Question PC freezes on boot, UNLESS i go to BIOS first ?

[gerbillover]

This is driving me absolutely up the wall. For about a week now I've been having this issue and I'm at the end of my tether, where my only option left is to reinstall Windows which I really don't want to have to do. I'd really appreciate some help.

So. When I boot my PC, it gets to the Windows boot screen (with my mobo logo and the spinning circle) and will freeze, never booting. However, if I open the BIOS first and then quit out, the computer boots normally.

The computer works fine otherwise and I'm confused as all heck how the computer boots perfectly fine if I go to BIOS first, and why it won't boot normally. I'm not even sure if it's a hardware issue or a problem with Windows (and considering my PC is relatively new and well looked after, and works flawlessly other than this issue, I'm erring on the side of Windows)

I have tried:

• Disabling fast startup
• Running DISM and /sfc scannow various times (which finds no issues)
• Running Startup Repair (which failed with the error of "A recently serviced boot binary is corrupt.")
• Unplugging non-essential peripherals
• Updating to the latest version of Windows
• Uninstalling recent Windows updates
• Some various BIOS settings, none of which helped
• Resetting the BIOS via CMOS
• Checking boot priorities in the BIOS, they're all fine
• Reseating my RAM and GPU
• Running drive health checks, which state the drive is healthy

Just to reiterate again, the PC works flawlessly outside of this boot issue. I can still use it with the BIOS workaround, but it's getting very frustrating to do this every time I boot and I want to fix the issue. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Edit: Adding basic specs for clarity.

CPU: Ryzen 5800X with a good cooler
GPU: RTX 3080
RAM: 16GB, DDR4
Mobo: MSI X570 Gaming Edge Wifi
Drives: A 1TB Samsung 970 Evo M2 (boot drive), a 4TB Seagate Barracuda HDD, and a 2TB SSD (don't remember the make)
PSU: Can't remember the make (can get it later once a family member is back, I bought it on their phone) but it's good quality and high enough voltage wattage.

 

[hedwar2011]

Have you tried running bootcfg /rebuild and see if that helps? I know it's a long shot but the one hint I noticed was where you mentioned that Startup Repair failed because of a recently serviced boot binary being corrupt.

Might also try booting with boot logging enabled (it's an option when you go to Advanced Startup by holding Shift and powering on) and see if it shows anything.

 

[gerbillover]

Windows 10 doesn't have bootcfg /rebuild. I'm assuming you meant bootrec instead? Either way, attempting to access the Recovery Environment via restart doesn't work because it consistently freezes on boot in that case, even if I go to BIOS. I'll try again some more later and grab a recovery drive if not.

I've enabled boot logging and gone through the log of a successful boot, and everything looks normal. In case I've missed anything, here's the log on Pastebin: https://pastebin.com/SbkLsmNJ

 

[hedwar2011]

You didn't miss anything. The only things it didn't load were related to Direct X and those would load after it gets to the Desktop.

Did you already try booting normally, bringing up MSConfig, and doing a clean boot? If not, try that and see what happens but when you restart, don't go into BIOS and let it sit. See if it eventually does go into Windows or if it just sits there like a knot on a log.