Prolonged Startup - Several errors/warnings in log.

Hi All,

For some time now my system has had a peculiar problem on startup in which the startup to the login screen is prolonged. Rather than the bios/motherboard logo screen followed by the ticking underscore screen. There will be two extra black screen with the ticking underscore as if its searching for something. (Apologies for lack of terminology).

I've rebooted the system several times pulling out each peripheral, but to no avail. The errors in the log are also not consistent to what I can see as an error.

Here are some errors that stand out to me;

____________________________________________________
The system has returned from a low power state.


Sleep Time: ‎2015‎-‎07‎-‎04T10:03:27.636342000Z
Wake Time: ‎2015‎-‎07‎-‎04T10:03:59.033341300Z


Wake Source: Unknown
_________________________________________________________
The previous system shutdown at 10:57:53 on ‎04/‎07/‎2015 was unexpected.
_________________________________________________________
Windows failed fast startup with error status 0xC00000D4.
_________________________________________________________
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
_________________________________________________________
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) did not load:
dam
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The system is entering sleep.
________________________________
Sleep Reason: Application API


Now these errors/warning and such appear on the log, but are not consistent in every reboot.

I can supply more information or post more logs if needed.

Thanks for the help.

Hold on... Your last full shutdown was in APRIL? That must be why! All computers need to be shutdown at least once every few days. Hopefully when you go to bed. If you do, that is. Are you able to even boot the PC?

If you have another PC, take out the hard drive in the unbootable one and put it into an external case. Then plug it in and see if it is accessible

I live in the UK, so you need to swap the month and day around

Go to this link:

http://tinyurl.com/BootableWindows8

If you think it's a bad link, have a preview for proof:

TinyURL.com - shorten that long URL into a tiny URL

How To Create a Bootable USB Disk For Windows 8.1 - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki

That's the link the tinyurl redirects too.

I can boot up the pc ok, and it works perfectly fine once its running, its just I want to find out why the boot procedure is having this apparent loop, and producing some errors.

Okay so I would like you to type these commands into an elevated command prompt.

Hit the windows key and the C key at the same time. This should open up the charms menu.

Click the search button.

Type in CMD

Right click command prompt and click run as administrator.

Now type in the following:

Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup&sfc/scannow&Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth&sfc/scannow&pause

After that, tell me what it says for further analysis.

Also do this:

Right click the start menu button (Bottom left (default location) Windows 8.1 Logo) and click Control Panel.

Under system and Security, click "Review your computer's status" (without the quotation marks)

Next, click the bottom arrow to the right of the word "Maintenance"

In the drop down menu, click "Check for solutions" and then click "Start Maintenance" (Both without quotation marks)

Tell me your results afterwards.