Bizarre boot & lock screen behavior driving me crazy! Help

mdrsc77

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This regards an HP ENVY Sleekbook 6-1129WM, windows 8.1, brand new, that I received last week. When I turn the machine on the HP logo appears and then the computer just sits there indefinitely, unless I press a key. Following a key press the normal spinning white dots appear and the machine begins booting. The lock screen appears for an instant, then immediately flies away revealing the logon screen. I can login normally and nothing else seems out of the ordinary. I've been wrestling with this issue on and off for 6 or 7 days now and I'm really at my wits end.

The history is as follows:
I get the new machine up and running and start updating windows 8

When windows 8 is up to date I upgrade to 8.1, at this point I save a system image

I install some customization programs- winaero, blackglass, a utility that removes shortcut arrows, change some icons, my lockscreen etc; I'm also installing updates for windows 8.1

At some point I notice that during a restart the screen froze at the HP logo, I tap space bar, the boot process then starts and the lockscreen issue appears. Everytime I restart this happens.

I figure the custom programs screwed something up, but no problem that's why I made a fresh image of the clean system.

Restoring the image doesn't change the boot issue or the lockscreen. This kind of freaks me out, I do a factory reset. Problem still there. WTF could be broken that the factory restore doesn't fix?

I start messing around in the UEFI and BIOS settings, run some diagnostics, try startup repair, try safemode. The only result I get is when I boot in legacy mode, I don't get stuck at the logo screen- the white dots start circling without a keypress - but the lockscreen still flashes past without stopping.

I restore all the UEFI/BIOS defaults and the computer suddenly starts booting normally stopping at the lockscreen like it should. I don't know what fixed it, but whatever, I figure now that it's fixed I'll update 8 and upgrade to 8.1 all over again and this time not mess around with the customization stuff.

I get 8.1 installed, run the first set of 8.1 updates and the restart hangs on the logo, on keypress it boots, flashes the lockscreen past and lands me at my login. This time I hadn't install anything except firefox and windows updates.

I tried enabling and disabling legacy boot to fix it like before but it didn't work this time. I uninstalled the 8.1 updates, but the problem persists, and I don't think all the updates were uninstallable/removed. I'm really going crazy here, what the hell is going on with this machine?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP ENVY 6-1129WM
    CPU
    A8-4555M 1.7GHz
    Memory
    4GB
    Browser
    firefox
    Antivirus
    MSE, win defender
I'm surprised the computer booted in Legacy BIOS mode, as the UEFI BIOS uses the GUID Partition Table "GPT" instead of Master Boot Record "MBR". The MBR has only one System Reserved Partition as GPT having 3 partitions on the hard drive.

Sounds like a driver issue, or a bad Windows installation. You've done a restore, and you get the same result. 2 things come to my mind.

1. Bad Windows Installation Media from HP. Believe me, a lot of times a prebuilt system with OEM software will sometimes be bad. I had an Acer laptop with Windows 7 and the Audio didn't work. Tried reinstalling drivers, did everything, couldn't get it to work. I ended up wiping all the preinstalled media, installed my retail copy of Windows 7 Pro, and the Audio worked. Bad preinstalled media for sure. Bad media can cause issues with drivers.

2. Faulty Hardware. Could have a key sticking on your keyboard causing the lock screen to unlock quickly, or could be a problem with hard drive, memory, or motherboard, if you get random freeze ups after updates are installed.

Those are a few possible causes.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 ghz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5K PRO
    Memory
    2 GB DDR2
    Graphics Card(s)
    PNY NVIDIA Geforce GT 630
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
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