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Boot issue has me stumped. Normal trouble-shooting not working

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Last response: in Windows 7
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Hey, all.

I have a machine with Windows 7 64-bit on it that, unfortunately, had a hard shutdown. Since then, I have had the semi-common issue where it now takes forever to boot. First, it hangs for a while at the "Please wait..." screen before login, then after I enter my password, it hangs for a while at "Welcome" before going to desktop. All told, it takes 15-20 minutes to boot when it used to take around a minute.

I have done the following:
  • Clean boot. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796. Result: after the first part where everything is disabled, startup speed is unchanged, so the issue isn't there
  • Ran the MS Fixit utility on the page above - it did not detect any issues
  • Ran Windows 7 DVD and tried the "fix startup" option - no problems detected
  • Reverted to a previous restore point - problem persists.

    I gotta say - I'm stumped. Those are my normal steps, and I can't find anything else in my search of forums (yes, I tried to find a solution before posting a new thread - so I apologize if I missed something.)

    Anyone have any ideas?

    • More about : boot issue stumped normal trouble shooting working

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    Windows 7 Expert

    Try the clear cmos option if you have it or at least somekind of bios default option if you have it. All depending on what you have for a MB makes it hard though not knowing your components.

    The mobo is a generic HP one, so I'd have to poke around.

    Now, I haven't cleared a CMOS in YEARs on a machine - is there a soft one, or is it still jumpers on the board itself?

    As for either option (CMOS or BIOS) - what side-effects am I going to experience? Is this going to clear anything in the main system, or is it something that clears and rebuilds itself on the next boot so that I never notice anything being amiss?
    Windows 7 Expert

    There can be many causes of this type of problem such as a faulty hard drive to faulty device drivers. You can waste a lot of time trying to track down this type of problem, so the best course of action would be to reinstall Windows to eliminate software causes of this problem. If you don't want to do this then you should boot into safe mode to eliminate any driver problems. You can also try removing any USB devices as a first step.
    I don't think that clearing the CMOS will cure this problem but if you want to do this then do it properly by using the clear CMOS link on the motherboard with the power cord DISCONNECTED. Failure to disconnect the power cord can result in damage to the motherboard.

    Yeah, I really, really don't want to mess with the cmos/bios (there's a reason it's been years since I've done so) and was waiting for a really compelling reason for doing so before proceeding. Reinstalling Windows is far from optimal, as the system seems to be running fine once I'm finally logged in, and to reinstall it would likely trip activations on all of my software - and I'd rather not do that just for the convenience of speeding up my boot.

    What suggestions does anyone have on trouble-shooting in safe mode on driver issues?
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