Exact same problem here with a XPS 13 9370, latest bios version 1.1.3. I wouldn't listen to other people about this RAM or bad board or whatever other BS, this is definitely a bios issue and nothing else. I've had all the bios versions since the first one when i bought this laptop in February 2018. As I flashed and updated the bios since the beginning, I have noticed slower and slower boot times. After reading through the release notes I've noticed its mostly Intel CPU microcode, and these are all related to spectre/meltdown patches; this leads me to believe that all these patches added a ton of overhead to the bios before it starts searching for the boot drive and doing its normal thing. And to further prove my point i have a 960 EVO 500GB NVMe drive, which is really fast and cannot be the limiting factor to the laptop.
Following a number of threads and posting about it on YouTube, I've come to a conclusion that all of these systems boot slower than the older (up to 5 year old) models.
I'd accept the minor inconvenience of slower boot time, if I didn't have to constantly power the computer off. The "Modern Sleep" it utilises makes the computer wake up when the power plug is inserted or removed (when in sleep mode). Since I often times charge the computer while it's not being used, it means I have to shut it down or make it hibernate instead of using the "fast" sleep state. Which always brings me through the slow bios..
I also noticed this on my 9570, my BIOS time is 12.2s. I noticed this after I upgraded my parents' laptop to an SSD and it would boot a lot quicker although it has a 2nd Gen Pentium CPU and a SATA SSD. This is nothing super annoying, but it's kind of unnecessary on a machine like this.
This slow booting issue has been a problem for almost all Dell laptops since Late 2015 when the Dell Xps 9550 was released. The 9350 experienced the same issue as well but to a much lesser degree. This is a problem that Dell needs to address because it's starting to become serious for us owners. I've had Dell XPS 15 models L521x, 9530, 9550, 9560 and 9570. All of the models starting from the 9550 had the 5+ seconds delay bios boot. In all of the laptops I've recently owned I've manually upgraded the SSD Except the 9570 which is still using the Toshiba XG5. That being said Dell needs to release a bios update that addresses the slow boot times of these newer laptops. It's a shame because My 2014 Dell XPS 9530 could boot windows 10 in just 10 seconds
I had the same problem for a while as well and finally was pointed to the problem by a colleague.
If you run a Linux distribution and the Linux kernel runs into a crash/issue, it will store a trace of the issue in EFI variables.
The problem is that after a while, traces accumulate and that seems to slow down the EFI loading process massively.
On my system, the Dell logo ended up staying visible for around a minute before the EFI loader would initiate the boot sequence into the SSD (actually start Windows or Linux/Grub).
The fix for this problem is to remove the EFI variables created by the Linux kernel.
Here is how to list EFI variables :
# cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
# ls -l
Most of the Linux generated EFI variables are prefixed with "dump-type".
To know how many of them there are :
# ls -l | grep dump-type | wc -l
On my system, I had 398.
To remove the generate Linux variables variables just do :
# rm dump-type0-*
Then reboot. It instantaneously reduced by boot time by a minute.
I had the same problem for a while as well and finally was pointed to the problem by a colleague.
If you run a Linux distribution and the Linux kernel runs into a crash/issue, it will store a trace of the issue in EFI variables.
The problem is that after a while, traces accumulate and that seems to slow down the EFI loading process massively.
On my system, the Dell logo ended up staying visible for around a minute before the EFI loader would initiate the boot sequence into the SSD (actually start Windows or Linux/Grub).
The fix for this problem is to remove the EFI variables created by the Linux kernel.
Here is how to list EFI variables :
# cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
# ls -l
Most of the Linux generated EFI variables are prefixed with "dump-type".
To know how many of them there are :
# ls -l | grep dump-type | wc -l
On my system, I had 398.
To remove the generate Linux variables variables just do :
# rm dump-type0-*
Then reboot. It instantaneously reduced by boot time by a minute.
