Windows 10: Windows takes two hours to boot every reboot. Goes to spinning circles

I have a very limiting issue. I've had Windows 10 for months and all has been fine. Then all of a sudden about 5 days ago I rebooted my machine and it passed by the normal logon screen and went straight to a blue screen (not a BSD screen, just a normal blue background color screen) with dots spinning in a circle. If I wait about two hours it will finally end and give me my logon screen.

Once in Windows, I have no errors and and if I check my "Updates" status, there are no errors. So, once in, I create an Image of my C: Drive thinking that now I have a good and bootable OS. But on reboot, I get the spinning circles. If I restore C: with the image, I get the spinning circles.

In desperation I've downloaded "WinShowHideUpdates" and hidden every update in the list. I reboot and the same thing, two hours to boot while stuck on spinning circles.

So I'm really stuck. I can't update anything that requires a reboot unless I want to waste the rest of the day. Has anyone seen this issue? Is there a way to stop it?

:)

 

Slow Start Up on Computer

When I turn on computer and it goes to desktop, the blue loading circle just spins and spins, and when it stops spinning l click on a program such as yahoo, Google, Chrome or Microsoft Edge, then and takes me to the site and it disappears and the circle
keeps spinning. This is a continuous cycle and very frustrating. Sometimes takes over an hour getting on a site just clicking on and off. What could the reason be??? Windows 10???? Help Please

 

Windows Won't Start - Infinite Spinning Circle of Dots

All of a sudden, Windows 10 won't launch and no recovery options are working for me.

I turned off my computer just four hours ago and everything was fine. Now, when I turn it on, Windows won't start. After the usual BIOS messages appear, a spinning circle of dots appears on a black screen with the "Asus" logo. The circle spins indefinitely
and nothing else happens.

Every third time I restart the computer, I get an automatic recovery message but then the same infinite spinning circle. No recovery options are ever displayed.

If I insert my Windows 10 installation DVD, I get "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD.." but then get the same Windows infinite spinning circle. No Windows installation or recovery options are displayed.

Once the spinning dots appear, the keyboard goes dead, so I can't apply Ctrl + Alt + Del to reboot or otherwise restart without holding the power button on the computer. The keyboard and mouse work fine in BIOS, etc.

So, I can't reach the recovery options to Safe Boot or Restore. And I can't even re-install Windows!

Any assistance is appreciated.

 

Hi RobH2 and welcome to Tenforums.
Question: Is this system an "update" from W7/W8.x, or a clean install of W10?
You could try running sfc /scannow to see if your system files are in good shape.
Turn off Fast Startup, if it's not off already. (This option may not appear at all on a desktop anymore.)
Perhaps a repair install with an in-place upgrade might get things back to normal.
Let us know how it goes.

 

Thanks for the fast response. It's a clean install. I've spent dozens of hours reading and diagnosing. I've run 'scannow' and it only reports a couple of minor issues. 'Fast Startup' is OFF. I've run a repair install several times. I can try it again.

This is a tough one.

 

Would you please run this command in an admin command prompt and paste the results here in a CODE BOX for me? I'd like to see the errors:
Code: findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"[/quote] (I don't want the whole cbs log.)

Have you downloaded the latest ISO from MSTechBench for the repair install, or are you using an older version?

Have you tried a dism repairhealth? (although a repair install should do the same thing, if not better...)

What about the health of your drive? Have you run chkdsk?

Were there any other drives attached to your system when you did the clean install? This includes secondary internal drives, external drives, flash drives, etc.

I don't see where you've indicated that you've had any BSODs, but, you might try installing WhoCrashed, run it, and see if there are any dump files available for analysis.

Please let me know if you need any links for info on these things. Normally I provide them in the initial post, but it appears that you are familiar with all this stuff. *Wink

EDIT: Can you post a screenshot of your Disk Management window? What do you see in the Reliability History, anything?

 

Will do most of this tonight as I need to get work done and can't risk having to reboot.

In the meantime:

1. Downloading from MSTechBench now. Will try repair tonight.
2. All 6 of my drives report that they are in good shape and SMART is good.
3. Clean install had only a CD drive attached.
4. I don't get any BSOD's or any crashes. All is fine and rock solid. I just can't boot to my login screen without getting "spinning circles" and two hours for that to finish and give me my login. After that, all is perfectly fine and stable.

Code: PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop out-file : Could not find a part of the path 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\%userprofile%\Desktop\sfc At line:1 char:1 + findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\s ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : OpenError: ) [Out-File], DirectoryNotFoundException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : FileOpenFailure,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.OutFileCommand[/quote]



I didn't realize 'Reliability Monitor' existed. This is potentially a very handy tool. I came straight from Windows 7 to Win 10. Did Windows 7 have this? If so, I don't know how I could have missed it as I do spend a lot of time under the hood, not like you, but more than most people. It looks like 'Adobe Acrobat DC' is having some issues. This could be it. Windows may be trying to repair it on every boot. Is there another log for dump file that might corroborate that and show that it's what's holding the boot process up? I've attached an RM screenshot:




Now I have something to explore. I'll report in later. Let me know your thoughts.

Thank you.... Rob

 

That's fine, no rush. I have some work to get done today as well.

