Black Screen for 1.5 minutes between boot up and login screen

Edward T

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May 19, 2015
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BACKGROUND INFO (the problem is after the next paragraph) -- (please read all of post to help)
So I've recently (less than a month ago) built a brand new gaming PC for $1750 :D
Specs:
i5 4690k CPU
gtx 980 GPU
gigabyte gaming 7 z97x motherboard
256GB mx100 crucial SSD and 1 TB HDD
750W EVGA PSU (I bought the better model for $110)
After building this PC, and doing some extremely MILD overclocking (only +40 MHz to my GPU), it worked perfectly. I installed my games and all was good. The bootup was fast and I loved it. I clicked the power button and almost immediately my login screen was there. Until Yesterday...

When I started my PC it booted to a black screen, and since I was used to it booting immediately i didn't wait for more than 20 seconds before restarting and beginning troubleshooting and such. I eventually refreshed my Windows 8.1 (installed on the SSD) and when I logged in I restored the computer to the backup I had done a couple days before this happened. So I thought all was going to be good now and that it was a windows 8 screw up. Nope. (also when I tried to boot directly to the SSD from the boot options it said "reboot and select proper boot device").

However, this time, I was stumped. Had no idea why this would happen, and I left it running on the black screen. When I came back it was on the logon screen, I logged on, and rejoiced! everything was like normal. Next time I restarted the PC I waited to see what happened. Once again it booted to the black screen, and I started a timer. After 1 minute and 30 seconds, it went to the logon screen. *mindblown* wayyy too long. I have an SSD and top notch components...

Did some googling and other people say that windows 8 has this period of "blackness" but everyone had it for only 10 seconds or so max. I have it for 1.5 minutes, not 10 seconds. I read a recommendation to turn on fast boot in the UEFI bios options, so I did that, and the black screen boot time did not improve by more than one second.

So yeah my new computer with an SSD is taking 1 minute and 30 seconds of black screen time before it loads the logon screen in Windows 8.1. Any suggestions on how to make it as fast as it was a couple days ago - less than 10 seconds?

Sorry for the long post just wanted to give all details since this is a weird problem in my opinion. Help would be HIGHLY appreciated.
 
Solution
it might be a bad SSD or something wrong with Windows. I would try getting another cheap SSD and doing a clean windows install and see if that solves it. Or do a clean windows install on your SSD if you don't want to buy another 1.

azca

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Mar 16, 2006
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it might be a bad SSD or something wrong with Windows. I would try getting another cheap SSD and doing a clean windows install and see if that solves it. Or do a clean windows install on your SSD if you don't want to buy another 1.
 
Solution

Edward T

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May 19, 2015
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I'll format it do a clean windows install and post an update here once its complete. I don't think its a bad SSD because after startup everything works very quickly and loads extremely fast... but then again, who knows. Before I go ahead and format my SSD and install windows, is there a way to check if my SSD is bad and the cause of the problem?

 

Edward T

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May 19, 2015
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Well I deleted all partitions, made a new one, formatted it, updated the SSD firmware, updated my motherboard bios, reinstalled windows 8.1, enabled fast boot, first restart in windows 8.1 was still with the black screen but that was before the bios update... so motherboard is at fault? :eek: never would have guessed that. Anyways its gone now. These types of problems never seem to have a clear cause or solution you always need a clean slate to thoroughly fix them unfortunately lol.