Solved USB sticks and possible effects on startup/shutdown times

Bkshiroma

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I've been noticing some bizarre behavior on startup times and shutdown times, and I'm wondering if there can be any connection with USB sticks.

I haven't done extensive experiments, but a few observations.

1. I noticed that restarts were very slow (3-10 minutes), but that booting up after turning the computer off was very fast (Perhaps 15 seconds).

2. I tried taking out two of my USB sticks on restarts, and it did speed things up marginally, but then my computer started going berserk. It would take 5-10 minutes to shut down and then 5-10 minutes to start up. I even had a couple crashes on startup.

3. I later put back in the USB sticks and startup is now back to normal.

So my question is, is this coincidence? Or is there a possible connection?

Also, I just noticed that since I had my USB sticks have a FAT32 format. Would that have any negative effect when running on Windows 8?

Additional info. I just use the sticks for holding data, and not for booting up anything.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Format them to NTFS & see what happens.
You can reformat them if problems arise.

About Fat 32 & NTFS:

[FONT=open_sansregular]FAT32 file size support tops out at 4GB and volume size tops out at 2TB. This means that you're limited to 2TB FAT32 partitions if you want to use a 4TB drive. It also means that you are limited to 4GB files. This is a concern with uncompressed high-definition movie files, where 30GB files are not unheard of. Theoretically, NTFS is limited by design to 16EB (Exabytes). One Exabyte is the equivalent of one billion Gigabytes, so we're quite a ways away from maxing out NTFS. In practice, 2 to 4TB volumes are the limit at this time. Larger volumes will require a 64-bit OS and compatible hardware.[/FONT]

Edit-- I made a Macrium image of all my local drives on a fat 32 usb & it got split up into 4GB sized files.
I made an image with an NTFS formatted usb & it made one big file.

A picture:

screenshot_8.jpeg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
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    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
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    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
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    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
The only trouble I have is with a USB 3 stick if it is in when I (re)boot, it tells me no operating system found press Ctrl, Alt, Del, to restart. Take it out system starts as normal.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home build
    CPU
    i5-3550
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H
    Memory
    8gb Gskill 1600 9-9-9-24 xmp
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 760 OC
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    onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ GL2760H 27inch hdmi; LG Flatron E2351 23inch dvi
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1x Samsung Evo 850 120GB
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    1x 4TB Seagate HDD
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    1x 2TB Seagate HDD
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    PSU
    Coolermaster V750
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    Coolermaster HAF Advanced
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    Standard
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    Logitech K120
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    Razor Abyssus USB
    Internet Speed
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    Avast Premier & Malwarebytes
Do you have BIOS set to boot from USB? Or do you have Windows to go set to Yes? In either case it will try to boot from USB. Just a thought.
 

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My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
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    Laptop
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    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
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    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
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    Apple
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    Varies
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    Various
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Only happens with the USB 3 stick, not any others. Don't know about the auto boot from windows to go, will check tomorrow.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home build
    CPU
    i5-3550
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H
    Memory
    8gb Gskill 1600 9-9-9-24 xmp
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 760 OC
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ GL2760H 27inch hdmi; LG Flatron E2351 23inch dvi
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1x Samsung Evo 850 120GB
    1x 4TB WD HDD
    1x 4TB Seagate HDD
    1x 3TB WD HDD
    1x 2TB Seagate HDD
    1x 2TB Seagate External HDD
    1x 1TB Seagate External HDD
    PSU
    Coolermaster V750
    Case
    Coolermaster HAF Advanced
    Cooling
    Standard
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Razor Abyssus USB
    Internet Speed
    Broadband
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast Premier & Malwarebytes
Booting from USB is on the option list, but it's way down after the hard drive and the CD drive. Is it better to take it off?

Also, how can I check if the computer is set to Windows to go or not? I can't find that option.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Sometimes, if you plug in too many different USB devices (over time), it can cause issues where newer devices are not detected properly but I never experienced your exact issue unless you somehow had a bootable USB inserted at one time and now you have a non-bootable usb inserted that may be causing a device profile conflict of sorts. With that said, you might want to "clean out" all of your old USB profiles and see if that helps:

Go to your device manager and select "show hidden devices" under view. Once done, you'll probably see a ton of old USB profiles that are greyed-out. If so, delete all of those greyed-out profiles and they should appear in 3 different places. Disk Drives, Portable Devices, and USB Controllers. Again, anything that is greyed-out is OK to delete. They will be newly discovered upon the next insertion. This is quite a long-shot suggestion but I've seen this procedure cure many ills before.

