Abysmal Boot up time

hgpot

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Sep 20, 2012
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My computer was running fine, and then I turned it off so that I could clean some of the dust out.

As I'm trying to turn it back on, it has taken literally 40 minutes to get past the MSI splash screen. It takes a full 8 hours (no I am not kidding, nor exaggerating!) to get into Windows 7. And even then, everything is slow. Not like a normal P4/1GB ram (because I have a machine like that that is faster!) slow, but like low framerate slow. Same with the bootup. The huge MSI logo splash screen looks like I'm trying to download an image via dial up, and loads 1/5 of it at a time, over a period of nearly an hour. This process used to be so fast that I could hardly read it.

My motherboard http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-C43.html

My CPU http://ark.intel.com/products/52210

My SSD http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-agility-3-sata-iii-2-5-ssd.html

My RAM http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=428

My GPU http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/amd-radeon-hd-6000/hd-6870/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-6870-overview.aspx

What would cause something like this? I realize that my compressor may have unplugged something, but I can't think of anything that would cause such a slowdown.
 
may have created a static discharge while you were cleaning. not good.

pull power cord. push start button to clear reserves. remove battery for 5 minutes ( battery only goes in one way, pay attention to it. ).

..or reset cmos if you know how. try and restart. what happens ?
 
check that your cpu fan and gpu fan are working and the cpu heat sink still locked down. most cpu and gpu will throttle back to save themselfs from over heating. also with the cpu powered off reseat the ram and video card and check the 24 and 8 pin power plug and all your cables. you may have a lose cable.
 

noise

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Apr 27, 2012
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Unplug your storage devices first SSD, DVD, any external storage connectors and wired network cables.

See if the splash screen is still slow. If it isn't then start plugging back in one by one and testing for slow POST.

This has only occurred to me previously when storage devices have failed but could equally be a weird PXE (network boot) issue.
 

hgpot

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Sep 20, 2012
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I wore an anti-ESD bracelet and was very careful to not touch anything.

Start button as in power on button? What battery are you talking about.. it's a desktop.
 
yes to the button........ push and hold for a couple of seconds to drain.................. see that big battery on the mother board ?.............. but if you have the booklet you can see where the cmos jumper is. all you have to do is move it to clear and then put it back.
 

hgpot

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Sep 20, 2012
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The temperatures and frequencies of the GPU/RAM/CPU are all normal, so they're not doing it on purpose.

Unplugging SSD and HDD: Boot time still bad
Unplugging Ethernet: Still bad
Reseating GPU: Still bad
Holding down the power button for 5 seconds with the power cord unplugged: Still bad
Clearing CMOS: Still bad
Reseating RAM: Still bad

Anything else..?
 
you can hold the stupid power button all you want. if you can't follow directions you're hopeless..........

unplug the stupid machine from the wall socket. push the power button to help drain excess power from the board. a few seconds will do that. pull the battery, you know, that really shiny silvery thing about the size of a nickel starring at you from the mother board. put it back in after about 10 seconds............. make sure you put it back the right way now................. plug in machine/boot up. really tough to do isn't it ?
 

ELMO_2006

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Aug 29, 2012
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ROFL - :pt1cable:

Apologies, couldn't help myself.
 

hgpot

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Sep 20, 2012
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Windows 7 is on my SSD. I did not try with just it; though if with both doesn't work and with neither doesn't work, I don't see how having just one of them in would make a difference.

Getting to the BIOS may be able to happen, though it would take literally hours.
 
just plug in the drive with the opsys on it. see if it boots or if you can get into the BIOS.

if the bios is screwed up AHCI might be lost and that would cause problems trying to boot to it.

if you put only the HD in it may see the "blank" HD and you might be able to get into the BIOS... ???? .......... if you get into thew BIOS you can change back to AHCI and shut down and pull the HD and plug in the SSD and try to boot to desktop.. ??
 

hgpot

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Sep 20, 2012
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Yes I know that there is no drive required to see the BIOS, which is why I tried using no drives at all to boot.

I did also try with 1, 2, and all 4 sticks of RAM to no avail.
 

hgpot

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Sep 20, 2012
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I thought that resetting/clearing the CMOS Memory would reset all of the BIOS settings. No? Because getting into BIOS would take hours and I want to be sure that it's not a waste.

They felt pretty firmly connected, but I unplugged and replugged them anyway. No help.
 

hgpot

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Sep 20, 2012
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Like I said, I reseated the video card. I don't have any onboard video options or any extra cards laying around at the moment, so I'm afraid that I cannot tell if the GPU is the problem or not.
 
trying to eliminate power robbing hardware. I still think it got zapped somehow.

but you also mentioned compressor instead of canned air..........

look into any of the pci slots or empty ram slots for debris.

since it's borked............. why not pull it apart and rebuild it ?...... like pull the mobo from the case........ look for debris and reassemble everything.
 

hgpot

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Sep 20, 2012
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I tried that. No help.