8.1 slow startup solved!!! (but what's the explanation?)

CritterCreek

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Windows 8.1 startup was taking 90 seconds. I disabled everything I could on the startup tab with no improvement. Under "View reliability history" in the Action Center found that every day there was a report of an improper shutdown.

I had set the power option to shut down the laptop with the power button and that's what I was doing. I experimented with shutting down through the start menu and also closing the cover (after setting the power option to shut down by closing the cover). ***In both cases the startup time dropped to 15 seconds! WOW!

I did notice that when I applied those two solutions, the shutdown time increased from 4 seconds to 15 or 20 seconds, but that's not a problem for me.

QUESTION: Why would shutting down with the power button cause an "improper shutdown" and longer startup?

I read about slow startup in dozens of forums---it looks like an awful lot of people have this problem. I didn't see any reference to my specific solution anywhere. Try it and let me know if it works for you!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Shutting down with the Power button itself is a 'cold shutdown', in the Charms/Power menu it's a hiber or hybrid shutdown...

... (I had a cool link that explained shutdowns in detail, when I find it, I'll post it!)
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion
  • PC2
    Tablet - Windows 10 Home
Shutting down with the Power button itself is a 'cold shutdown', in the Charms/Power menu it's a hiber or hybrid shutdown...

... (I had a cool link that explained shutdowns in detail, when I find it, I'll post it!)

It looks like you're right, but how come this isn't explained anywhere in the power options??? This is such a big headache for so many people. The solution is simple, but it took me three weeks to find it! There are other solutions that do the same thing, but closing the lid to shut down is the simplest. The power options should explain that "shut down" means something different for the power button, closing the lid, or using the start menu.


. . . but this doesn't yet explain why shutting down with the power button triggers an "improper shutdown" report.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
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    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
QUESTION: Why would shutting down with the power button cause an "improper shutdown" and longer startup?

Probably something that Brink has shown. Another idea is antivirus. Just an idea. I dunno.

You have Norton or McAfee or something like that?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7601.18247.x86fre.win7sp1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self-built Intel based
    CPU
    Pentium D 925 3.0 GHz socket 775, Presler @ ~ 3.2 GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel DQ965MT
    Memory
    Hyundai 2 GB DDR2 @ 333 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS DirectCU II HD7790-DC2OC-2GD5 Radeon HD 7790 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5
    Sound Card
    MOTU Traveler firewire interface
    Hard Drives
    1 Seagate Barracuda SATA II system/boot drive 80 GB, 2 Western Digital hdds - 1 is SATA II Caviar Black 1 TB attached to card (assorted media, page, temp), other is SATA I 420 GB (games, media, downloads)
    PSU
    Thermaltake 450W
    Cooling
    stock Gateway cooling, extra large fan in rear of case
    Keyboard
    Alienware/Microsoft Internet kb
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    Optimum Online, fast for US
    Browser
    Pale Moon
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky integrated into ZoneAlarm+Antivirus
Hybrid shutdown is not really shutdown as it keeps system in the RAM, unless the point where battery is almost exhausted then it will save data on the disk. So waking up from RAM or hybrid mode should be very (and equal) fast and in this case 15s is pretty long time. While much faster than 90s it is still relatively slow.
First it seems that power off by presing power button does not work properly. This might be related to the fact that your windows setup does not support shutting down system by pressing button (different reasons for this, so no way to fix it except guessing). However you can partially diagnose it, if you can run windows complete shutdown from windows menu. If after confirming that system is indeed completely turned off you will start system, it should take less time than 90s. Explanation would be that after dirty shutdown (pressing power button), OS will need to clean fs first before starting GUI.
Second, if your system needs 15s to wake up from suspend/hybrid state, then you have either resident software (whatever that is) slowing down access to GUI or your system is misconfigured.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MSI
    CPU
    i7-4800MQ
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVidia GeForce GTX 770M
    Browser
    Enhanced Protected Mode IE/protected mode Firefox
    Antivirus
    nope
    Other Info
    OpenNIC/DNSCrypt/VPN/EMET
If you press and hold the power button down for 4 seconds or more, it will do a cold shutdown. If you just momentarily do a quick press of the Power button Windows will shutdown normally, just like it does from the Charms bar. That's how my two desktop PC's and laptop behave.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
If you press and hold the power button down for 4 seconds or more, it will do a cold shutdown. If you just momentarily do a quick press of the Power button Windows will shutdown normally, just like it does from the Charms bar. That's how my two desktop PC's and laptop behave.

I tested this. Results:

Restart after shutting down by quickly pressing power button: 30 seconds.

Restart after shutting down by closing cover: 15 seconds.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
If you press and hold the power button down for 4 seconds or more, it will do a cold shutdown. If you just momentarily do a quick press of the Power button Windows will shutdown normally, just like it does from the Charms bar. That's how my two desktop PC's and laptop behave.

I tested this. Results:

Restart after shutting down by quickly pressing power button: 30 seconds.

Restart after shutting down by closing cover: 15 seconds.

Sorry if I confused things. I just wanted to point out that shutting down with the power button isn't a bad thing if don right. The power supply just doesn't immediately turn off with Windows running in the background. The momentary press triggers Windows to shut down gracefully. If your PC had a BSOD or is locked up to where Windows won't shut down, then you hold the power button down for 4 seconds. That will force the power supply to just turn off regardless of what else is going on. I can't explain your different boot times. It sounds like your laptop isn't actually shutting down on a lid close, not a full shutdown anyway. If you want to eliminate the possibility of it going into a sleep or hibernate mode (as a test) you could disable hibernation from the command line.
Hibernate - Enable or Disable - Windows 7 Help Forums Once your done testing enable it again if you wish. Again, sorry if I confused things.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
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