Advice Request Turning off "Fast Startup" makes Windows (and other softwares) more stable and can solve many problems

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Vasudev

Level 33
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Nov 8, 2014
2,224
Fast startup created issues for me as well, mostly to get RAM stable... So I disabled it from UEFI. Actually there was another fast boot setting "mrc fast boot" under ASUS UEFI settings... Disabled both. And I mean 2 different fast boot settings in UEFI. Fast boot skips RAM checks I think to make boot time slightly faster, but I don't think its worth it to trade off stability for few seconds faster boot honestly. Based on my own experience, I'd disable it every time.
EFI fast mode should be enabled. If you rarely upgrade RAMs/SSD then you won't notice anything different. Without fast boot, nvme drives 2TB+ and 128GB+ RAM takes too much time to initialize.
 

Dex4Sure

Level 3
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May 14, 2019
116
EFI fast mode should be enabled. If you rarely upgrade RAMs/SSD then you won't notice anything different. Without fast boot, nvme drives 2TB+ and 128GB+ RAM takes too much time to initialize.
Never heard of anyone having slow start up times from disabling fast boot... Any sources for that? All I've found that many issues people were having were FIXED by disabling fast boot. Never heard of slow downs caused by disabling fast boot (apart from losing few seconds on boot time which isn't big deal at all). For overclockers, its standard practice to turn it off for increased stability.
 

Freud2004

Level 10
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Well-known
Jun 26, 2020
440
Fast startup created issues for me as well, mostly to get RAM stable... So I disabled it from UEFI. Actually there was another fast boot setting "mrc fast boot" under ASUS UEFI settings... Disabled both. And I mean 2 different fast boot settings in UEFI. Fast boot skips RAM checks I think to make boot time slightly faster, but I don't think its worth it to trade off stability for few seconds faster boot honestly. Based on my own experience, I'd disable it every time.

With an SSD I don't note the difference with fast startup ON or OFF, I presume that exist a difference but hits imperceptible.
 

Vasudev

Level 33
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Nov 8, 2014
2,224
Never heard of anyone having slow start up times from disabling fast boot... Any sources for that? All I've found that many issues people were having were FIXED by disabling fast boot. Never heard of slow downs caused by disabling fast boot (apart from losing few seconds on boot time which isn't big deal at all). For overclockers, its standard practice to turn it off for increased stability.
Didn't you observe 30-100 secs delay w/o Fast boot disabled? Atleast on Dell it is slow as hell. On aftermarket mobo like Asus, Gigabyte, I didn't notice staggering difference just +5sec.
 

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
What about hibernation? I mean whether you use the hibernation feature or not there's a hidden hibernation system file in C which is just over 4GB on my system at the moment. If I disable hibernation then I gain this 4GB space.
I know it's not recommended to turn it off on laptops as this is where data is kept when the battery empties.
But some people said, on desktop, it is okay to turn it off, especially on SSDs to eliminate the extra writing of data.
So what do you guys think?
 

rain2reign

Level 8
Verified
Well-known
Jun 21, 2020
363
I have always disabled the hibernation using 'powercfg -h off' in Powershell, since the first day of the dawn of Windows 7 Ultimate. Never had an issue on to be honest. If enable it, and you use a laptop for instance with a small disk space like 128gb, depending on your installed applications and use. You can also shrink the size of the hiberfile.sys. It's explained at a paragraph near the bottom end of the article on How To Geek: The Pros and Cons of Windows 10’s “Fast Startup” Mode
 

plat

Level 29
Top Poster
Sep 13, 2018
1,793
I think on desktop, yes, and I delete the hiberfil.sys by running powercfg /hibernate off

It's fairly common-place to disable Fast Startup nowadays anyway. And the extra writes whenever Windows starts/restarts on my already fragile Samsung 980 Pro, I can definitely do without. 10 extra sec to boot into Windows is not an insanely big amt. for me.

