Windows 8 stuck in Please Wait at boot

xalu

New Member
Messages
6
Hi,

I tried looking for a solution for this but can't find one. I have a custom built desktop running windows 8 that is getting stuck at "Please Wait" with the spinning circle just before login. It does this on and off. It wasn't doing it for a while then just started again. I tried cleaning the registry with CC cleaner and that seemed to help but it hasn't helped this time. After a very very long time (anywhere from 2-8 hours) the login screen will pop up and everything works like it's suppose to. The only recent change to my set up is that I installed a new SSD drive (upgraded from 64gb to 250gb). I cloned the drives with clonezilla. Any advise on how to find what the problem is?

Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
How are your drivers for MB and do you have AHCI turned on ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
How are your drivers for MB and do you have AHCI turned on ?

drivers should be good. I don't have any missing drivers for anything, and they should be up to date. I guess I'll try to go through and see if any drivers need updating. In case it's helpful my motherboard is an Asus P5QL Pro with an Intel Core 2 quad cpu (Q8200).

AHCI is turned off.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
It may have something to do with the SSD drive. If you have the original HDD, with the original OS still intact, you should try copying it again, use paragon Partition Manager if you can find an older version, sometimes on Amazon.

Also, if you bought a Samsung SSD, there are issues like this sometimes. Did you say you upgraded from one SSD to a larger SSD?

Which partition copy program did you use, there are not many free partition copy programs that create Bootable recovery disks- But the best copy is always done outside of Windows, from the recovery disk partition manager. Both Acronis (True Image) and Paragon can create these disks, but Acronis charges you for the ability to make it.

Also, on the original SSD or HDD, there will be a bunch of partitions, these have to be copied one at a time, and if you are transferring the OS partition to a larger drive, you have to leave it at the original size. Usually a recovery partition is at the end of any given HDD or SSD, and you can move it with the partition manager to the end of the drive, then you can extend the size of the OS volume.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
It may have something to do with the SSD drive. If you have the original HDD, with the original OS still intact, you should try copying it again, use paragon Partition Manager if you can find an older version, sometimes on Amazon.

The original SSD drive has already been reused for another computer.

Q:Also, if you bought a Samsung SSD, there are issues like this sometimes. Did you say you upgraded from one SSD to a larger SSD?

A:Yes I upgraded from 64gb to 256gb, not samsung...this one
Amazon.com: SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SDSSDHP-256G-FFP: Computers & Accessories

Q:Which partition copy program did you use, there are not many free partition copy programs that create Bootable recovery disks- But the best copy is always done outside of Windows, from the recovery disk partition manager. Both Acronis (True Image) and Paragon can create these disks, but Acronis charges you for the ability to make it.

A:In my original post I stated I used clonezilla. Obviously not while windows was mounted. This was done with a live "cd".


Q: Also, on the original SSD or HDD, there will be a bunch of partitions, these have to be copied one at a time, and if you are transferring the OS partition to a larger drive, you have to leave it at the original size. Usually a recovery partition is at the end of any given HDD or SSD, and you can move it with the partition manager to the end of the drive, then you can extend the size of the OS
volume.
A:Really not sure why you are assuming that my hard drive had multiple partitions. There was no restore partition. Yes, originally I created a partition that matched in size (64 gb or something similar) when I cloned from the small drive to the big one. Then once the system was running I resized the partition to fill in the rest of the free space on my new larger drive.
To be clear, the system does eventually work. It hangs on the "Please wait" message for 4-8 hours then the login screen will come up and I am able to use windows without any issues.

I am not sure when the issue with "Please Wait" started. It might have been a week or two after I installed the new drive. I believe I was trying to fix an error in windows update when the issue started. However, it's possible I am mistaken and the error started right after I installed the new drive. I have a feeling the issues started a couple weeks later, otherwise I would have tried doing a new copy instead of repurposing the 64gb hard drive, but I am not 100% sure.

The hard drive that I cloned (IE the smaller one), is now being used for another desktop computer. So there is no backup disk image to work from.

Again, This isn't a computer I bought, I built this system. There wasn't multiple partitions on the drive. I wouldn't do that since the drive was tiny. It was a 64gb SSD drive I pulled from my macbook air after I upgraded it. I started getting annoyed with the limited space and decided to upgrade to a larger SSD since the prices have come down.

Also, as a side note I resized the new windows SSD drive last night and created a partition for linux. I installed Ubuntu and that works fine. No issues.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
A:In my original post I stated I used clonezilla. Obviously not while windows was mounted. This was done with a live "cd".

A:Really not sure why you are assuming that my hard drive had multiple partitions.

1) OK, GOOD. that was the best way to do it, but Clonezilla may not have been a good program to use. Some Partition managers are pretty good, others have problems. Ie, "Partition Magic" - That was a really bad program - I do not know what they evolved into, but they are to be avoided. The one that has worked pretty flawlessly for me for years is Paragon Partition manager, but I use a very old Recovery CD- Because they discontinued that program and made something else. With too much extra stuff, I just need a simple partition manager. Acronis used to be good, when it was called Disk Director, but then again, they changed the software and now it is not as good as it once was.

