The boot time of HP Prodesk 400 takes 16.5 mins

[aboongm]

Hi,

My HP ProDesk 400 G4 SFF Business PC system takes 16.5 mins to boot. It is a windows 10 OS. I m observing from task manager's start up that there has been increase in boot time of some 1.2 min everytime there is a sudden power outage and system got power off instead of normal shut down.

How can I decrease this long boot time? Its quite brisk until the welcome screen and then its like hanging or reading some data or some sort of virus check?

Thanks.

[itsmyname]

@aboongm -- It is quite brisk until the welcome screen and then its like hanging or reading some data

Does your computer's case have a lamp that lights-up whenever there is disk-drive activity?

Is that lamp on for most of the time, during start up? If so, that is not a "hanging" situation.

When you power-on your computer, is there an option to display a start-up menu?
On that menu, is there an option to launch the HP Hardware Diagnostic?

If so, launch it, and run the "short" (a minute or two) test of the disk-drive.

If it "fails", maybe those past sudden power-off situations have damaged the disk-drive,

and you need to replace the disk-drive.

If the computer is less than 12 months old, contact HP Support to open a "case" to exercise the HP Warranty to get it repaired/replaced, at HP's expense.

[aboongm]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Does your computer's case have a lamp that lights-up whenever there is disk-drive activity?

Is that lamp on for most of the time, during start up? If so, that is not a "hanging" situation

It did light up during the booting. So, its not a hanging situation.

When you power-on your computer, is there an option to display a start-up menu?
On that menu, is there an option to launch the HP Hardware Diagnostic?

If so, launch it, and run the "short" (a minute or two) test of the disk-drive.

If it "fails", maybe those past sudden power-off situations have damaged the disk-drive,

and you need to replace the disk-drive.

There is no start up menu or HP Hardware Diagnostic. But after reading your comment, I downloaded the HP Hardware Diagnostic and did the test. Short Drive Self-Test failed though all the others passed. Its saying hard drive may need to be replaced. What does replacing hard drive means? At present its HDD I think. Can it be replaced with a SSD?

Thanks.

[itsmyname]

@aboongm -- Short Drive Self-Test failed though all the others passed. Its saying hard drive may need to be replaced. What does replacing hard drive means? At present its HDD I think. Can it be replaced with a SSD?

Replacing the hard-disk-drive (HDD) is comparable to replacing a flat tire on a vehicle.

Stop the vehicle, jack-up that corner of the vehicle, remove the hubcap, remove the lug-nuts,  remove the tire-and-rim, connect a spare tire-and-rim, reconnect the lug-nuts, reconnect the hub-cap, start the motor, and drive away.  On your computer:

1. shutdown Windows
2. power-off
3. disconnect the power-cord
4. remove a side-panel to expose the insides
5. disconnect the "power" and "data" cables from the HDD
6. physically remove the HDD
7. purchase and connect a new HDD (or SSD)
8. reconnect the "power" and "data" cables
9. reconnect the side-panel
10. reconnect the power-cord
11. power-on the computer
12. reinstall Windows

Obviously #12 is the most-complicated step.

If you are "lucky", you might be able to:

13: power-off

14: disconnect the power-cord

15: remove the side-panel

16: disconnect the "data" and "power" cables from the CD/DVD

15: connect the old disk-drive to those cables

16:  reconnect the power-cord

17: start Windows (from the new HDD/SDD)

18: see if you can access any of the files on the "D:" drive-letter, which is the drive-letter assigned to your old disk-drive

19: try to copy your personal files from the old disk-drive to the new HDD/SDD

20: shutdown

21: disconnect the old disk-drive, and reconnect the CD/DVD drive

22: replace the side-panel

23: start Windows

24: use the copy of your personal files that are now on the new "C:" drive-letter

Or, hire a computer technician to do the above steps.

[aboongm]

Thanks. I am planning on adding a SSD and turning it into the bootable drive.

Because of the slow windows 10 boot time, I install linux distro in a dual mode and linux booting was fast. I thought at the time maybe its because linux does not need anti virus. Sadly, i wanted to use smartphone as webcam and so installed some softwares including mokutil. After sudo install mokutil the linux part is not visible on Grub and the problem is related with BIOS. Now, I can only use windows 10. Also, BIOS cannot read from USB stick at start up/boot. I was thinking if a BIOS update and reset of BIOS would solve  the problem cause by installation of mokutil. I didn't reset or update BIOS as of now as I want to use the windows 10 as long as possible even thought it take 15.2 mins to boot.

What's your opinion on this BIOS matter? I think I won't be able to connect a SSD and turn it into a bootable drive as the cpu cannot read from USB for new windows installation.

Thanks.

[itsmyname]

@aboongm --  After sudo install mokutil the linux part is not visible on Grub and the problem is related with BIOS.

I disagree. Any software installation into Linux should not cause a problem with Grub.

Additionally, I think that there is nothing wrong with the BIOS -- no need to try to "update" it. 

Any "problem" with the BIOS could cause Windows 10 to fail to boot, but you are saying that booting into Windows 10 is working fine.

