Boot hangs with just the logo displayed

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eugeneg

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I have a 6 year old PC that was running Windows 7 just fine. I upgraded to Win 10 with no problems. Now almost every time I try to boot Windows gets stuck and hangs displaying just the Windows logo (4 boxes in the centre of the screen) and nothing else.

If I shut down abruptly then start again it works just fine. I then do a SFC/scannow and no problems are found. But after a normal shutdown next time I boot the same problem arrises.

Is the problem with Windows or the motherboard ? how do I set about diagnosing the cause of this please ?
 
Yes, never any such problem with Windows 7 but always with Windows 10. That clearly suggests a software cause but beyond the SFC I don't know what to do or how to set about diagnosing further. Why it should work on each second boot when it hangs on the first is a further mystery.
 
Does it work correctly in safe mode, or safe mode with networking?

Is it a recent w10 update which has caused it?

Event viewer, logs, logs, and more logs.

Make and model of the machine may also help.
 
Indeed. It really is irritating when techs are no better at gathering and relaying information then the end users they claim to support.

Ok off soapbox so that I can also add my idea.

In MSCONFIG under the boot menu you can check Boot Log and OS Boot information for more help.

Let it run, crash and then boot up with a bootable linux disk or WinPE disk and navigate to your windows folder and find the ntbtlog.txt file. Copy it off and have look at it. Even post it here if it doesn't provide you with some obvious clues. Note it is important that you gather the file from a boot disk. If you boot the system again to the windows desktop that file may get overwritten making this exercise pointless.
 
First allow me to place my soapbox opposite and say that some comments here and elsewhere are most unfriendly. If you have nothing kind to say then keep it to yourself; you do not know the context the question was asked in nor the questioner's history. Once upon a time you too were less knowledgeable.

Now back to topic. Short reply would 'problem fixed by disabling some startup services'.

Booting safe did work every time which led me to disable unwanted services (MSCONFIG) and progs (task manager). That did resolve the issue but there were other things I noticed: one Windows account was set to require a password with a 90 day reset requirement, this was evidence of corruption rather than user fiddling - problem cleared with a NET USER command. Strangely, on the login screen the user was listed twice.

Event logs showed several issues which were not understood by me. Reliability history showed 4 abrupt shutdowns. There were no relevant problems recorded. I did not need to get into boot logging.

Make and model of machine was asked for. It is a custom built Asus based device with 4GB RAM and a SSD. No extra mods or peripherals.

So there is still a mystery for me in understanding how this came about immediately after an uneventful new installation. The abrupt shutdowns may explain some corruptions but there was a problem before the first abrupt shutdown.

Anyway, time is too short to pursue this as an academic exercise. Many thanks to those who took time to make helpful comments.
 
eugeneg said:
So there is still a mystery for me in understanding how this came about immediately after an uneventful new installation.
Click to expand...
Clean install or upgrade?
Do you have the latest BIOS? (6yr old machine)
eugeneg said:
It is a custom built Asus based device
Click to expand...

How about the MB model # so we can see if there are any known issues.
Have you tested memory and SSD for errors?
 
It was an upgrade not clean install. BIOS version not checked - good point Porthos.

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A785TD-V EVO Rev X.0x
Serial Number: MT709AK11206258
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 0505 11/17/2009

RAM not tested as errors are repeated rather than random. SSD tested but only a quick test - chkdsk 5 phase showed no problems.
 
What services did you disable? What were the events that were logged that you didn't understand? Lots of techs here may have seen them before.

Was the abrupt shutdowns caused by BSODs? If so that too usually gets logged.

I'd still test memory. I've seen plenty of memory failures that can cause a repeated if intermittent error. Memory errors do not have to be random.
 
eugeneg said:
First allow me to place my soapbox opposite and say that some comments here and elsewhere are most unfriendly. If you have nothing kind to say then keep it to yourself; you do not know the context the question was asked in nor the questioner's history. Once upon a time you too were less knowledgeable.

Now back to topic. Short reply would 'problem fixed by disabling some startup services'.

Booting safe did work every time which led me to disable unwanted services (MSCONFIG) and progs (task manager). That did resolve the issue
Click to expand...

Wait what? It was freezing at the windows 10 logo but before you saw the little loading indicator circles right? Its important for you to clarify that for me because if it froze at the windows 10 logo before you saw the loading indicator and you fixed it by disabling some startup services then services are loading earlier than I expected.
 
I just thought of something as I was thinking about why services would be loading so quickly after the windows logo appears. You went from windows 7 to windows 10. Issue could be related to Fast Startup feature, if you do the standard hybrid shutdown and you turn on the machine its going to do the fast startup but if it freezes and restart via reset or power button i'm pretty sure its a regular boot and no longer using the fast startup feature.
 
Also no mention of the video card in this. This has onboard ATI video but also has plenty of slots for expansions. Incompatible video drivers could cause hibernation/fast boot problems.

Almost all Windows 10 instability issues that I have seen have been hardware NOT software issues.
 
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