Long delay at startup screen

[jason2189]

The power went out a few days ago. When I came home, my computer was off, but it's set to turn back on when power is restored (I think 3 attempts max.). I turned it on and everything seemed normal until the "windows is starting" screen (the one with the windows logo on the black screen). I thought the computer froze after sitting there for 5-10 minutes, and I turned it off. I unplugged it for 5 minutes, then turned it back on and ran the repair wizard. It found no problems and I tried starting windows again. After 5 minutes I was going to turn it off again, but I noticed the windows logo was still animated, so I let it sit. After about 20 minutes I heard the startup sound. I came back and windows had loaded. Everything worked normally, as fast as usual, no problems at all. I shut my computer off so I could plug it into the UPS I've had for a while but never got around to connecting. When I tuned it back on, it took 20 minutes to get past the load screen again. I've had it take a couple extra minutes in the past when power was lost, but only the first time I started it back up. Any ideas what's causing this?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[danny2000]

If you are able to log back in, run a check disk

 

[alishathomaz]

Follow these guidelines::

Remove unused programs
Install and run antispyware software
Free up wasted space with Disk Cleanup tool
Defragment your hard disk drive
Disconnect unused network connections:

Click Start, and then click My Computer.

On the Tools menu, click Disconnect Network Drive.

Select the network drives that you no longer need, and then click OK.

Stop Unwanted startup programs:

Start > Run > write msconfig > Click on StartUp tab
Deselect the programs you want to stop

 

[jason2189]

Follow these guidelines::

Remove unused programs
Install and run antispyware software
Free up wasted space with Disk Cleanup tool
Defragment your hard disk drive
Disconnect unused network connections:

Click Start, and then click My Computer.

On the Tools menu, click Disconnect Network Drive.

Select the network drives that you no longer need, and then click OK.

Stop Unwanted startup programs:

Start > Run > write msconfig > Click on StartUp tab
Deselect the programs you want to stop

Thanks for the reply. The screen it hangs on is the one before I enter my password and everything is loaded. When it hangs here, the computer is doing nothing. The HDD LED never even flickers and the CPU fan drops to it's minimum speed.

I have no unused programs, and have not installed any new programs since it started up normally.
I've had "Super Anti Spyware" installed since the computer was new (July 24 '10)
I have 600GB free of 1TB on my system/programs drive and 900GB free of 2TB on my multimedia drive
Fragmentation is 1% on system HDD and 0% on multimedia HDD
I tried disconnecting all network drives, thinking the problem may be in a network computer, but no change

Since it happened immediately after a power outage and possible surge (but it's always had a surge protector and neither of my other 2 comps were affected), I was thinking it could be a hardware problem. One of my friends thought maybe the power supply but the voltages in the BIOS settings show +/- .02V of the desired.

One new thing I have to add...
I was leaving for vacation the morning after you responded, and copying some audio/video files to my laptop over the network. I was watching Gilligan's Island on one monitor and selecting files to copy on the other. I had started out copying files over my wireless network but after a few GB I decided I should plug my laptop into the network to speed it up a bit. About 30 seconds after I plugged my laptop into my router (I include this only because the HDD usage would have gone from 54 Mb/S to 100Mb/S, probably not related?), the audio started skipping, repeating the last 1/4 second or so. At the same time, both monitors went blank for a split second and then had narrow vertical lines on them. I had that happen twice before when I was overclocking my video card, but I restarted, backed off the OC a bit and it was fine since then (July '10). When that happened before, I was running SC2 on the highest graphic settings in 3D (dual DVI out for iZ3D monitor) at 1680x1050 resolution. I'm thinking video card now, and may replace it because I can only use 2 of the 4 outputs on it, I'd like to get one that I can have my primary monitor in 3D (2x DVI) and my second monitor used at the same time. There are other things I should spend my money on right now, but if the computer experts think the video card could be causing the delay at startup, I'll try it.

 

[jason2189]

Could the graphics card be causing the delay? Not asking if it is, just asking if it's possible. I've had no problems with it since the last time both monitors had lines through them and the comp froze, runs on ultra graphics settings just fine. But is it possible for it to work fine after everything's loaded, but cause such a long delay? It's a bit annoying having to wait 20 minutes to restart any time I have to turn it off.

Thanks,
Jason