Blue Windows logo on every boot.

[kol12]

On every boot up I'm getting the blue Windows logo as Windows loads and it's causing some annoying screen flicker while doing so. Usually I would not see the blue logo and it would go straight to the lockscreen after Bios POST.

I've had this happen in the past and I wonder if it has something to do with skipping Windows file system checks when things like unstable overclock's have caused sudden restarts. I've been overclocking recently and recall skipping a Windows check process after a sudden restart. sfc scan passed.

 

[LukeFatwalker]

Sounds like Windows isn't booting correctly which would be an issue tied to the Master Boot Record (MBR).

You can try resetting the MBR, if that doesn't work you'll need to do a clean install of the OS.

Not sure if you backup your computer presently, but using a tool like Rollback Rx or MAcrium Reflect would be better in the future should this ever happen again.

 

[kol12]

Hi LukeFatwalker,

I thought it might be related to Windows not booting correctly. Yes I backup everyday with Macrium Reflect but because this has been happening for over two weeks I likely don't have an affected image anymore. I will try to reset the MBR...

 

[kol12]

Well I tried several methods of fixing/repairing the MBR without success. I tried all of the Bootrec commands from the Windows recovery console. The automatic repair in recovery console could not fix anything.

Reinstalling can be a hassle, are there any options? If I do reinstall I'll be sure to create a recovery drive next time...

 

[Colif]

Do you have latest Nvidia drivers? They are not the best drivers ever released and cause bugs for others, so might be them?

slow down at that stage can be drivers , I have found sata drivers can slow that process as well.

Just ideas

 

[kol12]

Hey Colif,

No I'm still on one or two of the earlier Nvidia drivers... Hmm I haven't touched sata drivers for some time, I can check what version I have. I can't remember now if the blue Windows logo at boot is quite recent or not, it's seems like it's been this way for a while but then again maybe it hasn't. I took a video of it, maybe I can upload it. Basically the blue Windows logo appears at boot with lots of screen flickering before reaching the lockscreen. Also my lockscreen features currently aren't working either and could be related.

 

[Colif]

What isn't working on lock screen?

run sfc/dism and see if they do anything
right click start button
choose powershell (admin)
type SFC /scannow and press enter
once its completed, copy/paste this command into same window:
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth
SFC fixes system files, DISM cleans image files, re run SFC if it failed to fix all files and restart PC

 

[kol12]

The Windows Spotlight thing that cycles through different backgrounds on the lock screen, mine just keeps using one same image.

Will try scans tomorrow. I think I ran SFC /scannow a couple of times today but not the dism one.

Also I think LukeFatwalker mistook MBR for GPT.

 

[Colif]

I assume in settings/Personaisation/Lock screen you don't just have it set as Picture? I turned the slideshow function off at one stage to fix a problem I have forgotten about. These might help: http://www.askvg.com/fix-lock-screen-slide-show-feature-not-working-in-windows-10/

MBR is a term still used cause people know what it is compared to saying your EFI is corrupted. Still plenty of old drives around formatted as MBR so we have to call it something. The commands you use in Win 10 are the same, you still run fixmbr to fix the files in an EFI partition.

 

[LukeFatwalker]

The Windows Spotlight thing that cycles through different backgrounds on the lock screen, mine just keeps using one same image.

Will try scans tomorrow. I think I ran SFC /scannow a couple of times today but not the dism one.

Also I think LukeFatwalker mistook MBR for GPT.

MBR is just a general term, however it's formatted, most guides on the web and forums take to calling it that for the sake of simplicity.

 

[kol12]

MBR is just a general term, however it's formatted, most guides on the web and forums take to calling it that for the sake of simplicity.

I was going to say that MBR and GPT more or less meant the same thing.

 

[kol12]

I assume in settings/Personaisation/Lock screen you don't just have it set as Picture? I turned the slideshow function off at one stage to fix a problem I have forgotten about. These might help: http://www.askvg.com/fix-lock-screen-slide-show-feature-not-working-in-windows-10/

MBR is a term still used cause people know what it is compared to saying your EFI is corrupted. Still plenty of old drives around formatted as MBR so we have to call it something. The commands you use in Win 10 are the same, you still run fixmbr to fix the files in an EFI partition.

No it was on Windows spotlight but I've changed it to just picture right now. My other account is set to Windows spotlight and it doesn't work when switching between user accounts.

Thanks for clearing up that MBR commands are still used for Win 10 and EFI.

So I've had some help at Tenforums for this as well and someone noted that I was booting with quite a few external drives connected which can slow down boot time. There is a bios setting that you can change to only scan the boot drive during post instead of all drives and devices. As a side affect of doing that Windows decided to do a scan after exiting the bios and indicated that it was repairing C: Now the blue Windows logo isn't seen during boot and boot time is faster.

I still have an issue when arriving at the lockscreen that the screen flickers, like once or twice. This could be related to the Windows spotlight stuff not working or it could be a graphics driver issue. Will try to fix lockscreen next...

 

[SinxarKnights]

The lockscreen spotlight on a fresh boot has never worked for me, it has only ever worked when the PC went to sleep and it is woken.

Another question, are you talking about this?

If that is not normal... my PC is totally busted.

