I need help isolating and resolving some boot problems with my computer that I built myself.
There are two problems:
1. The time it takes to boot into Windows has become extremely slow.
2. There is a always black screen that appears and stays like for over 10 seconds, before the "Please wait" Windows screen appears just before the Desktop loads.
3. Sometimes - but not most of the time - the computer get stuck during the boot process, and won't boot into Windows at all. When this happens, I have to press the Reset button my case, or else the computer would stay stuck forever.
I'm using Windows 10 Home with all the most recent updates installed.
I'm not sure how to determine if this is a hardware, software, or OS issue.
So far I've tried running DISM and SFC and chkdsk with all the relevant commands active, and none of those found any problems.
I've also tried to disable all the non-mandatory startup programs, and setting the non-mandatory Windows Services to "Manual."
I've also set the "fast startup" setting of Windows 10 to Off.
I'm using a WD Black HDD. I ran the WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostic Extended Test on it. It did not detect any problems.
However, something strange did occur in that software: it claims my main HDD is an ATA - not SATA - drive. I called WD Tech Support about this and they routed my call to a call center in India. I spoke to two reps there who both told me that the software saying it's an ATA drive is no big deal.
I asked them if it's possible that the software listing it as an ATA drive indicates a problem with the drive, and they said no.
I also asked them if it's possible my SATA drive could be functioning as if it is an ATA drive, and they said no.
I also asked them if it's possible my hard drive could pass all the WD Diagnostic tests, yet still have a hardware defect anyway, and they said no.
On a side note that may or may not be relevant: I happen to have another, much older, WD HDD also installed into the same computer, and the WD LifeGuard software correctly lists that older drive as a SATA.
Another thing is, I'm using third-party volume encryption software on my main HDD, so that may or may not be contributing to the problem. Although decrypting and then re-encrypting would be a time-consuming pain, so I'd rather not do that if I don't have to.
That also prevents me from doing an in-place upgrade reinstall of Windows, because I presume I'd have to decrypt first before that would work.
I don't wanna do a clean install of Windows even if that would solve the problem, because trying to reinstall all my stuff and reconfigure all my settings would be even worse than the problems of the super slow & sometimes failing boot ups.
So to summarize, my questions are:
1. How can I definitively isolate whether these problems are caused by hardware, software, or OS?
2. What should I do to solve these problems?
3. Are the WD call center reps correct that WD Diagnostics listing my SATA drive as an ATA drive is no big deal?
There are two problems:
1. The time it takes to boot into Windows has become extremely slow.
2. There is a always black screen that appears and stays like for over 10 seconds, before the "Please wait" Windows screen appears just before the Desktop loads.
3. Sometimes - but not most of the time - the computer get stuck during the boot process, and won't boot into Windows at all. When this happens, I have to press the Reset button my case, or else the computer would stay stuck forever.
I'm using Windows 10 Home with all the most recent updates installed.
I'm not sure how to determine if this is a hardware, software, or OS issue.
So far I've tried running DISM and SFC and chkdsk with all the relevant commands active, and none of those found any problems.
I've also tried to disable all the non-mandatory startup programs, and setting the non-mandatory Windows Services to "Manual."
I've also set the "fast startup" setting of Windows 10 to Off.
I'm using a WD Black HDD. I ran the WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostic Extended Test on it. It did not detect any problems.
However, something strange did occur in that software: it claims my main HDD is an ATA - not SATA - drive. I called WD Tech Support about this and they routed my call to a call center in India. I spoke to two reps there who both told me that the software saying it's an ATA drive is no big deal.
I asked them if it's possible that the software listing it as an ATA drive indicates a problem with the drive, and they said no.
I also asked them if it's possible my SATA drive could be functioning as if it is an ATA drive, and they said no.
I also asked them if it's possible my hard drive could pass all the WD Diagnostic tests, yet still have a hardware defect anyway, and they said no.
On a side note that may or may not be relevant: I happen to have another, much older, WD HDD also installed into the same computer, and the WD LifeGuard software correctly lists that older drive as a SATA.
Another thing is, I'm using third-party volume encryption software on my main HDD, so that may or may not be contributing to the problem. Although decrypting and then re-encrypting would be a time-consuming pain, so I'd rather not do that if I don't have to.
That also prevents me from doing an in-place upgrade reinstall of Windows, because I presume I'd have to decrypt first before that would work.
I don't wanna do a clean install of Windows even if that would solve the problem, because trying to reinstall all my stuff and reconfigure all my settings would be even worse than the problems of the super slow & sometimes failing boot ups.
So to summarize, my questions are:
1. How can I definitively isolate whether these problems are caused by hardware, software, or OS?
2. What should I do to solve these problems?
3. Are the WD call center reps correct that WD Diagnostics listing my SATA drive as an ATA drive is no big deal?
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