Acer Nitro 5 AN515-45 Extremely Slow boot after BIOS update

Hey Guys, I own an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-45 laptop and I decided to give an SSD upgrade from 512GB stock NVMe to 1TB. Before SSD upgrade my laptop was running the BIOS version v1.10 (8/2/2022) but then I updated my BIOS to v1.11 (7/11/2023). Then I upgraded to 1TB Crucial P3 Plus Gen 4 SSD but I faced with a weird problem. After installing W11 to new SSD, first it seemed to work fast but after transferring my files to new drive and installing the drivers, computer started to boot extremely slow and it almost took 1-2 minutes, sometimes it keeps booting forever in boot circle screen.

First I thought it was an issue with SSD, so I replaced my drive with old drive and did the same process on my other 512gb SSD's. The issue kept going regardless if you use W10 or W11. It boots seriously slow and sometimes it doesn't even load up after the circle.

I made researches and read forums on reddit and youtube that they say downgrading BIOS is the solution but I don't know if I end up with a bricked laptop and I don't want it to happen. Can Acer release a new BIOS update to fix this issue?

or any other way to fix my computer or properly downgrading it?

NOTE : My computer boot and disk performance is ruined after this update (Update PI FP6_1.0.0.C. 2. Support OS May 23 CI security.)

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eGomes

Hi @387db,

#1 After updating the firmware UEFI / BIOS of your AN515-45, did you try to do a Clear CMOS!?

#2 Try installing Crucial Storage Executive Tool to check if firmware updates there are available for your Crucial P3 Plus SSD.

#3 It would be interesting to test the two available M.2 slots (1 and 2) to see if this slowness problem persists.

387db

Hello, I've tested the slots and nothing changed (I tested slots with other 512gb drives)
I'd installed Crucial Executive tool and there is no firmware update

NOTE : The issue I'm facing happens regardless which windows or ssd I use during installation. It occured after the recent BIOS update.

Issue starts when I fill main SSD with my data, documents and pictures. It never happened before and most of the times PC can't even startup.

and you mean unplugging the battery will clear CMOS right? since there is no cmos battery

eGomes

In fact, as the SSD is filled up and approaches its maximum capacity. The tendency is for it to become slower, due to the greater effort required from the SSD controller.

#1 Yes, try to do a Clear CMOS (removing CR2032 battery) and reconfigure UEFI firmware:

#2 Check also in Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc), If error events are generated:

Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational
Microsoft-Windows-Storage-ClassPnP/Operational
Microsoft-Windows-Storage-Storport/Health
Microsoft-Windows-Storage-Storport/Operational

387db

Hello again, I opened up the laptop again and disconnected CMOS battery. It seemed to be restarted for 5 6 times and now I'm on BIOS screen. What does reconfigure UEFI mean? am I going to reflash BIOS or just removing this will help? I need more information and I'm not be able to send computer to any service.

by the way the issue is still happening

eGomes

After to make Clear CMOS, Load Setup Defaults (by pressing F9 or access Exit menu).

Try disable these options in BIOS setup:

AMD-SVM
AMD-IOMMU

Then check if NVMe performance issue persists!

Another possibility, is PCIe Link State in the Power options (powercfg.cpl) is causing this behavior.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/692409/acer-nitro-5-an515-45-extremely-slow-boot-after-bios-update

No, you can't downgrade BIOS, Windows won't allow it. What you can do is check the boot performance logs in Event Viewer what is causing these boot delays and disable that service, replace or try to update the driver. Turn of Fast Startup first and run like that for a few days to populate stats and logs. Open Event Viewer and navigate to Applications and Services logs, Microsoft, Windows, Diagnostics Performance, Operational. On the screen at the right look for the last red error boot performance log and double click on it, this is an example:
This application took longer than usual to start up, resulting in a performance degradation in the system startup process:
File Name : svchost.exe
Friendly Name : Host Process for Windows Services
Version : 10.0.22621.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800)
Total Time : 11477ms
Degradation Time : 8029ms

In this case nothing you can do about the unspecified svchost.exe that took 8 seconds too long to start, but often a driver or details are listed that you can then try to investigate. To speed up your booting process you have to weekly update your Windows11 to: 22H2 build 22621.2361 and uninstall all bloatware, 3rd-party AV and browsers, all trial versions and disable Startup apps in Task Manager that are not absolutely required. To test your system boot in Safe Mode and if that is fast you have rogue drivers or services that slow down the booting that you can disable with Safe Boot in MSconfig.exe. Run Storage Sense and click on the Temporary bin icon at the left bottom, it may find 100s of GBs old Windows10 files like OldDos that you should purge. After that go on the internet and paste this in the Command Prompt opened as Administrator: Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth and press Enter, that should complete fast and successful, if it hangs rerun. Then paste this in the same command window: SFC /scannow and press Enter. This must complete with "Found no integrity violations" if bad files are repaired, rerun SFC.