Weird lag at startup

Bart_Hunt

Bart_Hunt

Bart_Hunt

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Joined
12 Jan 2013
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Gdansk, Poland
Hey guys

I recently build a new system.
It was working all fine so far, going to Windows login screen in 5 seconds etc :)
Yesterday I had a weird thing happen.
I pushed the power button, PC started to boot and it stopped on the image/logo of BIOS. I didn't click anything and just waited, the PC continued to Windows after around a minute - but that was weird enough to make me worried. :confused:
My hardware:
ASRock Z77 Pro4-M / i5 3570 3.4 / Geil 2x8 GB 1600 Mhz / OCZ Agility 3 60 GB SSD.
I have Windows 8 as OS, didn't give me any problems so far.

Anyone have any clue what could possibly cause this problem?
It happened only once so far, but I am still worried - I run some system diagnostics afterwards plus the full Norton system scan and didn't find anything.

Let me know if you have any ideas.

Cheers
 
it could just be a one off glitch, i wouldnt be worried if it happened once but if it happens again then there may be something wrong with the mobo detecting your hard drives and dvd drives...etc
 
Firstly, check CCleaner and look at the tools menu, then startup. Check and disable any unwanted startup processes. Check also for unwanted scheduled entrties and disable these too..(seperate tab under same menu).

While you are there run the cleaner.

Next, run Process Explorer:

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Process-Explorer-Download-15387.html

This will give a good idea as to what you systems up to, including at startup etc.. It's quite a dynamic tool, which allows you to view what each process does and if it hogging your CPU.
 
Cheers, I'll get to work then :)

OK, I run those 2 app's and first cleared some space (710MB) and second one didn't really give me any clue's to be honest, CPU usage was around 2-4% all the time.
One thing: Should there be like 8-10 svchost.exe's running?
Because thats what I had showing there. They all seemed to do something different than other, but still, 10??
 
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Actually i just noticed you said it stops around the BIOS POST area.

This is likely to be more hardware related as the Windows boot hasn't started at this stage.

You will most likely need to do some diagnostics.

First head into the BIOS and check the system is recognising all your components. Reset the CMOS to "Load safe options " first and retry, and if that works, then set the setting to optimal and retry.


next check first your memory is ok.

Use memtest86+ to verify this. If it comes back with an error then you have a memory related error.. This doesn't mean the memory is faulty, only that it's memory related.

If it does error, try using one memory stick at a time and try the single sticks in different slots. If one stick of memory fails in all slots, then its almost certainly a RAM problem. If the working RAM stick works in one slot but not another, then this is certainly going to be an memory controller problem which is integrated on the CPU for most newer CPUs(IMC). You're only testing the RAM here so don't worry about dual or triple channel memory for the test.

Onec the memory is verifed, then you need to make some further checks.

Next port of call thereafter would be the Hard Disk Drive. It could be trying to locate the boot loader and having problems there.

What is the manufacturer of HDD?
 
I have OCZ Agility 3 SSD as my OS drive... However now that you mentioned it could be a hardware problem, I did have a small problem before with system not recognizing my OS drive. I had to go to BIOS and set it up manually (apparently I messed up SATA cables setup, connected SSD to SATA II slot etc - its fixed now tho).

EDIT: Ok, so I found the problem, at least I think so. After clearing CMOS system doesn't recognize the SSD as OS drive. I had to manually go into Boot options and set it up there. I run the memory test as well (took ages to complete - 16gb ram, lol) but result shown no errors. So it must be something with the SSD then?
 
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Last time I saw something like this was when I was trying to install an ssd boot drive on my server which wakes for backups on the lan (hence the ssd). Turned out the ssd was faulty as it wasn't recognised properly in the bios and just hung up when it was trying to post everytime. It was an OCZ Vertex II 120GB for reference and had to rma.

All that I can suggest is reset to defaults/clear cmos, configure it to boot in bios (as the first boot option for now) and also try and replicate the issue in another build if you can to see if it's your mobo that isn't playing nicely with that paticular ssd.
 
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