Question PC suddenly takes 18+ seconds to boot

[orioch]

Specs: pcpartpicker

Hello!
I have been facing a problem. Recently my PC has been taking twice as long to boot and I'm not sure why it's been doing this. I have attached my specs. Any help or advice is appreciated and I will answer any questions needed.

Edit: I was in a rush to write this at the time. I want to add that since this has started happening, games don’t run quite as well as they used to. For reference, I used to run Fortnite at around 80-120 or so FPS pre-issue and now it tanks to 30~ FPS at times.

 

[CountMike]

Specs: pcpartpicker

Hello!
I have been facing a problem. Recently my PC has been taking twice as long to boot and I'm not sure why it's been doing this. I have attached my specs. Any help or advice is appreciated and I will answer any questions needed.

Edit: I was in a rush to write this at the time. I want to add that since this has started happening, games don’t run quite as well as they used to. For reference, I used to run Fortnite at around 80-120 or so FPS pre-issue and now it tanks to 30~ FPS at times.

Which part of BOOT process takes longer. 0 to POST finishing and start of Windows loading or after it starts loading ? That would indicate BIOS or windows delay.

 

[orioch]

Which part of BOOT process takes longer. 0 to POST finishing and start of Windows loading or after it starts loading ? That would indicate BIOS or windows delay.

The former. Once it gets into the OS it's fine. Here's a screenshot of how long task manager says it's taking. imgur link

 

[Bob.B]

The former. Once it gets into the OS it's fine. Here's a screenshot of how long task manager says it's taking. imgur link

Unplug all disk except for the OS disk......any diff in bios time?

 

[orioch]

Unplug all disk except for the OS disk......any diff in bios time?

Discovered something very strange when trying this. I have my OS on an M.2 so naturally, I unplugged my SSDs to try out what you suggested. When I turn on my PC with only the M.2 in, Windows does not come on. After several seconds, it goes to BIOS for some reason? However, once I plug in an SSD it boots normally into Windows (it actually took longer, 19.4 secs). What should I do?

Edit: I just tried switching which SSD was plugged in alongside the M.2 and only the first one allows the system to go past BIOS. I should add that the first SSD I plugged back in USED to hold my OS, but I did a clean install to the M.2 and formatted the SSD, so I don't understand why it seems to still be booting from it??

Edit 2: Just noticed the EFI partition is not in the right drive 🤦‍♂️ that would probably fix that issue.

 

[John Chesterfield]

The first SSD you plugged back in that allowed the system to boot must have been in the system when you installed Windows, because even though you only pointed the install to the one drive, Windows has this annoying habit of putting important boot files on other disks installed.

Solution, Google around, pretty sure there are commands you can run off bootdisks that will repair your boot partition and put it on the right drive where Windows itself is.

Or do what I'd do, bite the bullet and have only the one disk you want Windows on in the system and clean install Windows. It sounds like something has gone wrong with the boot files on the second disk, the disk you specifically DIDN'T point your Windows install to.

Yes, annoying from Microsoft that.

 

[John Chesterfield]

If that disk that you put back in and allows boot is a SATA drive, try a new cable before doing anything. SATA cables just go bad sometimes.

 

[orioch]

The first SSD you plugged back in that allowed the system to boot must have been in the system when you installed Windows, because even though you only pointed the install to the one drive, Windows has this annoying habit of putting important boot files on other disks installed.

Solution, Google around, pretty sure there are commands you can run off bootdisks that will repair your boot partition and put it on the right drive where Windows itself is.

Or do what I'd do, bite the bullet and have only the one disk you want Windows on in the system and clean install Windows. It sounds like something has gone wrong with the boot files on the second disk, the disk you specifically DIDN'T point your Windows install to.

Yes, annoying from Microsoft that.

I actually looked around and decided to try doing just that, but it wouldn't go as far as letting me actually reinstall windows. It would just keep giving me an error about there being nowhere to put it or something along those lines. I don't remember the exact wording, might've said something about partitions?

