CaptainCrewe
New Member


- Messages
- 3
- Location
- London, UK
Hi
My question is about how to determine where in the boot process things are going wrong. If I boot from a full shut down, I typically see the four blue window panes on a black background. I want to see the rotating progress indicator below, and if that doesn't show within 10 seconds or so, I know the boot will stall. So I restart, usually twice, stalling at the same point. Then I get the statement 'Preparing Automatic Repair'. But again, the rotating progress indicator won't show. So on the next attempt I press F8 as the machine starts. I get to choose the top option (Windows Boot Manager (P1: Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB)) from the resulting screen and away we go - the system boots up and works fine.
The PC is a month old with the following specs. Temperatures are good and there's lots of free space on each drive.
[FONT="]Computer type: PC/Desktop[/FONT]
[FONT="]SystemManufacturer/Model Number: Scan 3XS Custom[/FONT]
[FONT="]OS: Windows 8.1 Pro x64[/FONT]
[FONT="]CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K[/FONT]
[FONT="]Motherboard: ASUS X99-A[/FONT]
[FONT="]Memory: Corsair DDR4 16GB[/FONT]
[FONT="]Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970[/FONT]
[FONT="]Sound Card: Realtek on-board[/FONT]
[FONT="]Hard Drives:[/FONT]
[FONT="] Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB (OS)[/FONT]
[FONT="] Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA 2TB (Software installs)[/FONT]
[FONT="] Western Digital WD20EZRX-22D8PB0 SATA 2TB (Documents)[/FONT]
[FONT="]PSU: Corsair RM750[/FONT]
[FONT="]Case: Corsair Carbide 330R[/FONT]
[FONT="]Cooling: Noctua NH-U14S[/FONT]
[FONT="]Browser: Chrome[/FONT]
[FONT="]Antivirus: Kaspersky KIS 2015
[/FONT]
I installed the OS myself using a DVD. It's been a while since I could do OS installs in my sleep, and I'm not up to date with the latest BIOS options and UEFI in particular. Anyway, I've disabled Fast Boot in the BIOS, tried fixing the MBR per https://neosmart.net/wiki/fix-mbr/#Fix_the_MBR_in_Windows_8_or_81, and added (per another forum post here) various boot options (Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode with Command Prompt).
[FONT="]
I've tried running sfc /scannow, which sometimes says problems were found and fixed; other times it finds problems but says they can't be fixed. Then I try dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth. This process can get me a clean boot once in a while, but not consistently.
Given that the boot stalls with the 4 window panes but no progress indicator, I wonder if the problem is likely to be with the BIOS settings and/or hardware, or whether it is actually Windows related. I've got Windows boot logging enabled, but the logs don't show me anything on a failed boot. Nor do the Windows event logs. It's as if Windows just starts to load but can't get past some initial barrier. Yet eventually it does, with the use of F8 seeming to send it down a more productive path.
There seems to be a low-level problem of some kind and any guidance on how to identify exactly where will be much appreciated. Once the system does boot, it works extremely well - some annoying event log warnings, but nothing major. I've spent some time getting all my software installed (development tools plus FSX) so I'm reluctant to wipe everything out with a fresh install.
With thanks and regards[/FONT]
My question is about how to determine where in the boot process things are going wrong. If I boot from a full shut down, I typically see the four blue window panes on a black background. I want to see the rotating progress indicator below, and if that doesn't show within 10 seconds or so, I know the boot will stall. So I restart, usually twice, stalling at the same point. Then I get the statement 'Preparing Automatic Repair'. But again, the rotating progress indicator won't show. So on the next attempt I press F8 as the machine starts. I get to choose the top option (Windows Boot Manager (P1: Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB)) from the resulting screen and away we go - the system boots up and works fine.
The PC is a month old with the following specs. Temperatures are good and there's lots of free space on each drive.
[FONT="]Computer type: PC/Desktop[/FONT]
[FONT="]SystemManufacturer/Model Number: Scan 3XS Custom[/FONT]
[FONT="]OS: Windows 8.1 Pro x64[/FONT]
[FONT="]CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K[/FONT]
[FONT="]Motherboard: ASUS X99-A[/FONT]
[FONT="]Memory: Corsair DDR4 16GB[/FONT]
[FONT="]Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970[/FONT]
[FONT="]Sound Card: Realtek on-board[/FONT]
[FONT="]Hard Drives:[/FONT]
[FONT="] Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB (OS)[/FONT]
[FONT="] Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA 2TB (Software installs)[/FONT]
[FONT="] Western Digital WD20EZRX-22D8PB0 SATA 2TB (Documents)[/FONT]
[FONT="]PSU: Corsair RM750[/FONT]
[FONT="]Case: Corsair Carbide 330R[/FONT]
[FONT="]Cooling: Noctua NH-U14S[/FONT]
[FONT="]Browser: Chrome[/FONT]
[FONT="]Antivirus: Kaspersky KIS 2015
[/FONT]
I installed the OS myself using a DVD. It's been a while since I could do OS installs in my sleep, and I'm not up to date with the latest BIOS options and UEFI in particular. Anyway, I've disabled Fast Boot in the BIOS, tried fixing the MBR per https://neosmart.net/wiki/fix-mbr/#Fix_the_MBR_in_Windows_8_or_81, and added (per another forum post here) various boot options (Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode with Command Prompt).
[FONT="]
I've tried running sfc /scannow, which sometimes says problems were found and fixed; other times it finds problems but says they can't be fixed. Then I try dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth. This process can get me a clean boot once in a while, but not consistently.
Given that the boot stalls with the 4 window panes but no progress indicator, I wonder if the problem is likely to be with the BIOS settings and/or hardware, or whether it is actually Windows related. I've got Windows boot logging enabled, but the logs don't show me anything on a failed boot. Nor do the Windows event logs. It's as if Windows just starts to load but can't get past some initial barrier. Yet eventually it does, with the use of F8 seeming to send it down a more productive path.
There seems to be a low-level problem of some kind and any guidance on how to identify exactly where will be much appreciated. Once the system does boot, it works extremely well - some annoying event log warnings, but nothing major. I've spent some time getting all my software installed (development tools plus FSX) so I'm reluctant to wipe everything out with a fresh install.
With thanks and regards[/FONT]