Windows not booting from cold start.

[Joe Pascal]

Weird problem... My system hangs at a flashing cursor after I switch it on.

However, if I enter the BIOS, then save and restart without changing anything it boots straight into Windows no problem.

Once in Windows, I can restart and there is no problem until I shut down and attempt to cold-start again.

Also I noticed that if I leave the flashing cursor for about 20 seconds, it seems to drop down a couple of lines, at which point it is possible to Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart and the system then boots up no problemo.

This is driving me nuts guys so any suggestions as to what might be causing the problem would be very much appreciated.

[SenMithrarin85]

is the boot order in the bios correct?

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von SenMithrarin85:

is the boot order in the bios correct?

^This.

What do you have in your system right now? How many HDD/SSD? How many Devices connected to your PC? What are these devices connected to your PC?

[SenMithrarin85]

the fact that the pc boots via an override and not by itself leads me to believe the boot settings in the bios are incorrect. make sure the windows drive has highest priotity.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von SenMithrarin85:

the fact that the pc boots via an override and not by itself leads me to believe the boot settings in the bios are incorrect. make sure the windows drive has highest priotity.

A note about that....the drive is going to be labled as the hard drive's model rather than "Windows Boot Partition"

For instance...my OS hard disk is the Seagate Baracuda 2TB hard disk...its model number is "ST2000DM006 "...the BIOS will label it as such.

[Joe Pascal]

Hi guys, yes thanks for the suggestions.

I have been all over the BIOS and set SATA1 to the primary boot in the normal, automatic and emergency boot sequence to try to fix this. I even have tried putting everything else in the 'Excluded from boot' section so my main drive is the only boot device lol.

Maybe worth mentioning that if I put a windows boot DVD in the drive, it gives the message "Press any key to boot form disk" and if you let that time out and resume normal bootup this gets around the problem... very strange.

The OS drive I have is a 250gb Samsung Evo SSD - brand new fresh install of Windows 7 - but previously Windows 8 with same issue. I started with a 2TB Seagate but with this problem I thought I may as well grab a SSD to test a swapout to fix the issue since I was planning on getting one sooner or later. When it does boot to Windows it's a dream, from POST to browsing the internet is about 15 seconds.

There isn't much else going on with the PC. It's a refurb Lenovo m93p with i7 4790 and 8 gb RAM. Running a monitor off the integrated GPU. It's a bare bones machine that I was about to upgrade to a gaming machine.

It does smell like a boot sequence related problem, My only other idea was the somewhat puny 270w PSU could be failing and causing some kind of post delay (forgive me for desperate guessing)

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pascalean:

Hi guys, yes thanks for the suggestions.

I have been all over the BIOS and set SATA1 to the primary boot in the normal, automatic and emergency boot sequence to try to fix this. I even have tried putting everything else in the 'Excluded from boot' section so my main drive is the only boot device lol.

The OS drive I have is a 250gb Samsung Evo SSD - brand new fresh install of Windows 7 - but previously Windows 8 with same issue. I started with a 2TB Seagate but with this problem I thought I may as well grab a SSD to test a swapout to fix the issue since I was planning on getting one sooner or later. When it does boot to Windows it's a dream, from POST to browsing the internet is about 15 seconds.

There isn't much else going on with the PC. It's a refurb Lenovo m93p with i7 4790 and 8 gb RAM. Running a monitor off the integrated GPU. It's a bare bones machine that I was about to upgrade to a gaming machine.

My only idea was the somewhat puny 270w PSU could be failing and causing some kind of post delay (forgive me for desperate guessing)

So you still have the issue yes?

When you do cold boot, how does it boot, does it just stay at the BIOS splash screen?

For last part, depending what GPU you get, if it needs over 300watts, I would recommend bronze/gold 80+ rated brands by EVGA, Seasonic, Super Flower, Corsair 2016 models or newer for brozen series.

