Help - Computer stalling for 2-3mins before windows boots?

[Deleted]

Hi there,

Today my computer has started doing something I can't understand. When I press the on switch the fans begin, the red warning VGA LED lights up in the case and the screen stays black and nothing happens for about 2-3 mins (might be longer...feels like an eternity). Then the normal beep sounds and the computer boots, loads windows and works as if nothing is wrong.

I'm really confused as I have never seen this before so any help would be greatly appreciated!

My current setup is:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: 3.4GHz Intel i7-2600k
MOBO: Asus p67 Sabertooth
RAM: Corsair 8GB
GPU: MSI R9 280
PSU: Corsair AX850
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
SSD:OCZ vertex2
HDD WD Black 1TB

Any other info needed then just ask!

[ToastedBread]

Try re-seating your graphics card and memory modules before starting your machine again.

[Sicarius87]

If you can too if youve been messing around in the bios and the bios allows you to; save a profile of your current settings (or write them down) and reset to factory defaults, save and exit see if the issue persists.

[Deleted]

Thanks for your quick responses.

I have tried reseating the RAM and the gfx card to no avail. I even tried the gfx card in the lower x8 slot to see if the upper x16 pci slot was faulty.

I'll have a look at the current bios settings but I'm sure I haven't altered anything in there in months.

I fear it is likely to either be bios based or hardware based due to it occurring before the machine boots

[chazus]

Any external USB drives?

[Sicarius87]

Could always try another video card if you have one or you could also try one stick of ram at a time. If to no avail there, it may be the system board.

[Deleted]

Is it plugged in?

I wish I was that foolish right now

No external drives plugged in during boot. I will try the ram sticks individually when I get home from work though I have not got a replacement gpu card though so debugging that could be tricky.

Thanks for the suggestions so far

[nocturnus]

Disable RAID in the BIOS, if that doesn't work update the BIOS.

[Sicarius87]

Is it plugged in?

if it wasn't, it would eventually just boot into windows and work just fine

[glo]

Failing HDDs and wonky external drives can cause issues with POST. Try pulling the SATA cable from your mechanical and see what happens.

[ToastedBread]

Another suggestion, try replacing your mainboard battery.

[Deleted]

Bit of an edit: I was and still getting occasional (rare) "snaps" or flickers (guess some could call it a wobble) on the computer image when running. Almost like a discharge like what used to be seen on old CRT monitors when the sheath was failing. Not sure if that's an unrelated issue though?

Update:
-Tried clearing CMOS but it had no effect
-Tried disconnecting hdd/ssd and gpu card last night. Upon starting still had the very long delay before it attempted to boot (of course got a ton of beeps this time instead of one but that was expected!)

[ToastedBread]

Do you have access to a spare graphics card to test if the issue is with your R9 280?

[Deleted]

Nope unfortunately I haven't got a spare card to try - death is usually my motivation for buying a new one .

Had massive problems with frame rate during raids tonight and massive latency...Then I saw this



I'm guessing that is pointing at my PSU? I reset the values multiple times during the raid as well to see if it was just a one off.