 

[John Chesterfield]

I actually looked around and decided to try doing just that, but it wouldn't go as far as letting me actually reinstall windows. It would just keep giving me an error about there being nowhere to put it or something along those lines. I don't remember the exact wording, might've said something about partitions?

See if you can get a photo of the error and post to imgur or something similar and link here.

 

[orioch]

See if you can get a photo of the error and post to imgur or something similar and link here.

imgur link Sorry it took so long to get back to you. This is a picture of the error I keep seeing.

edit: I went into event viewer to see if I could find anything and saw these warnings. Maybe you can help me figure out what they mean and if they have to do with why I can't install windows? imgur link 2

 

[orioch]

I am definitely open to other options and suggestions but I think what I'm going to try to do is backup the data on my M.2 and then format it so I can try a clean install of Windows that way.

 

[helper800]

I am definitely open to other options and suggestions but I think what I'm going to try to do is backup the data on my M.2 and then format it so I can try a clean install of Windows that way.

If you do a clean install of windows again make sure that only 1 drive is connected to the PC before installing windows again. When you have multiple drives plugged in and reinstall windows, it likes to add partitions to other drives making it impossible to boot without all of them plugged in.

 

[froggy8]

If you do a clean install of windows again make sure that only 1 drive is connected to the PC before installing windows again. When you have multiple drives plugged in and reinstall windows, it likes to add partitions to other drives making it impossible to boot without all of them plugged in.

i was going to suggest that too as that is what i did. i have 2 hdd and 1 ssd and i only plugged ssd in when i installed windows.

 

[orioch]

If you do a clean install of windows again make sure that only 1 drive is connected to the PC before installing windows again. When you have multiple drives plugged in and reinstall windows, it likes to add partitions to other drives making it impossible to boot without all of them plugged in.

Definitely. After this whole mess, I will make sure only the one drive is plugged in when I do the install

 

[helper800]

Definitely. After this whole mess, I will make sure only the one drive is plugged in when I do the install

Hopefully it solves your issues with the long boot time.

 

[orioch]

i was going to suggest that too as that is what i did. i have 2 hdd and 1 ssd and i only plugged ssd in when i installed windows.

And that is what ended up working for you? I imagined it would fix the problem but hearing that it actually did fix it for someone else helps me feel more confident about that route.

 

[froggy8]

And that is what ended up working for you? I imagined it would fix the problem but hearing that it actually did fix it for someone else helps me feel more confident about that route.

it was my first build and it did work for me. it only took about 5 seconds to boot up which i really liked.
but lately it has took about 30 seconds to boot after 2 years so only just done a bios update as there was about 5 new updates since i last updated it.
havent really timed it yet to see how long it boots but on the 'last bios time' it says 13.1 seconds which is bit better than 30 seconds.

 

[froggy8]

i also disabled some start up programs as that does help too.

 

[helper800]

i also disabled some start up programs as that does help too.

For anyone willing to dabble a bit more, try Autoruns. It allows you to disable ANYTHING on startup and shows all startup processes. It would be dangerous to turn off anything you do not know exactly what it does, however, if you have ever had something open on startup and its not listed in the startup tab of task manager you can disable it with Autoruns. Most programs that startup without a listing on task manager do have an option somewhere in the software settings, but if not, autoruns has you covered.

 

[froggy8]

For anyone willing to dabble a bit more, try Autoruns. It allows you to disable ANYTHING on startup and shows all startup processes. It would be dangerous to turn off anything you do not know exactly what it does, however, if you have ever had something open on startup and its not listed in the startup tab of task manager you can disable it with Autoruns. Most programs that startup without a listing on task manager do have an option somewhere in the software settings, but if not, autoruns has you covered.

as soon as i find out what my boot up time is then i may have a go on the autoruns, cheers for that