PC extremely slow to start up, if at all

[Tungtvann]

When I first got my PC, it would be up and running from button press to windows in 30 seconds. Something happened over the last few weeks, and it would stall at the 'starting windows' graphic for another minute or 2 before finally getting to windows. A few times whilst loading up, it would crash and I'd have to reset it, initiating windows start up repair (or whatever it's called) to replace missing/damaged files. But this doesn't seem to solve the problem.

Once running, PC is fine and runs quick as you like. It's just getting it started that's the problem.

Any ideas of causes or things I can check to identify what may be screwing with it?

Thanks.

[The Artist]

You have provided no information about your PC at all other than it uses Windows which has narrowed it down to 2 decades of OS's.

[Tungtvann]

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT
2 TB Seagate (2000 GB) SATA-III HDD 7200 RPM 64MB
Asus P9X79 (Intel X79)
4x Blu-Ray Reader & 8x DVD-ROM - Black (SATA)
XFX 850W ProSeries PSU - Low Noise
Corsair Vengeance C70 Rugged Series (Military Green)
Gigabyte (M6800) Optical Gaming Mouse - (USB) - Black
AMD Radeon HD 7990 - 6 GB - (XFX) - (PCI-E)
16 GB 1600MHz (2x8GB) - (DDR3) - Limited Time Low Price
Arctic Alpine 20 PLUS CO Heatsink & Fan
Intel Core i7 4820K (4 x 3.7 GHZ)
240 GB Kingston SSD SATA-III, Read 450MB/s, Write 450MB/s - Silent

Like that?

[CaNsA]

Download, install and run this

https://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtunepro_550_trial.exe

do a full error scan on all your drives.
https://i.imgur.com/Bb4SqT5.png

If you cant boot into windows then...

Download this
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/Hirens.BootCD.15.2.zip

unzip it, burn the iso to a dvd or cd
boot it, load mini windows, then run hdtune and run a full error scan.

[Tungtvann]

Error scan was all green, no issues.

[CaNsA]

you scanned all your drives within 30mins?

did you do the lazy boy's quick scan?

[Tungtvann]

[CaNsA]

And what about the 2tb?

[slowlydoesit]

Try installing X-Setup Pro from this link:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/x_setup_pro.html
Use the license key given at the bottom of the page. This app allows you to see what is being loaded at startup. There's usually a lot more there than is visible in the Startup folder. Also allows you to disable things one by one. Very good, but use with care as you can mess up your configuration.

[CaNsA]

[slowlydoesit]

[CaNsA]

Well it is probably still the same as the last time you looked as the software hasnt been updated for 4yrs and is very unlikely to be updated anytime soon.

[Tungtvann]

Checked the 2TB drive, took bloody hours but it all came back green. I'm thinking it was a physical issue, I started having problems when I tried to fit a 2nd DVD drive (didn't work anyway because it's got old IDE connectors).

So I've just opened the PC up, had a fiddle, make sure everything was seated correctly. Nothing appeared to be out of place, but I just started it up again and boom, Bob's your next door neighbour, it's up and running in seconds.

Pretty weird, I'd have thought if something was loose, it wouldn't work at all, or would cause issues when running if it did.

[Dalemac]

It's not uncommon for random crash and start-up issues to be caused by incorrectly fitted hardware.

I once bought a basic tower from a shop, and it wouldn't stop crashing. took the CPU out and found a slightly bent pin. Straightened it out ad didn't have any further issues.
____________________
YBR125 -> GPZ500S -> SL1000