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4 Posts
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207058
January 2nd, 2009 03:00
Latitude E6400 - Slow boot / preboot authentication
Hi chaps,
Had a search but couldn't find anything on this except a few people having the same problem
Basically I ordered a test batch of these laptops in to evaluate them as a successor to the D630's we currently use. They've been fine so far but on my laptop (which is used the most frequently) - it takes a long while to boot and for the preboot authentication screen to appear.
The boot progress bar progresses quickly to the last 5% or so and then hangs there for about 2 minutes. Then the preboot authentication screen will appear but takes about the same amount of time to initialise.
This seemingly happened overnight without any significant hardware or software changes.
The boot is not the more thorough boot that usually happens after a poor shutdown or update.
I've tried checking the BIOS for any obvious settings but have found none, and upgrading to A11 BIOS didn't help.
I don't particularly want to rebuild the machine as I don't think this will help.
I haven't tried removing the security feature yet but will do so.
Diagnostics find no problems.
Just wondered if anyone else is experiencing this problem and if so, whether they have managed to resolve it. It doesn't sound like a major issue but will become one as we can't really roll these out across the company if this is a common problem.
Machines are the following spec:
E6400
2.4Ghz C2D Centrino 2
2GB RAM
Vista Business 32bit
Thanks,
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proxybox
24 Posts
0
January 8th, 2009 21:00
I own the e6400 and have only noticed that it takes a long time to get past POST when a hardware piece is changed or a BIOS change is made. Have you tried pressing the ESC key when it is in the delay stage? That usually bypasses the tests at that portion. I believe it is an extensive memory test. Otherwise love the laptop.
jmansell
1 Message
0
January 8th, 2009 21:00
I'm having the same problem with mine. Please let me know if you figure anything out...
Gaijin36
4 Posts
0
January 9th, 2009 02:00
Thanks for your replies guys.
I'm currently liasing with Dell regarding this and whilst I haven't resolved the problem, i'll keep you updated.
So far I've uninstalled the security software and disabled the TPM and system password. Now the system boots quickly as before but I obviously can't use the fingerprint reader.
I'm currently reinstalling the security suite so I will see if that works.
proxybox - It's not the extended POST due to hardware changes or an incompleted boot, i've seen these before and it's not an instance of this. The progress bar literally gets right to the end and hangs and then on the preboot screen also.
Like I said I'll let you know how I get on.
Thanks again for your replies.
DaveEych
9 Posts
0
February 24th, 2009 07:00
We've been experiencing a bevvy of issues with the E6400 laptops. One of them being *very* slow during POST.
I'm curious, have any of you had issues with intermittent system lockups and/or blue screens?
Sincerely,
Looking for answers
Gaijin36
4 Posts
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March 13th, 2009 09:00
I've had a couple of lockups and bluescreens but not recurring. I'll cover the POST reply below.
DwayneMc
1 Message
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March 13th, 2009 09:00
I also ran into this issue this morning with the E6400 running the A12 bios. It took around 9 minutes to get past the BIOS. Will be backing everything up off the laptop before I attempt to dig deeper into this issue.
Gaijin36
4 Posts
0
March 13th, 2009 09:00
Sorry for not coming back to this quicker - for some reason I get an error when trying to access this forum using firefox and I assumed the forum was down as the error was generic.
My slow boot problems at the preboot authentication screen were solved by uninstalling the security suite and removing the security password in the BIOS, then emptying the windows prefetch folder, and then reinstalling the suite.
Hope this helps you guys.
enchiannim
1 Message
0
July 15th, 2014 21:00
Go into bios. f2. look for boot sequence and make sure first boot device is HDD, uncheck for floopy. it will boot quicker to windows from the dell screen.
Drawture
1 Message
0
May 25th, 2017 07:00
I had a similar issue on a dell latitude e6440. I tried the boot sequence fix, which didn't help much. Reseeding the RAM was the most effective fix for me.