Extremely slow on first boot

[Jayzaa]

I bought a PC about 7 months ago, and everything is great, apart from the fact I need to reboot sometimes several times for it to run at full speed. For example, if I just got in from work and I booted my PC up, if I launched a game straight away, fps would be very low, unplayable low, ~5fps. My PC, when running at full speed can handle most games high-ultra with ease, and it usually achieves this after being rebooted a couple of times, so it definitely isn't the fact that my hardware isn't good enough, I believe more to the fact something isn't working properly.

So to just clear things up, on my PCs first boot, I get extremely low FPS in games, yet when I restart it once or twice, FPS suddenly jumps up to the high 50s. Do you have any ideas what could cause this, and whether there are some remedies I can try at home as preferably I don't really want to have to send it back and wait a good month for them to do some work on it to find the issue.

Cheers!

 

[dudio]

There's a chance that you have malware on the computer
and it tries to load up when you boot. There certainly is no
harm in eliminating that as a possible cause.
Download and run MalwareBytes and AdwCleaner (both free)
and see what that does for you.

 

[avenseth12]

Yes, it sounds like a virus or malware consuming resources.

 

[Jayzaa]

Thanks for the prompt reply

I have already used MalwareBytes and that says its clean, but I hadn't used AdwCleaner until you said now. I have downloaded it and tried it to which it removed a few things. I can't give you an answer as to whether this has sorted the issue just yet however, as I will need to turn my PC off for a few hours to let it all cool down and then boot up later, I will get back to you with the results then.

In the event this does not stop the issue, do you have any other ideas as to what could be the cause? It is by no means a direct life-changer having to reboot a few times to get it to run at full speed, I just find it annoying and unnecessary having to spend 20 odd minutes messing around turning on and off my PC.

Cheers!

 

[avenseth12]

Why do you have to leave your PC for hours before restarting, that sounds odd?

 

[Jayzaa]

Why do you have to leave your PC for hours before restarting, that sounds odd?

Well its working okay at the moment. If I was to just restart it now there would be no change, it would be fine, as I did the whole restarting thing when I turned it on a couple of hours ago so its working full speed at the moment. It only seems to do the slow-first-boot when the PC has been turned off for a few hours, and then turned back on again, for example if I turned it off now and then turned it on in the morning, that's when it would lag.

 

[avenseth12]

Are you using a wireless USB adapter for your internet?

 

[Jayzaa]

Are you using a wireless USB adapter for your internet?

I don't believe so? I have a wi-fi card on my pc and it just connects up wirelessly to my router downstairs. Sorry if I am being stupid here!

 

[avenseth12]

It could be your wireless card having problems is why I asked.

 

[Jayzaa]

So I had turned it off for a few hours, and just came back to turn it on. MalwareBytes and AdwCleaner did not cure it, I am still getting the same enormous frame rate drop on this first boot, so I am now going to have to reboot again a couple of times. If it adds anything to the cause, tasks like browsing the internet are still possible (such as writing this response) with no noticeable issues, it is simply games get an enormous frame rate hit on this first boot.

In response to the wireless card suggestion, how would I go about diagnosing this as a possible issue?

 

[avenseth12]

Can you connect directly into your router or modem via a cable? If so, remove your wireless card and then plug it in and see if the same issues happen.

 

[Jayzaa]

Can you connect directly into your router or modem via a cable? If so, remove your wireless card and then plug it in and see if the same issues happen.

It would require me to move the whole pc and everything downstairs, would it not be easier to remove the wireless card and then just boot up the PC and try and run a game which does not require the internet. Surely this would have the same effect.

 

[avenseth12]

You will need to run the pc while connected to the internet to see if the card is the problem

 

[Jayzaa]

You will need to run the pc while connected to the internet to see if the card is the problem

Even though the game is offline and unaffected by internet?

 

[Jayzaa]

So that was ridiculous, I just had to restart my record amount of 7 TIMES before it started working at full speed... Its getting worse every day. It has been doing it all together for a few months, but I thought little of it as I only had to restart it maybe once, now I am having to do it 3,4,5, 6 times.

 

[whoratesit]

Try running this when the PC is in "slow" mode, it may shed some light on what the problem is:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/Software

 

[avenseth12]

As I said, I think your wireless card is dying

 

[Jayzaa]

Try running this when the PC is in "slow" mode, it may shed some light on what the problem is:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/Software

So I did two tests with this, one in slow mode and one in normal mode.

Slow mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278555

Normal mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278567

So as you can see, there is a considerable difference in the gpu score.

Also, it did fail when trying to run Direct3D but I think that's to do with the capability of my card.

So, does any of this shed any light on anything?

 

[whoratesit]

Try running this when the PC is in "slow" mode, it may shed some light on what the problem is:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/Software

So I did two tests with this, one in slow mode and one in normal mode.

Slow mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278555

Normal mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278567

So as you can see, there is a considerable difference in the gpu score.

Also, it did fail when trying to run Direct3D but I think that's to do with the capability of my card.

So, does any of this shed any light on anything?

Well yes and no. They show that your CPU / HDD are not impacted in the "slow" mode, which rules out most malware / background processes. The stark reduction in GPU speed could be the result of a specific piece of malware targeting the GPU but that's unlikely so my best guess is that it's a hardware problem with the GPU. Is the GPU still under warranty?

