Bitcoin Core 0.10.0 starts very slow.

[1Referee]

As the title states.

I have been browsing through the forum to find a solution but so far failed in doing so.

It takes nearly 15-20 minutes to open, it keeps saying checking blocks, but how many times will it check them??

The previous version took around 15 minutes to open, and current version takes even longer while it was quite fast when I installed it after the update release.

Full blockchain is on my windows 7 computer, and my computer has decent specs, nothing to worry about.

Are there any nodes that I need to add in order to get it working faster? Not sure what the problem is.

[1714814197]

1714814197

[1714814197]

1714814197

[1714814197]

1714814197

[shorena]

As the title states.

I have been browsing through the forum to find a solution but so far failed in doing so.

It takes nearly 15-20 minutes to open, it keeps saying checking blocks, but how many times will it check them??

The previous version took around 15 minutes to open, and current version takes even longer while it was quite fast when I installed it after the update release.

Full blockchain is on my windows 7 computer, and my computer has decent specs, nothing to worry about.

Are there any nodes that I need to add in order to get it working faster? Not sure what the problem is.

I also noticed a slower start, but not as severe as 15 minutes. If you do not have a bitcoin.conf file yet, create one, add the following lines and change the values to your needs.

Code:

# bitcoin.conf configuration file. Lines beginning with # are comments.
# How many blocks to check at startup (default: 288, 0 = all)
checkblocks=288
# How thorough the block verification is (0-4, default: 3)
checklevel=3

Edit: I just noticed my answer might have been a bit short. Hit Win+R to open "run" and enter

Code:

%APPDATA%/Bitcoin

it will open the folder with your wallet.dat and log files for bitcoin core. Create a new text document (not word etc.) add the above lines (more here[1]) safe and rename it to bitcoin.conf. Make sure its not named bitcoin.conf.txt and start bitcoin core.

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin#Sample_Bitcoin.conf

[1Referee]

Thank you for explaining everything in fine detail.

I have done everything you stated, and it is starting faster already, although I'm not sure how long it will stay like this.

At this point it takes around 5 minutes for it to start which is a decent improvement.

How long does it usually take for the wallet to open if opened the first time of the day?

[shorena]

-snip-
How long does it usually take for the wallet to open if opened the first time of the day?

Not sure, Id have to stop time, but less than it takes the system to boot from its magnetical disk.

[gmaxwell]

How long does it usually take for the wallet to open if opened the first time of the day?

Depends on the hardware. On a fast desktop with a SSD, a 60+MB wallet full startup with default settings is under 20 seconds.

[1Referee]

How long does it usually take for the wallet to open if opened the first time of the day?

Depends on the hardware. On a fast desktop with a SSD, a 60+MB wallet full startup with default settings is under 20 seconds.

Hardware is quite decent. I can only dream of having Bitcoin Core start under 60 seconds.

Is it also possible that switching wallet files could cause the wallet to open very slow?

But then again, it still should start within a few minutes.

[shorena]

How long does it usually take for the wallet to open if opened the first time of the day?

Depends on the hardware. On a fast desktop with a SSD, a 60+MB wallet full startup with default settings is under 20 seconds.

Hardware is quite decent. I can only dream of having Bitcoin Core start under 60 seconds.

Is it also possible that switching wallet files could cause the wallet to open very slow?

But then again, it still should start within a few minutes.

Just stopped the time. The system is 5-6 years old and the bottle neck is the HDD. The CPU still has capacity left and launching bitcoin core/qt took a little less than 53,128 seconds.

Its set to check the last 24 blocks at default checklevel.

[1Referee]

How long does it usually take for the wallet to open if opened the first time of the day?

Depends on the hardware. On a fast desktop with a SSD, a 60+MB wallet full startup with default settings is under 20 seconds.

Hardware is quite decent. I can only dream of having Bitcoin Core start under 60 seconds.

Is it also possible that switching wallet files could cause the wallet to open very slow?

But then again, it still should start within a few minutes.

Just stopped the time. The system is 5-6 years old and the bottle neck is the HDD. The CPU still has capacity left and launching bitcoin core/qt took a little less than 53,128 seconds.

Its set to check the last 24 blocks at default checklevel.

I think the problem is as good as solved. I can only hope it will stay like this.

Today the wallet managed to open in less than 60 secons. 47 seconds to be precise.

[BrianM]

I have the same problem:

Is it just me or does other have the same problem: My bitcoin core takes 10-15 min to start up (core due 2, 2 gb ram, win7).
This is before syncing, syncing comes after. I think it was faster like a year ago, is this because of the very big bchain?
I am thinking about switching to a thin client. I guess that is enviable.

