Solved Slow Bootup and Black Screen

D

dlh123

Member
A few days ago my laptop was running perfect(quick boot ups, no errors, etc.) and then my girlfriend wanted me to copy some files over from my laptop to hers. So, I used her external HDD but after I plugged it in and tried to copy a few files over the transfer went to not responding and eventually my computer just began freezing so I shut it down. When I restarted it my BIOS for my Toshiba pops up as usual then after that it black screen with an underscore in the top left corner that blinks a few times then disappears. My computer then stays in a black screen for about 5-10 minutes until the windows loading screen appears, but that also takes about 5 minutes of just loading. After that yet another black screen for 5 minutes or so and eventually my cursor appears and I can log into my profile. My usually boot time before this was about 1-2 minutes tops. Any ideas? I think the computer might think it should boot off of the external HDD instead of my normal HDD even though I've tried deleting all the drivers for the external HDD to no success. Also note that the external HDD is not plugged in any more and the computer works perfectly fine its just a really long start up time although I have received a pop up balloon error saying "Toshiba HDD/SSD Alert: Unable to get disk information, can not use the alert feature." All help is much appreciated guys.

Manufacturer: Toshiba
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit
 

My Computer

System One

Welcome
Download crystal disc and see if your hard drive has problems. It sounds like its failing. To be on the safe side you may want to back up your stuff, first, ASAP.
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html
If you cannot download, try to boot in safe mode and see what happens.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Also, is your girlfriend's computer running a reliable anti-virus program with frequent updates? It's one thing to have a driver issue with an external HDD, but a rather different problem when the HDD is no longer present and the undesired behavior persists. I'm just wondering if you may have inherited a virus... but if your installed anti-virus is up to date, it should have caught anything resident on it. However, it could also be a coincidental hardware issue, or... maybe when drivers for the external HDD were automatically loaded, they overwrote drivers needed for your internal drive and there's some compatibility issue (just a wild guess). Booting up in SAFE mode, as Rich suggested, is a very good way of eliminating possible driver issues, as Microsoft will default to its base set of drivers for all primary components, where possible.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
In a nutshell, save your stuff. One HD is on the way out, the other is shot (bad).
Once it fails your stuff is gone.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
It's a very peculiar coincidence, the problem with your computer happening just after you had the external HDD attached. But it could be one, as stranger things have happened. My first assumption is that they are related. The report does show a caution on your internal drive, so you may have some issues that need to be straightened out. It could very well be that adding the external drive somehow exacerbated the problem.

I take it you attached the drive again just to run the Crystal Disk report on it. Remove the external HDD and then try booting up in SAFE mode, then report back on your success. If you've never booted into safe mode, you get there by pressing F8 about every second (or a little sooner) after you've started the initial power up (or restart). Once in SAFE mode, run a CHKDSK /f command, and see if Windows can clean up your drive. After that try using a 3rd party tool to help you clean up your drive (Maybe Crystal Disk has some functionality for that).


Rich, are the errors reported on the external drive something that suggests a correctable issue, or is it just plain wear and tear?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
@cytherian

I guess technically that could be a possibility but very unlikely. My anti-virus is frequently updated and detects things pretty good. Is there anyway I can check to see if the external HDD drivers overlapped my internal HDD? I really need to try safe mode but I timed my last 2 bootups and they were 24 minutes and 29 minutes.
 

My Computer

System One

Cytherian said:
It's a very peculiar coincidence, the problem with your computer happening just after you had the external HDD attached. But it could be one, as stranger things have happened. My first assumption is that they are related. The report does show a caution on your internal drive, so you may have some issues that need to be straightened out. It could very well be that adding the external drive somehow exacerbated the problem.

I take it you attached the drive again just to run the Crystal Disk report on it. Remove the external HDD and then try booting up in SAFE mode, then report back on your success. If you've never booted into safe mode, you get there by pressing F8 about every second (or a little sooner) after you've started the initial power up (or restart). Once in SAFE mode, run a CHKDSK /f command, and see if Windows can clean up your drive. After that try using a 3rd party tool to help you clean up your drive (Maybe Crystal Disk has some functionality for that).




Rich, are the errors reported on the external drive something that suggests a correctable issue, or is it just plain wear and tear?
Click to expand...


When there are corrupted sectors, they are moved to an area not used, and other sectors take there place (when you do a chkdsk). This process can be continued for a finite number of times. The bad disc shows that it has happened many times already and the end is near.
For the disc given a rating of caution, it appears that it can still be corrected with a chkdsk.
The OP may want to try a chkdsk, to correct the errors, but I think that more will appear at a future, but close at hand date.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Ok guys I tried a safe boot but to no success. First try my computer froze after I chose safe mode during when it said loading windows files or something like that and there was a long list of drivers. Second time I was pressing F8 but safe mode wouldnt show up and the computer made this really load high pitched "duh nuh duh nuh duh nuh" sound and then proceeded to normal boot and as always it was still fine logging in at the welcome screen.

Also how do I do a chkdsk check?
 

My Computer

System One

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
It's normal to see that list of files being copied when you boot into safe mode. It may be taking a bit longer than usual, given the uncommon behavior of your system (which may be due to a partially corrupted index, something that CHKDSK should fix). I would try it again.

Thanks for the info, Rich. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
Wow the chkdsk really worked. I clocked my reboot time and its down to about 50 seconds. Thank you very much guys but I have one more question, since earlier you stated that my HDD could be fixed by chkdsk but it would probably go bad again. Should I buy a new HDD as soon as possible or will this one last a while?
 

My Computer

System One

Heres your answer in a nutshell
The chkdsk can remove bad clusters and replaces them, but only so many times. There are two ways that a HD goes bad.
One is age, this is bad and you should replace as soon as possible
The second is not shutting down correctly, etc and this is a one shot deal
I would back up my stuff and get a new HD if it is 3-4 years old and you are a heavy user.
If you think that the problem is due to a bad shut down, etc, I would get a new one. $100 dollars in NewEgg, but the need may not be immediate.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
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