Long Boot Time

[FortMauris]

Greetings All,

I've had long boot time for a couple of days now. It jumped from ~2minutes to 40~ minutes. Firstly, it got stuck at the initial logo screen where it shows the choice of advanced boot menu and also BIOS for about 20 minutes, then it got stuck at "Windows Loading" for another 20 minutes before bringing me to the login screen. I am able to access BIOS or advanced boot menu for the first 3-5 seconds, failing to choose an option within that timeframe will freeze my PC for 20 minutes.

I've tried Startup Repairs, booting into safe mode, running chkdsk, sfc /scannow but it's not working at all. Prior to this, i have issues with my HDD and it has been prompting disk write error and such. If my laptop is on for a long period of time, i won't be able to install or download any stuffs as there are no "available" storage when it's not true.

Below are my diagnostic performance from Event Viewer:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance" Guid="{CFC18EC0-96B1-4EBA-961B-622CAEE05B0A}" /> 
  <EventID>100</EventID> 
  <Version>2</Version> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>4002</Task> 
  <Opcode>34</Opcode> 
  <Keywords>0x8000000000010000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-03-27T10:41:09.420375400Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>11162</EventRecordID> 
  <Correlation ActivityID="{C2586364-CDE7-0001-C581-127FE3A6D201}" /> 
  <Execution ProcessID="1748" ThreadID="3980" /> 
  <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational</Channel> 
  <Computer>RP123660.rp.edu.sg</Computer> 
  <Security UserID="S-1-5-19" /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data Name="BootTsVersion">2</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootStartTime">2017-03-27T10:18:36.687200400Z</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootEndTime">2017-03-27T10:41:05.863569100Z</Data> 
  <Data Name="SystemBootInstance">865</Data> 
  <Data Name="UserBootInstance">544</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootTime">55348</Data> 
  <Data Name="MainPathBootTime">24148</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootKernelInitTime">27</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootDriverInitTime">1470</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootDevicesInitTime">4427</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootPrefetchInitTime">44886</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootPrefetchBytes">369926144</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootAutoChkTime">0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootSmssInitTime">10253</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootCriticalServicesInitTime">388</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootUserProfileProcessingTime">2059</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootMachineProfileProcessingTime">313</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootExplorerInitTime">869</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootNumStartupApps">4</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootPostBootTime">31200</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootIsRebootAfterInstall">false</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootRootCauseStepImprovementBits">0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootRootCauseGradualImprovementBits">0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootRootCauseStepDegradationBits">0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootRootCauseGradualDegradationBits">0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootIsDegradation">false</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootIsStepDegradation">false</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootIsGradualDegradation">false</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootImprovementDelta">0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootDegradationDelta">0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootIsRootCauseIdentified">false</Data> 
  <Data Name="OSLoaderDuration">1495793</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootPNPInitStartTimeMS">27</Data> 
  <Data Name="BootPNPInitDuration">4464</Data> 
  <Data Name="OtherKernelInitDuration">768</Data> 
  <Data Name="SystemPNPInitStartTimeMS">4935</Data> 
  <Data Name="SystemPNPInitDuration">1433</Data> 
  <Data Name="SessionInitStartTimeMS">6666</Data> 
  <Data Name="Session0InitDuration">5479</Data> 
  <Data Name="Session1InitDuration">509</Data> 
  <Data Name="SessionInitOtherDuration">4265</Data> 
  <Data Name="WinLogonStartTimeMS">16920</Data> 
  <Data Name="OtherLogonInitActivityDuration">3986</Data> 
  <Data Name="UserLogonWaitDuration">1234926</Data>

I am aware that it is most probably the issue with my HDD, but i am not willing to change as my laptop is at least 5 years old and i am looking to buy a new desktop a couple of months from now, but i need a temporary workstation for me to continue doing my stuffs. Any experts on this, please kindly advise. I'll be happy and willing to provide more technical details regarding my laptop.

 

[georgeks]

Can't you clone this HDD to another?

Singapore supplies computer hardware for the whole world, you should be able to find a cheap HDD -even a 2nd hand one.

Use MACRIUM Free edition for cloning or imaging -this should keep you going with a minimum expense until you get a new system.