Code:

# bitcoin.conf configuration file. Lines beginning with # are comments.
# How many blocks to check at startup (default: 288, 0 = all)
checkblocks=288
# How thorough the block verification is (0-4, default: 3)
checklevel=3

Seriously, will fixing those lines of code help it?

If so, then will I put on my thinking cap and try it out, just seam too good to be true? :/

[shorena]

-snip-
Seriously, will fixing those lines of code help it?

If so, then will I put on my thinking cap and try it out, just seam too good to be true? :/

As I wrote above, I run an old system as well and its not as fast as Id like it to be for bitcoin core to start. Im fine if something takes a minute or two to load, but before I changed the settings it took me - similar to here - 10 or 15 minutes just to launcher bitcoin core.

I did not change "checklevel", but lowered "checkblocks" little by little until I found a value that is fine for me. By default its checking the last 2 days worth of blocks (at average block time of 10 minutes). Since many blocks are close to the max block size lately it takes time to check them.

[NUFCrichard]

-snip-
Seriously, will fixing those lines of code help it?

If so, then will I put on my thinking cap and try it out, just seam too good to be true? :/

As I wrote above, I run an old system as well and its not as fast as Id like it to be for bitcoin core to start. Im fine if something takes a minute or two to load, but before I changed the settings it took me - similar to here - 10 or 15 minutes just to launcher bitcoin core.

I did not change "checklevel", but lowered "checkblocks" little by little until I found a value that is fine for me. By default its checking the last 2 days worth of blocks (at average block time of 10 minutes). Since many blocks are close to the max block size lately it takes time to check them.

I tried those settings and it sped up the starting of my bitcoin core from sometimes an ages, to a couple of minutes!
Thanks for the .conf file, it has been very annoying recently waiting for the core to start up.

[zvs]

I have my checkblocks set to 3 on my home computer.

I *think* having a larger dbcache makes it a bit slower at the start but speeds it up later... not positive on that though

[BrianM]

Code:

# bitcoin.conf configuration file. Lines beginning with # are comments.
# How many blocks to check at startup (default: 288, 0 = all)
checkblocks=288
# How thorough the block verification is (0-4, default: 3)
checklevel=3

I tried this. It makes the start up a few minutes faster.... thank you for the advice.
Maybe I will change to electrum.
10 min of waiting is very long time when you want to make transfer.
Me like the idea of having the refference client.
But maybe the time has come for the little user to switch.

[shorena]

-snip-
I tried this. It makes the start up a few minutes faster.... thank you for the advice.
Maybe I will change to electrum.
10 min of waiting is very long time when you want to make transfer.
Me like the idea of having the refference client.
But maybe the time has come for the little user to switch.

I think it depends how you use it. I have my machine on for longer periods of time anyway, so I start core when the machine is booted and only turn it off when I want to shut down the machine. If you are the "start, send coins, shutdown"-type is probably best to change to a different wallet.

[BrianM]

-snip-
I tried this. It makes the start up a few minutes faster.... thank you for the advice.
Maybe I will change to electrum.
10 min of waiting is very long time when you want to make transfer.
Me like the idea of having the refference client.
But maybe the time has come for the little user to switch.

I think it depends how you use it. I have my machine on for longer periods of time anyway, so I start core when the machine is booted and only turn it off when I want to shut down the machine. If you are the "start, send coins, shutdown"-type is probably best to change to a different wallet.

Yes, that is exactly the type of user I am. I have an old computer (I call it "The snail", because it is so slow).
I only turn it on when I want to spend bitcoins. I hope this will make me a smaller target for thieves.
But honestly, I am a little guy in this world, rarely hold more than 0.1-0.5 BTC, I like to play a few games once in a while and maybe buy a nice item. It would be hard to change to another client, since I started to trust bitcoin-core, and I know how to use it.

I will also consider just to have the computer on all the time instead, bitcoin-core works very good, once it is up running.

Thank you for all the nice advice shorena  

-BM-

[1Referee]

Bitcoin Core once again is very slow and takes over 10 minutes just to open. I think my 1tb hdd is the bottleneck here.

While it is checking blocks I can't use the pc for browsing and such as it completely takes over my hdd.

It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM with 64MB cache. I think this drive is decent enough to be capable of running the wallet.

[Vezalke]

Bitcoin Core once again is very slow and takes over 10 minutes just to open. I think my 1tb hdd is the bottleneck here.

While it is checking blocks I can't use the pc for browsing and such as it completely takes over my hdd.

It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM with 64MB cache. I think this drive is decent enough to be capable of running the wallet.

What about CPU and RAM?

[Maddinson100]

i am facing the same problem, really slow

[1Referee]

Bitcoin Core once again is very slow and takes over 10 minutes just to open. I think my 1tb hdd is the bottleneck here.

While it is checking blocks I can't use the pc for browsing and such as it completely takes over my hdd.

It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM with 64MB cache. I think this drive is decent enough to be capable of running the wallet.

What about CPU and RAM?

Intel core i5 2500K with 8GB ram.

I know it's not the fastest but again, capable enough to run something simple as Bitcoin Core.

[BrianM]

I tried adding some more RAM (from 2 gigabyte to 4 gigabyte). It made the start up much faster from ~8 min to ~3 min.
If anybody else are running with low RAM, then should they try out this.

[Amph]

How long does it usually take for the wallet to open if opened the first time of the day?

Depends on the hardware. On a fast desktop with a SSD, a 60+MB wallet full startup with default settings is under 20 seconds.

Hardware is quite decent. I can only dream of having Bitcoin Core start under 60 seconds.

Is it also possible that switching wallet files could cause the wallet to open very slow?

But then again, it still should start within a few minutes.

Just stopped the time. The system is 5-6 years old and the bottle neck is the HDD. The CPU still has capacity left and launching bitcoin core/qt took a little less than 53,128 seconds.

Its set to check the last 24 blocks at default checklevel.

I think the problem is as good as solved. I can only hope it will stay like this.

Today the wallet managed to open in less than 60 secons. 47 seconds to be precise.

i'm at 25 secs, tried it now

i7 4790k(4400) + 16 giga of ram

so the problem must be a slow machine for the OP

[zvs]

If it's not because of the block checking, it's probably because you have some massive wallet.  Maybe a lot of satoshi dicing in your past, I dunno.

this:

Code:

2015-03-27 08:10:02 Verifying last 5 blocks at level 3
2015-03-27 08:10:05 No coin database inconsistencies in last 6 blocks (1653 transactions)
2015-03-27 08:10:05  block index           15513ms
2015-03-27 08:10:05 No wallet compiled in!
2015-03-27 08:10:05 mapBlockIndex.size() = 349505
2015-03-27 08:10:05 nBestHeight = 349428
2015-03-27 08:10:05 init message: Loading addresses...
2015-03-27 08:10:05 Loaded 14862 addresses from peers.dat  146ms

is how long it takes to load on a VIA Nano U2250 with some rubbish 160GB HDD and 2GB RAM.    (but I don't use wallet on these nodes of course)

[unamis76]

Bitcoin Core always took something like 20 minutes to boot around here (the disadvantages of not having an SSD...). Never really worried about it, but it would be cool if I could speed it up a bit. Doesn't lowering the number of blocks checked at startup make my wallet a disservice to the community? Could I be relaying imprecise blockchain data if I do that? Would my connections be rejected if I had a somewhat wrong blockchain?

[Borisz]

Bitcoin Core always took something like 20 minutes to boot around here (the disadvantages of not having an SSD...). Never really worried about it, but it would be cool if I could speed it up a bit. Doesn't lowering the number of blocks checked at startup make my wallet a disservice to the community? Could I be relaying imprecise blockchain data if I do that? Would my connections be rejected if I had a somewhat wrong blockchain?

I wouldn't say you disservice the community. You are still running a fully node, but before startup you only check, say the last 10 blocks. The chances of those all being generated by an attack and hence being fake, are small (I'd think so anyway).

Worst that could happen in my opinion:
You receive X fake blocks generated and then you shut down your client. After some time you restart the client, but your last X blocks are wrong, hence the check will return an error. I am not sure what would happen, maybe you would need to recheck the blockchain or re-download. However I think this is unlikely.

When I set up my client to check only the last few blocks (10-20) the client started in a fraction of the time than what it used to be. Regardless, I have just recently switched to Multibit as 30+ GB of HDD space is something I simply cannot afford just to store some mBTC.

[unamis76]

Bitcoin Core always took something like 20 minutes to boot around here (the disadvantages of not having an SSD...). Never really worried about it, but it would be cool if I could speed it up a bit. Doesn't lowering the number of blocks checked at startup make my wallet a disservice to the community? Could I be relaying imprecise blockchain data if I do that? Would my connections be rejected if I had a somewhat wrong blockchain?

I wouldn't say you disservice the community. You are still running a fully node, but before startup you only check, say the last 10 blocks. The chances of those all being generated by an attack and hence being fake, are small (I'd think so anyway).

Worst that could happen in my opinion:
You receive X fake blocks generated and then you shut down your client. After some time you restart the client, but your last X blocks are wrong, hence the check will return an error. I am not sure what would happen, maybe you would need to recheck the blockchain or re-download. However I think this is unlikely.

When I set up my client to check only the last few blocks (10-20) the client started in a fraction of the time than what it used to be. Regardless, I have just recently switched to Multibit as 30+ GB of HDD space is something I simply cannot afford just to store some mBTC.

