[SOLVED] Windows "randomly" spending WAY too long on Welcome screen. Pls help!

[uKER]

Hi everyone.

I had this PC for the longest time, and everything seemed fine until a couple months ago I started having this issue, which I hope you may be able to help me with.
The thing is, in what appears to be random fashion, Windows takes an unacceptably variable amount of time in the Welcome screen on each startup.

The usual time spent on this screen is some 6 seconds (2 full cycles of the twirling dots animation). Now, the thing is, if you constantly reboot the PC, without changing anything, the time spent on that screen will vary, apparently at random, between the usual 6 seconds it used to take, up to THIRTY seconds. This variation, needless to say, makes it an even bigger pain to troubleshoot.

Other than that startup delay, performance seems fine in every other scenario, even gaming, both in 3D performance and load times.

Setting HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\VerboseStatus to 1, the message that sticks there forever is "Preparing Windows".

Stuff I've tried:

• Reset of RAM to default 2133 MHz (normally running 3200)
• Resetting BIOS to defaults
• Reflashing BIOS to version prior to when the issue started
• Clean install of Windows
• Clean install of release channel build of Windows (I'm normally on Insider Fast) Latest release is build 1909, from Feb 2020.
• Installing Windows to either hard drive and NVMe SSD
• Creating a second Windows user
• Removing all unneeded peripherals
• Disabling SATA controller, leaving only NVMe storage
• Switching to Performance power profile
• SFC /scannow
• DISM repair
• Disabling Hibernation (and therefore Fast Start)
• Disabling everything in startup using Autoruns (while it does increase the chance of getting lower times, I don't consider the results to be conclusive at all)
• Currently I'm unable to test Safe mode since it GSODs in the Windows build I'm in but IIRC it improved load times a lot too, not sure if it would ever take longer than those intended 6 seconds

The PC:

• Ryzen 5 3600
• ASUS Prime B350 PLUS
• 2x8 GB G.Skill FlareX 3200
• AData 8200SX NVME 1 TB SSD
• 4 TB SATA 3.0 HDD
• RTX 2070
• Thermaltake TR2 600W PSU
• Windows 10 build 19577

Latest BIOS and drivers on everything.
No overclock other than RAM at 3200 using XMP.

I have dedicated more time to this issue than I'd like to admit and it's driving me insane.
The only thing I could think of right now would be swapping the mobo or PSU, but that's just a stupid desperation move, which would probably accomplish nothing.

I'll greatly appreciate if anyone could provide me with any pointers as to what could be going on here.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Colif]

Installing RTM (unless you mean current version and not 1509) isn't going to end well on a Ryzen gven 1509 is from 2015. Currently being on insider also won't help with driver reliability.

Have you tried starting up without any USB plugged in & no speakers, as that startup stage is when its looking for hardware so its possible something you plug into PC is cause. I have reinstalled win 10 2 times now trying to find problems just to find cause was a peripheral both times. Speakers & Mouse so far.

test would be, is it the same in a linux Live USB as then you would know if its windows or not.

 

[uKER]

Hi there.
Thanks for the reply.
When I mentioned installing a release version of Windows I meant one from the release channel, which is currently build 1909 (edited OP with clarification).
That one does the same thing.

 

[Colif]

Have you enabled boot logging? - https://winaero.com/blog/enable-boot-log-windows-10/

I am not sure if it has a timestamp as then you could see where it stalls. That might give a clue

 

[uKER]

Never mind. Found the culprit:
https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/03/08/microsoft-confirms-a-known-issue-in-windows-10-kb4535996/

Thanks for the replies.