Studio XPS 9000 Sloooow to Startup/Reboot

Thanks for all the tips. I'll try them when I return home. For what it's worth, the first time I powered the computer up my USB keyboard wouldn't work (but its lights were on indicating it was still receiving power). Do these computers have preferred USB ports for the mouse and keyboard to be plugged into?

They seem to, but I don't know if they are the same for all machines.  I don't use the front USB ports for anything.  I've got the monitor (Dell 2007WFP), keyboard (Logitech G-15), mouse, (Logitech G-5), and external USB hard disk (500Gb Western Digital Passport) all on rear USB ports.  I'll be happy to map the ports that I use, but as I said, I'm not sure if they'll turn out to be unique to the computer.  If you find a setup that works, let's compare ports and see where we are.  If nothing else it might help others,and point Dell in the right direction for an overall fix.

* Power the PC off
* Disconnect all peripherals except for the mouse, keyboard, and monitor
* Power the PC on
* Is the boot time faster? If yes, power off
* Plug one additional peripheral in
* Power the PC on. Do this until you find the peripheral that is slowing the boot time

AnClar,

Please map them. By the way, I only use the XPS 630i/730x front USB ports for my USB key. I never shutdown or restart with it in the front USB port.

OK...first of all, I had a slight brain cramp.  My monitor is not connected USB, but DVI.  Here are my USB port mappings:

Facing the rear of the XPS9000, there are four USB ports.  I've numbered them as follows:  Top left port #1, Top right port #2, Bottom left port #3, Botom right port #4.

My setup:

Port #1:  Logitech G-15 keyboard

Port #2: Western Digital Passport 500Gb USB Hard Disk Drive

Port #3:  Logitech G-5 mouse.

Port #4:  Apple iPhone USB connection cable. 

Hope this helps.

Ok, it seems I've pinpointed the device that's slowing the startup, and it's my new Logitech Illuminated Keyboard (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/4740&cl=us,en). I've tried plugging it into various USB ports (both front and back) and each time it makes the startup freeze for a while at this point: http://img59.imageshack.us/i/dscn1888.jpg/

When I switched keyboards to an older keyboard (Saitek Eclipse II) the startup is quick and what i'd expect.

So what's the next step? How can I make my keyboard work? 

After searching for solutions is seems this is a widespread and known problem with the keyboard and XPS 9000's: http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Keyboards-and-Keyboards-Mice/Logitech-Illuminated-Keyboard-unusable-to-enter-BIOS-prior-to/m-p/289945 Have any solutions been made since then (November)? 

I'm using the older G-15 (with the monochrome LCD) and it works fine...no slow boot issues.  Don't have any idea about the Illuminated KB.  I didn't realize Dell was OEM'ing that KB.

I have a stock, plain vanilla Dell keyboard plugged into a USB port on the rear of the 435T, along with a Logitech MX518 mouse. I've had occasional slow boot problems since I bought the computer. When I installed BIOS version A13 a few months ago, I hoped that would solve the problem, but it didn't. Now I see that version A14 is out. I haven't installed it yet. When the computer boots normally, I'm at my desktop in around 40 seconds. Otherwise, there is a period of no disk activity for a couple of minutes before the OS fully loads.

I have a stock, plain vanilla Dell keyboard plugged into a USB port on the rear of the 435T, along with a Logitech MX518 mouse. I've had occasional slow boot problems since I bought the computer. When I installed BIOS version A13 a few months ago, I hoped that would solve the problem, but it didn't. Now I see that version A14 is out. I haven't installed it yet. When the computer boots normally, I'm at my desktop in around 40 seconds. Otherwise, there is a period of no disk activity for a couple of minutes before the OS fully loads.

Have you tried using different combinations of the USB ports for the mouse & keyboard to see if that affects the boot speed at all?

Also are you running Vista or Win7?  Reason I ask is that I've had a lot fewer USB boot issues with Win 7 64-bit than I had with Vista 32-bit.  My system was delivered with Win 7 installed, so I didn't have to upgrade the OS.  It was a clean install which may or may not matter.  My old XPS600 with Vista 32-bit had terrible problems with USB and slow boot.

I installed the A14 BIOS but haven't seen any changes in performance, or anything else.

I also had the same very slow boot using the Logitech illuminated KB.

I bought a PCI card that has 5 USB ports, installed it and plugged the KB into that, very quick boot again!

I also had to plug an external HD into this PCI USB card because every time the computer booted, the 'Auto Play' and' Dell DataSafe' would start finding the external drive while it was plugged into the rear USB slots.

@AnClar,

I'm running Win 7 64-bit. The system came with Vista 64-bit. After receiving the system, I did a clean reinstall of Vista 64-bit but the problem reappeared. I was hoping Win 7 would solve it, but I think the problem is not at the OS level. I haven't tried using different USB ports for the keyboard and mouse. I would imagine that Dell would mention this in the A14 BIOS notes if it fixed it, so I don't expect the BIOS update will solve it. I'll install the update anyway and see.

OK..the port moving may help.  When I started to change ports, I got one of those "your hardware is ready to use" bubbles indicating that a driver got reinstalled for something..  Not sure which piece of h/w gererated the msg though, unfortunately.  I agree that this is probably not OS related, except maybe as far as drivers go.  My gut feeling is that it is related to how the USB ports are initialized, what h/w is identified in each in-use USB port, whether the system sees any of the USB components as being bootable, and what order the drivers for those pieces of h/w are then loaded.  The problem could still have a BIOS related component to it though, as some people are reporting freezes or slowdowns at around 30% progress on the XPS startup screen.  At that point the BIOS is still in control of the system and the OS has not yet begun to load.  Even though it isn't a problem for me at this point, I really wish Dell could figure this out and fix it once and for all.

I have actually had this happen on non Dell systems also. The problems for me was caused by external hard drives. When I get my 9000 I will see if I have the issues that other users are presenting here on the forum.

So maybe the true meaning of the acronym USB is:  Universal Slow Boot and they've been keeping it from us all along!  :emotion-4: