PC takes 5 mins to boot then runs fine

Hamgray · 27 Jul 2015

Hi guys,
I have just upgraded a friends pc to two new WD hard drives. A 1TB black for C drive and 2TB green for storage. Previously 80 + 320GB.
Using W7 Pro on a AMD x3 3Ghz CPU and 2 x 2GB (4GB) DDR2 RAM.
Cloned the old drives to new (via my pc) and it was booting up in just over 1 min. Very impressed.
Delivered to friends house and now takes 5 mins to boot, but after that all is very quick.
Checked inside for loose wires (disconnect & reconnect SATA cables) and reseated RAM.

Now here's what I have noticed, the hard drive light is nearly solid from switch on until about 6 fades of the 4 colored lights thing, then the HDD lamp blinks very slowly. Just before the desktop (nearly 5 mins later) it speeds up again and the desktop is virtually instant.
Tried defrag, HDD scandisk for errors & restore to a previous point. All no change to the problem.

CBS and NTBTLOG files attached if anyone can understand them (beyond me I'm afraid and I though I was a pc wizard!)

Only other changes to note are:
At my place I used different KB & mouse (both USB). At his house the mouse is PS2 (KB USB but a different one).
For Internet I was using an WiFi box connected by ethernet to the pc (actually a Sky WiFi box) and at his house a BT Hub 4 directly connected by ethernet. When finally booted Internet speed is good.
At my place no printer was connected at his a Canon connected but not switched on (also tried switched on but no different)
Tried booting with only monitor connected - still slow boot.
CBS file had to be divided in two to get over the size limits.
Hope some kind soul can give me some hope?

GokAy · 27 Jul 2015

Try loading defaults in BIOS and if no go, take out the 2TB green to test OS drive alone.

Hamgray · 28 Jul 2015

Thanks. Tried both those ideas and still a slow boot.
Forgot to mention before that Safe Mode is ALSO as slow to start.
Is there any indication in the log files attached? All a bit too deep for me!

MilesAhead · 28 Jul 2015

Take a look on this page about 70% of the way down:
Delay on boot due to multiple attempts to install NDProxy.sys, - Microsoft Community

Edit: I found that page because of these entries in your boot log

Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS

Edit2: My gut feeling, as they say on the police detective shows, is that the green drive is not spun up when the system is trying to load drivers. I always run WD black. That spin up spin down stuff is asking for headaches.

Hamgray · 28 Jul 2015

Thanks MilesAhead, I had seen that article but apart from a 20 mile journey to my friends house nothing changed from when I had a1 minute boot not 5 mins ! Other articles say the multiple driver attempt is not a problem, just that Windows found 1 so that's ok.
I'm not in a position to do any repairs or clean install yet, but the two drives are brand new. In fact I always use WD as I have seen less failures with them.
I'm warming to the network connection which some reports have mentioned, or the USB card reader (?).
Any thoughts on the network idea??

GokAy · 28 Jul 2015

But already tried with green disconnected?

Edit: Bit late :)

UsernameIssues · 28 Jul 2015

Windows event logs should show something during that 5 minute wait.

The CBS logs seem to indicate repairs are being done (and failing?).

What does SFC/SCANNOW show from an admin command prompt?

Hopefully, you can gather this info via TeamViewer or the like.

MilesAhead · 28 Jul 2015

Hamgray said:

Thanks MilesAhead, I had seen that article but apart from a 20 mile journey to my friends house nothing changed from when I had a1 minute boot not 5 mins ! Other articles say the multiple driver attempt is not a problem, just that Windows found 1 so that's ok.
I'm not in a position to do any repairs or clean install yet, but the two drives are brand new. In fact I always use WD as I have seen less failures with them.
I'm warming to the network connection which some reports have mentioned, or the USB card reader (?).
Any thoughts on the network idea??

It tried to load the same driver 4 times. I doubt the time out is less than 15 seconds. That should account for 1 minute by itself. The fact that you talk about funny access light action makes me suspect the green drive. Perhaps your friend's AC voltage is a tad low or some other factor.

I don't even use hybernate or sleep. It may work OK for the annointed but for a regulation lunchbox toting guy like me it is another excuse for lame stuff to happen. I like my systems up and running.. not looking to doze off when I need 'em. :)

Hamgray · 30 Jul 2015

Yes, I saw the 4 failed driver notices. Thanks for your confirmation is shouldn't take very long.
What is the BIG puzzle for me, it was working fine and fast at my place. I reread your comment and see its about mains voltage.
Here in the UK that's not usually a problem now - was about 50 years ago (I recall!) and his house is fairly new.
I'm hoping to do a Team View session tomorrow and will be firstly looking at the networks listed.
Was there no other mention of a 5 minute wait??

MilesAhead · 30 Jul 2015

That was what stuck out on the boot log. I didn't go through all the logs as drivers never loading in the boot log tends to indicate a problem. One that happened to me, I uninstalled Norton anti-virus on my Vista machine, but it kept trying to install drivers for it during boot. I had to run the Norton Removal Tool a bunch of times and clean the registry to get rid of the driver load attempts.

You could have your friend try the Registry Cleaner in CCleaner. It is one of the safer ones and has a backup. Before it does erase of registry issues it offers to save the old values just have the friend click Yes and it will save a .reg file in Documents.

I have never owned a Green drive. Is there a "performance" setting where it never spins down even if only for diagnostics? Hanging for 5 minutes is not usually software unless things are really scrambled.