Windows 10: Exceptionally long boot times (8+ minutes) after installing Fall CU.

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

 

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*.

 

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SOLUTION
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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.)

 

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

 

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...

 

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

Excellent news.

 

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. <.<

 

The important thing is it is fixed, you are happy and because you posted your solution others will find it. Take care.