ASRock's Instant Boot: 0 to Vista in 4 seconds

ASRock has a ploy to sell more of its motherboards: Instant Boot. The BIOS update for select MoBos promises to boot XP or Vista systems 10 times faster than standard PCs -- in other words, about 3 to 4 seconds from a full shutdown. ASRock achieves this minor of miracles through manipulation of the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface that Microsoft manipulates for its sleep and hibernate modes. At the risk of oversimplification, ASRock appears to add the processing baggage to the backend of the shutdown process, essentially rebooting the OS and then dropping it into a suspended state ready to instantly pop on the next time you hit the power button. Pretty smart actually. Here's the catch: the system you're using must be limited to a single user account without any password protection -- a definite no-no for corporate environments. See what happens when Hugo and George steal Dad's camcorder after the break.

[Thanks, Daniel]

[Taylor @ Nov 14th 2008 8:07AM]

It's really just putting it to sleep after it's rebooted... well, in hibernation so it uses less power I guess.

I don't see anything too special in this, especially with its limitations but it'd be good to see more in this field

[majortom1981 @ Nov 14th 2008 8:11AM]

I am complaining because boot up is not equal to waking up from sleep.

I can conserve more power by completely shutting off my pc and the power strip its plugged into then putting it into sleep .

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 14th 2008 8:52AM]

Booting up and shutting down uses more power than letting it sleep on most PCs in a typical week so you actually will save power if you leave it to sleep. In sleep mode you're only using the smallest amount of power which can be compared to shutting down and Booting up once a week.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 14th 2008 8:49AM]

Not always true with laptops though. Similar effect it just means less battery in the morning either way.

[Joe @ Nov 14th 2008 4:28PM]

@Thi mam:

A computer in standby can easily use 5W. If it's in standby for 8 hours that's 0.04kWh

If the running computer consumes 100W and takes 1 minute to boot:
0.0016kWh

Even if you half the standby power, and double the running power you're still ahead shutting the machine off.

I still go into standby if I'm away for a while and don't need the machine running, because it's quicker to come bck and I don't have to close my applications.

[kaikara @ Nov 14th 2008 8:20AM]

I don't get what the big deal about boot times is. In Vista sleep works great so why even shut the computer down a few seconds and you are entering your password and back at the desktop.

[balls @ Nov 14th 2008 3:20PM]

Vista sleep *IS* great.

However Vista still suffers from memory fragmentation over time. So after a while, memory usage will be suboptimal. Rebooting fixes that issue.

[Papito @ Nov 14th 2008 8:51AM]

Anyone notice how George looks like Jerry Yang?

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 14th 2008 8:54AM]

lol at "Hugo". I think I'll go buy a new MoBo from ASRock as well ;)

[protozoider @ Nov 14th 2008 9:11AM]

Or you could just put it in standby mode where it's only using like 4 watts of power to get instant on.

[scape @ Nov 14th 2008 9:17AM]

where's kumar? :D

[fieldcar @ Nov 14th 2008 9:39AM]

Golf Clap... HEHE, great movies.

[kal326 @ Nov 14th 2008 9:23AM]

Well as long as we are playing shenanigans I can get XP to instant boot in 2-3 seconds and it doesn't involve any restart then sleep tricks and the system can have multiple logins with passwords.

How is this possible you may ask? Its called a VM, I never said I was instantly booting a physical machine. Shady marketing 101.

[balls @ Nov 14th 2008 3:19PM]

Thats not necessarily true. These guys are optimizing for use.

When you boot up your computer, you're likely waiting for it to start up.

When you are shutting down, assuming it's not a reboot, you're likely done computing and will walk away.

So why not add extra time to shutdown to optimize start up?

The only suck is if you need to power off to add hardware.

[lovesoul.TV @ Nov 14th 2008 9:59AM]

so basically

"please install our software, which works on your BIOS, and remove any passwords and accounts which may divide the harddrive and make it complicated for us to manouvre around whilst you are sleeping"

Brilliant

dj Raj Lovesoul
http://www.lovesoul.tv

[eiki @ Nov 14th 2008 10:26AM]

is that 'clak'? i can't really see, your message is too pale

[TheCow5 @ Nov 14th 2008 10:29AM]

Thans on a newly installed OS, how well would it do after you've install Norton, Photoshop, paintshop Pro, Mesh, SpyBot SD, AWC, Ect.

I wonder how well it would boot XP.

[BratPAQ @ Nov 14th 2008 10:36AM]

im not able to watch the video, but it seems, from comments here, whats happening is the shutdown was padded with bootup sequence, and then the windows suspend? is this a joke?

[webterractive @ Nov 14th 2008 10:40AM]

Wow must be fun working at Asrock, just look at Hugo's enthusiasm... Instant Boot hmmm looks like George moved the mouse and the monitor was off, I didn't even see the Windows logo on Hugo's monitor. I don't know....

[Yoshi1080 @ Nov 14th 2008 11:30AM]

@icepop: You’re right, I didn’t use the correct technical term. Still, from what I read on the AsRock website, InstantBoot basically has the same boot times as S3/S4 and only differs in that it boots from a fresh image rather than from the hibernation file. On the website there is no mention of a special flash memory to store the data on in “regular mode”; and technically it is based on S4 (and S3 for “fast mode”, respectively): http://www.asrock.com/feature/InstantBoot/index.asp

So booting in 4 seconds AND completely plugging off the computer apparently does not work.

