Windows 10 PRO 1909 Boot Hang From Power ON about 10% of the time

MPSAN · 26 Mar 2020

I have a strange issue. We have an SSD and all seems OK. we do turn the power off each night. However, when we boot the next day we get the normal MS Flag on screen and then it says hello to my wife as it continues to boot. This is all good and we have had this system I built using an ASUS Z170 MoBo for a few years. We did have a CMOS battery die and I thought that I had all settings back to normal, but about 1 in 10 times when we power it up, it goes to that MS Flag and it just hangs. All I need to do is hit the reset on my case and all comes up. This makes me think that when I changed my dead CMOS battery there was 1 setting I missed. Is there a setting like fast boot that I should set to normal as I do not remember what I used to have.
Thank You all for your help and I hope this is in the correct forum section.

Macboatmaster · 26 Mar 2020

1. When you say

we do turn the power off each night

please clarify that you mean the POWER to the tower itself, rather than SHUT DOWN
I am sure that is what you do mean - but it would help me if there was no doubt

2. FAST BOOT in your UEFI settings - section 3.8 of your manual is not directly connected with your windows loading, it is related to system aspects loaded and commissioned before control is handed to the windows boot manager.

3. HOWEVER Fast Start is related to Windows.
See please my screenshot

Sometime fast start can cause problems if an attempt is made to load a driver, but the load is not completed before control is handed to windows

Please check if you have FAST START turned on so that - is power options choose what power button does on left pane.
I suspect at this stage it being so infrequently, that the problem occurs, that you will finds it is a combination of what you executed so to speak, on the session before this problem occurred and the TURNING off, at the power.
IF you have fast start turned ON - then turn it off please by unchecking the box

4. You do not say how long ago the CMOS battery needed to be replaced, but providing it was not left flat for other than only a brief period and you simply replaced the battery and did NOT reset CMOS as well with the jumpers, then the battery on that motherboard, retains only the RTC - real time clock settings. - so the problem is unlikely on the evidence at this stage to relate to any settings in the UEFI firmware.

5. Also if it was related to that I would expect the problem to occur more often than one in ten.

6. Your system generally speaking will not benefit from fast start for you to see any appreciable difference in speed of loading.

MPSAN · 26 Mar 2020

Yes, it is a POWER OFF after a shutdown and it is from a master power center. I have BIOS set to restore power when Power Resumes so it boots up in the morning just by turning the power center on and the monitors, etc power up as well.
My CMOS Battery died so I lost everything and it did reset my settings. I can also check what you suggested.
Thank You.

thomaseg1 · 26 Mar 2020

MPSAN said:

Yes, it is a POWER OFF after a shutdown and it is from a master power center. I have BIOS set to restore power when Power Resumes so it boots up in the morning just by turning the power center on and the monitors, etc power up as well.
My CMOS Battery died so I lost everything and it did reset my settings. I can also check what you suggested.
Thank You.

enter your cmos (or bios) and set everything to default, there should be an option for this.
as suggested above turn off fast start up.
See if this stops the problem.

MPSAN · 26 Mar 2020

OK, but I can try to set fast start to off first.

Steve C · 27 Mar 2020

Good advice above. A new CMOS battery should be above 3V when new - usually 3.2V. My PC won't boot if the battery voltage drops below 2.8V.

Turn off all fast boot / start up options in Windows and the BIOS.

MPSAN · 27 Mar 2020

Great. I was thinking it was CMOS as the Battery was DEAD. Windows should not have changed.

Macboatmaster · 27 Mar 2020

I actually have a doubt it is CMOS settings, although it certainly would be best to ensure you check them
As I said on my post

. Also if it was related to that I would expect the problem to occur more often than one in ten.

and because of this I suspect as I said

I suspect at this stage it being so infrequently, that the problem occurs, that you will finds it is a combination of what you executed so to speak, on the session before this problem occurred and the TURNING off, at the power.
IF you have fast start turned ON - then turn it off please by unchecking the box

and please be aware that even if you had Fast start up turned off, like many features of 10, certain settings can be reset by certain Windows updates.