Windows 10: Slow boot time on SSD 6-mins OS loading screen

I'm having a SIMILAR issue but single OS of Windows 10 installed. Not sure if I should start a new thread due to this difference?
In my case system hangs on the Asus logo and spinning dots for approx 5 minutes when booting from off OR doing Restart. This is an SSD drive that is very fast once I'm in Windows. Motherboard is ASUS.

I've tried the Windows stuff, despite knowing that the issue happens BEFORE arriving into the OS (such as disabling startup programs, of high impact, trying to turn off the Fast Start option, running CCleaner on everything, updating all drivers as well as Windows).

In the UEFI I confirmed it is on latest version. I tried the Normal AND Optimal Asus modes. I tried booting from BOTH "Windows Boot Manager" entries available... (not sure why there's two of them, if I boot from the second one I get caught in a loop of Preparing Automatic Repair". I disabled all other boot devices possible. I tried Load Optiized Defaults (which was a bad idea as it was no longer booting from Windows Boot Manager).

I also tried booting up with hardware disconnected, such as external drives, webcam. etc.

Almost seems like my only options are to do a fresh install of Windows but I'm hesitant due to how many programs I would have to reinstall on this powerhouse PC. It also seems from what I've read in this thread that it did not fix the issues (?). Startup was super fast until a month or so ago if I recall...

For what its worth, my laptop still boots up super fast and it's running the same version of Windows 10. I'm guessing drivers and hardware differ.

Any help would be appreciated!

orlando1974 said:

I'm having a SIMILAR issue but single OS of Windows 10 installed. Not sure if I should start a new thread due to this difference?
In my case system hangs on the Asus logo and spinning dots for approx 5 minutes when booting from off OR doing Restart. This is an SSD drive that is very fast once I'm in Windows. Motherboard is ASUS.

I've tried the Windows stuff, despite knowing that the issue happens BEFORE arriving into the OS (such as disabling startup programs, of high impact, trying to turn off the Fast Start option, running CCleaner on everything, updating all drivers as well as Windows).

In the UEFI I confirmed it is on latest version. I tried the Normal AND Optimal Asus modes. I tried booting from BOTH "Windows Boot Manager" entries available... (not sure why there's two of them, if I boot from the second one I get caught in a loop of Preparing Automatic Repair". I disabled all other boot devices possible. I tried Load Optiized Defaults (which was a bad idea as it was no longer booting from Windows Boot Manager).

I also tried booting up with hardware disconnected, such as external drives, webcam. etc.

Almost seems like my only options are to do a fresh install of Windows but I'm hesitant due to how many programs I would have to reinstall on this powerhouse PC. It also seems from what I've read in this thread that it did not fix the issues (?). Startup was super fast until a month or so ago if I recall...

For what its worth, my laptop still boots up super fast and it's running the same version of Windows 10. I'm guessing drivers and hardware differ.

Any help would be appreciated!

Hey, I personally did a clean install now with Windows SCU to see if the issue will return.. wondering if it's hardware compatibility issue with Windows 10 myself.. can you please list your full specs? Perhaps we all share something in common.

In my case the boot up process degraded every few days.. by few seconds.

katlani said:

Hey, I personally did a clean install now with Windows SCU to see if the issue will return.. wondering if it's hardware compatibility issue with Windows 10 myself.. can you please list your full specs? Perhaps we all share something in common.

In my case the boot up process degraded every few days.. by few seconds.

Degradation here might have been gradual too but I cannot confirm... def not SSD speeds... something IS wrong. Here are some specs from mine...

Now, would an update of Windows REALLY fix this? Doesn't this issue happen BEFORE we arrive "inside" the OS?

See I'm not so sure, you are probably seeing the ASUS logo on boot instead of Windows, and this is because you are booting in UEFI/GPT mode insead of the legacy BIOS/MBR mode (that is why you have 2 boot options for the same drive).

Can you please check the Widows Event Viewer for 101 events, if you are getting boot degradation warnings.

It will be in Applicatons and Services>Microsoft>Windows>Diagnostics-Performance>Operational

I remember something indicating a degradation on c:\Devic and c:\Dev which is not an actual path to be honest but might suggest a USB connected device and I suspectd my Corsair AIO cooling solution, as it connects via USB.

I dont understand any of this but here it is.
Im also downloading Windows SCU update atm.

BTW, I would like to return to the default blue windows logo at boot time. Do you know how to do this?

please click on each and every 101 event and see the filename and path, it will tell you what is causing it.
The path might be in the Details tab.

Why would you want to do that? the UEFI/GPT is recommended as it supports higher partition count, secure boot, and few more features. It is a newer boot option than BIOS/MBR.

If you really want to (i dont see why..), you can go to Manage and from there to Disk Management, right clicking on the partition and convert to MBR.

Does this help? OK so clearly I AM suffering from boot degradation but according to this, it has been going on longer than I remembered - probably because I don't reboot that often. I tend to leave my pc on all the time. Do you think these dates coincide with the Fall Creators release?

As far as changing boot logo back to WIndows, I wasn't saying I want to go back to BIOS - I thought it was possible to have the Win logo WITH the UEFI option. My bad.

Well yeah these are the events that i personally suspect, hence i asked to provide full specs, including if you have a liquid cooling solution connected via USB within.

I'm not sure its FCU related, as i just installed a fresh SCU and even on first reboot of the machine, without me installing any drivers yet, i saw a warning about this (not critical though) when i navigated to examine if any were received.

Perhaps these are not related, but they do imply something..

As for the logo, I guess there should be an option for that, perhaps in the bios, to disable the logo in boot.. maybe searching for UEFI boot with windows logo will yield something.

non liquid cooling here... although i have noticed an increase in fan noise (excessively loud) when booting up after full shut down - that is something i would say dates back to last autumn

orlando1974 said:

non liquid cooling here... although i have noticed an increase in fan noise (excessively loud) when booting up after full shut down - that is something i would say dates back to last autumn

OK good so thats not it i guess, that your air cooling solution is connected via fan header / power moll-ex.

I would really like to have someone in this thread or outside of it, which doesnt have the prolonging boot times, to check if he also has the warnings we saw above, to eliminate them in case they are irrelevant.

My system, and i hope you will finally share yours.. :)

Intel Core 8700K LGA-1151-v2 12M
Corsair H110i v2 Extreme Performance
ASUS Prime Z370-A LGA1151-v2
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-3200
ASUS 1080GTX Ti 11GB
Intel SSD 600p Series M.2 NVMe
ASUS DRW-24D5MT
Corsair Gold RM850x
Corsair Graphite 760T

All on latest bios/firmware/drivers.
Currently after a fresh install of SCU and waiting to see if the degradation occurs..