Acer Aspire R-14 - Two Hours to Boot

UpNorthDuck · 27 Nov 2020

My daughter has an Aspire R14, R3-471, touchscreen, manufactured 11/10/2014, Windows 10 Home version 2004 build 19041-630, 6GB RAM, Intel Core i5-4210U CPU. It runs fine once it boots up. However, when it is shut down and started up, or restarted, the screen is black and seems to have a pulsating oval black\dark gray "blob" in the middle of the screen. It will stay like this for about two hours before continuing to boot. As I said, once booted, it works fine.

I was able to do this a few times and load windows updates fine. I did a Reset on the PC, saving files and reinstalling Windows. It still does the same thing. I ran the Intel CPU utility and it passed all tests. I ran the Western Digital Data Lifeguard HDD tests and it passed both SMART and Extended tests 100%. The battery works and the charger works. I reviewed the Event Viewer System Logs and didn't really see anything that was alarming (but I am not an expert). I haven't done anything with the BIOS as I'm not sure how to get into it given the weird boot situation. It has passed Windows Defender scans and I am now running a Malwarebytes scan.

I have searched extensively and not found an obvious cause. Any help would be appreciated!

dalchina · 27 Nov 2020

Hi, example of appropriate tool to use here
VERY slow boot, only when restarting [SSD EVO 250gb]

Windows Performance Analyser (free from MS, technical).
Slow booting up - Windows stuck on black screen for several seconds

In a recent similar-sounding thread I believe this was an IDE device not responding appropriately during enumeration.

There are numerous threads on
slow boot
if you care to search tenforums for examples

Perky2012 · 27 Nov 2020

Could be a BIOS issue. Once it's booted try upgrading with the latest BIOS. I had a Lenovo that go into a boot loop and it took a day to fire up into Windows - a BIOS upgrade fixed it.

dalchina · 28 Nov 2020

Accessing BIOS: here's a list of the keys per manufacturer to press whilst booting: (should be before it starts to access the disk, which is presumably when your problem starts)
List of PC brands with their corresponding hot-keys

Also please add history:
- when did the PC last boot normally?
- which Win 10 build was in use then?
- what changed between it booting normally and now?

Does your daughter have a disk image created when the PC booted normally?
The routine use of disk imaging so people can go back to a previous good state- even if the imaged disk fails and has to be replaced- or the PC is stolen- is recommended again and again here. E.g. Macrium Reflect (free) + large enough external storage for image files.

Disk images also provide a full backup of imaged partitions and can allow quick recovery to a past state without technical help.

Megahertz · 28 Nov 2020

I would start by doing a offline disk test.

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
chkdsk c: /f
It will say your disk is in use and if you want to schedule to next start = yes
Restart
Pay attention on the results, specially bad blocks, bad clusters, bad sectors etc