After POST, Extended Black Screen Delay Before Windows Login

Hello,

I'm running a new install of Windows 10 Pro, 20H2 (OS Build 19042.746). Windows is booting from NVME (WD SN850), which is setup correctly in the BIOS.

At boot, the ASUS logo pops up, the Windows "circle of dots" spins for a moment, and then the screen goes dark for 20+ seconds, until the Login screen comes up. I have updated all of my drivers (nothing is flagged in device manager), and disabled fastboot. Still, the black screen persists.

After trying (unsuccessfully) to solve the problem through my own searching, I think I figured out how to run a boot trace. The problem is that I can't interpret it, beyond seeing that Winlogon Init seems to be taking a long time. Any suggestions from those better able to interpret the trace are very much appreciated!

Thanks so much in advance - this is driving me crazy, on a PC which should boot instantly to desktop!

boot_1.etl - Google Drive

zinou said:

Hi @demaximis and welcome to Tenforums,

to get a better interpretation of the boot trace, use Autologon to eliminate delays when you enter your credentials.

Then record another boot trace, compress it and share it.

Gotcha - thanks for helping me, help you, help me! I engaged the autologon, and this time, instead of a black screen, I get the blurred image of the login screen, until 20+ seconds later, I get logged in. I also compressed the trace this time (facepalm... sorry). Again, thanks in advance for helping me try to solve this mystery.

boot_1.zip - Google Drive

zinou said:

Please, record the boot trace using Windows Performance Recorder and not xbootmgr.
You can find a tutorial here

So sorry again - hopefully, this will fix my request. Please see attached.

Boot Trace.zip - Google Drive

zinou said:

I think your slow login is caused by the fact that Windows is making too much time to load your user profile, probably because of your Webroot antivirus !

I hope this will help.

It helped a lot - thank you so much. Uninstalling Webroot solved the issue, and the PC booted to desktop instantly. Now, I must figure out why Webroot is causing these delays! Thank you for educating me and your diligent responses.