Exceptionally long boot times (8+ minutes) after installing Fall CU.

Nofew · 18 Nov 2017

Maybe this is my mistake, but the tool you linked me to errors out. 0x80071069. There was more text, but I was dead tired and didn't think to write it down. Hopefully the error code is sufficient! Anyway, it doesn't write any output files after it gives me that, and it only pops that after it reboots my computer, waits the two minutes it says to wait, does some other tasks like it's working normally, and then finishes everything besides actually writing any files.

Was I supposed to run this in safe mode? If so I'll give that a shot; the issues persist while in safe mode. Adding a new user might be interesting, and I'll try it, but I don't think it'll affect my boot times; I'm at the spinner with Sager's logo rather than the "Welcome to Windows, you're now being logged in, preparing your desktop and stuff!" screen for the eight minutes. The actual login and everything else goes by as fast as it always has.

Right now I'll be a while before I can actually execute any steps; it just occurred to me that my laptop still operates and that means I can make a new backup, so I'm doing that now so if I can't fix things and have to roll back later, I don't have to panic about trying to make the backup right before the 30-day window expires.

zbook · 18 Nov 2017

There should be no errors download and installing or running WPR.

Check the version:
windows software development kit
10.0.14393.33

Select additional profiles for performance recording:
First level triage
CPU usage
Disk I/O activity
File I/O activity
Registry I/O activity
Heap usage
Pool usage
Virtual alloc usage

performance scenario: boot
Detail level: light
Logging mode: file
Number of iterations: 3

Once you click start for boot testing you should see:
WPR: boot trace in progress
Run 1 of 3
Gathering system information for on off boot
Restarting with rotating dots
computer icon
computer icon with rotating dots
splash screen
log on screen
WPR boot trace in progress
Run 2 of 3
etc.

on/off Boot Trace information was successfully saved
File name: C:\Users\[computer]\documents\WPR Files\Desktop....etc

open tracings: there should be 3 approximately 1 MB each

Nofew · 19 Nov 2017

Errrr... Well. Okay. Yeah. The traces are about 1.4 gigs each. They compress very well with 7-zip and come down to about 100 megs each, but they're still too big to upload to the forum here directly. What should I do now?

Spoiler alert: I'm not an expert with this tool, but after glancing at the logs, I'm pretty sure the non-verbose logs won't help; there's a big gaping hole over everything where the system's getting stuck during boot except for the disk I/O, but the details there are very terse. I ran the tool again but only with the three I/O options enabled and this time set it to verbose, resulting in a log file that's about 2.8 gigs uncompressed (about 114 megs with 7-zip). Based on my whopping five minutes of experience, I've noticed that smss.exe is messing with the disk *solidly* the entire time things appear frozen, and that System(4) finds an End of File somewhere. These are the only two processes that seem to be doing literally anything at all during all this time. You can see screenshots over at Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet . I don't know if this is enough information to help solve things, but I figure it's better to at least try to give'ya guys something and hope for the best rather than just start nagging you guys about where to upload 500 megs of data.

My first instinct was to check if my SSDs are failing, so I ran Intel Rapid Storage Technology's verification test. It passed. Pshew! I also ran chkdsk (three phases with the OS on, not the 5-phase one since I figure Intel's test covers phase 4 and 5), got no issues, and "sfc /scannow", which reported no errors. My next instinct is assuming a system file of some sort is missing or damaged, but I'm afraid to follow the instructions at Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Installation Upgrade Tutorials for fear that it might make it impossible for me to do a rollback. Is that fear valid? Furthermore, is that diagnosis even valid since my system eventually does boot, rather consistently, after eight minutes, and "sfc /scannow" said I'm all good?

EDIT: Gah, figures, forgot to test with a new user. Oh well, I'm fairly sure that this is happening well before login anyway, given what I saw before WPRUI and what I'm seeing in the tool as well; that giant spike near the end is DWM and stuff coming up, which happens in a flash and is registered in the non-verbose logs on the CPU and such as well. I can still give making a second user account a try if'ya want, but right now I need to sleep and be up early tomorrow.. Er, today. Snap.

