When I got my POWERSPEC G419 system in May, the boot sequence was taking 13 seconds to show anything on the screen (the logo from the BIOS) and then it was just a blazing fast 3 seconds to get to the Windows 10 login screen from there. I regularly shut down the system (daily at least), but usually leave it plugged in and powered.
I went on vacation a couple weeks ago, powered down the system and turned off the power strip. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this, but the timing seems close to when the problem started, so it could be related. Or it could be a Windows Update. Now after returning from vacation, when I turn on the system, it still takes 13 seconds to show anything on the screen, but it takes an additional 31 seconds to get from the BIOS startup screen to the Windows login screen, with the CMOS entry menu options showing for most of that time.
I've never understood how this system was able to boot so fast, even after all my software was installed, but I'm kind of sad that it doesn't any more. I'm guessing that this doesn't have much to do with installed software because it's only the BIOS boot time that seems to be affected (although the boot time after login may have been reduced). This system has an SSD. I've heard about, but am not entirely familiar with some fast boot technology that restores memory state after a boot instead of initializing it all from scratch, and am wondering if that could be involved. Is it possible a larger memory image got persisted and some of the boot time moved from login to BIOS startup or something? How does fast boot work, and how might it have changed recently?
My primary question is, what could have caused such a drastic difference in the boot timing?