Also, BIOS cannot read from USB stick at start up/boot.

That could be just a "configuration" issue. The BIOS settings identify which of the attached devices & disk-partitions are to be scanned for "bootable" operating systems.  Restart your computer, and enter BIOS SETUP, and add the USB stick as the "first" bootable device.

I was thinking if a BIOS update and reset of BIOS would solve  the problem

My opinion that any BIOS Update is to be avoided, unless the documentation for the update addresses a specific issue that one is experiencing,  e.g., do a BIOS Update before installing a new CPU, if the current BIOS is known to NOT support the new CPU.  Expressed differently: a BIOS Update is not a "cure-all".

A "reset" of the BIOS will change the list of "bootable" devices, and could cause the USB stick to NOT be listed as a bootable device.

I want to use the windows 10 as long as possible even thought it take 15.2 mins to boot.

You have some issue that causes this slowness. I doubt that it is a "problem" with the BIOS.

Rather, I think that the most-likely cause is a disk-drive that is beginning to fail.

One way to test this thought is to remove the disk-drive, connect a "spare" disk-drive, and install Windows onto that "spare" disk-drive. Do the installation of Windows _without_ an Internet connection -- there is no need to run Windows Update, for the purposes of this experiment. Then, does this "fresh" installation of Windows, onto a different disk-drive, still take 15.2 minutes?  If not, your computer does NOT have a "BIOS problem".

How old is the disk-drive?  When new, it had a 1-year or 2-year "warranty". On the average, a disk-drive will function for five years, but that is an average -- for every disk-drive that lasts 10 years, there is a disk-drive that fails within the first year.

With your current disk-drive, can you download, install, and run the free SPECCY software?  Open its "storage" branch, and view the "S.M.A.R.T" report for your disk-drive. Do you see any "yellow" or "red" markers, indicating that the disk-drive is beginning to fail?

I think I won't be able to connect a SSD and turn it into a bootable drive as the cpu cannot read from USB for new windows installation.

Restart your computer, and enter BIOS SETUP, and add the USB stick as the first bootable device, and add the SSD as the second bootable drive. Then, restart, and the motherboard will boot from the USB stick, if it is connected, or will boot from the SSD, if the USB stick is not connected.

There are too many threads on this discussion forum about failed BIOS Updates that turned the computer into a "brick".  Moral: avoid all BIOS Updates, unless you have an excellent reason to do so.

[aboongm]

@itsmyname,

I disagree. Any software installation into Linux should not cause a problem with Grub.

The mokutil installation did cause problem in the booting and now the linux is not visible. Check this thread as i was looking for answers but no one answer probably because its unusual.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-deepin-101/verifcation-failed-0x1a-security-violation...

if I put USB as first option in the boot order, I would get verifcation failed (0x1A) security violation and there will no booting.

So I put SATA HDD to boot first, then only the booting happen and loads windows 10.

My opinion that any BIOS Update is to be avoided.

I am aware of it as I search about updating BIOS not with this desktop but with another cpu (IntelNUC). I was thinking what if the windows 10 crash. So its new ideas in "what if situations" like what if windows 10 no longer works, how do I install a new OS maybe linux or even windows as the USB cannot be used at time of booting.

With your current disk-drive, can you download, install, and run the free SPECCY software? Open its "storage" branch, and view the "S.M.A.R.T" report for your disk-drive. Do you see any "yellow" or "red" markers, indicating that the disk-drive is beginning to fail?

I just install SPECCY and in the S.M.A.R.T report, its all Green and Good. So, probably Disk drive are fine too.. While using linux, it was working quite well until the installation. It was fast too both when booting and when using the desktop.

Thanks.

[itsmyname]

@aboongm  -- if you disable Secure Boot mode, does booting your system work fine, including booting from USB?

Secure Boot protects your computer from being booted (by somebody with physical access) from "other" media. If nobody (nor a computer-virus) can boot your computer, do you really need Secure Boot?

> as of now as I want to use the windows 10 as long as possible even thought it take 15.2 mins to boot.

Have you done a virus-scan?  Does it boot any faster when the computer has NO Internet connection ?

[aboongm]

@itsmyname,

if you disable Secure Boot mode, does booting your system work fine, including booting from USB?

The BIOS has two options of 1. Legacy disable and Secure Boot enable and 2. Legacy disable and Secure Boot disable. It was set to option 1. Today, I changed it to option 2 that disables the Secure Boot. When it boots up, it ask for bitlocker key. So, I typed the keys. Then it goes to Mok enrollment and asking me to give password that I used while installing the mokutil before the grub vanished. After completing the steps, it boots up to windows 10.

I boot up again, but there is still no grub options for windows and linux like earlier. Also, after setting USB as first in the boot order, it is still not detected while booting up. But there is a change. Unlike earlier blue screen with violation warning, when BIOS is set to Option 1 with Secure Boot enabled, this time the boot hangs.

Since the mokutil installation, its not just the grub but the linux option was not available in the boot order options. right now its USB is set as first in boot order, then SATA HDD.