2) Because all new OEM computers have them, and not being sure what category your machine was: Self Made or Bought from a Store and Branded, all Branded Laptops and PC have at least 4 partitions on one HD. I always assume, in these forums, they had multiple partitions, because this is usually the case.


If you only had the one partition and resized it, there should not have been any problems. But maybe something happened during the process, I wold do it again, because I HAVE had perfectly copied partitions - I thought - Do what you are experiencing now. But I copied them again with a different program, and then they worked.

The drive will fail loading at the Aperture Circle because it is hung up finding the folder with the Boot Manager in it, Maybe the original drive had the boot manager on a small 100 mb partition. I don't know but I have seen that- Left over from the 4 partitions I was referring to, when they removed their recovery partitions, the OS still needed the bootloader on the small partition. Removing the small partition was a sure way to brick the PC. And my Media PC is like that, even though it is 8, because I have Windows 7 installed on the original boot volume and the Windows 8 Boot GUI went onto THAT hard drive- So the system bots from the Windows 7 partition, even though I never use it, thats how Windows 8 set itself up.

You may or may not have and any of these or related issues when you first cloned the driver over, maybe the Original OS was on an HDD with the 4 partitions. I dont know but if the original Drive still has the OS on it, I'd just copy it again.

Also, a SanDisk drive, maybe it is just a glitch. I used to use a handful of SanDisk Flash Drives which all failed within months of purchase.

If they (SanDisk) have any SSD Drive scanning tools, I would use those to optimise the drive, or use what is in Windows 8 - Just set it on a daily Optimization routine, it may take 1 or 2 days, But it is acting like it is fragmented, so whatever you can do to clean it up, do that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
2) Because all new OEM computers have them, and not being sure what category your machine was: Self Made or Bought from a Store and Branded, all Branded Laptops and PC have at least 4 partitions on one HD. I always assume, in these forums, they had multiple partitions, because this is usually the case.



You may or may not have and any of these or related issues when you first cloned the driver over, maybe the Original OS was on an HDD with the 4 partitions. I dont know but if the original Drive still has the OS on it, I'd just copy it again.

Also, a SanDisk drive, maybe it is just a glitch. I used to use a handful of SanDisk Flash Drives which all failed within months of purchase.

If they (SanDisk) have any SSD Drive scanning tools, I would use those to optimize the drive, or use what is in Windows 8 - Just set it on a daily Optimization routine, it may take 1 or 2 days, But it is acting like it is fragmented, so whatever you can do to clean it up, do that.


Well I did mention in my original post it wasn't OEM since I said it was custom built desktop ;)


I appreciate the input unfortunately I can't redo the clone since the original is gone. Also, I don't think it's the drive since I am running Ubuntu without any issues at all. In fact its blazing fast.

I'll see if I can run some scans on the disk. Maybe I can run a repair on the OS. I really don't think there was a second partition unless windows 8 creates one by defualt. The original 64gb drive was blank when I loaded windows onto it.

BUT...the fact that windows loads eventually is what really throws me off. Because if it was in fact a missing boot manager or the issues related to some missing 100mb partition, I dont think it would eventually work.

Thinking about sticking with ubuntu as my main os with win8 as a virtual inside it. Possibly using the win install I have now and cloning it into the virtual space. Id have to sort the bugs first.


(Edited this post since I didn't see all yours when I viewed it in my email box)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I would turn AHCI on anyway, it's needed by Windows for Trim to work properly and without it SSD performance will degrade. Not sure if that Linux you are using has Trim at all or it is dependent on AHCI. Best thing would be to reinstall Win8 cleanly, who knows what else vent wrong with all those changes. You should be able to use your original license even if you download a new copy of W8 as it was not an OEM computer.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I would turn AHCI on anyway, it's needed by Windows for Trim to work properly and without it SSD performance will degrade. Not sure if that Linux you are using has Trim at all or it is dependent on AHCI. Best thing would be to reinstall Win8 cleanly, who knows what else vent wrong with all those changes. You should be able to use your original license even if you download a new copy of W8 as it was not an OEM computer.
Thanks Mike. You led me to research on SSD drives that I hadn't done before. As far as I understand AHCI definitely is optimal as it dramatically increases performance. However, TRIM does work without it...it just isn't as fast. At least this is what I took from the readings I've been doing. It's very interesting the difference between how the standard disk hard drives handle writing/erasing versus SSD. I'll have to look into how ubuntu is handling my drive and whether TRIM is enabled.


I am going to try turning on AHCI and see what happens.. Not sure if the operating systems I currently have installed will boot since it wasn't enabled at install so I might have to do a reinstall just for that.

I received my copy of windows from my school so I do have the key to reinstall it. That isn't an issue. I just prefer learning how to fix specific problems like this if it's at all possible. Rather than doing a reinstall I mean. However, that isn't looking good. I'll wait until later tonight and see if anyone else has seen this and found a solution. Also, I have a few things I'll try.

Thanks again..I'll update if I find any solutions.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Ah!!! he beat me to it, I just realised that last night right before I fell asleep.

I always set to AHCI in the bios when I build, forgot to consider it.

The thing that was bugging me is you said it would BOOT, and when those other issues I mention are affecting a system, it won't boot. I only have one system where I have to use IDE, because I boot from an IDE drive, SSD drives should all be AHCI.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
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