Gaming Windows performance SLOW after installing dual-boot OSX

jonthedit

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Hello, I have an odd issue which technically should NOT have happened (given what I have done). I have found a few articles online but nothing is really helping me solve the issue.
Let me describe the issue and paint a picture.

Windows 8.1 x64
16gb RAM
Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics//discrete NVIDIA 650M 2GB
For more details my laptop is a HP ENVY dv7-7212nr.
Windows 8 is installed to UEFI, which made my life easier as I did not have to reinstall Windows after OSX. I have installed CLOVER to my UEFI and am booting with SECURE BOOT OFF to be able to choose OSX and Windows on demand.

Note I have not modified any of the original hardware since the laptop was compatible enough to run Yosemite OSX decently.
With hardware specs out of the way on the meat of the issue!

Before the OSX install, Windows launching was speedy and on the lock-screen I could use the mouse. 60 seconds at most were needed for everything load and for the laptop to be fully operational, and that is on a bad day. [updates etc]
After the OSX install [and I suspect after shrinking the Windows "C:" partition 136GB for OSX dedication] shit hit the fan on the Windows side.

Note the Disk in total is 750GB and it is a HDD not SSD. I have 507GB dedicated to Windows with 258GB free. This is a HP laptop and it has the 26.9GB RECOVERY partition as well. The other data is dedicated to a Linux partition, however that is not of concern as the issues happened immediately after the OSX install before I bothered with the Linux install.

SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
The problem is for about 15 minutes after booting Windows the computer is virtually useless.
The mouse DOES NOT EXIST for about 3 minutes after boot and the biometrics driver takes about 30 seconds to load [normally instant]. I typically would log in with the biometrics and then have to wait for the touchpad driver to finally to load up.
After investigating further, My Disk Usage will be at 100% for about 15mins. YES, WE ARE TALKING IDLE USAGE! Note that nothing software-related on the Windows side changed.
After this period of sluggish performance BAM everything is back to how it should be.

My guess is that the OSX formatted journal partitions are the culprit, however I can not confirm this.
I found a similar article with the same mouse issue, and tried his solution of uninstalling all NVIDIA drivers and reinstalling. No luck, though I am aware of how poorly coded the drivers are as I have had issues with them on this machine in the past.

I should also note the OSX performance is perfect, and that on OSX startup it immediately informs me it can not mount a disk, which I assume Windows is refusing to give up trying causing my grief.

One last thing, in disk defragmenter this disk pops up, and I assume Windows is attempting to mount it in the 15min-sluggish duration.
drives.png


Any ideas?
 
D

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I also could not mount Windows partitions in OS X it was due to hibernation (fast startup) active and interfering with it. Windows cant mount HFS+ drives/volumes natively without the addition of extra software so i presume it is not trying to mount the partition that is if it is formatted as HFS+
 

Originality

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Honestly I have no clue where to start or look on this one.
The only idea I have is maybe 'hiding' the OSX partition to stop Windows trying to read from it (and maybe choking on the IO requests). I don't even remember how to do that (it's either through Disk Manager or through admin command line interface).

Edit: a quick google search and it may be the fact that Windows is installed in EFI mode instead of legacy BIOS mode. It looks like clover works better with Windows in legacy mode. I didn't see any confirmation for this though, but it's a possible idea.
 
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jonthedit

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Honestly I have no clue where to start or look on this one.
The only idea I have is maybe 'hiding' the OSX partition to stop Windows trying to read from it (and maybe choking on the IO requests). I don't even remember how to do that (it's either through Disk Manager or through admin command line interface).

Edit: a quick google search and it may be the fact that Windows is installed in EFI mode instead of legacy BIOS mode. It looks like clover works better with Windows in legacy mode. I didn't see any confirmation for this though, but it's a possible idea.
Thanks for the thoughts, but Windows was originally in EFI mode on this laptop. The only difference is secureboot is off. HP did a shit codejob though as I have to fake Clover as window's launcher [no customization via BIOS settings], however this is not related to this issue.
Ironically this reboot everything loaded up faster [took 5 mins instead of 15, mouse was back in 30 seconds after login].
However this is still an issue.

I thought of hiding it however I do not know how to.

I removed the drive letter of a 'blank' disk Windows could not open though this did not change anything.
Edit: Disk usage response average is 7000ms+ with the issue happening.
Goes back down to 10 ~ 1000 after everything is normal with standard usage. 0~20 at idle as it should be.


I understand this could be an issue when rapid switching from OSX to Windows, however if I use Windows for a week straight I should not have these symptoms.
 

jonthedit

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Found out CLOVER is the issue.
If I replace the EFI to direct boot Windows everything is normal...
I wonder how I could fix this... :|
For now I will just manually swap the EFI boot order in CMD whenever I need OSX.
 

jonthedit

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Is clover related to Chameleon?

I had a similar situation awhile back, and never really gave it much thought.

Maybe there's some hackery involved in replacing the BIOS.
Exactly.
Clover is just a variant of Chameleon and is much better [given UEFI and EFI] for some systems.

Unfortunately for me, the UEFI setup and BIOS in general that HP setup for this laptop is complete garbage.
I have not found a BIOS replacement/modification for HP ENVY dv7-7212nr / or HP ENVYs in general [most have similar BIOS].
 

jonthedit

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Guess what! Windows 10 solved all of my problems.
Even if I leave Clover as my default boot efi file Windows performs properly- no more grinding at 100% HDD for 5 minutes!
I did not update my clover or change any configuration related to this.
My guess would be one of the Win 8.1 drivers I had installed was conflicting with the Clover commands. Also I assume Windows 10 is ignoring the commands [which is good, I only want the commands executed on OSX], where Windows 8 would run into a bunch of errors from attempting to run the commands.

TLDR;
After upgrading to Windows 10 it-self solved the problem.
I don't have to switch out EFI files anymore for OS swaps! :D
 

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