Windows 8.1 Starts EXTREMELY slowly

[madhouserevival]

Instead of the usual 15 seconds or so it's taking closer to 2 minutes (sometimes over 5!) to boot into Windows. Been going on for a few weeks. Of course, I've tried Shane's repair program.
 
I have a Silicon Power 240GB S60 SSD Drive (better than anything I've ever owned) and just in case I've refreshed it, low

level formatted and even used HDD Regenerator (no errors found as expected), changed sata cables, etc.  So I know it isn't

the hard drive. I've reset all bios settings to default, switched back and forth between IDE and AHCI modes, and even

deleted and recreated the partition twice. I reflashed my bios as well. I also restored a backup (macrium reflect) from

prior to the issue.

Here is a list of my startups (I've had MUCH more enabled without this issue though):




List of updates installed within the last 4 weeks or so:



Trying not to lose my software or settings but just in case tried refreshing the system. However, Windows 8's refresh

function  has NEVER worked as it fails no matter if I do it directly from inside Windows or from

the installation media. So no surprise that it didn't work this time either.

My Windows 7 installation boots normally albeit it's installed on a spinner hard drive.

Congratulations to Shane on his new place. 

[Willy2]

- Did you try a "Clean Boot" ? "SFC /Scannow" ?

[madhouserevival]

Many times. SFC is unable to restore a couple files though (similar to "Cannot repair member file [l:66{33}]”telemetry.ASM-WindowsDefault.json”) Tried following this http://thetechcookbook.com/windows-7-update-kb3022345-causing-corrupt-files/ but the zip file he offers is corrupt when I try to use it.  Frankly SFC /scannow never seems able to restore files in Windows 8.1 since I can remember just like it can't refresh a PC anymore. LOL Tried this also http://www.anandtech.com/show/5630/indepth-with-the-windows-8-consumer-preview/7  but Windows will not accept a custom directory (I want it to create the Wim on a separate hard drive i.e. I create a Refreshwim directory and using

Recimg /createimage E:\My Backups\Refreshwim

Even if I just do it the default way i.e.

Recimg /createimage C:\Refreshwim

the refresh will fail even after using the Recimg /setcurrent command.

I'm just going to have to reinstall Windows again which I hate having to do.

If that doesn't fix the slow boot issue than I have to assume my Sata controllers are dying and the motherboard needs replacing (Asus has never responded to my tickets as they only care about the NEWEST products that they make so RMA is not an option with them).

Edit: Just as a test I tried refreshing again but it told me that the windows drive is locked. So then I tried "Remove everything and reinstall Windows" and it told me that a required partition was missing.   Using diskpart I confirmed that the drive is NOT read only. Thought it had something to do with NeoSmart EASYBCD but windows will not repair the startup either so no chance of letting it reinstate the original boot files.   I hope Windows 10 doesn't act like this (frankly I wan't to install that as a fresh install not as an upgrade just to avoid this kind of garbage.)

[Boggin]

KB3022345 was responsible for irreparable Diagnostic Tracking service errors and the following KB3068708 which was supposed to have fixed it, produced the Telemetry errors.

If they are the only files that it is unable to repair, they can be ignored.

If the CBS log lists other irreparable files then open a Command Prompt (Admin) and enter findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"

This will put an icon onto the Desktop and when double clicked on will produce the nitty gritty bits in Notepad which you can then copy & paste into the reply box.

What do the following Dism commands report -

Do them in this order -

dism /online /cleanup-image /checkhealth

dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

This article could have something else for you to try http://www.pallareviews.com/3361/fix-windows-8-8-1-slow-boot-startup-performance-32-64-bit/

What is the make & model of your computer ?

[madhouserevival]

Yeah, I read about those before and I was wondering why one couldn't just remove those updates but no one seems to have mentioned going that route when I googled the issue.  I had also performed all of those dism commands you mentioned day before yesterday--usually fixes a LOT but not this time. I like that webpage you linked. I'm going to be going through it in a while as it looks interesting.

Anyway, I've already reinstalled windows. Luckily I had used Total Install to back up 99% of my programs, albeit some of them are missing their license registration when I restored them. BTW I found a program called RecImg Manager that makes it much, much easier (vs using the cmd prompt recimg stuff manually) to refresh Windows with most of the settings and programs intact, though it, too, was missing some registered license information and there were a few setting that didn't get restored properly. However, having used it to refresh my systems via the 45GB install.wim file Recimg created, my computer went back to taking several minutes to reboot. Hence the reason I've had to start from a completely new install and settle for restoring at least my software with Total Install.

Don't think I'll be touching Windows Update this time around until Windows 10 goes public at the end of the month.

[Boggin]

I think those updates have been re-released so that they no longer produce those sfc errors, so you should be able to reinstall them.

At what point did the slow boot up return - could you nail it to a particular program or was it slow before any of the programs were installed ?

[madhouserevival]

Started a few weeks ago. Thought maybe it was my Asus board going bad (I HATE Asus BTW). I also thought maybe vjoy (virtual joystick) may have done something. I kept going back and uninstalling software but nothing I targeted seemed to be it. There is some setting is all I can figure as I've restored 99% of my software this time and the problem doesn't reappear. About to reinstall my Nvidia drivers as well as my Corsair Link software (controls my water cooler) and hope they don't cause an issue. Wish me luck.

[Boggin]

I've recently come across a thread on another forum and that OP's boot was taking longer than it used to be which seemed to be related to KB3022345.

For him, that update seemed to damage Dism and after restoring with a system image to before that KB and then reinstalling all of the updates again, found that the new issue was no longer causing problems and his boot up speed is back to normal.

With Dism mainly just being a Win 8/8.1 tool, that KB didn't have the same effect in Win 7.

[madhouserevival]

Funny thing just happened. I selected 12 updates (mostly Netframework), but upon installing my system decided to install 100 updates instead LOL Luckily neither of those troublesome updates are to be found either on my system or on the Windows update page. Guess they removed that garbage finally?

[Boggin]

Just run the /restorehealth or a sfc /scannow in between the updates, although you probably have them all installed by now and hopefully without any adverse effects.