Windows 10 occasional stuck at boot BEFORE spinning dots

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I have a problem where sometimes, when I start my computer it won't boot past the windows logo - the spinning dots don't even show up. Usually, a power down and power up again solves it - but sometimes it happens more than once in a row. And sometimes it doesn't happen at all.

I seem to remember something like this being a problem with Windows 8/8.1 too, and back then it was because of issues with USB 3 devices. But I have tried all combinations of disabled/enabled USB xHCI and eHCI devices that I can think of, and updates all of the USB drivers.

I can't find ANY log info or any errors in event log of what is going wrong when it doesn't boot. Is there any way to log boot info that early in the boot process?

Dynde

Posted 2015-09-01T08:33:23.943

Reputation: 173

Have you checked your UEFI firmware settings (or your BIOS/CMOS settings)? – juniorRubyist – 2015-09-21T15:26:18.917

What kind of laptop or desktop do you have (Make/Model)? – juniorRubyist – 2015-09-21T15:27:15.430

Have you been booting with USB Mass Storage Devices plugged in (e.g. Thumb Drive, External Storage, iPod, iPad, iPhone, Android Device, etc)? Your boot settings may be set to that. If you use a USB BitLocker unlock method, make sure your boot is set right. – juniorRubyist – 2015-09-21T15:30:52.130

@codeSwift4Life - I have the same settings as I had in my win 8.1 with no problems - and seeing as there's only occasionally problems, the UEFI shouldn't have anything to do with it. I have tried a bunch of combinations in the BIOS -no luck. My computer is custom built. X99-s mobo. I used to have problems in windows 7 (or 8) with mass storage devices plugged in causing something similar during bootup (usb3 drivers were causing this), so I've tried disabling usb and usb3 altogether, but no change. There's only my SSD in my boot list, and even boot overriding from BIOS to the SSD can cause it – Dynde – 2015-09-22T15:49:54.953

On my machine even Windows installation won't boot. No logs, no messages, nothing. – Arman Hayots – 2015-09-25T05:53:06.720

Upgraded from Win7 to Windows 10 a month ago, and every single cold boot fails in this exact way. Keyboard and mouse are dead, too. When I hit the (hard) reset button on my case, it reboots and everything works perfectly from there. Extremely consistent. Has to be USB, but boot log gets overwritten. – JimB – 2019-12-23T23:13:45.737

Answers

3

How do I enable boot logging?

  1. Press Windows+R, type msconfig and press Enter.

  2. Switch to the "Boot" tab and in the "Boot options" section:

    • Enable "Safe boot"
    • Enable "Boot log"

  3. If you want the logging to persist across multiple restarts then enable "Make all boot settings permanent" as well.

  4. Click "OK".

  5. Restart your PC.

  6. If your PC starts OK in Safe Mode repeat the above but disable "Safe boot" to get logging of a normal boot.

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DavidPostill

Posted 2015-09-01T08:33:23.943

Reputation: 118 938

2Okay, so this is all fine. But the problem is, that it's overwriting the boot log when I restart from the bad boot, and finally make it into windows. – Dynde – 2015-09-01T13:51:14.330

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You could boot from a CD (Hiren's Boot CD for example) after your bad boot and copy or read the boot log before booting again ...

– DavidPostill – 2015-09-01T14:00:15.227

2It's not producing anything in the log on the faulty boots, only boots that succeed are logged. – Dynde – 2015-09-18T20:25:35.017

Asked: 2015-09-01T08:33:23.943

Viewed: 2 493 times

Active: 2015-12-01T09:55:20.843