Solved Slow Bootup, but no errors… What happened?

[Tweakit]

Slow Bootup, but no errors… What happened?

I have Windows 7 64 bit Pro. My computer has been very stable and free of errors. On Dec 14 I did all the windows updates and also installed Microsoft Silverlight. Everything was successful and the computer continued to work fine. Two days later I powered up the computer and it took 5 minutes to boot!! This has never happened before and normal bootups take less than a minute. During the 5 minute bootup the hard drive was active the whole time! After bootup, the computer was sluggish for a few minutes and then settled out. I examined the event viewer and found no errors or warnings! The usual informational events were all the same as during healthy bootups except for longer time delays between events. I shut the computer down which took 45 seconds instead of the usual 15 seconds. Everything has been completely normal since then. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and did a scans before and after this incident and found nothing. Does anyone have any idea what may have caused this? Is there anything I should do or just ignore it since its working fine now?
Thanks.

 

[scrooge]

you may want to run ( chkdsk ) and see if there any errors.


scrooge

 

[Tweakit]

Thanks scrooge. I ran chkdsk and the results are below. Also, I run chkdsk about every 2-3 weeks and the below is not an uncommon result. I'm not sure if this is normal or indicates a problem in the works. Any ideas?
--
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
192768 file records processed. File verification completed.
373 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 44 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
244556 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
192768 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 115 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 115 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 115 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
25895 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
34950624 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

146418687 KB total disk space.
54764196 KB in 146920 files.
91480 KB in 25898 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
298695 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
91264316 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
36604671 total allocation units on disk.
22816079 allocation units available on disk.

 

[Faceofjoe421]

Hi Tweakit, did it fix your problem? If not try an SFC /SCANNOW

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'm not sure if this is normal or indicates a problem in the works. Any ideas?

I think that that unused index entries is a common finding with chkdsk.

 

[gregrocker]

Run a full scan with Malwarebytes.

Run SFC linked earlier.

If these do not help try Gathering a Startup, Shutdown, Sleep, Hibernate, or Reboot Trace - Windows 7 Forums

 

[Tweakit]

Thanks folks for the various responses! The problem hasn't returned and everything is normal now except for the one incident I describbed above (humm... wierd). I will try the mentioned debug tools if it ever happens again.

 

[Faceofjoe421]

Hey Tweakit, would love to know what worked for you?

Check Disk, System File Checker, MalwareBytes or Other?

 

[Tweakit]

Hi Facofjoe, The problem only happened one time so I haven't actually tried anything other then the ckdsk run I posted above. Also it worked fine for 3-days following the problem before I ran chkdsk so its hard to say if chkdsk helped or not. I plan to try the other things you mentioned but as long as its working fine now I'll wait on that. Also nobody commented on the following line seen in the chkdsk result: "Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap. Windows has made corrections to the file system." I'm not sure if that statement is a normal chkdsk outcome or not??

 

[Faceofjoe421]

Try running Chkdsk again, see what happens.

 

[Tweakit]

Faceofjoe, Yes I did that also and the 2nd time all I got was a few cleanups of unused index entries and security descriptors. I think those are routine. Unlike the 1st run, there were no problems found with the file system. I typically run chkdsk every 2-3 weeks. I always get the cleanups of unused index entries and security descriptors but maybe one third or half the times I get the corrections to the volume bitmap. I'm not so sure how normal that is but its been going on for a long time. I'd like to know how normal or abnormal it is? Thanks!

 

[Tweakit]

I just thought I’d follow up on this older post and mark it ‘Solved.’ The slow boot up was a very infrequent problem with this computer and occurred maybe 3-4 times in the nearly 3 years since I built the rig. Similarly rare slow shutdowns also occurred. I also had freeze problems with this computer which are described here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/263815-windows-7-periodically-freezes.html
As described in detail at the above link, I ultimately found the freeze problem was due to a defective hard drive. Refer to the above link for details on that finding. With regard to both problems, no errors were ever logged in the Event Viewer! Because the slow Boot Up problem was so rare, it’s too soon to say with certainty that the hard drive defect was also the root cause for the slow Boot Up however given certain commonalities with both problems (such as no errors logged during either a freeze or slow Boot Up) I think it’s extremely likely that the hard drive defect was the root cause for both problems.
My thanks to those who responded with good suggestions to this post!