EDIT2: Forgot to mention, no errors this time! I wasn't sure what to check before so I checked basically every box. Evidently it didn't like that.

zbook · 19 Nov 2017

This is some information on smss.exe
What Is smss.exe and Why Is It Running?
If they don’t stop in regular fashion, the system may hang because of it.
Unfortunately the link did not have troubleshooting steps for the hang.
Use file explorer to search for smss.exe
If it is located within C:\Windows\System32 folder it is in the normal location.
If it located outside this folder it is malware.

The concern you raised about the roll back and the status of the hardware can be addressed in this fashion:
1) perform the roll back now
2) once you have rolled back the hardware can be checked
3) if all the hardware passes some of the computer files can be checked
4) once all of he above has been troubleshooted and optimized plan to upgrade.
5) if there are any problems with the upgrade you will then have all of the test results and can better plan additional steps.
6) A image of the drive can be made after the rollback
7) An alternative plan could be a clean install followed by a restored image.

If you don't want to roll back now to test the hardware the options that I am aware with safe mode and clean boot failure are:
1) in place upgrade repair
2) Windows performance recorder tracings
3) Microsoft systernals

This is a file collector that we use in the BSOD forum. It will collect any mini dumps if available and it will also collect: msinfo32, dxdiag, drivers, install, uninstall, hosts, event viewer, etc.
BSOD Crashes and Debugging - Windows 10 Forums
After running it a file will appear on the desktop.
Post a zip into the thread.

In cause you have any difficulty posting in the thread you should be able to post share links using one drive or drop box:
Upload photos and files to OneDrive - OneDrive
Share OneDrive files and folders - Office Support

Macrium:
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Backup Restore Tutorials

Microsoft Systernals: Process monitor
Windows Sysinternals - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs
Sysinternals Process Utilities - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs

Nofew · 20 Nov 2017

Sorry about the slow reply, things got busy today!

smss.exe is in system32, and Virustotal reports that it's all good. Huzzah!

Attached is the dump you requested from the tool you provided in the BSOD forum. I've also found out that my backup service allows me to share files, so I'll link to the WPR stuff here. Please note that they only allow 1 gig of downloads per day. I don't think this will be an issue if only people who are serious about checking these things out go grab them, but please consider carefully if you truly need boot_1, _2, and _3.

Link #1: https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/WP...3-34.Boot_1.7z
Link #2: https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/WP...3-34.Boot_2.7z
Link #3: https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/WP...3-34.Boot_3.7z
Link #4 (Verbose, file, registry and disk I/O only): https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/WP...t_1_Verbose.7z

Special notes: Every time WPR launches, it complains it can't register keyboard shortcuts cuz they're already taken. I don't know by what. Regardless, I have to hit OK before the two minute countdown starts, which made _1 longer than the rest by about 50-60 seconds. This was my fault and is not an anomaly. I closed my laptop screen by mistake mid-boot on _2, so I'm sorry if that affects things there! I'd suggest starting with _1 and _3 if you absolutely need to compare two for some reason.

I'll wait a little longer on trying to roll things back in case a solution becomes apparent. I'd really like to know, just for the sake of knowing, what the heck went wrong in the first place. I'm absolutely *baffled*.

Nofew · 20 Nov 2017

================================================================================
SOLUTION
================================================================================

OKAY DOUBLEPOST BUT WORTH IT I FIXED IT HOOOOOLY GUANO YES HAHAHAAAAA IT BOOTS FASTER THAN 1703 DID HAAAAA O____________O

"powercfg -h off". That's it. I just noticed that for some insane reason Windows was reading/writing/something-ing the *entire* hiberfile.sys thing every time I booted, and I have 64 gigs of RAM so the file's massive. Turned hibernation off, hiberfile.sys goes away, everything's normal now, no Fast Startup option required (or supported, cuz, 'yaknow, Hibernation's disabled!) -- I forgot that I did this when I first got my laptop about a year ago and 1709 must've undone it! I don't know if I had the same problem back then because I made this change so early (with 64 gigs of RAM, hiberfile.sys is massive and took up too much space),

