3 Minute delay at boot before Windows 10 starts

Have a Dell Inspiron 3847 running Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) and when I boot from Power On,, the Dell logo is displayed for 3 to 4 minutes before Windows starts (i.e. when the blue window logo displays). After that, Windows starts correctly.

I'm tempted to say that it's a hardware problem – EXCEPT – it doesn't happen when I do a RESTART… only when the computer is powered on (i.e. after a SHUTDOWN – most often from the day before, but really anytime).

I tried turning off the Fast Startup but no joy!

Problem started when I was installing a new router (but computer was turned off before starting the install – and was turned back on before the hardware was actually connected).

Does anyone know what Windows does before displaying the blue windows logo?

As I said, Windows completes the boot successfully – in the same amount of time as previously – and subsequent executions are correct.

RAPw10 said:

Have a Dell Inspiron 3847 running Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) and when I boot from Power On,, the Dell logo is displayed for 3 to 4 minutes before Windows starts (i.e. when the blue window logo displays). After that, Windows starts correctly.

I'm tempted to say that it's a hardware problem – EXCEPT – it doesn't happen when I do a RESTART… only when the computer is powered on (i.e. after a SHUTDOWN – most often from the day before, but really anytime).

I tried turning off the Fast Startup but no joy!

Problem started when I was installing a new router (but computer was turned off before starting the install – and was turned back on before the hardware was actually connected).

Does anyone know what Windows does before displaying the blue windows logo?

As I said, Windows completes the boot successfully – in the same amount of time as previously – and subsequent executions are correct.

Hi there. Seems to be stuck in BIOS if the Dell logo is displaying. Did you check the BIOS for any delays for boot in it?

Thank you

Will check again ... if there is a delay in the BIOS, why did it only start showing up now (I've had the PC for three years and haven't had the problem previously – and have made NO BIOS changes).

RAPw10 said:

Thank you

Will check again ... if there is a delay in the BIOS, why did it only start showing up now (I've had the PC for three years and haven't had the problem previously – and have made NO BIOS changes).

You're welcome. I'll assume it's UEFI BIOS? If so, the OS may have changed something? Just a guess.

Perform the following steps:

Open administrative command prompt and run:
sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Post the results for each.

Type winver and in the pop up view the windows version and build and post into the forum.

Type msconfig then perform a clean boot:
And open task manager and complete the clean boot.
How to perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...oot-in-windows

Compare the performance before and after clean boot.

Download and install HD sentenial or Crystal Disk and test your hard drive. Post the images into the forum of the drive and the SMART data.

Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring
CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World

In you post "Problem started when I was installing a new router (but computer was turned off before starting the install – and was turned back on before the hardware was actually connected)."

Has the router been uninstalled to see if the performance problems changed? Did the performance get better or worse or did the performance remain the same?

Perform the following steps:

Open administrative command prompt and run:
sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Post the results for each.

Type winver and in the pop up view the windows version and build and post into the forum.

Type msconfig then perform a clean boot:
And open task manager and complete the clean boot.
How to perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...oot-in-windows

Compare the performance before and after clean boot.

Download and install HD sentenial or Crystal Disk and test your hard drive. Post the images into the forum of the drive and the SMART data.

Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring
CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World

After you try zbook's suggestion, I would like to remind you that normally W10 boots so much faster that its predecessors because it never actually "shuts down".

Instead Fast startup is turned by default On in W10 and that helps your (Desktop) starting up faster.

This is done by saving an image of the Windows kernel/loaded drivers in the hiberfile (C:\hiberfil.sys) on shutdown.

When you start your PC again, the hiberfile (C:\hiberfil.sys) is loaded into memory resuming your PC (instead of totally re-starting it from scratch).

Fast startup requires hibernation to be enabled, and that means that:

Disabling hibernate, you disable Fast StartUp as well (see here Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials )


Have you done something with your system Power settings?

A boot delay on this boot phase can be due to a drivers load. The only way to figure this out is to take a boot trace with Windows Performance Recorder and analyze it. Windows ADK downloads - Windows Hardware Dev Center

Here is a tutorial on how to take a boot trace How to use WPR to record Windows boot process | zinetek

Windows 7 slow logon troubleshooting | zinetek

If you need some help analyzing your boot trace, share it and I'll look at it...