HP Pavilion 15-au102TX - Slow Boot

[ChaorruptedX]

Hello.

My father bought me a new laptop (HP Pavilion 15-au102TX), around May 2017. This is still a new laptop, and it will be my second laptop. It's still under warranty. I'm not planning to send it to the HP for repair. I want to repair it myself so I can get some knowledge and experience. I've been doing like this since I got my first laptop in 2011, Acer Aspire 4752G.

I'll provide the specification for my HP laptop at the bottom of this post.

My HP laptop have a problem, slow boot. I've been experiencing this slow boot problem since several months ago. I don't know what caused the problem. What I can remember is, I upgrade the Windows 10 Home to Pro, by using the product key. During the upgrade process, it may be messed up a bit. I plug in the charger all the time during the upgrade process, so it won't get interrupted.

This isn't an ordinary slow boot that's caused by many starting programs. This problem occur after the BIOS and before the Windows, around there. When I boot my laptop (without fast startup), it usually takes around 5 minutes to get it to the login screen. During the 5 minutes phase, there's HP logo with loading icon. What makes me feel suspicious is the hard disk light indicator isn't blinking or turn on (inactive) for 5 minutes. After around 5 minutes, the light indicator starts to blinking (active), and it brings me to the login screen. Need to wait for 5 minutes is kinda long. My old laptop, Acer Aspire 4752G took around 1 minute to boot to login screen. That's pretty good for a 6 years old laptop.

When I put my laptop to sleep or hibernate, then turn it on, there's no problem. But when I shutdown, then turn it on, that's where I need to wait 5 minutes for it to boot.

The following list shows the method I have used to resolve the issue, but failed:-

- (UPDATED 2: Full scan the computer using Windows Defender, no threats found)

- All drivers and BIOS are up to date. I update the laptop through the Windows update and HP Support Assistant. For graphics card, I download the latest driver from the official NVIDIA GeForce website, https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/ .

- Unplug all the USB devices and SD Card, and also eject the CD.

- Clear Temp folder. The pathway for this folder is %temp%.

- Ran the Check Disk, but no error was found.

- Disk Defragmenter

- I ran the System File Checker by using command

sfc /scannow

, then it reply with a message "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.".

- Deployment Image Servicing Management (DSIM)

- Event Viewer (Pathway: Applications and Services Logs\Microsoft\Windows\Diagnostic-Performance\Operational). Here, there were some warning, critical and error event. I compared it with my old laptop, well, it's kinda similar. My event log can be download  here.

- Boot Log. I check the boot log, and I found out dxgkrnl.sys not loaded. When I search on the internet, some people say this is the cause of the issue of slow booting. But my old laptop also have the dxgkrnl.sys not loaded. So I think this isn't the issue, for me. My boot log can be download here.

- Windows Performance Recorder. After I ran the boot trace, I got three ETL files, each around 30 GB. Won't uploading this, it will cost a lot of data for me. (UPDATED 2: I've choose first level triage only, and each file is now around 200~700 MB, and have been compressed it until around 200 MB. The Event Trace Log (ETL) can be download here.)

- Windows Performance Analyzer. I tried to open the ETL file, but I need to wait while it's opening the file. After several minutes, it eat a lot of my CPU usage (around 50%) and my RAM (almost full). When my RAM is at 15 GB used, if I type anything on the keyboard or move my mouse, my laptop will start to hang and stuck. I tried to wait several hours when my laptop stuck, but nothing change. Then I force shutdown my laptop. I will try again to open the ETL file when I'm going to bed. Because it will takes a lot of time to open the file. (UPDATED: I got an error message in WPR "The instance name passed was not recognized as valid by a WMI data provider." with error code 0x80071069)

- BIOS. I tried to turn off the secure boot, but the boot is still slow. Then I turn it on back. (UPDATED 2: Disabled Hyper-V) (UPDATED 3: Reset to default settings)

- I ran the HP PC Hardware Diagnostic UEFI (before booting Windows). All components have been tested, and the result were passed. Except my battery. My battery was swollen, so I removed it from my laptop.

- Windows 10 Recovery. I ran the System File Checker, but after it finish scanning, I got a message "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.". Then I did the Startup Repair, but I got a message "Startup Repair couldn't repair your PC". I also tried to disable the Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection.

- Safe Mode. This part, I really hope it boot really fast. Unfortunately, I still need to wait around 5 minutes for it to boot. I also ran the System File Checker, and got the same message "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.".

The following list shows the method I have used to resolve the issue, and it's a success:-

- Windows 10 Fast Startup. It's located in the Power Options, where we can turn on fast startup. When I turn on the fast startup, it boot my laptop blazingly fast (in a seconds). But I don't like this feature. It might cause problem for my laptop in the future. Something like I can't bring up the start menu or show the list of wifi connection. For my old laptop, it's much worse. I got Blue Sreen of Death, with error code DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION, when I use the laptop that boot from fast startup.

My HP laptop also have minor problem like:-

- When I dismiss an alarm, it's like I snooze the alarm. When there's a new notificaition comes up, my alarm will ring again. I need to dismiss the alarm inside the notification panel (action center), and it will not ring again.

- When shutting down my laptop, there's no loading screen for shutting down, just a black screen. But it still shutdown normally, just without the loading screen. For update, there will be a loading screen like "Working on updates, Don't turn off the computer".

(UPDATED 2: I tried changing my HP laptop internal HDD with my old Acer laptop internal HDD. Of course, I need to change my BIOS settings first, so it support legacy mode. Then when I boot my HP laptop with my old Acer HDD, it boot normally. Unfortunately, I can't test my HP HDD on Acer, because the BIOS doesn't support UEFI.)

Need to wait for 5 minutes is pretty long. Sometimes I want to use the computer as soon as possible. I hope someone can help me with this problem.