BUT STILL! SUCCESS! HOOOOOOOLY NUGGITS. O______________O

EDIT: Newbie tutorial. Click Start. Type "cmd". Right-click the thingy, run as admin. Type "powercfg -h off" without quotes. Hit enter. That's it. You're done. It's fixed. You can't hibernate now, but it's okay. You can boot within a reasonable period of time now. o_o

================================================================================
SOLUTION
================================================================================

PS: I'll invalidate the links to the .7z files I posted earlier eventually so that this doesn't come back to haunt me some day in the future. I'll leave it up for now in case someone wants to try to figure out why this hibernation bug even exists in the first place, because this is technically a workaround and stuff. It'd be /nice/ to be able to hibernate, after all! Not for me, maybe, I personally never use the feature pretty much anywhere, but someone else somewhere might want to!

Anyway, point is, if you want them, get them now, please. (Remember that bandwidth limits are still a thing, but yeah.)

zbook · 20 Nov 2017

That's great.
In many cases the event logs will display failures of fast startup or hibernation where there are problems. In this case we will never know as the event logs only existed 2 days.
The event log only spanned 2 days from 11/17/2017-11/19/2017 and during this period there was no failure of hibernation.
During the 2 days there was 1 unexpected crash.
It was not a bsod.
The rest of the event log was unremarkable.
There were a few boot-start drivers that failed to load that could be updated:
bflwf KIller Bandwidth Control c:\windows\system32\drivers\bwcw10x64.sys
svthansp svthansp SvThANSP \??\c:\program files (x86)\hotkey\svthansp.sys
truecrypt truecrypt truecrypt c:\windows\system32\drivers\truecrypt.sys
vfpext vfpext Microsoft Azure VFP Switch Extension c:\windows\system32\drivers\vfpext.sys

There is too little free space on the C: drive.
Please free up 25 GB

Drive: C:Free Space: 9.3 GBTotal Space: 844.1 GBFile System: NTFSModel: Intel Raid 0 Volume

There are currently 14 startup items.
Reduce this to as few as possible to have better boot times.
Use control+ alt + del > task manager > startup tab > right click > change enable to disable
Use msconfig > hide all microsoft services > uncheck as many boxes as possible to reduce the number of non-microsoft services

Nofew · 20 Nov 2017

I start up in two and a half seconds now. I'm fine with this. I can install sixty billion toolbars in Internet Explorer and be okay. (Nobody do this. Toolbars are bad.) o____o...

Anyway, all seriousness, thank you for the diagnosis! I really appreciate it, and I actually did free up that space (by getting rid of hiberfile.sys. XD).

The drivers are actually fine somehow after boot, and the unexpected crash is weird. Maybe I should ask about that cuz it just happened again.. Basically if I leave my laptop's lid closed long enough, the screen doesn't turn back on when I open it, and pressing the power button doesn't turn the laptop off. (I have it set to turn it off on pressing and releasing it.) It's like the processor is hitting HALT somehow..

Anyway, that's an issue for another day. Very important one, but I have an official "One crisis per day" policy.

EDIT: Nope, it just doesn't turn off when I hit the button even after confirming the settings are correct, now. Blah. Oh well. Tomorrow. o_o...

Caledon Ken · 20 Nov 2017

Caledon Ken said:

Lets assume for minute that setting is not taking place, not sure why but let's assume.

If you go to command prompt(admin) or powershell(admin) and enter the following command to shutoff hibernation which will kill Fast Startup.

powercfg -h off

Test. To reverse swap off for on

Ken

LOL. and what did I suggest in Post #4 of this thread?

Excellent news.

Nofew · 20 Nov 2017

Oh my gosh.

...I'm sorry. x.x' -- Seriously though, changing it in the GUI did bring about /a/ change, so I thought doing it via the command prormpt would just be redundant and suck another eight minutes out of my life. I think I was getting salty at Windows its self, and then I did bad stuff like ignoring helpful things. <.<