Win 7 Home Premium SP1. 64 bit.

My PC is only 8 months old, and about a week ago it started having the 3-5 minute boot to Windows. It only happened on the 1st (cold) boot up of the day. After that it took it's usual 60-75 seconds. It would consistently hang after the desktop was displayed, but before the items in the Task Bar Notification area would finish loading, such as WiFi.

I burned and ran the Windows 7 System REPAIR (not Recovery) disk, which found that I had some issue with the boot manager, which it claimed to fix.

After that, the problem continued, but only on the 1st boot in the morning.

Started to seem like a HDD problem to me, so I cloned the drive to a brand new HDD, and installed it. Problem gone.

I also ran the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test on the suspect HDD, which was 100% normal. Same with ChkDsk.

BUT... then I reinstalled the suspect HDD, and haven't had the problem since.

I think I have a curse for Intermittent problems.

In any case, I'm not much of a believer in problem healing itself and never returning, so now I wait for it to come back.

Has anyone run into this before, or have any thoughts on what's going on?

Thanks so much...

Sounds like a driver problem on start up (cold boot). When is the last time you checked your system for drivers and also when was your last defrag ?

I defrag monthly, along with a bunch of other "PC Maintenance" procedures.

I'm not clear on the driver question. Do you mean hardware drivers for the PC? I thought they were included as optional updates in Windows Update.

Perhaps you can explain why this would only happen once a day on the 1st boot up in the morning, and then boot normally the rest of the day. Also, now I haven't seen the problem for about 3 days. Wouldn't a driver issue cause the problem on each boot?

I'd be thrilled if it were just a driver update. Is there a way to test all the drivers to see if they are up to date?

I know this is a matter of opinion, but I read an article that recommended not updating drivers as that can sometimes introduce problems.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not in any way trying to be argumentative. Just asking so I understand this all correctly.

Thanks very much...

First off this is a discussion board. Its not a I tell you and you are commanded to do it board. I take no offense at all at your questions.

When you update windows it doesn't always update all your drivers as in most cases it defaults to windows only products. So if you have other components that are not "windows" then those products can have updated drivers. So long as the drivers are in final release and not "beta" then you shouldn't have problems with it and that is why they update them on occasion. It is to solve problems with the product.

Also it may be that your system is looking for updates of some kind once a day and once that is accomplished then it is ignored until the day changes. Adobe often does that. It listens for updates to the software. So its possible that you have one or more turned on and its checking for that when you first boot it up.


Which Maintenance products are you using ?

Intermittent hardware issues are the worst; I hope it's not hardware. I would offer troubleshooting steps related to startup items but you cloned the drive and the issue disappeared.

You could try checking what's loading at startup for good measure. I normally use Ccleaner to help me there. Install the free version, then follow their instructions: Piriform - Managing auto-starting programs

It's a good troubleshooting step, plus it may make you aware on what nasty little programs have made themselves run from boot.

No need to pay $20 to a little known company with a little known product when there are so many very good free applications.

Thank you for all the feedback.

In response, I do the following monthly:
Windows Update.
Check for updates to Firefox and Thunderbird Plugins.
Run CCleaner and it's Registry Cleaner.
Full Malware scan with Total Defense 2013.
Defrag.
ChkDsk.
Check Startup List (msconfig) to see if anything has been added.

I keep a HDD created from a fresh install with all programs and settings, but it's never been in everyday use, so it not all mucked up. To keep the PC running at peak performance, annually (or so), I clone this HDD to my "everyday" HDD and load in my backed up files. Been doing this for many years. Saves the time of doing a fresh install. Maybe this is overkill?

Never realized that CCleaner had a Startup List. Thank you! That's easier than going through msconfig. I have 5 programs in my startup list. It's the same 5 since the PC was new. I went through the much longer list created after the first setup of the PC, and disabled all the unnecessary startup items with the help of BleepingComputer, and Pacs-Portal.
I use CCleaner every night before powering down.

I've not heard of Optimo Pro, but isn't that what CCleaner's Registry Clean does?

I'd appreciate any additional suggestions. But perhaps it's time to just wait and see if the problem returns.

Thank you all...

I believe your overthinking things. It is good to be proactive but it seems your taking it a bit too far. Cleaning a system doesnt require lots of attention it just needs alittle TLC now and then. Check "task manager" and see what is actually running and what resources are being used and you might find that you can trim the FAT even further and have your PC running lightning fast.

Thanks cdad. Actually, my PC runs quite fast. My original question, as you know, had to do with Windows "hanging" on boot up. Slow was an understatement. Several times I timed boot up at over 5 minutes. This is not the norm for my PC, nor is it acceptable.

I have checked the Task Manager, and my CPU Usage is 1% right now, with 3 programs running. I wouldn't have a clue which services to stop anyway. (Computers for Beginners)

You asked what maintenance products I am using, so I answered the question. I'm not over thinking anything. Just trying to fix a problem.

Clearly there is, or was something wrong, and I was asking for help with some ideas as to what it might be. It seems that I can't do any more troubleshooting, since the slow boot has, at least for now, disappeared.

I appreciate all the suggestions related to my boot issue.

Thank you all...

Something else you may not have considered is that sometimes windows installs certain updates at boot up. On those occasions or ones that involve system parts it can take longer as it is being installed. Just food for thought.

Good to know.

I have my Windows Update set to ask me before updating. Also, this was happening every morning for about 2 weeks. Has never happened before, and going on day 4 without it happening again.

Believe me, I'm not hoping for a problem, but that's the sense I have. I read in my research on this, that a HDD is suspect #1, but also a bad power supply, and even a wanky processor, can slow everything to a crawl until it reaches operating temperature.

Thank you for the new suggestion.

I had another 5 minute boot up this morning after 10 days of "normal" (60 seconds). I was hoping that re-cloning my HDD from my Master fixed the problem, but apparently not.

Windows hangs at the very end of the boot up process each time.
The small blue spinning wheel (wait icon) stops spinning and just sits over my WiFi antenna bars. No "searching sounds" from the HDD.

Any other ideas what could cause this specific situation?

PS: cdad. Thanks for the Windows update theory. Unfortunately, I have my Update setting on "Notify", so no auto updates.

Thanks all...

Have you looked through processes and services to see what is coming on when you turn your machine on? Adobe has a update feature and it runs in the background and so does java. You might want to check those lists and see what your system is doing.

Excellent idea.

Can I access the task manager before Windows is finished booting?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mitchsc

Excellent idea.

Can I access the task manager before Windows is finished booting?

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Not really. Because if the boot is not complete then you wont really know what is going on. You will only see part of the picture.

Best to wait it out and then check.

If the hanging boot completes, and then I look at the processes and services, what will that tell me? Don't I need to see what is going on during the hang in the boot up?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mitchsc

If the hanging boot completes, and then I look at the processes and services, what will that tell me? Don't I need to see what is going on during the hang in the boot up?

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Yes and no. Mostly it depends on what services are being turned on. That can be your first clue as to slow booting. If a update service is being installed during boot up you will see it as it stays resident.

This may be beyond my abilities. The names of the processes and services listed in the task manager are not recognizable to me. I can't tell what an upgrade service would look like.

I had a 4 minute boot up the morning, hanging in the usual spot. No sound from the HDD during this time.

Checked the Event Viewer (for the 1st time), which showed error code 11 (HDD controller error). I don't want to jump to conclusions, so I may spend a bit of time seeing if the code occurs at the same time as a hanging boot. I didn't notice the time when I booted up this morning, so I'm not sure yet.