drive in that system is a SATA drive so like I said it's a crappy DVD drive that does not work well under AHCI. Spend 5 bucks, enable AHCI and install from USB.


(I have hundreds of 755's on my network. I am very familiar with 745, 755, 760, 780, and 790 which total about 6000 machines on my network)

 

[alphanumeric]

I had one install take close to an hour. Install was done with a DVD. The IDE DVD drive and IDE hard drive were on the same cable/channel. It was my backup rig made up of spare parts. The motherboard only has the one IDE header. A USB install of Windows 7 probably takes about 20 min on that PC.

 

[pparks1]

Haxcid: I understand what you are saying, but this wasn't a matter of a slow DVD drive. When I shut off AHCI for my hard drive, it installed Windows 8 in less than 12 minutes from that piece of crap DVD drive.

AHCI is not a promise of performance especially with a Dell system, however the DVD drive in that system is a SATA drive so like I said it's a crappy DVD drive that does not work well under AHCI. Spend 5 bucks, enable AHCI and install from USB.


(I have hundreds of 755's on my network. I am very familiar with 745, 755, 760, 780, and 790 which total about 6000 machines on my network)

I've got a ton of 4GB and 8GB USB keys lying around. I'll do an experiment here shortly and re-enable AHCI and test my load time from USB.

 

[darinaby]

i had a very slow installation of windows 8 64b on my thinkpad laptop and it didnt work after it finish. it take about 4 hours.
i try to chenge settings in my bios from stata to others options there but it didnt work
finaly i find a Solution. i update my bios frimware from lenovo web site that fix the problem.
hope it will help you