Suddenly, my PC takes a long time to boot.

[John Rivs]

Motherboard: ASUS Prime X370-Pro
CPU: Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: G.Skill 8GBx2 3200MHz (F4-3200C16-8GTZKY)
Boot drive: Samsung 960 EVO
Graphics card: Gigabyte GTX 1070Ti
OS: Windows 10

I've had this system for 5-6 months. Ever since the first week I've had the same settings in the BIOS. Memory was using the XMP profile but instead of 3200MHz, it was at 3066MHz. BIOS version was 08XX (can't remember the exact number). CPU Core Ratio was at 35.00 (I think). Some other changes related to having macOS on a different drive. PC booted super quickly. When I pressed F2 to enter BIOS it was very fast as well.

The game that I play on PC is usually Overwatch. Recently, the game started crashing almost every day. I updated all my drivers: graphics, chipset, etc. Updated Windows and ran a MalwareBytes + Windows Defender virus scan, separately. Nothing found.

3 days ago the game caused a BSOD:

• 
  Stop code: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
  What failed: ndis.sys

After rebooting, launched the game again and less than an hour later, I got this BSOD:

• 
  Stop code: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
  What failed: ntoskrnl.exe

While writing this thread:

• 
  Stop code: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
  What failed: ntoskrnl.exe

Since the second BSOD, I once again updated all drivers. Updated the BIOS to the latest version (4008) and used all default settings. Sometimes, the PC posts twice and some other times I get this:

I'm not using RAID. Besides the NVMe drive I mentioned at the start, I have a 1TB HDD and a 850 Pro (where I have macOS) which oddly enough, is no longer recognized in BIOS. When I open Disk Management, I see this (which I'm not sure it was the case before all this):

I ran MemTest86 and Windows Memory Diagnostic. No errors found. Where do I go from this?

 

[rocktalkrock]

Is your Samsung 960 EVO set first in the boot order?

 

[John Rivs]

Is your Samsung 960 EVO set first in the boot order?

As I mentioned, my boot drive is the 960 EVO. I do boot into Windows, but during POST it takes way too long.

 

[rocktalkrock]

Is your Samsung 960 EVO set first in the boot order?

As I mentioned, my boot drive is the 960 EVO. I do boot into Windows, but during POST it takes way too long.

How long is way too long? Do you have Fast Boot enabled in the BIOS?

 

[John Rivs]

Is your Samsung 960 EVO set first in the boot order?

As I mentioned, my boot drive is the 960 EVO. I do boot into Windows, but during POST it takes way too long.

How long is way too long? Do you have Fast Boot enabled in the BIOS?

It used to take seconds, now it takes more than 1 minute., even if I press F2 or Del to enter BIOS. Then once the spinning circles show up, it's another 30 seconds.

I want to emphasize that all of this started suddenly after my second BSOD without me making any changes. I didn't even change the defaults around booting back when I built the system.

EDIT: To answer more directly, yes I have Fast Boot enabled.

 

[rocktalkrock]

Is your Samsung 960 EVO set first in the boot order?

As I mentioned, my boot drive is the 960 EVO. I do boot into Windows, but during POST it takes way too long.

How long is way too long? Do you have Fast Boot enabled in the BIOS?

It used to take seconds, now it takes more than 1 minute. I want to emphasize that all of this started suddenly after my second BSOD without me making any changes. I didn't even change the defaults around booting back when I built the system.

Have you tried booting with the 850 Pro, which is not recognized in BIOS, disconnected? The delay in your boot time may be the BIOS trying unsuccessfully to read the unknown device, before moving on.

 

[John Rivs]

Is your Samsung 960 EVO set first in the boot order?

As I mentioned, my boot drive is the 960 EVO. I do boot into Windows, but during POST it takes way too long.

How long is way too long? Do you have Fast Boot enabled in the BIOS?

It used to take seconds, now it takes more than 1 minute. I want to emphasize that all of this started suddenly after my second BSOD without me making any changes. I didn't even change the defaults around booting back when I built the system.

Have you tried booting with the 850 Pro, which is not recognized in BIOS, disconnected? The delay in your boot time may be the BIOS trying unsuccessfully to read the unknown device, before moving on.

There you go. Disconnected the SATA cable and I'm down to the overall 15s to Windows desktop.

It's interesting though. Both Windows and Overwatch are in my boot drive. Did the second BSOD cause the 850 Pro to, I don't know, not "close" correctly? And now it's in some sort of stuck state? I don't mind formatting the drive but do you happen to know a way to "reset" the drive somehow?

EDIT: something I just noticed. When I open Disk Management and right click on the 850 Pro, the events tab in the properties windows shows this

Notice the time. The second BSOD happened on Apr 18 at 17:43:52. It won't let me initilize it, so I can't even format it.

 

[John Rivs]

I'm continuing in this thread: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3690926/disk-initialized.html