Delay in powering on and the Asus logo appearing

[Orso]

Hi all,
I have an Asus VivoBook_ASUSLaptop_X515EA.
Normally, it used to take about 5 seconds from pressing the power button to the Asus logo appearing.
For a while, without any intervention on my part, it took about 15 seconds, then, again without any intervention on my part, the laptop started booting up again after 5 seconds.
Now, for some time now, I've been experiencing a longer boot time again, about 10 seconds.
Why does this happen?
How can I get back to a faster boot time?
Note, I repeat, that I haven't changed anything in the BIOS at all, and everything happened and is happening for no apparent reason.
Many thanks in advance to all who will reply to me.

 

[Chip]

Hi all,
I have an Asus VivoBook_ASUSLaptop_X515EA.
Normally, it used to take about 5 seconds from pressing the power button to the Asus logo appearing.
For a while, without any intervention on my part, it took about 15 seconds, then, again without any intervention on my part, the laptop started booting up again after 5 seconds.
Now, for some time now, I've been experiencing a longer boot time again, about 10 seconds.
Why does this happen?
How can I get back to a faster boot time?
Note, I repeat, that I haven't changed anything in the BIOS at all, and everything happened and is happening for no apparent reason.
Many thanks in advance to all who will reply to me.

The delay before the Asus logo appears is the time the firmware spends on POST (Power-On Self-Test) and initialising hardware, and it can vary if the BIOS is scanning for boot devices, checking connected peripherals like USB drives or SD cards, or if Fast Boot is toggling its state for some reason. Check your BIOS (hold F2 at startup) and make sure "Fast Boot" is enabled and the boot order has your SSD or NVMe drive listed first, with no unnecessary devices like USB or network boot ahead of it. It is also worth checking whether any USB devices are plugged in when you boot, as an attached drive or hub can add a few seconds while the firmware enumerates it. If the behaviour keeps fluctuating on its own, a BIOS update from the Asus support page for the X515EA may help, as firmware bugs causing inconsistent POST times are not unheard of and are sometimes addressed in updates.

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[Orso]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I had already checked and implemented ALL the suggestions you gave me. Yesterday I updated the firmware and this happened: fast boot (4-5 seconds, and I was very happy).
This morning, rebooting took 13 seconds. The 5 seconds are just a fond memory. I'll try disabling secure boot or following the procedure below I found googleing as soon as I can, but I'm afraid of messing things up.
--------------
Press and hold F2 during boot to enter the BIOS.
Go to Advanced Mode (F7) → Security → Secure Boot → Key Management.
Select only the Key Exchange Key (KEK) item.
Click Delete and then Update to initialize only the intertwined KEK. (Do not touch other keys such as PK, db, or dbx.)
Press F10 to save and exit.
Voila! The delay is gone and the ASUS logo appears immediately.
Press and hold F2 during boot to enter the BIOS.
Go to Advanced Mode (F7) → Security → Secure Boot → Key Management.
Select only the Key Exchange Key (KEK) item.
Click Delete and then Update to initialize only the intertwined KEK. (Do not touch other keys such as PK, db, or dbx.)
Press F10 to save and exit.
Voila! The delay is gone and the ASUS logo appears immediately.
----------------------

 

[Chip]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I had already checked and implemented ALL the suggestions you gave me. Yesterday I updated the firmware and this happened: fast boot (4-5 seconds, and I was very happy).
This morning, rebooting took 13 seconds. The 5 seconds are just a fond memory. I'll try disabling secure boot or following the procedure below I found googleing as soon as I can, but I'm afraid of messing things up.
--------------
Press and hold F2 during boot to enter the BIOS.
Go to Advanced Mode (F7) → Security → Secure Boot → Key Management.
Select only the Key Exchange Key (KEK) item.
Click Delete and then Update to initialize only the intertwined KEK. (Do not touch other keys such as PK, db, or dbx.)
Press F10 to save and exit.
Voila! The delay is gone and the ASUS logo appears i
[...]

The pattern you are describing - fast after a firmware update, then slow again the very next morning - is a strong clue. A few things are likely candidates:

1. The firmware reset your Fast Boot setting
BIOS updates commonly reset settings to defaults. Go back into the BIOS and check that Fast Boot is still enabled; it may have reverted overnight, especially after the first full cold boot post-update.

2. Windows is interfering with Fast Boot
Windows "Fast Startup" (the hybrid shutdown feature) and UEFI Fast Boot interact in ways that can cause inconsistent POST times. If Windows does a full restart rather than a hybrid shutdown, the BIOS sometimes performs a more thorough POST. Try this: in Windows, go to Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do > Turn on fast startup, and make sure it is checked.

3. The procedure you found
Disabling Secure Boot is unlikely to help here and I would not recommend it unless you have a specific reason. It does not affect POST duration in any meaningful way on a standard VivoBook setup, and it can cause other complications.

4. Connected devices
Each morning, do you have anything plugged in that might not be there right after a fresh update test? A USB hub, dongle, or external drive can add several seconds to POST.

Start with checking whether Fast Boot reverted in the BIOS - that is the most likely explanation given the timing.

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[Orso]

Thank you so much for your reply. As I said before, I've already checked everything. Everything you mentioned is already enabled, both in the BIOS and in Windows. I can't understand! Yesterday, after updating the BIOS, I tried to turn it on twice and it took 4-5 seconds to turn on. Then, when I turned the laptop back on this morning, it took about 13 seconds for the logo to appear. Worse than with the old BIOS, which took about 10 seconds.
Please note: no USB peripherals are connected except the mouse, but even removing it makes no difference.

 

[Chip]

Thank you so much for your reply. As I said before, I've already checked everything. Everything you mentioned is already enabled, both in the BIOS and in Windows. I can't understand! Yesterday, after updating the BIOS, I tried to turn it on twice and it took 4-5 seconds to turn on. Then, when I turned the laptop back on this morning, it took about 13 seconds for the logo to appear. Worse than with the old BIOS, which took about 10 seconds.
Please note: no USB peripherals are connected except the mouse, but even removing it makes no difference.

That detail about the USB mouse is actually worth focusing on. Even though a mouse does not appear to be a boot device, some BIOS implementations will still pause briefly to initialise or interrogate USB devices during POST, and occasionally a particular USB device can cause a longer-than-expected delay at that stage. It is a quick and easy test: try a cold boot with the USB mouse completely unplugged and see if the timing changes.

The other thing that stands out is the difference between your two boots after the update. That first boot after a BIOS flash often benefits from a clean initialisation state, and subsequent cold boots can behave differently once Windows has gone through a full shutdown cycle and the BIOS has written new data back to its storage. This can sometimes indicate that the BIOS is spending extra time re-validating something on each boot, such as memory training.

On the memory training point: if your laptop has user-accessible RAM slots and the RAM has ever been reseated or replaced, or if the RAM is running at an XMP/DOCP profile, the BIOS may be re-training the memory on some boots. Check in the BIOS whether there is a memory profile setting and try leaving it at the default JEDEC speed rather than any enhanced profile.

Finally, the 13-second figure is genuinely longer than the previous 10 seconds, which suggests the new firmware may have introduced a timeout or check that was not there before. It would be worth checking the Asus support page to see if there is a newer BIOS revision that addresses boot time regressions.

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[Orso]

I'm truly grateful for your concern. Unfortunately, as I wrote in my previous post, I've already implemented and tried ALL of your suggestions without success. Booting without a mouse takes just as long, and Asus support isn't providing anything beyond the update I've already installed.
I'm afraid I'll have to resign myself, even though it really bothers me, and hope it fixes itself like it did some time ago, only to get worse again without any intervention on my part.