Win8.1 Sticking at Logo

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Sovereign

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Mar 21, 2005
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If my computer does not shut down normally (think BSoD or other freezes) and I have to press the reset button, it's a total crap-shoot as to whether it will start properly.

To explain, normally when a computer boots you see some HDD (well, SSD) activity light blinking as the OS loads, whether it was shut down or restarted. However, in the "stuck on boot logo" case, the light remains black. The Windows 8.1 loading circle thing spins forever--I've left it for 10+ minutes and come back to it doing nothing.

Sometimes, this can be solved by hitting the ATX switch on my power supply, waiting a few seconds, then powering back up. Other times, repeated resets only lead to the Windows "Startup repair" failing gloriously since it can't identify anything and subsequent boots are almost pure luck.

I don't think it's anything innate to the OS--my laptop will start properly without fail if it locks up and is forcibly reset.

I hear something about USB3 ports sometimes causing this flip-out/failure to start. My U3014 does have its USB connected to the computer...
 
Sovereign said:
If my computer does not shut down normally (think BSoD or other freezes) and I have to press the reset button, it's a total crap-shoot as to whether it will start properly.

To explain, normally when a computer boots you see some HDD (well, SSD) activity light blinking as the OS loads, whether it was shut down or restarted. However, in the "stuck on boot logo" case, the light remains black. The Windows 8.1 loading circle thing spins forever--I've left it for 10+ minutes and come back to it doing nothing.

Sometimes, this can be solved by hitting the ATX switch on my power supply, waiting a few seconds, then powering back up. Other times, repeated resets only lead to the Windows "Startup repair" failing gloriously since it can't identify anything and subsequent boots are almost pure luck.

I don't think it's anything innate to the OS--my laptop will start properly without fail if it locks up and is forcibly reset.

I hear something about USB3 ports sometimes causing this flip-out/failure to start. My U3014 does have its USB connected to the computer...
Click to expand...

If your computer BSOD:s or freezes in general enough for you to post about it your hardware has a problem or your OS is corrupted in some way.
 
I didn't explain enough.

I can count the BSODs on this machine with one hand. It's the not-booting part that gets me. BSOD/reset guarantees it. Restarting properly risks it but the chance is far lower. I'm not having frequent BSODs and never have.
 
My install of Windows 8.1 started to do this as well. I let it sit one evening, and about 45 minutes later it finally booted into Windows. I have no idea what has happened that is causing the insanely long boot times, but in my case if you let it sit long enough, it would eventually get to the log in screen.
 
That definitely sounds like a USB issue. Unplug all USB connected devices and see how it boots.
 
Sovereign said:
I didn't explain enough.

I can count the BSODs on this machine with one hand. It's the not-booting part that gets me. BSOD/reset guarantees it. Restarting properly risks it but the chance is far lower. I'm not having frequent BSODs and never have.
Click to expand...

In my experience irregular boot problems are often chased to a failing power supply. Whenever my PSU has taken the crapper it manifested in flipping the coin if boot was successful or not.
 
D1RTYD1Z619 said:
That definitely sounds like a USB issue. Unplug all USB connected devices and see how it boots.
Click to expand...

This is what I was going to suggest as well. In addition to this, try disabling all programs that run on startup.
 
I think I figured it out.

Derpdows has a habit of (since Vista) putting the bootloader on a different drive/partition than the one you install Windows on. I believe the boot loader resided on a drive that for whatever reason wasn't always available when Windows actually went to boot... So it would just hang forever.

I disconnected every drive except the OS drive and did the standard "bootrec" routine (fixmbr, fixboot, rebuildbcd) and it works so far.
 
Sovereign said:
I think I figured it out.

Derpdows has a habit of (since Vista) putting the bootloader on a different drive/partition than the one you install Windows on. I believe the boot loader resided on a drive that for whatever reason wasn't always available when Windows actually went to boot... So it would just hang forever.

I disconnected every drive except the OS drive and did the standard "bootrec" routine (fixmbr, fixboot, rebuildbcd) and it works so far.
Click to expand...

Good that you got it fixed but strange in the sense that if your boot drive wasn't available, how did you get the logo in the first place? It should have stuck way before that.
 
Sovereign said:
I think I figured it out.

Derpdows has a habit of (since Vista) putting the bootloader on a different drive/partition than the one you install Windows on. I believe the boot loader resided on a drive that for whatever reason wasn't always available when Windows actually went to boot... So it would just hang forever.

I disconnected every drive except the OS drive and did the standard "bootrec" routine (fixmbr, fixboot, rebuildbcd) and it works so far.
Click to expand...

Windows does not just randomly install its boot loader on whatever drive, willy nilly. It will install the boot loader on the primary or first drive in the boot order. Windows simply did what is was designed to do. (I do not know about you, but if it were me, I would consider that user error. :D)

Makes sense that bootrec would fix it, good.
 
ManofGod said:
Windows does not just randomly install its boot loader on whatever drive, willy nilly. It will install the boot loader on the primary or first drive in the boot order. Windows simply did what is was designed to do. (I do not know about you, but if it were me, I would consider that user error. :D)

Makes sense that bootrec would fix it, good.
Click to expand...

Nowhere in any Windows install guide that I've seen does it say "If you have multiple hard drives, make sure to unplug every one except the OS drive and reorder all the drives in the BIOS."

The dumbest thing is if the bootloader isn't on the same drive as Windows, there's no guarantee that will actually cause a problem. It only sometimes does.

I definitely had this problem with Windows Vista; somehow it was set up in such a way that it wouldn't boot without the Vista DVD in the drive. Something about active partitions. I never had these problems with XP. Which is the only good thing I can say about XP currently :cool:
 
I can say that this has actually happened to me recently when installing Windows 7 Pro on a new hard drive. I still had my old hard drive with Vista connected when I first attempted installing W7, and my computer would not finish booting W7 completely. Yes, I did change the boot order for connected drives before attempting to boot the first time. And yes, I did attempt to forcibly boot from the new drive. When I disconnected the old drive and then installed W7 fresh it booted perfectly. After that I reconnected the old drive and I have not had any boot or shutdown related issues.
 
I just found out that was not the solution.

Updated sound card drivers, went to reboot--no LED activity and endless spinning Windows 8 logo. It will sit like this for HOURS if I let it, like the OS isn't even loading.

I will examine drivers and other programs that run at boot.
 
Sovereign said:
I just found out that was not the solution.

Updated sound card drivers, went to reboot--no LED activity and endless spinning Windows 8 logo. It will sit like this for HOURS if I let it, like the OS isn't even loading.

I will examine drivers and other programs that run at boot.
Click to expand...

Try another power supply. I've seen a bad PSU cause this kind of boot problems.
 
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