From what it does, “regular mode” seems to be comparable to HORM (Hibernate once resume many) on Windows XPe.

[yuu23 @ Nov 14th 2008 11:42AM]

Another innovative motherboard from Taiwan.

I am impressed.

[Falcom @ Nov 14th 2008 1:18PM]

Hey look everyone, an marketing employee!

[yuu23 @ Nov 16th 2008 8:19PM]

Falcon you are hilarious

[NG @ Nov 14th 2008 11:51AM]

4 sec for Instant boot, 46 for none... and this dude said almost "10 times as fast"???
what a mathematician lol

[Samboini @ Nov 14th 2008 1:49PM]

His maths is better than your punctuation and grammar.

[MasterCKO @ Nov 14th 2008 2:06PM]

46 divided by 4 = ?

[NG @ Nov 15th 2008 12:04PM]

@Samboini
Yea, why don't you tell your mom and sister to come over and teach me, Mr. Spelling Bee

[Peter @ Nov 14th 2008 11:54AM]

Instant Boot + logoff.exe in startup = better prank now

[StalematE @ Nov 14th 2008 11:55AM]

"I'd tell you to go to hell, but I work there and I wouldn't want to see you every day."

[StalematE @ Nov 14th 2008 11:56AM]

fucking engadget and your shitty reply button!

[Eric (other) @ Nov 14th 2008 12:11PM]

These guys seem to be confusing tongue-in-cheeck laughability, with moronic mouse waving.

I'd rather experience a clear, concise and proffesional vid, despite the likely prospect of boredom, than suffer this barrage of ninnery.

[Dan @ Nov 14th 2008 12:15PM]

Oh my good gowd! How cool is Hugo!!! I want to be your friend Hugo!

[Falcom @ Nov 14th 2008 1:16PM]

Ok, so they basically gave sleep mode(S3) a new name, removed the security of booting back to a password, removed multi-user support that XP and Vista already support, and saved about 1 second of wake-up time and decided its worth selling it as a feature? Blow me, I'll keep my password thanks.

[BOFH @ Nov 14th 2008 1:27PM]

Why not just HORM. This has been around for years, and Windows XP embedded supported this for years. HORM = Hibernate Once Read Many. Take a good boot, then hibernate, and use that hibernate image each time you power up. People building Car PCs have known this for years, as booting each time you start a car wood just take too long.

[Ariel @ Nov 14th 2008 1:32PM]

There is no way that "instant boot" has some magic to actually go through the whole booting process in 4 seconds. It is obvious what this does: Instant boot fast mode is Stand by. Instant boot regular mode is Hibernate. Big whoop. If you need to restart your computer, you're still going to have to turn this auto-standby off.

[Patriks7 @ Nov 14th 2008 1:37PM]

*Correction -

"keep on stroking Steve Jobs' cock"

Thank you

[Coolbee8 @ Nov 14th 2008 2:55PM]

The countdown to disaster - T minus 4 seconds.

[Evangelion @ Nov 14th 2008 2:56PM]

Yeah! Why not?

[Sam Zebian @ Nov 14th 2008 3:01PM]

Awesome... Can't wait until this is most motherboards out there in the future.

[CrazyRussian @ Nov 14th 2008 3:07PM]

This is most boring and dumb news posted here yet, posted by boring and dumb people that work here.

Good job!

I'm losing all respect for all of you that work here.

[andyafk @ Nov 14th 2008 4:44PM]

good thing to know such a technology out there but i'll pass since im running os 24/7
thanks for the hard work people

[Tony @ Nov 14th 2008 4:55PM]

are you for real?

[bidur @ Nov 14th 2008 7:51PM]

good work !

[Josh Ladella @ Nov 14th 2008 9:26PM]

just watch, it takes like 10 minutes to shut down...

[Marrvia @ Nov 14th 2008 9:45PM]

How do we know they didn't just have the computer in sleep mode? There wasn't even anyone sort of bios text or anything at the beginning.

[Greg @ Nov 14th 2008 11:40PM]

The 'instant-boot' machine didn't actually boot windows. The Vista splash screen didn't display and neither did the startup sound/image. It looks like it woke up from a sleep state.

My guess is that they rewire the shutdown to actually be something like reboot. It turns off the screen and does the reboot.
Windows launches and when it's done it automatically puts the machine into a suspended sleep state.

The realistic test is install a windows update patch and time how long it takes from the moment you start installing the update until you've finished rebooting and productive again.

[Nihility @ Nov 15th 2008 10:23AM]

Wouldn't a complete reboot cycle suffice? On to Off and back on.

[Al Bundy @ Nov 15th 2008 12:52AM]

is asrock still using those cheap chinee capacitors that leak and can cause a fire? yeah, lots of people will appreciate this comment. i remember having to change the cappies right above the dimm slots back in the p4/pentium D days, as there were the first to "explode". secondly, most people pay for their electricity. i doubt this feature will be used much.

[Kai @ Nov 15th 2008 12:28PM]

Instant boot fast mode IS sleep (S3 state), and Instant boot regular mode IS hibernation. The ASRock website says so: http://www.asrock.com/feature/InstantBoot/index.asp

The article above already states (I would consider rather accurately): ASRock appears to add the processing baggage to the backend of the shutdown process, essentially rebooting the OS and then dropping it into a suspended state ready to instantly pop on the next time you hit the power button.

[false @ Nov 15th 2008 12:52PM]

My next motherboard purchase is going to be ASRock. This commercial sold me. I love the genuineness these guys put into into their work.