[Seven7]

this is a lithium battery BIOS CR2032 - sometimes even in a new computer can be installed the old one, which was in stock up to 5 years, and the maximum period of guaranteed service is 8
and for thinner models it is 2 years less

and PSU, of course - on start it need more power than when working
and electrolytes in the PSU have the property of losing capacity, drying out and sulphating = a drop in power

[Joe Pascal]

On a cold boot... on startup it displays a Lenovo splash screen for about 6 seconds and then all I see is a flashing cursor/cmd prompt type thing at the top left. It stays like this indefinitely.

As I said before, interestingly if I wait another 20 seconds usually this cursor seems to drop down a couple of lines at which point I can press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and reset the system and then it boots fine.

I am leaning toward a PSU change might be the answer. So I'll grab one today and try since I needed to get it anyway. Thanks for taking the time averyone.

[NightCrawlerZ69]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pascalean:

Weird problem... My system hangs at a flashing cursor after I switch it on.

However, if I enter the BIOS, then save and restart without changing anything it boots straight into Windows no problem.

Once in Windows, I can restart and there is no problem until I shut down and attempt to cold-start again.

Also I noticed that if I leave the flashing cursor for about 20 seconds, it seems to drop down a couple of lines, at which point it is possible to Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart and the system then boots up no problemo.

This is driving me nuts guys so any suggestions as to what might be causing the problem would be very much appreciated.

When in dought set you Bios to default! the goto the boot order and put you main hard drive C: the one with Windows on it as first or second in Boot order.
I have my SSD hardrive as first boot then my DVD drive as second, then I disable the others! less for the computer to Process. I have been building my own Systems for about 12years and I mainly play Video games on them.
Let me know if that works if not take a screen shot of your Bios setting and post it and when in dought put windows in a you can reset you Windows without loosing everything It dosn't take long.
Steve Z.

[Joe Pascal]

Cheers Steve. I've been building systems off and on for 20 years myself. Never had this problem before and it's stumped me. Trust me I have been crawling all over the BIOS for days, setting defaults and trying hard drive delay, compatibility mode, rearranging the boot sequence, jumping the CMOS etc.

As I said, I'm waiting on a new PSU as it stands so let's see if that brings me any joy.

[NightCrawlerZ69]

Sorry you havent got it working yet! Make sure you try your Ram in another computer too, I have 2 kits of 2 4gig ddr ram sticks that do not seem to work anymore? and I am careful. So try the ram in another computer you never know!
Don't feel bad I had to get 2 computers from MDG for my 2 Daughters and they each are close to $900 and it would of been alot cheaper to build them but my Wife makes money disapear like Magic!
Although one of my Daughter is a newer i5 with 8gigs DDR4 ram and in a Benchmark wasnt far off My i7 4770 with 16gigs of DDR3.

[Joe Pascal]

I tried new RAM. In fact I tried everything I can think of.

I changed the HDD, changed the PSU, changed all the cables, formatted and repartitioned the new drive, reinstalled Windows, turned the BIOS settings upside down and inside out, disabled and re-enabled every device on the system to test, ran full diagnostic tests on everything that took 2 hours, Re-flashed the BIOS, realigned the auxillary phase inhibitors. But no joy.

THAT'S IT I GIVE UP.

For now I'm just keeping a Windows DVD in the drive becuse it seems to boot fine if it goes to the "Press any key to boot from DVD" message and times out. And once in Windows everything is perfect.

[The old hairy one]

I have about 15 years of building computers, it sounds like the cmos battery is failing

[Joe Pascal]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von floatyphil:

I have about 15 years of building computers, it sounds like the cmos battery is failing

It seems to retain all the settings mind you. None of the changes I make seem to be lost from boot to boot.

Having said that, you put a seed in my mind and I'll be grabbing a pack of CR2032s tomorrow - cheers.

[The old hairy one]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pascalean:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von floatyphil:

I have about 15 years of building computers, it sounds like the cmos battery is failing

It seems to retain all the settings mind you. None of the changes I make seem to be lost from boot to boot.

Having said that, you put a seed in my mind and I'll be grabbing a pack of CR2032s tomorrow - cheers.

Could be that it is starting to fail and that could be why it is mis-behaving. If that doesn't work, use a bigger hammer