I also post the same topic at Microsoft Forum.

Thank you for taking your time to read my post.

Have a great day!~

Here is the specification for my HP laptop:-

Spoiler

✦ Name ➤
● HP Pavilion 15-au102TX

✦ Display ➤
● 15.6" Diagonal FHD SVA Anti-glare WLED-backlit
● 1920 x 1080 Resolutions (Built-in Display)

✦ Webcam ➤
● HP Wide Vision HD Camera with Dual Array Digital Microphone

✦ Operating System ➤
● Microsoft Windows 10® Pro 1703 (Redstone 2) [Upgraded From Windows 10® Home]
● 64-bit System Type

✦ CPU ➤
● Intel® Core™ i5-7200U, Kaby Lake Microarchitecture (7th Generation)
● 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.10 GHz, 3 MB Cache, 2 Cores
● Intel® HD Graphics 620: Graphics Clock = 300 MHz, Memory Clock = 1067 MHz, Boost Clock = 1 GHz

✦ GPU ➤
● NVIDIA® GeForce® 940MX, 2 GB DDR3 Dedicated VRAM
● [Default/Overclocked] Graphics Clock = 1122/1257 MHz, Memory Clock = 1001/1200 MHz, Boost Clock = 1242/1377 MHz

✦ DirectX Version ➤
● DirectX 12

✦ RAM ➤
● ADATA 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz (2 x 8GB)

✦ Storage ➤
● Western Digital 1 TB Internal HDD, 5400 RPM SATA
● Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1 TB External HDD

✦ Audio ➤
● Dolby Home Theater v4 - Realtek HD Audio

✦ Network ➤
● Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11 bgn Wi-Fi Adapter
● Bluetooth® 4.0
● Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN

✦ Optical Drive ➤
● HP DVDRW GUE1N

✦ Power Supply ➤
● 65 W AC Power Adapter

✦ Battery ➤
● 2-cell, 41 Wh Li-ion [Swollen and Removed]

✦ BIOS ➤
● Insyde F.38

[Zinou]

Hi ChaorruptedX,

You've posted a detailed description of your problem.

More often the delay just after the bios is caused by not updated driver. But as you state the all your drivers are up to date, it may be something else !

But I'm Surprised that your ETL file is 30Gb for 5 min of delay. I've ETL files that sizes 1,5 Gb for 20 min of delay. You probably selected many options in WPR. In your situation you need just to enable the First level triage option and record your boot trace.

I'm experiencing a boot delay in my 2 HP Laptops, and it's caused by the Hyper-v. When I disable the Hyper-v the boot is faster

[ChaorruptedX]

Hello Zinou.

For WPR, yes, I selected many options (half of them). Now I've select First Level Triage only, after I finish the boot trace, I got 3 ETL files around 200~700MB each, and I have compressed 3 of them to around 200 MB in a single zip file, it can be download here. I'm still new at using Windows Performance ToolKit (Recorder and Analyzer), I spent hours, but couldn't find the solution.

I also have Hyper-V enabled. I tried to disable it in BIOS, but the problem still persist.

Thank you for your reply and suggestion.

[Zinou]

Hi,

You have choosen Light in the "Detail level" option. So I don't find the Boot phase graph !

Please take another boot trace with those options

Please zip the trace files separatly. I don't have a high speed Internet connexion 😞

[ChaorruptedX]

I used to have the boot phase graph, but only once in one ETL file (the other two doesn't have, the number of iterations are 3). But I already permanently delete that file a long time ago (to save some space, they sure eat a lot of space). I don't know why only one out of three have that boot phase graph. If I'm not mistaken, the Winlogon Init have a long bar graph. For the Post Boot, I think it's normal for them to be long.

Here I provide you with the latest ETL files:-

• Boot Trace 1 (compressed, around 500 MB)
• Boot Trace 2 (compressed, around 350 MB)

I already did just like exactly you shown to me, the options for WPR. But it seems I can't find the boot phase graph here too, or maybe they're hiding somewhere else? There are sure a lot of detailed graph in these ETL files.

[Zinou]

There is something wrong with your WPR !

https://justpaste.it/1dfbt

https://justpaste.it/1dfbw

Are you using the right version for Windows 10 1703 ?

you should uninstall your WPT and reinstall it again. Choose the right version for your OS https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/windows-assessment-deployment-kit

[Zinou]

nonetheless, there is a lot of disk activity 100% for a long period of time;

You should first test the health of your HD before continuing any analysis;

use these 2 tools:

https://osdn.net/projects/crystaldiskinfo/downloads/68590/CrystalDiskInfo7_5_0.zip/
https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=3

[ChaorruptedX]

I have run the CrystalDiskInfo, and the health status shown is good. I also run the Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics, the result is PASS, and the SMART status shows PASS too.

In the HP PC Hardware Diagnostic UEFI, the result also shows PASS for hard disk. I think my hard disk is perfectly good in health. 

For WPT, I don't quite sure if I'm using the correct version for my Windows. My Windows is version 1703.

Now, I've downloaded the correct version for my Windows and ran the boot trace (with the same options as before). Unfortunately, it yield the same result just like the image you provide.

If there's no other way to solve this, then I might reset this laptop using HP Recovery. This will be my last resort.

[Zinou]

It's really weird !

Now that we are sure your disk is ok, we can go further and try analyzing your boot trace;

I've extracted the information from the generic events graph, so that I've the different phases durations :

init session = 10s
Winlogon = 75s
Explorer init = 37s
Post boot = 378s (6 min)

The winlogon is a bit long, but the post boot phase is 6 min. There are many thigns happening in there and disk usge is very high.

I'll let you know if I find something.

[Zinou]

You have 2 services that takes long to start:

- Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)

- OneSync

put the start type to "Manual" and do a test.