The last few days my PC has been taking about five minutes to start from cold. The "On" light on the monitor flashes on and off with a faint ticking noise before the screen has any display. It then goes straight to the desktop. It doesn't happen when I restart or when I switch off and start up again a few minutes later, only when it has been off overnight. PC is a Dell Inspirion, fourteen months old and the monitor is about seven years old.
Any ideas which one is the culprit?
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I don't think its the Monitor. However, do you have some way of turning the PC off over night but leaving power on to the monitor? Just to help confirm.
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Disconnect any external devices (esp USB) as these sometimes slow down boot. I agree, it doesn't sound like the monitor.
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My relatively high powered PC is very slow at booting. Measured in minutes, not seconds. I've half-heartedly tried to find the reason, but at heart I know I've got something screwed up somewhere and I really need to do a full install.
I'm just wussing out on that for the moment. *All* those little apps and programs, and I don't even know which ones I do need - it makes me shudder.
However, USB devices is a good recommendation. After that will be the network, any other device perhaps providing a conflict, and Safe Boot etc. etc.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sun 14 Feb 16 at 15:45
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>> I don't think its the Monitor. However, do you have some way of turning the
>> PC off over night but leaving power on to the monitor? Just to help confirm.
>>
I'll leave the main switch on tonight and see if that helps.
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If your running it from a Graphics card, try swapping back to "onboard" graphics to quick-check it's not a card issue.
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>> It doesn't happen when I restart or when I switch off and start up again a
>> few minutes later, only when it has been off overnight.
Sounds very similar to my old Windows XP desktop when it was playing up. Turned out to be the main power supply inside the PC tower. Or more precisely 2 or 3 failed capacitors. I changed them for a couple of quid, and touch wood, 3 years later it still works. Not that I use it much these days. But it's handy if I want to download something I'm not too sure of from a torrent site and couldn't care less if it kills it or infects it with a virus.
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I left the box plugged into the mains overnight rather than switching the power off and it was still the same today. Would that eliminate the PSU or could that still be the culprit? When the display comes on the monitor it goes straight to the desktop rather than the usual start up screens,
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I'm not quite following...
You left the mains on to the screen and there was still the delay? Not the screen then.
>>When the display comes on the monitor it goes straight to the desktop rather than the usual start up screens,
Then it was presumably in suspend, or hibernate or something rather than actually powered down?
Or maybe I'm being dense, but if you could clarify.....
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Sorry, I'll be clearer.
I shut the PC down but left it plugged in at the mains. This was to see if still having mains power to the PSU while the PC was off would make a difference to start up.
Obviously it didn't, and as I said the thing took five minutes for the display to appear and none of the usual boot up screens appeared before the desktop.
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The monitor is much older than the pc, its probably incapable of doing the best resolutions your pc can, monitors are dirt cheap, get a new one.
Make sure the cable form the pc to the monitor is properly plugged in at both ends first tho.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 16 Feb 16 at 19:40
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And if you simply restart the PC it starts quickly with no issue? It is simply when its been shutdown overnight?
What happens if you shut it down. Switch off the mains. Then switch everything back on and restart straight away. Does it start up quickly or slowly?
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>> And if you simply restart the PC it starts quickly with no issue? It is
>> simply when its been shutdown overnight?
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>> What happens if you shut it down. Switch off the mains. Then switch everything back
>> on and restart straight away. Does it start up quickly or slowly?
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Quickly if I only shut it down for a few minutes.
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Peculiar.
It is wired or using WiFi?
Perhaps tomorrow you could try restarting it with the network unplugged. Perhaps trying rebooting it quickly with the network unplugged.
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>> Peculiar.
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>> It is wired or using WiFi?
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>> Perhaps tomorrow you could try restarting it with the network unplugged. Perhaps trying rebooting it
>> quickly with the network unplugged.
A Wifi monitor? wow I want one of those.
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Right, remembered I had an old 15" monitor up in the loft. Shut down, plugged in the old tiddler, left it for 35 minutes and back to a normal start up. I'll shut down now for an hour and a half and see if it still behaves, then try again in the morning.
But it looks like a trip to Currys with a wad of cash tomorrow for a new monitor.
How the hell did we ever manage with monotors this size? It's like trying to read a postage stamp.
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Me no understand what's going on here, look forward to the explanation at the end.. :-)
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 16 Feb 16 at 23:00
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you haven't any failed updates that it's trying to repeatedly configure have you?
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>> Me no understand what's going on here, look forward to the explanation at the end..
>> :-)
>>
Right, lets make it as simple as I can (I thought I already had).
1/ I turn on the PC and it makes all the right noises as the HD wakes up.
2/ The monitor remains blank for at least five minutes with it's power light blinking.
3/ After the elapsed five or so minutes of darkness the desktop screen suddenly appears, without being proceeded by the usual start up screens.
Swapping the monitor for an old one that I remembered was up in the loft cured the problem, as has the brand new one I am now sitting in front of. Therefore it appears that the original monitor is toast and is in the garage awaiting transportation to the tip.
Ten points to Zero for guessing (In an educated way) what the problem was.
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Ohhhhhhh.
Sorry, you'd have been better ignoring everything I said, I didn't understand correctly.
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I've been struggling with this one too! but it's really beginning to sounds like a graphics card problem. Maybe something not warming up as fast, and by the time it has, and the graphics come on line, you are booted to desktop. Once it's been warmed up, it behaves normally???
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You haven't read my last post, have you?
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Just had yet another thought! - are you using Avast? - Sometimes (particularly on this machine of mine running 10, Avast loads before some of the other services and tries to start updating, slowing things down at boot.). There is a setting in "Settings" that allows you to tell the comp to load Avast last, just tick the box, see if that helps, once updating at first boot is done, it doesn't try the next time you boot so prob goes away.
EDIT: Err, no I was too busy thinking! ... but I have now, and glad it's been sorted....now what to do with the rest of the day.....
Last edited by: devonite on Wed 17 Feb 16 at 14:20
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PC or Monitor Issue? - No FM2R
