[RESOLVED] Can VB.Net adjust bios settings?

[Frabulator]

My main interest is to modify the amount of RAM the computer uses, while the machine is running (IE, without restarting). Is there a way inside of .Net, or even Shell, to adjust BIOS settings without doing a restart?

[jmcilhinney]

That would depend on the API provided by the motherboard manufacturer. I think they pretty much all provide a Windows utility these days but I'm not sure that they would publish the API because they probably don't really want third party utilities poking around at that level. You might have to figure it out for yourself. I'd expect accessing it in VB would be a pain too, as I'd expect pointers to be a requirement.

[sapator]

I'm not sure if this can be done also from the manufacturer. Reducing memory live?
Anyhow , what may help is this:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ectedfrom=MSDN
And using a vbs spirit like so: FreeMem = Space(64000000)
Of course that does not reduce the amount, it frees memory.

[Frabulator]

I'm not sure if this can be done also from the manufacturer. Reducing memory live?
Anyhow , what may help is this:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ectedfrom=MSDN
And using a vbs spirit like so: FreeMem = Space(64000000)
Of course that does not reduce the amount, it frees memory.

My reason for wanting to reduce the amount of usable memory is not to reduce memory life, or to alot free memory space, it is to speed up my windows reboot time.

Windows 10 goes through, in my opinion, and unnecessary cycle when it boots which validates ram. Windows 7 does/did not do this. This is fine for most people, as most of the time people do not have more than 16gb of ram. I have a machine running 96gb. My machine is also running on 48 cores and has everything installed on a gen4 m.2 ssd.

For comparison, when windows 7 was installed on this machine, boot up was almost instantaneous (1> second). Now, with windows 10, on the same machine, it takes every bit of 5 minutes to boot. After a year of this, I am getting frustrated and annoyed. This machine should NEVER take that long to boot.

I thought that I could fix this problem by writing a boot command, that when the machine powers down it would reduce the amount of ram that windows uses to 4gb. Upon reboot, windows would read the 4bg, cycle through that much ram, and then power on. Once the machine powers up, I could then run a reverse application which would unlock the remaining ram.

Sadly though, I have found nothing to allow me to do this.

[OptionBase1]

Have you physically removed RAM and seen boot times increase appropriately? If not, that would be the right thing to do before going down a rabbit hole that's potentially a dead end.

[sapator]

Also,96gb and 48 cores!!!? Is this a Threadripper or Epyc? That is a server setup. What are you using this for? If it is for games you may be unpleasantly surprised as many games lag when they get to so much cores.
Also I would suppose that the motherboard, in order to support all these is at the top end, so I would search for any manufacturer API first or contact the manufacturer explaining the issue.
What is the motherboard type?
But bottom line, I would have just installed windows server not window 10 on that kind of setup.I don't think we even have a server with that much memory and cores at work (might be mistaken) let alone a w10 machine that would be utterly sitting there useless .

[Arnoutdv]

And how is your program, which reduces the amount of physical memory, going to run before windows is started?

[Frabulator]

Have you physically removed RAM and seen boot times increase appropriately?

yes I have, and it does. Not only that, I have done extensive research and found that I am not the only person that has ran into this issue before. An article (I think PC Mag) said that the quickest boottime you can get with windows 10 is with 4gb of ram. Anything more and times starts to suffer, anything less and the machine lags, thus causing time to suffer. I cant recall the exact article, but it was pretty consistent with what I found.

Again, not an issue with 7.

Is this a Threadripper or Epyc?

Yes, I am currently running a threadripper. When I was building my machine I wanted something with fast video render, 3D graphics for programming/cad rendering, and read/wight times. I do not have a bunch of time to dedicate to my software as I have a full time job, and any minute means I have another minute I can spend with my family. Thats why I went with this setup.

Basically, my entire home company is ran off this one machine.

What is the motherboard type?

From memory, I think it is a 970 MSI Gaming Pro. I built this computer a year ago and can remember exactly the name. Either way, I have tried to look up and see if there is a BIO's setting or update that would address this. Currently, there is not. I have not tried to get the API from the manufacturer. If I can not find a path through windows I will explore that option.

And how is your program, which reduces the amount of physical memory, going to run before windows is started?

I was thinking that if I set Windows to only read X amount of ram before it shuts down, then upon opening windows would only read the X amount that I had specified. I know I am not physically removing the ram from the board, but the BIO's is not what is running during the slow boot time, its windows. Going into BIO's and looking around there is almost instant (as it should be).