That was precisely my fear, having to reindex the whole blockchain... I think I'll change the block checking anyways, thank you

[BrianM]

Bitcoin Core always took something like 20 minutes to boot around here (the disadvantages of not having an SSD...). Never really worried about it, but it would be cool if I could speed it up a bit. Doesn't lowering the number of blocks checked at startup make my wallet a disservice to the community? Could I be relaying imprecise blockchain data if I do that? Would my connections be rejected if I had a somewhat wrong blockchain?

I have a crappy old 7200 RPM, which I found in the dumpster.
It works pretty ok for the core. But yes, SSD would speed things up.
But overall 3 min start up with a wood-computer with a old magnetic drive is not too bad.

[memai]

I also encountered the same situation as you . My Bitcoin clients start very slow.  My connecting network is good. What I should do atm ?

Thanks !

[unamis76]

Bitcoin Core always took something like 20 minutes to boot around here (the disadvantages of not having an SSD...). Never really worried about it, but it would be cool if I could speed it up a bit. Doesn't lowering the number of blocks checked at startup make my wallet a disservice to the community? Could I be relaying imprecise blockchain data if I do that? Would my connections be rejected if I had a somewhat wrong blockchain?

I have a crappy old 7200 RPM, which I found in the dumpster.
It works pretty ok for the core. But yes, SSD would speed things up.
But overall 3 min start up with a wood-computer with a old magnetic drive is not too bad.

What did you change in your configuration to get 3 minutes start time? I have my blockchain files on a WD Caviar Blue 1TB. It's not a old disk but still takes much more time than your disk.

[Borisz]

I also encountered the same situation as you . My Bitcoin clients start very slow.  My connecting network is good. What I should do atm ?

Thanks !

If you are using qt then you can add

Code:

checkblocks=10

to your conf file. Your client will only recheck the last 10 blocks and start considerably faster.

[toytoboy]

As the title states.

I have been browsing through the forum to find a solution but so far failed in doing so.

It takes nearly 15-20 minutes to open, it keeps saying checking blocks, but how many times will it check them??

The previous version took around 15 minutes to open, and current version takes even longer while it was quite fast when I installed it after the update release.

Full blockchain is on my windows 7 computer, and my computer has decent specs, nothing to worry about.

Are there any nodes that I need to add in order to get it working faster? Not sure what the problem is.

I have also such the same statement ! Please help !Thanks !

[Borisz]

As the title states.

I have been browsing through the forum to find a solution but so far failed in doing so.

It takes nearly 15-20 minutes to open, it keeps saying checking blocks, but how many times will it check them??

The previous version took around 15 minutes to open, and current version takes even longer while it was quite fast when I installed it after the update release.

Full blockchain is on my windows 7 computer, and my computer has decent specs, nothing to worry about.

Are there any nodes that I need to add in order to get it working faster? Not sure what the problem is.

I have also such the same statement ! Please help !Thanks !

Have you tried what was suggested in the first reply? Or what I wrote just before your comment?

[Odalv]

I moved data data to external HD.

When I start bitcoin-QT I see message "Activating best chain..." for few hours.  Processor is on 3%.

Can somebody help me ?

[Odalv]

I moved data data to external HD.

When I start bitcoin-QT I see message "Activating best chain..." for few hours.  Processor is on 3%.

Can somebody help me ?

When I turn Avast(antivirus) off then qt starts working fine.

[shorena]

I moved data data to external HD.

When I start bitcoin-QT I see message "Activating best chain..." for few hours.  Processor is on 3%.

Can somebody help me ?

When I turn Avast(antivirus) off then qt starts working fine.

They might - still - detect the virus signatures someone put in the blockchain a few years (?) ago.

[Adrian-x]

I moved data data to external HD.

When I start bitcoin-QT I see message "Activating best chain..." for few hours.  Processor is on 3%.

Can somebody help me ?

try running Bitcoin XT

[ethought]

I moved data data to external HD.

When I start bitcoin-QT I see message "Activating best chain..." for few hours.  Processor is on 3%.

Can somebody help me ?

I did the same thing, moved datadir to an external HDD, now "Activating best chain..." has been showing for at least 10 hours. No updates in debug.log during this time, so not even sure if anything is happening at all.

[HarHarHar9965]

Bitcoin Core once again is very slow and takes over 10 minutes just to open. I think my 1tb hdd is the bottleneck here.

While it is checking blocks I can't use the pc for browsing and such as it completely takes over my hdd.

It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM with 64MB cache. I think this drive is decent enough to be capable of running the wallet.

Bitcoin Core now uses header first synchronization. This means that we first ask peers for block headers then we have to validate that for an initial full synchronization. You may notice a slower progress in the very first few minutes, when headers are still being fetched and verified