Z800 takes "forever" to boot from cold start

[DBrunnenmeyer]

My HP 8570w Elitebook boots to full status in less than 30 seconds. My z800 seems to take forever to boot by comparison.  It seems to spend an awful lot of time loading the BIOS and doing whatever its doing in the background before it begins to launch the actual operating system, in spite of the fact that it has two six-core processors, 48GB of RAM and a 10,000 rpm HDD.

For all practical purposes, the 8570w immediately begins loading Windows 7 Pro (64-bit).

Is there anyway to optimize (i.e., speed up) the boot process in the Z800?  We bought these workstations with the expectation that they would be faster than lightning, but so far we're not very impressed with its performance compared to our older xw9400s, even after it boots.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Skylarking]

BIOS allow you to set a number of Power-On Options located under Advanced settings tab.

So enable POST Messages, maybe enable Option ROM and maybe set Post Delay to 0, then save and exits.

You may also want to look at Boot Order under Storage tab and define sequence of boot devices you want BIOS to check since some time is spent cheking if you have too many 'boot devices' defined before you get to the OS you always boot.

Now when you boot the system, you may see a little more of what the system is doing during boot process on your monitor and before OS loads. It could give you hints as to what more you can disable.

For example, if you never network boot, turn OFF Option ROM loading within BIOS and/or remove the 'device' from the boot order menu.

Some systems also allow you to bypas some POST tests (related to memory?) which can speed things up a little more within BIOS but i'm not sure if z800 allows such.

As mentioned, loo through your BIOS and you may spot something helpful you can set.  It may also be worth reading the "HP Z800 Workstation Maintenance and Service Guide" and the "HP z800 User Guide" as there may be some hiints within...

I haven't read such docs for a very long time... You know, its set and forget and like most, i'm better at the later 

{deited to add folowing]

PS:

you may also like to check out Replicated Setup within BIOS. I believe you can use this BIOS option to save BIOS settings to a file. The filey may contain settings that can be edited and the updated file uploaded to BIOS using Replicated Setup again. Worst that can happen is reset BIOS to default setting using the mobo jumper should things go wrong.

[DBrunnenmeyer]

I think I've done most of what you've suggested. Not unloading unneeded ROM is worth a try.

I've been unable to loate the z800 setup and maintenance guide. For some reason, HP seems to hide these more detailed guides from the list of documentation readily available.

My HP Elitebook 8570w boots much quicker and starts loading the OS within 10 -15seconds or so. Why can't the other desktop workstations with twice the processor power and three times the amound of RAM do the same thing?

Dennis...

[Z440Roger]

Dennis, what you want to disable in the BIOS is the SAS Controller to reduce the cold boot time and of course following the tips from Skylarking. If you don´t use SAS drives or any HDD attached to any of the the SAS ports there is no reason to have the SAS Controller enabled. I have the SAS Controller disabled on my Z800.

Disabling the SAS Controller in the BIOS will reduce the boot times but you will never get a 30 seconds boot on the Z800. Replacing the 10K disk with a SSD disc will reduce the boot time and make the computer snappier overall, but the time the BIOS needs before it even starts to boot the OS will still be long.

The reason why workstation motherboard takes longer time to boot is due to several self tests during boot to make sure that everything works as expected and correctly.

How to: https://support.hp.com/th-en/document/c01718191 (Search for sas to find it)

[DBrunnenmeyer]

Your suggstions are good ones!

Where can I find the "Z800 Workstation Maintenance and Service Guide"?  It doesn't appear in the list of documents on the Z800 support page, though I'm sure it's available if you know the URL to locate it.

Dennis...

[DBrunnenmeyer]

Thanks for the SAS suggestion and the link to that F10 document for the Z800. Do you know if it's available as a PDF file for downloading. On-line, hyper-linked documents are more difficult to read and digest than a "linear" PDF documnent.

Dennis...

[SDH]

google for "z800 service guide" and the service guides actually have part numbers.  The version 1 is 504632-001 and the version 4 is 504632-004.  Later generally is better, and you can search for -001 to -004.  I have no idea why 2 and 3 seem gone from the internet.

You will find version 4  HERE.

http://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/kmcsdirect/emr_na-c01715080-8.pdf

You can turn off the SAS chipset via BIOS under Device Security.  When you do that it is as if that chipset does not exist.  When I do such a thing I always add a PostIt note inside the case cover to remind myself later......

[Skylarking · Accepted solution]

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@SDH wrote:
....You can turn off the SAS chipset via BIOS under Device Security.  When you do that it is as if that chipset does not exist.  When I do such a thing I always add a PostIt note inside the case cover to remind myself later......

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Yes, it's a great idea to place notes inside the case whenever one disables some motherboard component within BIOS. I've often forgot and chased my tail wondering why something doesn't work

@DBrunnenmyer, in my hast i didn't clarify within my PS: some posts above, that some BIOS items listed within the file produced via the Replication process are not available as menu items within BIOS tabs. But editing such 'hidden' items within the file and re-importing the file via Repliceted setup, you may still get the result you desired, thatthe 'hidden item is updated within BIOS, IIRC.

So with 48G of RAM, maybe you don't want the verification tests that occur during POST. And maybe it's possible to disable such memory tests or limit POST tests in general via editing the BIOS replicated setup file. then importing - if such an memory test option is available - BUT why use an expensive workstation if what you want is sloppy POST associated with consumer PC's?

Maybe disabling SAS drives could be enough of a speed up if you don't used such SAS ports... maybe...

Oh, and as for finding HP docs, I tend to simple do a google search like "Z800 Maintenance and services manual" for example and jump to the first HP link. You'd think it should be easy to find such HP docs directly from the HP page for your system but you'd be wrong...

[bivoy]

had similar problem in the past on z400 I think, try to remove USB devices one by one (mouse, keyboard, card reader, webcam etc), I had similar problem in the past with steelseries mouse, new mouse firmware fixed it (was not HP fault)

Just hint, might be 1000 other reasons