I would first remove Adobe DC Reader, and any 3rd party AV; also monitoring tools (i.e. Speccy, etc.) Of course, I am hoping you're just using Defender, because uninstalling a 3rd party AV will require a "potential" 2-hour reboot....Please, let's discuss things before you start the repair install/in-place upgrade.

Just to be sure - chkdsk on the OS drive came back okay? Because SMART can be fine and chkdsk may still be needed. You can run chkdsk while in the OS without the boxes checked for repair. As long as it's a "read-only" chkdsk, you won't need a reboot.

Perfect!

Yes, I figured that. Still would be good to run it, to see if there are any problem logs available.

[/quote] IDK-It seems the command wasn't complete - did you get the part where it makes the "sfcdetails.txt" file on your desktop? Because what you've posted here is not what I expected. Here is the code again:
findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"
I would like the contents of that text file it puts on your desktop for evaluation.

Absolutely a very handy tool! I believe it did indeed exist in W7 (I can't verify that atm, but I will next time I'm in the VM). Acrobat DC is a problem, yes. I would uninstall it for now.

So, the yellow triangles all correspond to Adobe DC Reader and reboots? What are you seeing for failures with the red Xs? I am not sure where to go for a log; this is usually as far as I need to go when trouble-shooting.

What AV are you using?

Yes, no rush. Let's just make sure we touch base before you start the repair install. *Wink

 

My AV is AVG. I do have Speccy and another snooper that came with my Corsair liquid chillers called, "Corsair Link 4." Since I'm going to be doing these tasks at 1AM and you won't be around, what do we need to "discuss" prior to doing the "repair install/in-place upgrade?"

All 6 disks passed CHDKSK with no issues.

Can't get this to run. I've tried a bunch of variations and no luck. I copied cbs.log to my temp folder incase it was a permissions issue. I also "TookOwnership" of the file, no help. I wasn't getting any permission errors but just TookOwnership anyway. Here's what I've tried.
findstr /c:”[SR]” %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >sfcdetails.txt


findstr /c:”[SR]” c:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >sfcdetails.txt


findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt


findstr /c:”[SR]” Temp\CBS.log >sfcdetails.txt >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt


findstr /c:”[SR]” Temp\CBS.log


notepad c:\temp\cbs.log


findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >nvision4d\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt

Here's the error I get:
PS C:\> findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt
out-file : Could not find a part of the path 'C:\%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt'.
At line:1 char:1
+ findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdet ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OpenError: (*Smile [Out-File], DirectoryNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : FileOpenFailure,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.OutFileCommand


So, I guess the main question is what do you want me to know before I do the "repair install/in-place upgrade?" It won't matter if I make a mess. I create a full Image every morning at 7AM and have the one from today. So I can quickly get back to where I was when today started out. However, I've done a bunch of configuration with IOS Development and Unity today. I'd like to have not wasted that effort. Will the "repair install/in-place upgrade" wreck that?

Edit: Forgot to add this. Same error on 3 occasions from WhoCrashed. No others:

On Wed 3/9/2016 3:54:19 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\030916-32421-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!WheapCreateLiveTriageDump+0x81)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x7, 0xFFFFE000DE42AAE8, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

 

No.

Do it.

Then upload the .dmp file as WhoCrashed isn't that reliable.

 

See further below...

Okay good.

It appears you're missing the second set of quotes where it tells where to make the file:

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"

Yeah, you won't get access to the CBS log where it resides; you have to copy/paste it somewhere to be able to open it in notepad. But the entire log will be huge, and I only wanted to see the searched results.
Maybe try copying and pasting the command from the tutorial? (see option #5)

No, as lx07 said, it shouldn't mess with any of that.
I have no experience with Corsair Link4 - how much effort would be required to uninstall it before doing the repair install and then put it back? Is there a profile that can be saved or something? I'd also like to see Adobe Reader DC, AVG and Speccy uninstalled as well. And, since you have daily images, that answered my next question.

Looking here, (Parameter 1 = 0x7) it appears there may also be a boot issue going on, but I can't be positive because, as lx07 said, WhoCrashed can be unreliable at times. If you do follow the BSOD posting instructions and upload the dump, I will see if we can get a BSOD analyst to have a look at it for you.

p.s. we'll see how late I am around tonight; have lots to do...

 

OK, I'm getting setup to do a "repair install/in-place." One thing that I can't do is disable 'SecureBoot' right now as then I'll be held hostage for two hours to get back in. So, I assume I can change that on my first reboot after the repair if necessary.

Wish me luck.

 

No problem not disabling Secure Boot. Good luck! *Smile

 

Yea, it hasn't seemed to be an issue that I didn't disable Secure Boot. However, I'm a little worried as everything appears to be finished, it rebooted, and I've been staring at spinning dots for 15 minutes. I hope it's just a singular Windows Update task and once done ill be good. Still concerns me. I'll report in as soon as I can with details.

 

I did a repair install on my main rig recently and never disabled it - made no difference for me.

Let's hope the 15-minutes (or more) of spinning dots is just this once, from the repair.
Once you get in, watch the disk activity in Task Manager. It will be at 100% for a while, finishing up things. Just let it do its thing. While you're waiting on the HDD activity to slow down, turn System Restore back on, and Fast Startup back off (they usually get reset to default).

I'm about ready to call it a day. Will check back in the morning.