If I disable MRC Quick Boot on my ASUS motherboard, startup is increased by about 4-5 seconds, yes. So I keep that enabled. Not Windows Fast Startup, definitely a no-no here.
 

blackice

Level 38
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Apr 1, 2019
2,731
Finally this reminded me to disable fast startup. My PC sleeps when not in use to run automated tasks in the wee hours of the morning. I usually restart to reload windows anyway, so there’s really no need for this.
 

Evjl's Rain

Level 47
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Malware Hunter
Apr 18, 2016
3,684
What about hibernation? I mean whether you use the hibernation feature or not there's a hidden hibernation system file in C which is just over 4GB on my system at the moment. If I disable hibernation then I gain this 4GB space.
I know it's not recommended to turn it off on laptops as this is where data is kept when the battery empties.
But some people said, on desktop, it is okay to turn it off, especially on SSDs to eliminate the extra writing of data.
So what do you guys think?
it's recommended to turn off hibernation on SSD because of the extra writing you said. There are also 3 purposes I noted
- First: to speed up the up time so users can get back to work asap. On SSD, the difference is too small so it's not worth turning on
- Second = Hybrid sleep (in Power options): 1/ When your desktop/laptop is put into sleep mode, windows also writes data to both of your RAM (like normal sleep mode) and hard drive (like hibernation) + 2/ when your PC has been in sleep mode for too long -> windows automatically wakes and puts your PC into true hibernation (I noticed this on my laptop, couldn't find any info about this. Disabling Hybrid sleep = laptop never hibernates during sleep)
Hybrid sleep is worth if your desktop/laptop doesn't have battery and in case there is a power outage
- Third = Fast startup = no impact on SSD, huge impact on a fragmented HDD

On desktop + SSD + no UPS/battery, I don't see any reason to enable Hibernation unless you frequently put your desktop into sleep mode -> allow hybrid sleep
 
F

ForgottenSeer 85179

it's recommended to turn off hibernation on SSD because of the extra writing you said. There are also 3 purposes I noted
- First: to speed up the up time so users can get back to work asap. On SSD, the difference is too small so it's not worth turning on
- Second = Hybrid sleep (in Power options): 1/ When your desktop/laptop is put into sleep mode, windows also writes data to both of your RAM (like normal sleep mode) and hard drive (like hibernation) + 2/ when your PC has been in sleep mode for too long -> windows automatically wakes and puts your PC into true hibernation (I noticed this on my laptop, couldn't find any info about this. Disabling Hybrid sleep = laptop never hibernates during sleep)
Hybrid sleep is worth if your desktop/laptop doesn't have battery and in case there is a power outage
- Third = Fast startup = no impact on SSD, huge impact on a fragmented HDD

On desktop + SSD + no UPS/battery, I don't see any reason to enable Hibernation unless you frequently put your desktop into sleep mode -> allow hybrid sleep
What's your recommend settings / commands then?
 
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Evjl's Rain

Level 47
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Apr 18, 2016
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What's your recommend settings / commands then?
my recommend settings for most people
- HDD: hibernation on -> Fast startup on (unless you a have very fast and very optimized PC)
- SSD: both off if you have battery/UPS. If you usually use sleep mode + there is no battery/UPS (+ you power supply is unstable) -> turn on hibernation and allow hybrid sleep (requires hibernation) in power options
these are what I think. People can have different ideas
 

Dex4Sure

Level 3
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Well-known
May 14, 2019
116
Didn't you observe 30-100 secs delay w/o Fast boot disabled? Atleast on Dell it is slow as hell. On aftermarket mobo like Asus, Gigabyte, I didn't notice staggering difference just +5sec.
No. Just few seconds. Cold boot is maybe about 5-10 seconds longer, but that's about it. That's really not big deal at the end and I prefer the added stability.
 
L

Local Host

Fast Startup (Windows 10) and Fast Boot (UEFI) are two different settings.

I never seen any speed diferences between having either ON or OFF (with both SSD and HDD), so I assume it only affects really slow PCs (mostly laptops for sure).

I currently have both OFF, and my Desktop boots faster than my Monitor can display image (by the time the monitor is displaying image, I'm already at the login screen).
 

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