Can confirm the above. Worked for me. Thanks @Dj-Death !
canofsoup
1 Message
5
August 3rd, 2018 15:00
Exact same problem here with a XPS 13 9370, latest bios version 1.1.3. I wouldn't listen to other people about this RAM or bad board or whatever other BS, this is definitely a bios issue and nothing else. I've had all the bios versions since the first one when i bought this laptop in February 2018. As I flashed and updated the bios since the beginning, I have noticed slower and slower boot times. After reading through the release notes I've noticed its mostly Intel CPU microcode, and these are all related to spectre/meltdown patches; this leads me to believe that all these patches added a ton of overhead to the bios before it starts searching for the boot drive and doing its normal thing. And to further prove my point i have a 960 EVO 500GB NVMe drive, which is really fast and cannot be the limiting factor to the laptop.
Kastytis D
26 Posts
2
August 8th, 2018 05:00
Following a number of threads and posting about it on YouTube, I've come to a conclusion that all of these systems boot slower than the older (up to 5 year old) models.
I'd accept the minor inconvenience of slower boot time, if I didn't have to constantly power the computer off. The "Modern Sleep" it utilises makes the computer wake up when the power plug is inserted or removed (when in sleep mode). Since I often times charge the computer while it's not being used, it means I have to shut it down or make it hibernate instead of using the "fast" sleep state. Which always brings me through the slow bios..
Oliver97
3 Posts
1
August 8th, 2018 05:00
I also noticed this on my 9570, my BIOS time is 12.2s. I noticed this after I upgraded my parents' laptop to an SSD and it would boot a lot quicker although it has a 2nd Gen Pentium CPU and a SATA SSD. This is nothing super annoying, but it's kind of unnecessary on a machine like this.
My specs:
i7 8750H
16GB RAM
500GB storage
4k touch display
HafizNafes
1 Message
2
August 12th, 2018 17:00
This slow booting issue has been a problem for almost all Dell laptops since Late 2015 when the Dell Xps 9550 was released. The 9350 experienced the same issue as well but to a much lesser degree. This is a problem that Dell needs to address because it's starting to become serious for us owners. I've had Dell XPS 15 models L521x, 9530, 9550, 9560 and 9570. All of the models starting from the 9550 had the 5+ seconds delay bios boot. In all of the laptops I've recently owned I've manually upgraded the SSD Except the 9570 which is still using the Toshiba XG5. That being said Dell needs to release a bios update that addresses the slow boot times of these newer laptops. It's a shame because My 2014 Dell XPS 9530 could boot windows 10 in just 10 seconds
babasupo
7 Posts
2
August 14th, 2018 00:00
This is a problem with dell xps laptop from xps 9550, 9350 onwards.
Dell has done something in the bios to make this laptop slow to boot, and they have been ignoring users for years on this issue
Its annoying to have this premium and expensive laptop been beaten by cheap laptops from other manufacturers and older dell laptops.
REMEMBER, we are talking about SLOW BIOS TIME, nothing to do with windows!
Dj-Death
1 Message
1
November 23rd, 2018 17:00
I had the same problem for a while as well and finally was pointed to the problem by a colleague.
If you run a Linux distribution and the Linux kernel runs into a crash/issue, it will store a trace of the issue in EFI variables.
The problem is that after a while, traces accumulate and that seems to slow down the EFI loading process massively.
On my system, the Dell logo ended up staying visible for around a minute before the EFI loader would initiate the boot sequence into the SSD (actually start Windows or Linux/Grub).
The fix for this problem is to remove the EFI variables created by the Linux kernel.
Here is how to list EFI variables :
# cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
# ls -l
Most of the Linux generated EFI variables are prefixed with "dump-type".
To know how many of them there are :
# ls -l | grep dump-type | wc -l
On my system, I had 398.
To remove the generate Linux variables variables just do :
# rm dump-type0-*
Then reboot. It instantaneously reduced by boot time by a minute.
dougwinjer
1 Message
0
March 1st, 2019 00:00
Can confirm the above. Worked for me. Thanks @Dj-Death !