Windows 7: Notebook stuck for 2 mins on black screen before booting up

Hello there. I have a dv7 notebook with Win 7 Home Premium installed on it. Everything is running fine, except a couple of days ago the notebook began to take too damn long to boot up when restarting or just when powering it on.

I noticed it gets "stuck" on a black screen, just like a blank DOS screen, for about 2 minutes before booting up Windows.

I have tried downloading new BIOS from HP website, resetting the BIOS settings, changing the boot order but nothing really works. It always stays on the black screen for around two minutes and then Windows boots up normally. No text is shown, nothing at all.

Does anyone has any clues on what it could be?



Thanks!!!

You may have a driver problem.

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode? If your computer starts OK then, we can start investigating why it's not starting normally.

To get into Safe Mode tap the F8 key at startup. In case you're wondering, when you run in Safe Mode you're not loading drivers.

gino,
would you please fill out your system specs for us?
Update your SevenForums System Specs
User CP (located on the top menu bar) |
Your Profile | Edit System Spec (left-hand column)

To gather info, use Speccy (my favorite) or SIW or System Info

Add the word laptop or desktop or netbook to the
“system manufacturer” block, for example,
Toshiba Satellite L305D notebook.

Provide full windows version info, for example:
MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit

Use the “Other Info” block for Optical Reader,
Mouse, touchpad, wifi adapter, speakers, monitor, etc

Scroll down and click on SAVE CHANGES.
=================================================
=================================================
Do you have a System Repair Disc?

Here is how you make a System Repair Disc.

CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

====================================================

After making the System Repair Disc,
Insert System Repair Disc into DVD/CD drive.
Shut down your computer.
Boot up your computer from the DVD drive.

Still take 2 minutes?

I have, but when it's on the black screen the notebook becomes unresponsible. I keep hitting F8 and nothing happens, until after the approx. 2 mins (even when I'm still hitting the button) Windows starts loading.



Thanks for the tips, and I have updated the system specs.

I do not have a System Repair disc. Will it erase anything on my notebook, like wiping or something?

I'll try making one.

If booting from a System Repair Disc also takes two minutes then our efforts turn in another direction.

The boot from a system repair disc should be without any problems.

After booting, remove the cd and reboot.

Let us know the actual boot time using a known, good system repair disc.

Okay, while trying to boot from this disc I just found out something.

The "black screen" happens before the notebook tries to boot, so the repair disc is useless, since it takes just about the same amount of time for the "press button to boot from cd/dvd" text to appear as it would take for the "starting windows" screen to appear. Plus, the black screen doesn't allow me to instantly access the BIOS (via F10) or the boot options screen (via F8). Them both only appears after the 2 mins or so.

And second, when I restart it doesn't take long to boot, it takes a regular amount of time.

I'm confused.

What do you mean by that? "good known system repair disc"? The one I just created?

I'm the one confused... didn't you read the black screen "lag time" happens BEFORE the notebook tried to read from its own hard disk or the dvd drive?

If the system repair disc was created by the method I gave, then that's what I'm talking about.

The trouble is that a system repair disc means different things to different people.

When booting from the system repair disc:
After you tell the bios to boot from the cd/dvd, then how long until you see the first dialog from the system repair disc?

Okay, let see if I can explain it properly.

I created the disc just like you mentioned. When I boot from it a window of system repair appears, with options to perform a system recovery, system restore, check disk and contact hp support. I used chkdisk, but nothing was detected.

Like I said on my post above, the time for it to load either from the DVD drive or from the HD is very quick when I'm just rebooting the PC, like if it had no problems.

But when I turn the notebook off and then turn it on once again then I get the black screen for the 2 mins, and then either the DVD boots or the HD boots. Can't do anything before it, and pressing F8 or F10 doesn't help at all.