Laptop taking 12 minutes to boot

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As the title says, my laptop is taking 12 minutes to boot up and after that it behaves relatively normally! By which I mean if you plug in any usb device once Windows is running it takes a few minutes for it to recognise it but everything else seems normal with no issues in Device Manager.

It's a HP 8760w workstation running Windows 7 with 32Gb RAM.

The exact sequence is after POST it spends 12 minutes on the glowing "Starting Windows" logo, blank screen for about a 1 minute and then the login screen. I get the same results if booting into safe mode. Not sure exactly when this started happening but the machine is rarely completely shutdown, usually just put into sleep or hibernation modes. Hard drive SMART data says it is healthy and no problems & no restore points to go back to.

Any one with any ideas on how to track down what it is doing without having to reinstall everything?

Cheers
 
Despite the smart info I'd suspect the hard drive to start with. Smart is not always that smart..

Open an admin command prompt and run

Chkdsk c: /r

It may say the volume is locked and will be scheduled next reboot, select Y press enter and then reboot.

Keep an eye on it, id suspect bad sectors.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Neil. Just about to try this, will report back after the reboot!
 
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12 minutes is nothing to do with Windows. My Windows Pc boots in 12 seconds and shuts down in 13 seconds
It might be everything to do with Windows. I solved a desperately slow boot with a clean installation a couple of months ago.
 
For reference
12 minutes is nothing to do with Windows. My Windows Pc boots in 12 seconds and shuts down in 13 seconds


Since I never used windows but my students' through TeamViewer,
I couldn't help the OP in any way. I am very well knowledgeable user
for Mac and have been enjoying them over the years… that was not
always without issues now and then. Machines are machines. :cool:
 
12 minutes is nothing to do with Windows. My Windows Pc boots in 12 seconds and shuts down in 13 seconds
Dont feed the trolls mate. There was a time where people were suspended and multiple threads locked for staring pc vs mac arguments.

It might be everything to do with Windows. I solved a desperately slow boot with a clean installation a couple of months ago.

12 minutes smacks of hardware to be honest.

But if the disk reports back OK then next step would be a sfc /scannow to check system files.
 
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I am with Neil probably a disk issue.

personally first thing I would do is once it boots up *****get anything off you need and might not have backed up.******

look at the event viewer (google it if you need to ) that might show some red flags.

how much free space do you have on the disk has it run out and thrashing?

empty recycling bin and do a defrag (google it if you need to)
 
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12 minutes smacks of hardware to be honest.
It may well be that, but mine was taking at least this long to finish booting, and I've seen other reports where a clean install has solved similar problems when all else has failed. Of course the other suggestions should be tried first.
 
I wonder whether it might either be an update that 'stuffed something up' or perhaps a faulty/corrupted driver. Has boot time gradually increased or abruptly changed? If abruptly then I'd suspect the HDD.

My instinct is that a simple wipe & reinstall would probably fix it, but like Neil says, I would be concerned about the drive failing.
 
What I would is back up your hard drive just in case it’s a disk failure.
Do you have a cd or dvd you could boot from. If that boots ok then it could be a disk error. How much actual free disk space do you have on your hard drive. It maybe paging a lot which could well slow it down
 
I am with the HDD hardware problem camp too, however I would try deleting & redefining the page file & rebooting , also and as someone has already suggested look at the event log records with eventvwr.

Have you checked to see what is being started at boot? Launch Task Manager & look at the startup tab & see what is getting started, you could try disabling some/all startup tasks one at a time and reboot & see what happens.

You say you rarely shutdown the system, you could always try a forced cold start of Windows rather than the default fast-start. To do this open a command prompt(run as admin) and run shutdown /s /f /t 0, this will cause windows to shutdown fully and a subsequent restart will be 'cold' . Use google to understand what is meant by cold starting vs fast-start
 
How'd you get on op?

It might be everything to do with Windows. I solved a desperately slow boot with a clean installation a couple of months ago.

12 minutes smacks of hardware to be honest.

But if the disk reports back OK then next step would be a sfc /scannow to check system files.

Sorry for late replies but only just got up after finally getting to bed at 9 this morning - it was a long night of multiple boots & alternating hair pulling and & crapping myself .

Trying chkdsk /r on next reboot left me with a garbled screen with only a few lines of coloured pixels. Couldn't see what was happening so after an 1hr I pulled the plug and tried to reboot multiple times which resulted in getting the same corrupt screen. However, during one of these reboots I noticed caps lock light flashing 5 times which means system board error. Tried the bios hard disk tests and it appeared to hang at 10% into the advance test (or leaving it for 1 hour wasn't long enough). Thinking I had nothing to lose I put in a disk from another HP laptop (took a back up image just in case) and tried a reboot. Got same 5 flashes but it at least booted up with the same 12 minute boot time.

Tried a fresh install on that new disk but still the same long boot time so ruled out a problem with my original hard disk.

Back to original hard disk but crucially didn't put laptop back on the docking station as I thought I'd might as well try some freeze spray on any visible bits of it and it booted up in 1 minute flat!!!

So a few more reboots to confirm but it seems using the HP docking station is causing the long boot problem. I still get the 5 flashes on caps lock so your hunch was correct Neil!

Did some checking and realised that chkdsk /r can take anything from 30mins to days I left it running while I went to sleep and although I got the same garbled screen, I woke up to find it had finished and was sitting at the login screen :banana: At some point through the night I did both a windows repair & sfc but they came up with nothing.