Screenshot (927).png

Good luck,

my2cents
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
Booting from USB is on the option list, but it's way down after the hard drive and the CD drive. Is it better to take it off?
No need - that is fine.
Also, how can I check if the computer is set to Windows to go or not? I can't find that option.
go to start screen and type "windows to go". Probably My2Cents idea is better but it is worth checking :)

EDIT - you'll only have this option if you have Pro version I think.
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
Thanks, I do have the Pro version. By the way, on a related topic, is there anything I should check on why restarts are so slow. It really shouldn't take 3-10 minutes should it?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
It really shouldn't take 3-10 minutes should it?

No it should not! And because you mentioned USB when discussing your boot time, that's why I suggested that far-fetched try at cleaning out your old device manager profiles. I now remember I had a corrupted USB profile and it added about 20 seconds to my boot time until I got rid of it. Again, my suggestion is far-fetched but easy to try.

The next step would be to check your Event logs for failed or errored startup entires. As you are probably aware, each time you boot, windows generates a series of informationals, warnings, and errors encountered so there may be some failure in there that might point to something that is significantly delaying your boot. For your reference, here are what my event logs look like (right after boot):

Screenshot (928).png

Note: I used this utility to clear out my old logs before rebooting so you could see only the last boot attempt (works on Win 8 too):

Event Viewer One Click Clear - Windows 7 Help Forums

So, check out your event viewer and see what is being reported. Note that my boot time takes about 7-10 seconds (visual) from power on to desktop. You can also check your boot time as recorded here (includes processing of background processes after desktop appears). My total boot time, including all background processing is about 25 seconds:

Screenshot (929).png

This should keep you busy for a bit. Let us know how you make out.

my2cents
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
more boot problems

Windows started normally for me this morning and shutdown normally, but apparently, though no changes were made with the USBs, my wife had problems starting up.

Basically, what's happening is we get the opening screen for Windows, and then a black screen.

My guess is she was impatient and did a hard shutdown, but I'm noticing that generally that it takes anywhere between 2-10 minutes and then it will start up "normally."

It took less than five I think to get it running after I came home.

I'm including some logs, which include the event notices. There were some warnings and other such things, but I really don't know what they mean. If you have any insight, I'd appreciate it. There are also a couple of dump files included from a couple days ago when my computer crashed while trying to boot up.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Forgot to include the files

Here they are.
 

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My Computer

System One

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    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I checked Windows to Go, it was all off.

A question on the greyed out devices. Can I delete all of them, or only the USB-related ones? I noticed my hard disk drive listed twice, for example, with one greyed out. Also a bunch of Microsoft streaming stuff under sound, video, and game controllers.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Here they are.

Unfortunately, you gave me tons of logs and it would take hours for me to go through them manually. Clean out all your old logs with that utility, reboot, and capture only those new logs. I started to go through them and I noticed two attempts to rebuild the Windows search index and they were finally successful about 1 minute later. Again, there are just too many logs.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
Sorry about that.

I wasn't sure how to clear out the logs, so I just deleted everything except stuff from yesterday and in one of the logs, a little from the day before.

Should be more manageable, I hope.

Thanks.

By the way, does anyone know what a little black clock that appears in the white flag notification area is? Whenever it appears and I can get it to show anything, it says scheduled scan, but whenever I see it, my computer seems to freeze for a few minutes.
 

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System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I wasn't sure how to clear out the logs, so I just deleted everything except stuff from yesterday and in one of the logs, a little from the day before.

I explained how to do that in a previous post using the Event Viewer One Click Clear Utility. Anyway, I'll have a look and respond when I can. In fact, why don't you try downloading that utility, then reboot, and you will only have the logs present that are specific to that last boot. I'm trying to make this as easy as possible (on both of us).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
Yet again for ~5th time, something new and very funky on the machine each new time I look:

Code:
0: kd> lmvm snpstd3
start             end                 module name
fffff880`0644d000 fffff880`06e59200   [B]snpstd3[/B]    (deferred)             
    Image path: snpstd3.sys
    Image name: [B]snpstd3.sys[/B]
    Timestamp:        Mon Nov 19 06:05:52 [B]2007 [/B](47416E10)
    CheckSum:         00A14924
    ImageSize:        00A0C200
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Code:
INTERNAL_POWER_ERROR (a0)
The power policy manager experienced a fatal error.
Arguments:
Arg1: 000000000000010a, The disk subsystem failed to properly read or write part of the hibernation
    file.
Arg2: 000000000000000a
Arg3: fffffa800aefbda0, POP_HIBER_CONTEXT
Arg4: ffffffffc0000001, NTSTATUS failure code
 

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
MasterChef seems to have this under control so please work with him directly to solve your issue.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
MasterChef seems to have this under control so please work with him directly to solve your issue.

lol Just showing what they problem is. That's all. :)
 

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
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