Black Screen For A Long Time At Startup

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ComputerWhiz305

ComputerWhiz305

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I have had my computer for about a month. It is running Windows7 Home Premium.
Sometimes, when I startup my computer, there will be a black screen with just the pointer on it after the Welcome screen disappears.
This screen stays for a long time and then the system finally boots. This doesn't happen all of the time, but has been happening increasingly more frequently.

Ran CCleaner to disable all of the non-essential startup items and scheduled tasks.
I'm running AVG, but that never caused any issues before.
I will test my hard drive and my RAM overnight and post the results tomorrow.

Any suggestions on how to fix it?
BTW, I am computer literate, so feel free to talk technical with me.
 
Solution
hedwar2011


Potentially. If you are comfortable with the way it is working now, go ahead and do us a favor and mark it as solved so that the others will know and continue to help others

Glad to hear all is resolved to your liking.

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hedwar2011

hedwar2011

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It's time you take a look at everything running and starting up when your computer does.

I would recommend using Autoruns.

Not sure what all those things are? Go to HERE for help with identifying those pesky startup items.

If none of those seem to be the culprit, go through and unplug all external USB devices (except for keyboard and mouse mind you) and see if issue continues. Some motherboards are configured to boot from a USB device as a first option in their BIOS and this could be what's causing the brief lockup on boot.
 
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ComputerWhiz305

ComputerWhiz305

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I ran Memtest, it passed.
I disabled the USB from my BIOS.
I can't test my hard drive because it is not compatible with SeaTools.
Ran Autoruns. There were a few things that it said were missing, so I will see how that works.
 
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hedwar2011

hedwar2011

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What brand of HDD do you have installed in the PC?

I would recommend creating a Hirens Boot CD and utilize some of the diagnostic tools in regards to possible hard drive issues.
NOTE: If you are using a SSD (solid state drive) do not use the HDD diagnostics on the Hiren's CD as it will typically not be seen since it is essentially Flash type memory.

You might also run sfc /scannow from a command prompt with administrative rights and let it complete and see if the issue resolves itself.
More info can be found HERE in regards to the process and details of the check.
 
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hedwar2011

hedwar2011

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Potentially. If you are comfortable with the way it is working now, go ahead and do us a favor and mark it as solved so that the others will know and continue to help others

Glad to hear all is resolved to your liking.

 
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Solution
ComputerWhiz305

ComputerWhiz305

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Still happens from time-to-time, but not as often or long as before. For some reason, it looks like the explorer.exe process is just sluggish on some days. I can still open the task manager while the screen is black to see this.
Not sure why it happens sometimes, but it doesn't bother me since it doesn't happen as often.
 
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hedwar2011

hedwar2011

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Something else to consider is to take a look while you have Task Manager open and see how much memory explorer.exe is using at that time. If its really high, try reducing some desktop clutter, moving images for your background image (there is such a thing), or any type of animated mouse cursors. These all add to the behind-the-scenes loading of explorer.exe in its own way and can also cause delays on the back end.
 
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ComputerWhiz305

ComputerWhiz305

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Once it's fully loaded, explorer.exe uses about 13000K in memory. While loading, it sometimes get stuck at 5000K for a little bit.
 
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hedwar2011

hedwar2011

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That;s actually not bad. I have seen much much worse.

I would suggest knocking on some cheap knock-off particle board excuse for wood that it doesn't return. :)
 
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