Disk checking at every boot.

[Marley24]

Thanks for the clear and consise statement of where things stand.

[NS360]

So I have been thinking about this issue and I don't want this topic to die, until HP comes with a real solution.

I came to the realization that the real problem with our Spectre x360’s is something preventing a chkdsk to happen during the boot process. The failing “chkdsk /f” is the proof of it.

In one of my previous comments I talked about KB4016871, which fixed some issue with autochk.exe. After some more research, I found out that the update also schedules a chkdsk at the next reboot. So the update does not cause the issue, it just triggers the issue. And it keeps trying and trying. But since something is preventing it to actually run, it never stops trying. You can make it stop trying by changing the value of AutoChkSkipSystemPartition to 1, but you don’t solve the problem with it.  

It now makes sense why I got this issue before after a big Windows update (Anniversary), part of the update (or a KB that came out a couple days later) must have contained a scheduled chkdsk too. It also makes sense now why some x360 owners claimed that their Spectre’s came with the “disk checking at every boot” issue out-of-the-box. The Anniversary update came out in august last year, that time the generation of our x360’s was still for sale, but obviously didn’t contain the Anniversary update. So when people unpacked their brand new x360’s, one of the first things Windows did, was installing The Anniversary update, including the scheduled chkdsk!

This also answers the question of how a clean install, fixes the “disk checking at every boot” even though AutoChkSkipSystemPartition value is 0. Windows does not schedule a chkdsk on a clean installation.

Since HP prevents us from installing old BIOS versions, I can’t check if this issue was present from the beginning or caused by a very early BIOS update.

[Marley24]

Yes, I believe you are thinking along the right lines.  It's interesting that you found evidence that the KB4016871 update triggers a chkdsk.  Could you point me to it?

It would add weight to the theory if you could find evidence of the continued presence of the trigger.  This might be a registry setting or a scheduled task that most machines wouldn't have.  It's apparently distinct from the trigger that a chkdsk /f sets.  I can't look for this because I did a clean install, presumably clearing the trigger.

But we don't really have to find that trigger.  If your theory is correct, the problem stems from the fact that autochk aborts early, and we can demonstrate that with chkdsk /f.  It's likely that all of us who have the chkdsk /f problem are susceptible to the symptoms we first noticed as described by your original post.  If we can explain why chkdsk /f produces an aborted autochk we will probably have the root cause.

I  agree that the focus should be on the BIOS.  Something that is happening at boot time seems to be preventing autochk from running normally.

I'm going to bring up another thing I've noticed that may be unrelated, but since it's start-up related it's worth comparing notes.  Do you ever run the reliability monitor?  (Control Panel > System and Security > Security and Maintenance > Drop-down arrow beside "Maintenance" > View reliability history")  I have noticed that since installing Creators Update/KB4016871 (for me, on the same day) I started getting messages in the reliablity monitor that say "Windows was not properly shutdown" even though I always did proper shutdowns.  These didn't happen on every startup, but happened frequently.    These happened after my orignal upgrade, and continued after the clean install.  I was able to make this problem go away by turning "Fast Startup" off.

Of course we know that fast startup has no effect on the chkdsk issue.  But I did wonder if the set of machines with this issue is the same set with the chkdsk issue.  My wife's x360 has neither issue.  Could you check to see if you have this issue?  If you have "Fast Startup" off and turn it on, it may take a few days until you know.

[Marley24]

I finally got chkdsk to go after doing a "chkdsk /f".   I changed HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Session Manager\AutChkTimeout from "8" to "1".  Now the countdown starts at 1 and the chkdsk runs to completion.  I doesn't take long and then boots normally.

Can you confirm this?  You might have to set AutoChkSkipSystemPartition back to "0" to test this; I'm not sure.

Another question is whether this will clear your original problem.  Again, I'm not sure.

It's really looking like a BIOS bug.  The BIOS doesn't sleep through the autochk countdown and continues with the boot.  Before the chkdsk begins, the BIOS has already mounted the system partition.

[NS360]

@Marley24

Yeaaaaah, I can confirm this works! I set the AutoChkSkipSystemPartition back to "0" and then changed the value of AutChkTimeout from "8" to "1". Rebooted and BAM! Chkdsk kind of ran (took les a second) and Windows booted, it doesn’t come back anymore while booting and now “chkdsk /f” is also working.

Back to your question about the scheduled chkdsk after installing KB4016871, I couldn’t find any official info about it, but it multiple people commented about in this Reddit thread. 

I tried disabling Fast Startup in Energy settings and Fastboot (I think that’s how it’s called) in the BIOS before, but that didn’t make any difference. In one of your comments you said you own a 13-4118nr and your wife has a 13-4100dx. So yours is from the Skylake generation (like mine and all other people having this issue) and your wife’s x360 has a Broadwell processor. Strangely both the Skylake and Broadwell generation have F.46 Rev.A as the latest BIOS and the same installer (sp80709.exe). So this makes it more confusing :S 

I checked the reliability history (never heard of it before) but couldn’t find a message "Windows was not properly shutdown". However, it does contain lots of problems related to the intel wireless card, so I need to check that. But your problem seems to be unrelated 😉

[Marley24]

Here's a possible explanation for the mystery of the same BIOS being used for different processors.  (This is something I just discovered this morning and I may be all wet.)  If you go into the BIOS (toggle f10 while starting) and look at the main page you will see a bunch of weird codes called "feature bytes".  If you google "HP feature bytes" you will find several links.  These appear to be there primarily to help out the HP system restoration tool, but also may customize BIOS behavior.  For example, if you swap out a motherboard you have to change one of these codes.  This appears to be an HP-only thing.

So there may be customized logic in the BIOS that lets one BIOS release service multiple generations of processors.  If that's the case, it's reasonable that there are processor-specific bugs in the customized sections of code.

[NS360]

That's what I was thinking too. I never expected that we would come so far in solving this issue, I don’t think we can do much more. Now is the time that some HP tech reads our findings in this topic and comes with a real fix (probably BIOS update).

It’s time to come back alive  @Jeet_singh and/or @MrRobot 😛

[Marley24]

I second the motion.  This issue should be escalated to the folks at HP who are responsible for BIOS.

[jeffpgreen]

@Marley24 FIXED!  The AutoChkTimeout workaround resolved my issue on the same HP laptop platform.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\AutoChkTimeout from 8 to 1

On the next reboot, a very fast chkdsk ran against a system partition, and on subsequent restart there is no prompt for dirty disks.

Clearly the BIOS doesn't wait the full 8 seconds for the auto check prompt to complete and check disk to initialize, leaving some or all system partitions flagged dirty perputally.

Good work on troubleshooting this, I'm always proud to see users fixing their own issues and especially grateful you documented your efforts here so we can all benefit together.

[PeteComp]

Where can I get the older version of autcheck.exe?  Since I have already upgraded to the new version, I don't have access to the older version any more.  I checked the Properties tab but it does not allow me to Restore it to a previous version.  Thanks in advance.