Windows 11 Install followed by 9 minute boot ups

Hi All,

I finally bit the bullet and "upgraded" to Windows 11 thinking all the huge bugs have been worked out (famous last words). In any event, I upgraded to 11 from 10 on my Alienware R7 with a NVMW 256k boot disk. After the install, I now get very long bootups, usually between 7 and 10 minutes. Initially, I thought it was frozen, so I tried to get to safe mode by turning off and turning on the computer 4 times. I could not get it to enter safe mode. However, I walked away from the computer and when I came back sometime later, windows was loaded and I was at my login screen. I tried the cleanup the system files and temp files, I made sure fast startup was on, ran a dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth, did a sfc /scannow. But I am at a loss.... the weird things are even when I hit f2 or f12 on boot up, it still takes 7-10 minutes to get to those screens. Any insight or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

The big clue in your post for me is that hitting F2 or F12 takes 7 to 10 minutes to get to those screens. I take it that F2 and F12 are for entry into the BIOS setup and boot device selection menus, is that right?

If so, this would indicate a problem outside of Windows because that happens before the OS even starts to load.

You might start by disconnecting all external devices that are connected to the system to see if any device is having a hard time being enumerated by the system. I had a system that would take forever to boot but only when a particular HD was connected.

I can add to @hsehestedt good advice. My backup system will not boot into windows if any flash srive is plugged in at boot but runs great otherwise. I can also say that upgrades do not always go as planned for a variety of reasons. I have had to do a clean install quite a few times to get a system to run as it is supposed to after a botched upgrade.

He is right. F2 and F12 happen before the OS even boots. Possibly, your bios is outdated. You don't happen to have opthane on that R7, do you? Take a look at this article if you do. How to Clean Intel® Optane™ Memory Metadata Using the...

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you

Was it booting normally under Win 10? How long was it taking to boot?
Do you have a drive image backup from Win 10?

Thanks everyone for the input. Sorry for the delay in getting bach, I was away for the weekend. I have updated my hardware specs.

Everything was working fine under Windows 10, I would get 20-40 second boot ups. Everything is updated, including Bios. I do not have the Intel Optane. I do not have an image backup from Windows 10. There are no external devices attached to the computer, other than Headphones, etc.

tallen2_34 said:

But I am at a loss.... the weird things are even when I hit f2 or f12 on boot up, it still takes 7-10 minutes to get to those screens.

Click to expand...

I suppose F2 is to enter BIOS and F12 is to launch the boot menu.
Please describe f2 or f12 on boot up sequence. What are "those screens" (Pre boot or boot screens)?

Megahertz said:

I suppose F2 is to enter BIOS and F12 is to launch the boot menu.
Please describe f2 or f12 on boot up sequence. What are "those screens" (Pre boot or boot screens)?

Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct. The f2 is to enter the dell setup/bios menu and the f12 is boot sequence. I did notice that when I get to those screens, the navigation of those screens is very slow and jerky. The mouse doesn't track properly, it is delayed and jerky. Even the keyboard controls are delayed (for example, it takes a second or so move to the next item with the directional arrows).

BIOS and Boot menu are pre boot, so it isn't a Windows issue.
It can be a attached hardware that became defective and is interfering.
As already suggested, make your system as simple as possible.
Sometimes BIOS gets corrupted. Try to re flash BIOS (same or newer version).
Disconnect all other drives (internal and external).
If the MB has internal graphics, remove the RTX 3060

Though I do believe this is caused by hardware since it affects bios as well, just to make sure all windows files are in order, open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow. System file checker will check all the system files and attempt to repair any corrupted ones. Note the results. If there are no integrity violations or if corrupted files were found and repaired, restart and check boot time. If corrupted files were found but could not be repaired, follow up in same command prompt with
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth (note the spaces)

@Megahertz is correct. Checking for an updated bios would be the first thing to try. You can also reset your bios to default from within bios OR by unplugging power &, removing the CR2032 CMOS battery. With battery removed, discharge capacitors by holding down power button for 15 seconds. Then put battery back in or even replace it with a new one as it could be weak. One cost about $4 anywhere batteries are sold.

If updating or resetting bios doesn't work, narrowing this down to hardware is going to be more complicated than most due to the system you have and your number of peripherals. I am assuming you hardware configuration is exactly the same as when you were running windows 10, so correct me if my assumptions are wrong.

At this point do your testing with bios F2 only, testing your boot time into bios after each step. I do not know your experience in dealing with hardware, so if you're not comfortable in doing it, seek assistance.
1. The i7-8700k cpu does have onboard Intel® UHD Graphics 630 available. Completely remove your graphics card and move your monitor cable to the integrated graphics port and check if it solves the issue. (NOTE: Depending on how your bios is optioned, you may or may not have to direct the bios to use the integrated graphics. Most times Dell bios is optioned as AUTO which uses either integrated or dedicated. If you happen to get no graphics using integrated, you may have to put cable back on dedicated GPU long enough to go back into bios and change this option)

2. reseat your ram.

3. remove the ram stick(s)in bank 1. (Black tabs) As you remove ram, use a pen or marker and mark them with the slot they were originally in. Test. If it resolves problem, one of sticks in bank 1 is bad.

4. If problem remains, remove sticks in Bank 0 (white tabs-should be bank closest to cpu) and put the sticks you removed from Bank 1 into bank 0. If problem is solved, one of the sticks you removed from bank 0 is bad.

5. Put your system in the most basic configuration a computer can use to boot to bios. Disconnect cables to all drives, also remove boot drive. Mark each sata cable so it can be reconnected into same port. Boot into bios with NO Peripherals connected except cpu, power supply, ram in bank 0, and integrated graphics, keyboard and mouse..

Attention-You other guys check me here to make sure I haven't missed anything.

If everything is normal in bios in this basic configuration, one of the disconnected peripherals is causing the problem. You'll have to connect them back one at a time starting with your boot drive, testing after each one. The process of elimination is slow going.

If it is not normal in bios in this basic configuration, it would point to your bios, the ram stick(s) you have installed, mobo, cpu, or power supply. You can eliminate the ram by swapping it with what you removed.

CORRECTED to add keyboard and mouse to basic configuration and running sfc. Sorry about that.

Thank you for this detailed game plan. I will try to get to it next week. I don't want to do anything to the computer now as my wife has a webinar that she needs to do, so I don't want to make things worse! I'll post my results when I am able to find some time.

See correction of my last post..