View Processes on Boot Up?

[Jon York]

Does anyone know if there's some software you can install on your computer (Windows 10) that would display or log what's going on while your computer is booting up?

I've had my computer about a year and for the first 6 months or so it took it just 30 seconds to boot. Then, suddenly one day it took 2 minutes. It has remained consistent at almost exactly 2 minutes ever since. The computer runs fine after it boots - and I haven't noticed any difference in service at all.

I'm suspecting it's something Microsoft changed in one of their Windows updates. But if I set it to use Windows fast boot - or turn that off - there's no change.

I'd love to see what in the world is going on during the boot up that's causing it to take 4 times longer than it used to. Is there any way to do that?

-------------------------------------------------------
Dell Alienware Aurora R5 (Desktop)
Boot Drive: 256 GB Samsung SSD
Intel Core i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz 4.01 GHz
RAM: 32 GB 2133 MHz
Windows 10

 

[Colif]

Is it slow before or after the logon screen?

Have you run dell update program to confirm you have latest drivers?

Fast startup in win 10 wouldn't make any difference on an ssd anyway as its really only there for people with slow hdd, it makes them faster to start but SSD should be fast enough already.

the answer here shows how to see what is being loaded at boot - https://superuser.com/questions/1006850/how-to-boot-in-verbose-boot-for-windows-10

 

[Jon York]

Hey, thanks for your response. I did just now use the dell update program and now I have the latest drivers. But, no change.

I checked out your link on the verbose output for bootup. That is exactly what I need. But, it didn't work.

But I did learn through that that there's a boot log, ntbtlog.txt. Didn't see anything that looked unusual there. A few drivers that didn't load. But other than that it looked pretty normal.

I was hoping to find a time-consuming process like chkdsk or virus check or something.

 

[Colif]

what drivers didn't load? might help?

is it slow before or after the login process? it can make a difference, have you tried starting PC without any extra USB devices attached? Only mouse/keyboard attached.

Have you run Samsung Magician on drive and checked it out? https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/magician/ perhaps check you have latest firmware

 

[Jon York]

Sorry you did ask me that before and I didn't answer. It's slow before login. After login it runs exactly as it always has.

No, I haven't tried starting it with all the USB devices unplugged. I'll give that a try tomorrow... along with Samsung Magician.

Thanks so much for the help and I'll let you know what happens!

 

[Colif]

what anti virus program are you using?

see if any of these help - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4002019/windows-10-improve-pc-performance

or this - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/slow-windows-performance/e721a98e-4a0c-48ee-bc5b-6ab47c4a6d17

 

[Jon York]

what anti virus program are you using?

I use Avast.

 

[Colif]

This might be on one of the pages I already linked, but try doing a clean boot and see if it makes any difference - read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any Microsoft services - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

Will tell us if its a start up program causing it. If it fixes the problem, slowly add all the services you stopped and any startup programs, over a number of restarts, so we can identify the cause.

How much free space on ssd?

 

[Jon York]

Colif, I just wanted to thank you so much for your help! And one of your suggestions actually helped me discover the solution. It was the last link you provided to Microsoft support where they suggested turning off all unnecessary services.

Well, I didn't do exactly as they said, but they put me on the right path.

I simply went into system Services through System Configuration and I changed it from "Normal startup" to "Selective Startup" with the first two choices selected, Load system services and Load startup items.

And just to make sure my solution is clear - for anyone else who might be helped by it:

• 
  Click on Start and type "System Configuration".
  Click on System Configuration
  Click on the General tab
  Select: "Selective startup"
  And check the first two items under that, "Load system services" and "Load startup items".

And that did the trick! I was very happy and really amazed because I thought that was just going to be my first step and that I probably would have to do a hundred restarts to figure out the culprit. But that did it. My system boot up time is back down to exactly 30 seconds just as it was in the beginning.

So thank you so much for your help - I do really appreciate it!

 

[Jon York]

Arrgh... the problem started back up again a couple of days ago. I made no changes to the computer and suddenly the bootup time went from 30 seconds back to 2 minutes.

I went in and disabled all non-microsoft services on boot up and I disabled all start items. So that no service or programs would have to be started up. I even deleted my anti-virus software, Avast, so I could completely remove their services as well.

And with all that turned off - it still took exactly - 2 minutes to boot up!

I just don't understand what's going on. And I don't understand why Microsoft has made it impossible to *see* what's going on.

 

[Colif]

have you tried booting into safe mode to see if its still slow to boot into there. JUst to see if its drivers or something. If you got no new windows updates in that time and still have PC set up as selective startup, it has to be a driver or some hardware cauing this

go to settings/update & security/recovery
under advanced startup, click restart now button
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose start up options
hit the restart button
choose a safe mode (it doesn't matter which) by using number associated with it.
Pc will restart and load safe mode

is boot fast or slow or same?

 

[Jon York]

I appreciate your help very much. In the end though, I'm convinced there is no solution to this. MS does what it wants to do when it comes to this and apparently we have no control over it whatsoever.

I did try your suggestions above and none of them worked. At one point I even disabled so much stuff on startup that I ran into a big problem after it booted up. I couldn't click on anything! And the keyboard had limited functionality! But with the keyboard I was able to get into the User Account area and change my secondary user account to an Administrator. Then I was able to login to that account and everything was working perfectly there! Through the admin on that account I was (somehow) able to fix everything so the computer would at least work normally. It was a close call though!

Anyway, I received a Windows update a few days ago and for 2-3 days after that it went back to the fast bootup! And it was even faster than before (22 seconds vs. 30 seconds). I was so excited but on the next day when I went to bootup - it had gone back to the slow bootup - and this time slower than before. 2 minutes 25 seconds vs. 2 minutes previously!

So, I give up. It's too much trouble to try to figure it out when in the end this isn't a critical problem. More a luxury to have than something I have to have.

I just wish MS would at least let us SEE exactly what's going on during bootup like in the old days. I'd just really like to know what's processing for those extra 2 minutes.