One think you might try, rather than re-booting next time you get a slow down, just disable the GPU and re/enable it via display properties/control panel, that may save you multiple re-boots.

 

[Jayzaa]

Try running this when the PC is in "slow" mode, it may shed some light on what the problem is:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/Software

So I did two tests with this, one in slow mode and one in normal mode.

Slow mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278555

Normal mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278567

So as you can see, there is a considerable difference in the gpu score.

Also, it did fail when trying to run Direct3D but I think that's to do with the capability of my card.

So, does any of this shed any light on anything?

Well yes and no. They show that your CPU / HDD are not impacted in the "slow" mode, which rules out most malware / background processes. The stark reduction in GPU speed could be the result of a specific piece of malware targeting the GPU but that's unlikely so my best guess is that it's a hardware problem with the GPU. Is the GPU still under warranty?

One think you might try, rather than re-booting next time you get a slow down, just disable the GPU and re/enable it via display properties/control panel, that may save you multiple re-boots.

Ok, so I tried disabling and re-enabling the gpu but it made no difference. Would you recommend uninstalling the graphics card all together and reinstalling it? I don't really want to have to send the whole PC back to DinoPC where I got it from to be honest, as I use this PC very regularly and for such a simple yet annoying issue I don't think it warrants sending the whole thing back.

 

[whoratesit]

Try running this when the PC is in "slow" mode, it may shed some light on what the problem is:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/Software

So I did two tests with this, one in slow mode and one in normal mode.

Slow mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278555

Normal mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278567

So as you can see, there is a considerable difference in the gpu score.

Also, it did fail when trying to run Direct3D but I think that's to do with the capability of my card.

So, does any of this shed any light on anything?

Well yes and no. They show that your CPU / HDD are not impacted in the "slow" mode, which rules out most malware / background processes. The stark reduction in GPU speed could be the result of a specific piece of malware targeting the GPU but that's unlikely so my best guess is that it's a hardware problem with the GPU. Is the GPU still under warranty?

One think you might try, rather than re-booting next time you get a slow down, just disable the GPU and re/enable it via display properties/control panel, that may save you multiple re-boots.

Ok, so I tried disabling and re-enabling the gpu but it made no difference. Would you recommend uninstalling the graphics card all together and reinstalling it? I don't really want to have to send the whole PC back to DinoPC where I got it from to be honest, as I use this PC very regularly and for such a simple yet annoying issue I don't think it warrants sending the whole thing back.

yep - certainly worth re-installing the drivers, and then your OS, and then get the latest BIOS for your MOBO, if all that failed then I would send it back if it were me.

 

[Jayzaa]

Try running this when the PC is in "slow" mode, it may shed some light on what the problem is:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/Software

So I did two tests with this, one in slow mode and one in normal mode.

Slow mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278555

Normal mode:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/278567

So as you can see, there is a considerable difference in the gpu score.

Also, it did fail when trying to run Direct3D but I think that's to do with the capability of my card.

So, does any of this shed any light on anything?

Well yes and no. They show that your CPU / HDD are not impacted in the "slow" mode, which rules out most malware / background processes. The stark reduction in GPU speed could be the result of a specific piece of malware targeting the GPU but that's unlikely so my best guess is that it's a hardware problem with the GPU. Is the GPU still under warranty?

One think you might try, rather than re-booting next time you get a slow down, just disable the GPU and re/enable it via display properties/control panel, that may save you multiple re-boots.

Ok, so I tried disabling and re-enabling the gpu but it made no difference. Would you recommend uninstalling the graphics card all together and reinstalling it? I don't really want to have to send the whole PC back to DinoPC where I got it from to be honest, as I use this PC very regularly and for such a simple yet annoying issue I don't think it warrants sending the whole thing back.

yep - certainly worth re-installing the drivers, and then your OS, and then get the latest BIOS for your MOBO, if all that failed then I would send it back if it were me.

I'm not 100% sure on how to safely reinstall the gpu, OS and update the BIOS, I mean, I could have a go but I will more than likely mess something up which will render it useless, do you have a rough follow-through for me to do to safely reinstall these drivers without having any big issues? Cheers

 

[Jayzaa]

So now I'm having silly issues. I always used to quickly judge my PC by the loading FPS when I booted up TW Rome 2, if it was running full speed it would be getting just over 3500 fps and this was consistent every single time for the past 3 months or however long its been doing this rebooting for, now all of a sudden its doing stupid things like never ever reaching that fps, its getting to around 2200 fps or fluctuating up to 3000, so a stark difference to what I have always been used to (working=3500 fps, not working=~600fps). All I have done is updated a intel HD driver which doesn't affect this anyway and disabling/enabling the gpu. What can have caused this? Also, I am getting a black screen for around 10-15 seconds after entering my login details when logging into windows, but still hearing the log on sound, this has never happened before. Just little things like this and I have no idea why, it has never done this before in the 3 months I have been having the reboot issue.

 

[whoratesit]

You should probably re-install windows and see if that makes a difference. When you re-install windows all the GPU drivers will also be re-installed. If that fails to solve the problem, you can take it from there.

 

[Jayzaa]

You should probably re-install windows and see if that makes a difference. When you re-install windows all the GPU drivers will also be re-installed. If that fails to solve the problem, you can take it from there.

Will reinstalling Windows require me to reinstall all programs on my hard drive?