Now 1 computer takes 20+ mins to even BEGIN to boot!

After I installed a new PCI express card (a USB-3.1/C adapter, described here: dodocool PCI-Express Card with Dual Type-C Ports 15-Pin Connector SuperSpeed Gen II), my system started taking 20+ minutes to even begin starting to load Windows. I know that because I've always used a Boot Manager (BootIt BM), and this twenty-plus minutes passes before the Boot Manager is invoked.

That huge delay may be spent in POST, but I can see both the read and write lights of my SSD (system drive) flashing for most of that time. What it's doing before even attempting to load Windows is a complete mystery!

Naturally, I uninstalled the card and tried it again, expecting the timing to return to normal. It did not! What the heck is going on?? Any suggestions to help me find out?

The system in question is a home-built desktop based on an ASUS Z87-A mobo with 16 GB RAM and an Intel i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz. It is my main workhorse. It is running 64-bit Windows 7 Pro with all the updates.

Please help?

Ranger4 said:

Have a look in Device Manager & see if the card is showing there & if there are any yellow warnings showing. Double click on it & have a look if it is working properly & see if a drive update is available.

Thanks, Ranger4!

The last time I was in Windows, there were no indications of any problems. There were no IRQ or other resource conflicts. Although Windows didn't find a driver for the USB C card, I found one on my own that matched all the particulars and installed perfectly. Not only did the Device Manager show no problems, but the driver worked perfectly and I had no problems using the USB C device I connected.

But in the meantime before responding here, I tried so many exhaustive tests that I'm now certain that the mobo has gone bad. You see, I cleared the CMOS (and removed the battery before clearing it again since the other attempts didn't seem to work), and from then on I've been utterly unable to enter the BIOS settings! I even removed every single disk and every single card -- including the graphics card, after which I used the on-board graphics -- but it remains utterly impossible to get to the BIOS settings!

Oh, after clearing the CMOS the system forces you to the first BIOS page, and demands that you press F1 to get to the BIOS settings, but that never happens. All you see is a blank screen that never changes. And now, of course, the system won't even boot at all because the BIOS settings are now wrong!

It's a catch-22; the BIOS settings are so wrong I can't boot, but I can't get into the BIOS settings to fix them!

I'm done trying...

Just in passing, I ask if you might be experiencing I/O errors on your HDD spinner(s) drive(s). This can cause I/O error recovery attempts and unexpected delays trying to open the file system on partitions at boot time, as well as when trying to access the partitions.

Just a thought.

You might try running a "surface test" on each of the partition(s) on your HDD drive(s) using Partition Wizard Free, just to see what the condition of those drives is.

ATTENTION: You have a RAID 0 array. Detach the drives (take the SATA or power cables).
Try to reset BIOS. Take the battery out for 2 minutes.
Reconfigure BIOS and make sure SATA = RAID (you don't need to recreate the array)
Disable fast boot.
Save and exit.
Enter BIOS and check if SATA = RAID.
Shut down and reconnect the cables of the RAID disks.