Suddenly long POST times?

[Trik'Stari]

So, the last two days, my computer has had trouble starting up in the morning. I hit the power button, and for a bit my monitors act like there is no input and nothing happens, I turn my monitors off and back on again, and suddenly it detects an input.

 

Even still, I am getting abnormally long post times, and even past this, windows 7 seems to take a bit longer than usual to boot up. At first I thought it might be my SSD being almost full, with only 7.84gb available out of 119. However I am worried it could be something else.

 

Ideas on what I should check? I've already checked my cables, they seem fine. The system as a whole has gone from less than a minute from power to log in screen, to almost two minutes to start up.

[Volbet]

Is TRIM enabled on the machine? It should be on by default, but it's worth checking: http://lifehacker.com/5640971/check-if-trim-is-enabled-for-your-solid-state-drive-in-windows-7

The screen problem seem a bit strange, so I'll have to give it a bit of thought.

[Trik'Stari]

Is TRIM enabled on the machine? It should be on by default, but it's worth checking: http://lifehacker.com/5640971/check-if-trim-is-enabled-for-your-solid-state-drive-in-windows-7

The screen problem seem a bit strange, so I'll have to give it a bit of thought.

Yes TRIM is enabled. I have Samsung Magician installed, set to maximum performance. According to it, my drive is still healthy. I have only one game installed on it as far as I can tell. I don't really want to have to re-install SWTOR to my HDD though. Takes forever.

[Volbet]

Yes TRIM is enabled. I have Samsung Magician installed, set to maximum performance. According to it, my drive is still healthy. I have only one game installed on it as far as I can tell. I don't really want to have to re-install SWTOR to my HDD though. Takes forever.

Hmm, I have given the screen problem a bit of thought, and I can't really put my finger on it. 

It might be a problem with starting your graphics card up. Reseating the graphics cars might solve this. This would also lead to a longer boot time. 

 

Did you install any programs around the time you began experiencing slow downs?

[Trik'Stari]

Check Disk to check your boot drive for error, and Memory Diagnostics.

 

CMD> sfc /scannow

 

Also check your startup entries and task scheduler for suspicious things.

Will do.

 

Hmm, I have given the screen problem a bit of thought, and I can't really put my finger on it. 

It might be a problem with starting your graphics card up. Reseating the graphics cars might solve this. This would also lead to a longer boot time. 

 

Did you install any programs around the time you began experiencing slow downs?

Not that I can think of. Although I did recently have to carry my PC outside in order to dust it in preparation for installing 2 new RAM sticks. I replace a pair of 1600 ADATA with 1866 HyperX fury's. Now I have 4 sticks of 1866 running at 1866. Previously my ram was running at 1600. Although this did not seem to have any noticeable effect on the system as a whole.

 

I have noticed one thing, when I first start up some kind of windows or microsoft "file uploader" or something is running in my system tray (lower right hand corner) which disappears eventually.

[Volbet]

Will do.

 

Not that I can think of. Although I did recently have to carry my PC outside in order to dust it in preparation for installing 2 new RAM sticks. I replace a pair of 1600 ADATA with 1866 HyperX fury's. Now I have 4 sticks of 1866 running at 1866. Previously my ram was running at 1600. Although this did not seem to have any noticeable effect on the system as a whole.

 

I have noticed one thing, when I first start up some kind of windows or microsoft "file uploader" or something is running in my system tray (lower right hand corner) which disappears eventually.

Is it Office File Upload Center? If yes, that is a normal part of the Office 2013 suite (and possibly Windows 8.1).

 

The RAM swap shouldn't have an impact on startup time, unless you increased the capacity aswell.

I would recommend giving reseating the graphics card a go, since it can't hurt.

[Trik'Stari]

Hmm, I have given the screen problem a bit of thought, and I can't really put my finger on it. 

It might be a problem with starting your graphics card up. Reseating the graphics cars might solve this. This would also lead to a longer boot time. 

 

Did you install any programs around the time you began experiencing slow downs?

Check Disk to check your boot drive for error, and Memory Diagnostics.

 

CMD> sfc /scannow

 

Also check your startup entries and task scheduler for suspicious things.

Reseated the GPU, and ran check disk. No errors found. Reseating the GPU seems to have done nothing. Had to turn my monitor off and back on twice to get it to realize there was some kind of input. I guess I'll try changing the input cable over to the other DVI slot.

 

POST process hangs at BIOS entry screen, was unable to enter the bios even while spamming delete, waiting at the hung screen it goes to a black screen after that, with a horizontal blinking white cursor at the upper left hand corner, which sits for a few moments before loading into the windows startup animation, and halfway through that it jumps to the login screen.

 

Is it Office File Upload Center? If yes, that is a normal part of the Office 2013 suite (and possibly Windows 8.1).

 

The RAM swap shouldn't have an impact on startup time, unless you increased the capacity aswell.

I would recommend giving reseating the graphics card a go, since it can't hurt.

Yeah it is that one. Also the RAM capacity is the same as it was, just faster speed.

 

 

God I do not feel like having to reinstall my OS.

[Volbet]

Reseated the GPU, and ran check disk. No errors found. Reseating the GPU seems to have done nothing. Had to turn my monitor off and back on twice to get it to realize there was some kind of input. I guess I'll try changing the input cable over to the other DVI slot.

 

POST process hangs at BIOS entry screen, was unable to enter the bios even while spamming delete, waiting at the hung screen it goes to a black screen after that, with a horizontal blinking white cursor at the upper left hand corner, which sits for a few moments before loading into the windows startup animation, and halfway through that it jumps to the login screen.

 

Yeah it is that one. Also the RAM capacity is the same as it was, just faster speed.

 

 

God I do not feel like having to reinstall my OS.

That is strange indeed. Did you remove the motherboard battery, when you cleaned out the PC? 

The BIOS might have been reset, and you need to set the post time to 1 or 0. This might be why it hangs on the BIOS splash screen.

Is the RAM set to 1866MHz manually or via the XMP? If it's the XMP, you should try dialing in the values manually. Sometime the XMP can be a bit buggy.

[Trik'Stari]

That is strange indeed. Did you remove the motherboard battery, when you cleaned out the PC? 

The BIOS might have been reset, and you need to set the post time to 1 or 0. This might be why it hangs on the BIOS splash screen.

Is the RAM set to 1866MHz manually or via the XMP? If it's the XMP, you should try dialing in the values manually. Sometime the XMP can be a bit buggy.

I didn't reset the CMOS when I cleaned it out.

 

If all fails, switch back to original RAM and reset cmos.

Difficult to do since that RAM is now in a computer that is in use lol.

 

 

I am not having any problems with the computer when it's actually running, I am just worried that something is going bad, and one of these mornings I will wake up and my computer won't start at all.

[Trik'Stari]

I removed my GTX 970, and reset the CMOS battery.

 

My ram is set by the ram module itself, not XMP (HyperX Fury have a autodetect module in them that sets the speeds and timing for you).

 

Upon clearing the CMOS and removing my 970, I started up with my DVI cable plugged into my motherboard output, no problems at all.

 

So great, my GPU is being finnicky. Going to reinstall it now and see if it does it again to determine whether or not it is the GPU or if I just needed to clear the CMOS. *fingers crossed*

[Trik'Stari]

That appears to have fixed it, booted up like normal, however I still do not get any input signal to my monitor until I am past the BIOS entry screen.

 

Am now seriously considering RMA'ing my GPU. Which is not something I want to have to do.