Question PC takes ages to turn on

[sophiapeters413]

My PC is taking ages to turn on recently. I push tye power button and the PC case lights come on and all the fans turn but nothing else happens for a while. Sometimes it takes 1 minute to get video output but most of the time it’s between 30 mins to 1 hour!! It used to happen a few months ago but then I swapped the power lead and it worked perfectly, but now its back again.

PC specs:
GTX 1060 6gb
i5 8400
4x4gb 2400 RAM (16gb)
Seagate barracude 1tb HDD
2x Kingston 240gb SSD
Corsair 500W PSU

 

[jonnyguru]

My PC is taking ages to turn on recently. I push tye power button and the PC case lights come on and all the fans turn but nothing else happens for a while. Sometimes it takes 1 minute to get video output but most of the time it’s between 30 mins to 1 hour!! It used to happen a few months ago but then I swapped the power lead and it worked perfectly, but now its back again.

PC specs:
GTX 1060 6gb
i5 8400
4x4gb 2400 RAM (16gb)
Seagate barracude 1tb HDD
2x Kingston 240gb SSD
Corsair 500W PSU

Col boot only, right?

After you shut down Windows, are you killing power to the PSU by flipping the switch on the back of the PSU, unplugging it or turning it off at the wall/power strip?

If you just shut down in Windows and then turn the PC back on using just the button on the front of the case, does it start up normally?

 

[sophiapeters413]

When I shut down my PC I don’t flip the switch on the PSU or turn it off from the wall. I always just have to press the power button, nothing else.

Today, after 3 and a half hours it finally turned on, but it was very slow. I tried loading up a game and the screen froze for a few seconds, then I got 5 short beeps in my headset (no idea why and I have never heard it before) and then everything continued working like normal.

I don’t know if thats helpful at all or if it’s just random noise, but it’s never happened before and when googling ‘5 short beeps’ it said it was a POST code for faulty CPU...???? I assumed POST beeps only played through a motherboard speaker and certainly not a few minutes after the PC had booted and logged into Windows normally. I assume it’s coincidence but it is odd that I got those beeps.

 

[jonnyguru]

Clear your CMOS.

Then, in Windows, uncheck "turn on fast statup".

I know.. I know... Sounds like the opposite of what you want to do, but try it.

This probably isn't a PSU issue (although your PSU is pretty old).

 

[FALC0N]

Clear your CMOS.

Then, in Windows, uncheck "turn on fast statup".

I know.. I know... Sounds like the opposite of what you want to do, but try it.

This probably isn't a PSU issue (although your PSU is pretty old).

This is an underrated diagnostic step. I run into a lot of startup issues that are resolved by simply turning fast startup off.

 

[sophiapeters413]

Clear your CMOS.

Then, in Windows, uncheck "turn on fast statup".

I know.. I know... Sounds like the opposite of what you want to do, but try it.

This probably isn't a PSU issue (although your PSU is pretty old).

Hmmm, I unchecked fast startup (haven't cleared CMOS yet) and the PC booted WAY faster-within 10 seconds. The thing is, sometimes it would start up this fast previously so I can't tell if doing this fixed anything or not!
Will clearing my CMOS change my memory profile settings in the BIOS?

 

[jonnyguru]

Will clearing my CMOS change my memory profile settings in the BIOS?

Yes.

So you will need to set that back up again.

 

[FALC0N]

Hmmm, I unchecked fast startup (haven't cleared CMOS yet) and the PC booted WAY faster-within 10 seconds. The thing is, sometimes it would start up this fast previously so I can't tell if doing this fixed anything or not!
Will clearing my CMOS change my memory profile settings in the BIOS?

I would wait a bit and see if turning off fast startup does the trick before doing the cmos reset. Like I said, I see a surprising large number of startup issues that I ultimately trace back to fast startup. I just turn it off on my machines.

 

[sophiapeters413]

I would wait a bit and see if turning off fast startup does the trick before doing the cmos reset. Like I said, I see a surprising large number of startup issues that I ultimately trace back to fast startup. I just turn it off on my machines.

So straight after disabling fast startup, my PC started within seconds. The second time I started it up, it took longer, but I'm not sure how long since I left the room after about 2 minutes and came back an hour later.
It really should boot within seconds though since I have windows on an SSD.
Still, I can't really tell yet so I'll try it like this for a few days and see if it starts taking ages to start again. Thanks.

 

[FALC0N]

So straight after disabling fast startup, my PC started within seconds. The second time I started it up, it took longer, but I'm not sure how long since I left the room after about 2 minutes and came back an hour later.
It really should boot within seconds though since I have windows on an SSD.
Still, I can't really tell yet so I'll try it like this for a few days and see if it starts taking ages to start again. Thanks.

The only down side to doing the cmos now is having to reenter your memory timings, which I'm assuming were manually entered. If you are just using some sort of preset, then it obviously wouldn't be as big a problem.

 

[sophiapeters413]

I cleaned my PC out thoroughly, took out the CMOS, etc. Now my PC works fine and switches on very fast.
It didn't look very dusty inside at all but it must have been a small bit that was interfering with the CPU receiving power.
I feel a bit stupid now thinking that my PSU was to blame haha.