LOng boot time after pc has been pwered off for more than an hour

[THR_3]

I have a Pavillion Desktop that will take up to 10 minutes to boot if it has been powered off for more than about an hour.  There seems to be some correlation between how long the unit has been powered off and the boot time up to a point.  the max boot time can be up to 10 minutes,  A restart results in a normal boot as does a cold start if the time in the powered off time is relatively short.

For these long boots, there are no POST messages and no HP screen.  No error messages are shown.  The screen is black with no cursor and eventually, the windows log in screen shows up.   The pc is unresponsive to keyboard inputs (CNTL ALT DEL or hotkeys) during the long "black" time.  For a short (normal) boot I get the POST messages (turned on in BIOS) and the HP logo before the Windows log in screen.

The unit passes all hardware tests. I have updated the BIOS and all of the drivers.  Windows 10 is up to date.  This desktop has an AMD graphics card as well as integrated video on the motherboard and the behavior is the same regardless of which video source is used a primary.   I can't see how this is a video issue after trying both video sources.

I have been unable to determine if the motherboard has a CMOS battery or not.  I don't get any BIOS errors or weird times/dates on boot up. 

I have run chkdsk and other diagnostics with no errors found.  Once started the pc is very stable with no performance issues

The boot drive is SSD and only the minimum programs run at startup. 

[THR_3]

I wanted to add that the issue acts like a sleep or hibernate problem, but I have turned off hibernate and set the power settings so that it doesn't enter sleep.

Fast start is disabled and the boot time doesn't improve if it is enabled. 

The key to this seems to be the amount of time the pc is in shutdown before the next boot.

Oh, and I also tried a complete power reset, by removing the cord to the power supply and disconnecting all the peripherals and then holding the power button down.   Didn't see improvement on boot.

[THR_3]

I was hoping someone would respond.

Does the Sunflower 84333 motherboard a replaceable battery/  Pictures show an RTC battery location when I goggle the motherboard, but no mention of replacement,

[Bill_To]

Hi @THR_3 

Welcome to the HP Forum.

The MB has a replaceable CR2032 MB battery.

What BIOS version are you using now?

A previous BIOS version F.57 was causing the symptoms you are experiencing. PC's are very complex. Similar symptoms can have different causes.

HP released BIOS version F.58 in March, 2023 to fix the problem.

The latest BIOS (F.60) can be downloaded Here.

I don't know what is happening if you are running BIOS version F.58 or higher.

Your troubleshooting steps to isolate the problem have been outstanding. Not much else you can do other than look at the BIOS, MB, or a CPU problem if the RAM is okay.

It sounds like you have run the PC in a minimum config to check only the RAM, MB, and CPU.

Regards

[THR_3]

I updated the BIOS to the latest version.  All of the hardware diagnostic tests have come back fine.  I don't really think it's the battery as there aren't any time/date issues. 

It's very puzzling that the problem only surfaces after the pc has been off for awhile. 

[THR_3]

I should add that the other very puzzling aspect of this issue is that for the long boots, no POST messages are displayed on the monitor.  For a restart or cold boot after a short shutdown, the POST messages appear.   Inputs from the keyboard (esc, F10, etc) are not recognized either.  It might suggest some video problem. However, this pc has a graphics card and motherboard graphics and the behavior is the same regardless of which video output is used.

[Bill_To]

Hi @THR_3 

Yes, you have a perplexing problem. The loss of USB function was one of the BIOS version F.57 symptoms.

What BIOS version are you now using?

You might want to try a new CR2032 battery to see what happens. Do you have any kind of optional peripherals connected to the PC?

Hardware diagnostics tests at system startup passed so you may have some kind of intermittent hardware or BIOS problem or HP diagnostics is not detecting the problem.

Intermittent problems are tough to diagnose if the problem does not occur when diagnostics checks components.

Regards

[THR_3]

I replaced the CMOS battery which didn't help.

I am running BIOS F.59 which is the latest version.

I rolled back to a drive image from August and this didn't make any difference either.  I then reverted to a backup image form this week.

Out of ideas other than a wipe and re installation of windows, but I fear the issue is somehow hardware or maybe sleep/hibernate(disabled)  related.

[Bill_To]

Hi @THR_3 

Try the latest F.60 BIOS update. I provided a link to this update (MB SSID 8433) in a previous response.

Well, you could back up data and also try an operating system (OS) reset with only a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

See how reinstalling the OS goes. A continuing problem would indicate some type of BIOS or hardware issue.

Regards

[THR_3 · Accepted solution]

I believe the issue was caused by the monitor.  It was the only item left that I hadn't swapped during my previous testing.  I had tried different cables and both video outputs from the pc.  I know that monitors have a "sleep circuit" that puts them in standby if they don't sense a video signal.  Maybe that is defective.   So, far no issues when using an old spare monitor.