Computer taking 12+ hours to start

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Trance135

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Jun 9, 2016
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Hi,

For the past few months my computer has been taking an increasingly long time to boot, until the point where it now takes longer than 12 hours to boot completely. When I press the power button on my PC case, the whole case lights up but no display appears on my monitor, my keyboard and mouse do not begin functioning either. I can hear the fans working, and the lights on the case continue to remain lit, but nothing else happens until many hours later, when the first Windows logo shows up, and the PC starts working again at full capability with no other errors, crashing or reductions in performance. The time it takes to boot seems random, but it usually takes an extremely long time to do so. As far as I know I have no major viruses or infections in my system, and recently I did reset the CMOS battery to no avail. I have one RAM and I tried to change it's slot but if I do so my PC just keeps restarting every few seconds, so that didn't work either. I had my computer built around a year ago by some people at a computer services shop, and it worked perfectly for a few months so I think it's unlikely there's some fault in it's construction.

These are my specs:
Motherboard: ASROCK Z87 PRO4, Z87, DUALDDR3-1600, SATA3, GBLAN, RAID, ATX
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690k, 6M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz (not overclocked)
RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB FURY DDR3
GPU: GIGABYTE R9 380 4GB (256) ACTIVE 2XD H DP D5
Power Supply: Corsair CX600M 600W Watt Bronze Power Supply | CMPSU-600CXM
HDD: Western Digital 1TB Blue

Just a few things to note:

  • I am not a computer professional so I don't really have much knowledge about these matters.
    My computer is just around one year old.
    All parts purchased were new.
    Computer was built by professionals and worked perfectly for a few months.
    The problem seems to have got progressively worse ever since it started a few months ago.
As I am writing this, my computer has been powered on for about 16 hours, without starting to work. As you can imagine this is an extremely annoying problem and as such I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks
 
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Bearmann

Bearmann

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Sep 14, 2015
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On another computer (or this one if its working) download the the free Crystaldisk utility on to a USB drive- download the portable version that can be run from the USB drive. Alternatively, you can download Western Digital's hard drive health checker from support at the WD website. Check the health of the HD and see what you get.

What OS are you using? Did you try to roll back to an earlier restore point when everything was working?
 
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Trance135

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Jun 9, 2016
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I'm currently writing this from my spare laptop, the computer still hasn't got working. If it does happen to start, then I'll check it's hard drive health, but otherwise last night I did disconnect the hard drive from the rest of the computer and reconnect it, but there has been no improvement. The hard drive is also internal, so I can't really connect it to my laptop to check its health there, and from what I understand there is no way to check its health without starting my computer. Also another problem I forgot to mention, is that my computer is never able to restart, meaning that I have to manually power it off and switch on the power again if I want it to work. Because of this I'm unable to do a system restore because it's never able to restart. I really don't understand what might be causing this problem. I use Windows 10, upgraded from Win7.

Also some additional info: I opened my case last night and pushed all the cables I could see in a little tighter, just to make sure none were loose. When I power on my computer, my case, GPU, CPU and case fan all start working, so I doubt the PSU is the problem.
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hi there Trance135,

Long boot times could be associated with a failing drive. My suggestion would be to back up the data stored on your computer until you sort this out.
After that, you need to test it with a tool that can provide a SMART report, as just Bearmann suggested. You can run both short and extended DLG tests: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=qR98Uc
It will not hurt to attach the drive with different SATA and power cables to another SATA port.(on your machine)

In case the HDD turns out to be fine though, then you will need to troubleshoot your other components as well.
As this is just a year old machine, it should be under warranty.

Edit: you can attach the drive externally to your laptop with SATA to USB adapter + power cord.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD :)
 
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Bearmann

Bearmann

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If you can't start the computer, you will need to remove the drive and test it in a hard drive dock attached to your laptop. Is the computer out of warranty? You could buy a new HDD and exchange it for the one in your computer. Then you would need to load Windows on it.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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On power on, when bios is still working start mashing f5 or f8. What you are looking for is safe mode with no network and the prompt. This'll put you with a black screen and c:>. Type in CHKDSK /F and let it run. If windows tries to start, you went to far. This'll hopefully repair any errors. After that, hopefully windows will boot, at which time do a full system scan using Malwarebytes and a virus scan. Check for usage, it's entirely possible your hdd is full, which is also a common cause of extremely long boots.
 
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Trance135

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Jun 9, 2016
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When I start my computer nothing happens. Keyboard and mouse do not work. I already have Malwarebytes installed and regularly run scans and have no real viruses detected, except a couple of PUP.optional. When my computer stopped working, the HDD had plenty of space on it, around 300 GB was free out of the maximum 1 TB.


I checked my purchase history and I only bought most of my parts in July of last year, so I'm fairly certain the warranty should still be applicable.
I've given my computer in to the shop, and they say they're going to check it overnight, and that it is probably a busted motherboard. However, they did test the RAM and Power Supply, and neither of those things was the problem. I've also asked them to test the hard drive like you guys suggested. As of now I'm just trying to locate my motherboard's warranty. :p

Thanks for the continued help

 
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Bearmann

Bearmann

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I would think that the shop that assembled your computer would have offered a warranty on it. The individual parts come with their own warranties, usually greater than one year. You don't need any sort of warranty card with the parts- just proof of purchase and purchase date.
 
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Trance135

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Jun 9, 2016
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The shop that assembled my computer said yesterday that if they confirm that a specific part is malfunctioning or broken, then I would need to give them the warranty details for that part and they would take care of its replacement or fixing, taking around 2-3 weeks. I also purchased most of my parts online, with a 12 months warranty, expiring in July this year. Since I bought my motherboard online, proof and date of purchase should be quite easy to find.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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when you start the pc, nothing happens? The shop may be right in its assessment of a funky mobo, but it may be something as small as a corrupted bios. The pc, when power is first turned on will go through a POST (Power On Self Test) that has nothing to do with the hdd, its all from the BIOS chip on the mobo. Keyboard and mouse turning on is part of the POST process as the BIOS will check for keyboard errors and USB/peripheral ports. So, if you aren't getting POST, there is a motherboard failure somewhere. Whether this is caused by bios or even some USB peripherals being read incorrectly is anyones guess at this point
 
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Trance135

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Jun 9, 2016
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The shop did confirm that it is a motherboard problem. Now whether it is a BIOS failure or something else, they tell me replacement is the only solution. I have already contacted the website I bought it from and am trying to get it replaced.
 
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