How to make my D3100's shutter faster?

I own a Nikon D3100 camera. The problem is that when I go to take pictures there's this weird delay with the shutter. It focuses, closes and then a few seconds later the picture appears on the screen. This still happens even when the shutter speed is increased to the maximum. I have seen others with the same camera point it at the subject they are shooting and there's no delay what so ever with the shutter. It closes instantly and that's it. Any help would be greatly appreciated since I haven't been able to use the camera for some time now because of this issue.

Reset the camera. I expect you have left in on some kind of Auto HDR or very low light setting.

This is shutter lag, and has nothing to do with the shutter speed. When the viewfinder blacks out, the exposure is being made, it takes time to process the image.

One possible problem is that you're using your SD card as a permanent storage device - download your work to your computer, format the card in camera, and see if this solves the problem.

Your problem is either shutter lag or the length of time the camera takes to process the data it collects into a jpg.
Shutter Lag:
Check your autofocus mode - some are faster than others
Use the optical viewfinder not live-view
Check that you haven't set the shutter delay timer.

jpg processing
Use a lower ISO
Make sure you haven't set things like auto lighting correction, noise reduction.

It may be due to the lens needing time to focus. Put the lens into manual focus and see if the lag goes away. If so, then you know it's the lens. The lens will have an affect on focusing speed. Therefore it could be that your friend is using a better lens than you.
A good trick to avoid shutter lag that's related to focusing is to set up your camera to use the rear AF button. Doing this will turn the AF off at the shutter button and ON at a rear AF button. Use this technique to focus once and take many shots without any lag and without the possibility of the camera refocusing.

Another possibility is that you're shooting RAW and your friend is shooting a smaller JPEG. Or, you're using an SD card with a very slow read/write speed?

If you can focus through the lens, turn off your auto focus feature. The delay is in the camera trying to adjust focus for each photo when set to auto focus. If you can manually focus and keep focused, you should be able to repeatedly fire away once autofocus is turned off.

What your are discribing sounds like you are using the cameras LCD to do all your focusing and composing as you would when you use a P&S camera.

If this is true, stop doing that.

You have a fully adjustable camera now and it is designed for the photographer to look through the optical viewfinder.

You may also have inadvertently set the camera to pause when the mirror moves out of the way before taking an exposure. This feature is used mostly by landscape and architecture photographers with their camera mounted on a tripod. It is used to assure that the camera is not moving at all when long exposures are made. A moving camera no matter how slight can cause blur in a photo

My guess is that you are not holding the shutter button halfway down before you shoot your picture. Holding the button halfway down allows the camera to focus prior to actually shooting the picture when you press it all the way down. So, by not doing that, the camera must take the time to focus AFTER you have pressed the button all the way. Try to get into the habit of pressing half way down first.

You need to purchase a book on basic photography operation of a camera. Learning the relationship between f/stops, shutter speeds, and raising and lowering the ISO rating is the answer. This information is vital to operating an adjustable camera such as a DSLR. Isn't a D3100 a DSLR? So now you see that standing on the top rung of the ladder so to speak (buying a DSLR, without knowing basic photograghy) makes the taking of pictures so much harder. Buy a book on basic digital photography.

Sounds like you put the Release-Mode Selector in Self-Timer. Rotate it back to Single frame.

Check in your menus for "Exposure delay mode." I don't know if the D3100 has this option or not. It should be in the "Custom Setting Menu" if it's like my D5200. If you find it make sure it is set to "OFF." Hope this helps.

Been using a Canon 750D for a few years now and thought I'd take my daughter's Nikon D3100 out for a run. The delay is maddening. We have eagles and other wildlife around where I live and the 3100 will never react quickly enough. I've looked for help online, read the manual and realised it is what it is. This is a somewhat budget camera and I guess you get what you paid for. I've fiddled with numerous settings in a range of modes but nothing has any effect. It takes gorgeous photos which outshine my Canon by miles but fast it aint!