It sounds to me like you never actually turned off your PC just made it sleep or hibernate. My reasoning is, 1 - windows spotlight used to work,2 - you never seen that blue logo (as it always displays on a fresh boot, but some MBs can override it such as Asus has a version you can enable that shows the asus logo instead.).

Is that possible?

 

[kol12]

The lockscreen spotlight on a fresh boot has never worked for me, it has only ever worked when the PC went to sleep and it is woken.

Another question, are you talking about this?

If that is not normal... my PC is totally busted.

It sounds to me like you never actually turned off your PC just made it sleep or hibernate. My reasoning is, 1 - windows spotlight used to work,2 - you never seen that blue logo (as it always displays on a fresh boot, but some MBs can override it such as Asus has a version you can enable that shows the asus logo instead.).

Is that possible?

I don't let my PC sleep very often, only occasionally if I'm going away for some time. I can easily test to see whether Windows spotlight works in that scenario. Windows spotlight has worked for me but it seems like quite a while that I remember it working.

Yeah that's the blue Windows logo I was getting at boot with lot's of screen flickering. If you read my last post a side affect of disabling all drive scanning during POST resulted in Windows running a disk check and repair after exiting the bios. Not sure if the scan and repair made the blue logo go away or disabling the drive scans during post.

No I always shutdown fully, I Don't use hybrid, sleep, fastboot or any of that stuff. I always see the Asus logo during bios POST and the blue logo would come after that and then to the lockscreen. Now it goes straight to lockscreen as I remember but Spotlight still doesn't work and the screen still flickers a bit at the lockscreen.

Have you got lot's of drives connected? The pic below show the bios setting I'm talking about, I set it to boot drive only. Do you get spinning dots with the logo? Try changing that bios setting and see if it initiates an OS scan...

 

[Colif]

Sometimes i see that menu twice but only when I am updating windows 10 itself. I have PC set to look for DVD drive on boot but only as it makes things easier next time I fresh install, my motherboard doesn't like booting off USB without changes, As such, my boot always slow but since I used hdd for 15 years, a few seconds at boot isn't a big wait for me.

PC returning to how my 1st computer was, instant boots. To start 1st Computer I just hit switch and it would be ready, but it had no hdd and only storage method was a cassette drive.... though it had instant start, I don't mind waiting a while for more ram and speed... 1st computers CPU speed was 1.79mhz (no, that isn't a typo) and it had a massive 8kb of ram. So computers slower to start now but far more capable.

I turned sleep off, its desktop is either on or PC is off. I don't use hibernate but still use fast startup as my hiberfil.sys is only half its normal size so its not using a lot of space anyway. I know it doesn't really help ssd but I am lazy.

Come to think about it, the lockscreen at startup has always shown same photo for me as well, and even more so since I set my own picture.

 

[SinxarKnights]

If you read my last post

I did, a few times over in fact!

a side affect of disabling all drive scanning during POST resulted in Windows running a disk check and repair after exiting the bios. Not sure if the scan and repair made the blue logo go away or disabling the drive scans during post.

I just tried that setting and set it to boot only and still get the flashes with logo and spinning dots. Must have been something with the scanning. No idea. Its always done that on my PC. I just checked my mom's and brother's and they do it as well.

 

[Colif]

@Kol curious if 1st drive in Boot priority has choice of Windows Boot Manager as since you on UEFI that should be top choice in boot order. It may not, I haven't looked in my BIOS for 18 months. If it does, the removal of drives may have messed with the boot order somehow forcing that chkdsk to run.

You have same bios as I do so I guess I would have the same choices as well.
Asus Z97-1 Manual - http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z97-A/E9378_Z97-A_UG_V2_WEB.pdf

 

[kol12]

So I unplugged my computer today to install a new fan and after booting I had that damn blue Windows logo again. Now I remember, I scheduled a chkdsk /f on restart yesterday so that will be the reason the scan happened after I was in the BIOS... So SinxarKnights I suggest you schedule a chkdsk /f and see if that clears your Windows logo away.

Now obviously I had the blue logo return today again for unknown reasons but running chkdsk /f fixed it again! Will just have to keep an eye on this one I suppose, there could still be some underlying issue...

@Colif Windows Boot Manager is usually first in line in the boot priority and I've discovered the scan was likely due to me scheduling it instead. Sometimes my DVD drive shows first in the boot order but still boots to the OS normally.

 

[Colif]

PC only gives 5 seconds for it to see a dvd before going to 2nd item in boot list, so that is normal.

chkdsk /f is only form of chkdsk that is useful on a SSD as it fixes file system. if it were a hdd, you can run chkdsk /f /r since it actually has sectors, and you can run repair on them.

Another thing that should do same thing is start up repair though its more along lines of checking the mbr/efi. So chkdsk checks C drive I guess whereas start up repair fixes the unnamed partition (sorry, I just figured this out).

running both is probably a good idea.

 

[kol12]

Seen chkdsk /f may not have fully fixed it I will try startup repair as well.

 

[kol12]

Hmm so I remember I did try startup repair the other day and I got startup repair couldn't repair your PC message, I will try it again.

 

[Colif]

think it says that even if there aren't any problems

 

[kol12]

Really? I think there's a log so I'll look for it...

 

[Colif]

Start up repair isn't something i run very often so I might be wrong.

 

[kol12]

Log file seems to indicate every check passed. It doesn't seem to indicate that anything was repaired.