I just cant think of any other reason why exactly the same machine boots slower on 10 than 7?

[Frabulator]

a w10 machine that would be utterly sitting there useless

The machine itself is freaking amazing once it boots up. Basically no loading times with programs, not bottle necking. Everything is pretty much instantaneous. I have yet to come to a point where I use all the cores/ram, even running 10 virtual machines at once. I have never had the machine lag, not even once. I do not play games on it though, it is strictly work.

But the boot times... It just makes no since to me.

[Arnoutdv]

I was thinking that if I set Windows to only read X amount of ram before it shuts down, then upon opening windows would only read the X amount that I had specified.

[/quote]
That's just not possible.

I know I am not physically removing the ram from the board, but the BIOS is not what is running during the slow boot time, its windows. Going into BIOS and looking around there is almost instant (as it should be).

Is there a setting in your BIOS for checking the RAM?
This was an option once is some BIOS versions.
The check is not performed when you enter the BIOS, but after the BIOS is loaded and before starting the OS from the boot device.

Just some links:
https://techlibrary.hpe.com/docs/iss...ed_memory.html
https://forums.tomshardware.com/thre...artup.3032948/

[Frabulator]

That's just not possible.

Sad day . I was getting to that conclusion as well after finding nothing on it. Oh well.

Is there a setting in your BIOS for checking the RAM?
This was an option once is some BIOS versions.
The check is not performed when you enter the BIOS, but after the BIOS is loaded and before starting the OS from the boot device.

Just some links:
https://techlibrary.hpe.com/docs/iss...ed_memory.html
https://forums.tomshardware.com/thre...artup.3032948/

[/quote]

Thank you! I am heading to work now, but I will check it when I get back. From memory, I do not recall that setting. But, who knows, its been a while since I have been in there.

[Arnoutdv]

Other think, do you have "suspend to disk" or something like that activated?
Or a huge swap space?

https://superuser.com/questions/2095...ge-ram-and-ssd

[Frabulator]

Other think, do you have "suspend to disk" or something like that activated?
Or a huge swap space?

https://superuser.com/questions/2095...ge-ram-and-ssd

No I do not have a suspend to disk. I do have 4 TB of HDD storage space on a standard hard drive, but the OS is not installed on this device.

[Frabulator]

Just looked it up, my MB is a 970A MSI Gaming Pro Carbon

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/970A-...RO-CARBON.html

[Arnoutdv]

Then check whether you have the paging file enabled.
This really shouldn't be necessary when having 96GB of RAM

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ho...-10,36929.html

[Frabulator]

Just checked, I do not have Suspend to Disk, or a paging file setting. The only options available in the BIOs was 'Fast Boot' which has the options of 'Disabled', 'Enabled' and 'Ultra Fast'. It was on 'Enabled' prior. I changed it to 'Ultra Fast', and it did nothing that I could tell to the time.

It still bothers me that this never happened in Windows 7. There has to be a setting somewhere in Windows 10 that is causing this.

[peterst]

Just looked it up, my MB is a 970A MSI Gaming Pro Carbon

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/970A-...RO-CARBON.html

So you say you use this motherboard with Threadripper????? Wow :-)

Please clarify your real hardware by posting screenshots from something like HWInfo.

[Arnoutdv]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...low_boot_time/

https://www.tenforums.com/performanc...boot-time.html


Boot trace:
https://illuminati.services/2021/03/...sing-xbootmgr/

[Arnoutdv]

So you say you use this motherboard with Threadripper????? Wow :-)

Please clarify your real hardware by posting screenshots from something like HWInfo.

I just looked up the prices for a threadripper with 48 cores, wow that’s very expensive (> $4000)

[Frabulator]

Sorry, my correction, it is 24cores threaded to 48cores. I got that confused. I realized that when you said it cost $4000. My processor only cost $2,000 ( think). Still, the processor almost cost more than all the other parts combined.

Please clarify your real hardware by posting screenshots from something like HWInfo.

Yes, here are some screen shots of the Task Manager and HWin

Attachment 181428
Attachment 181429

https://ibb.co/D5G3Tqw
https://ibb.co/dtjtzz0

And.... thats not my motherboard. Wow, I gave you the motherboard in my previous build... That is embarrassing. Oh well, brain farts.

Thank you for showing me this tool, very helpful

Boot trace:

I will look into this. There are some settings that I found on there.