So short version: back to a working laptop, no data lost but some sort of hardware problem on the motherboard and/or the docking station.
 
I am with Neil probably a disk issue.

personally first thing I would do is once it boots up *****get anything off you need and might not have backed up.******

look at the event viewer (google it if you need to ) that might show some red flags.

how much free space do you have on the disk has it run out and thrashing?

empty recycling bin and do a defrag (google it if you need to)

I tried most of those in the past with no change but didn't really know what I needed to look for in the event log so didn't delve too deeply into it. The machine had 200Gb free out of 750Gb and I turned the page file off once I stuck 32Gb RAM in it.
 
I wonder whether it might either be an update that 'stuffed something up' or perhaps a faulty/corrupted driver. Has boot time gradually increased or abruptly changed? If abruptly then I'd suspect the HDD.

My instinct is that a simple wipe & reinstall would probably fix it, but like Neil says, I would be concerned about the drive failing.

Wasn't sure how or when it happened as I normally just put machine into sleep or hibernation unless taking it out of the house. Once I'd noticed it happening I avoided turning it off even more! Could never find a downtime to sort out a list of all the little tweaks I'd installed over time before wiping it to check.
 
What I would is back up your hard drive just in case it’s a disk failure.
Do you have a cd or dvd you could boot from. If that boots ok then it could be a disk error. How much actual free disk space do you have on your hard drive. It maybe paging a lot which could well slow it down

Bought it second hand so I didn't have any dvds and couldn't get the hidden partition recovery software to work. Couldn't download any recovery images from MS as HP use a modified version (or words to that effect when I entered my software key). Did manage to get it to boot off a dvd of unknown original but didn't want to risk going any further with the install ;)

About 200Gb free out of 750Gb but page file disabled since upgrading to 32Gb of RAM
 
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Curious then it could be hardware or system board like you say causing lock ups on boot.
given its age maybe time for a replacement before it goes bang, problem with laptops is they are buggers to take apart and diagnose.
 
I am with the HDD hardware problem camp too, however I would try deleting & redefining the page file & rebooting , also and as someone has already suggested look at the event log records with eventvwr.

Have you checked to see what is being started at boot? Launch Task Manager & look at the startup tab & see what is getting started, you could try disabling some/all startup tasks one at a time and reboot & see what happens.

You say you rarely shutdown the system, you could always try a forced cold start of Windows rather than the default fast-start. To do this open a command prompt(run as admin) and run shutdown /s /f /t 0, this will cause windows to shutdown fully and a subsequent restart will be 'cold' . Use google to understand what is meant by cold starting vs fast-start


Yes this was puzzling me as the HDD would work normally all other times. It would get to the windows starting screen in normal time so it was allowing some parts of the OS to load from it. The hangup seemed to be once Windows had starting loading.

Page file was disabled once I'd increased memory to 32Gb, and although most of the startup items only load once user has logged in (the hold up happens before even getting to the login screen) I did try disabling all just to rule it out.

Got to admit I do usually just force a shutdown with a long press of the power button but using those shutdown switches seems a bit neater. Will have to remember it for next time!

Now it's booting somewhat quicker I'll try and look into the event log over the weekend to see if anything stands out now I know roughly that it's a hardware motherboard fault rather than a software issue.
 
Odd, sounds like a weird one between the dock and laptop then.

Can you see the interface pins, are any damaged?

RE. Page file, I think the recommendation is (or was) to leave it on as some apps can behave oddly. I've got mine set to custom 1-2gb.
 
type in your start box "pre fetch" and clear the list. . See if there is in google a program called "System Mechanic" trial, I have the program and that will clear out all the junk. There may well be left oven bits of programs so try "Revo uninstall "

link ( I recommend it )

https://www.revouninstaller.com/rev...P23f7wuf9cwIpXhCHVDN6tTQeXtyP8qAaAgqFEALw_wcB

Cheers, I'll give it a go just to see if it picks anything else, used to use CCleaner & HiJackThis before they stopped updating it. A good reminder about prefetch, haven't looked at it since XP days as I thought Win 7 made it self-pruning after about 128 entries. I'll give it a clearout anyway.

try running "msconfig" as well in that start box

Yes I'd removed any startup items there though the problem starts before these start getting loaded in. Tracked the issue to some hardware fault on board and a problem with the docking station. All back to normal once the docking station was removed apart from an unknown system fault on the motherboard.
 
Curious then it could be hardware or system board like you say causing lock ups on boot.
given its age maybe time for a replacement before it goes bang, problem with laptops is they are buggers to take apart and diagnose.

It's the fact that it has a gorgeous DreamColor screen that makes me keep it (and the cost of newer HP ZBook workstations with DreamColor :jawdrop: )

Nice thing about these is old machines is they are lovely to take apart. One latch on bottom and almost entire base opens up to access everything. Only 4 screws from the back and keyboard come off without any further disassembly. Lots of what would be on a motherboard is split up on to daughter boards eg graphics adaptor, ports, sound. Hoping I can track down a secondhand systemboard relatively cheaply as a result of that if I can't find out what the system fault is.
 
Odd, sounds like a weird one between the dock and laptop then.

Can you see the interface pins, are any damaged?

RE. Page file, I think the recommendation is (or was) to leave it on as some apps can behave oddly. I've got mine set to custom 1-2gb.

Just checked them and all look fine. Only other thing I can do is get another dock off eBay and try that.

BTW the error codes flash even without the dock attached so I'm thinking it's more likely to be a board fault now.
 
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