 

[Megahertz07]

Did check disk or sfc fond any problem?
This is what I would do.
- Save your data to an external HDD.
- Do a Factory restore. It will format your drive and reinstall Windows.
- Install the updates MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
- Buy a SSD. You have no idea what a SSD can do for your computer. Boots in seconds (~25 sec) New, SATA III, Under 1000 MBps, 2.5, Kingston Technology Corp., SAMSUNG, OCZ Storage Solutions, SanDisk, PNY Technologies, Inc., Internal SSDs, SSDs... - Newegg.com
- With Macrium reflect Macrium Reflect Free | Macrium Software clone your HDD (with the factory restore and updates) to the SSD.
- Restore your data

 

[GEWB]

Seen that many times, most of the time it was caused by timing errors in the BIOS. I make that statement as I've been overclocking for 25 years and have caused/fixed that issue hundreds of times.

The second cause I've had, but far less common, is RAM failure - either RAM chip failure or RAM seating in the socket failure. If BIOS settings are OK per your hardware, try reseating the RAM sticks. If still an issue, try removing/swapping some RAM to isolate a possible problem stick.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[FortMauris]

Can't you clone this HDD to another?

Singapore supplies computer hardware for the whole world, you should be able to find a cheap HDD -even a 2nd hand one.

Use MACRIUM Free edition for cloning or imaging -this should keep you going with a minimum expense until you get a new system.

If possible, i will try to avoid spending unnecessary cash. :/

Did check disk or sfc fond any problem?
This is what I would do.
- Save your data to an external HDD.
- Do a Factory restore. It will format your drive and reinstall Windows.
- Install the updates MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
- Buy a SSD. You have no idea what a SSD can do for your computer. Boots in seconds (~25 sec) New, SATA III, Under 1000 MBps, 2.5, Kingston Technology Corp., SAMSUNG, OCZ Storage Solutions, SanDisk, PNY Technologies, Inc., Internal SSDs, SSDs... - Newegg.com
- With Macrium reflect Macrium Reflect Free | Macrium Software clone your HDD (with the factory restore and updates) to the SSD.
- Restore your data

I've tried chkdsk and sfc. Both prompt errors in either registry or corrupted files. I did not screenshot them, so i can't give you a better answer. Both didn't work too. I've considered doing a factory restore, but i do not have a portable SSD to backup my files.

Seen that many times, most of the time it was caused by timing errors in the BIOS. I make that statement as I've been overclocking for 25 years and have caused/fixed that issue hundreds of times.

The second cause I've had, but far less common, is RAM failure - either RAM chip failure or RAM seating in the socket failure. If BIOS settings are OK per your hardware, try reseating the RAM sticks. If still an issue, try removing/swapping some RAM to isolate a possible problem stick.

Regards,
GEWB

Could you explain what you meant by timing errors? Do you meant the computer time? Thank you for your input. I'll take a look at my RAM sticks to see if there is any issue with them.

Overall, i noticed a high amount of OSLoaderDuration, about 1.5mil ms. Could someone explain to me what this does?

 

[GEWB]

Timing errors related to your computer hardware - the settings are in the BIOS. You wrote:

"I am able to access BIOS or advanced boot menu for the first 3-5 seconds..."

That is what you need - when the screen starts up select the key stroke that allows you to enter the BIOS setup.

Every manufacturer has a slightly different setup menu so all I can do is point you in a general direction. Look for an area that relates to CPU Clock, Host,m DRAM, Frequency, Timing - those types of terms. You will need the settings provided by your manufacturer to make sense of it all. You probably will not mess with this section if you don't understand what it does.

Search for a BIOS setting that says something like Load Fail-Safe Defaults and execute that setting, save and exit, it will reboot. See if the condition improves.

If not, download and run a memory testing utility such as MemTest86 - expect it to run over night.

http://memtest86.com/

Regards,
GEWB

 

[Megahertz07]

If check disk found bad blocks or bad clusters your disk is dying. I would make the Factory Recover disks ASAP.
If SFC found errors that couldn't be fixed, I would reinstall windows.
- Save your data to an external HDD.
- Do a Factory restore. It will format your drive and reinstall Windows.
- Install the updates MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums