PC problem when turning on the machine

[elgordo38]

Each morning when I turn on my computer it goes through a 5 to 10 minute ritual of on a black screen with white letters doing a 3 stage check. If I wait out the procedure I can then continue and sign in. I am led to believe if I insert my Windows 7 original disc that there is a repair section on it that should cure the problem. Anyone experience the same problem or is knowledgeable as to how to fix this. Any step by step help appreciated as well I am in the Computers for Dummies stage. As a last resort I will of course take it to the repair shop. I do not want to loose everything on the machine and I understand one can just repair the C drive and this does not effect the rest of the programming. Any and all help appreciated.

[brianinbangkok]

First question is this in the bios or has windows started ?

Post a photo of that screen here please.

[Lannig]

Sounds very much like an extended power-on self-test from the BIOS (RAM test?)

I do agree that a photo would help.

[JaiMaai]

Try this:

http://www.hightechdad.com/2013/04/25/how-to-stop-chkdsk-from-running-on-every-boot-up/

[KhunBENQ]

Each morning when I turn on my computer it goes through a 5 to 10 minute ritual of on a black screen with white letters doing a 3 stage check.

To me this sounds like a thorough disk check which happens usually after some fatal problem occurred on the hard disk.

BUT: this should happen once and fix the problem(s).

Sure it is only 3 stages?

Usually there is also a short message (timing out) to skip this step.

One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You may cancel the disk check, but ...

Do you see that?

If you get it up and running: do you have valuable data (documents, pictures, videos) on the disk?

If so: do you backup regularly?

If not: urgently backup your data to some external USB disk or the like!

You can't be sure that the PC will boot at all some time soon.

Edited April 4, 2016 by KhunBENQ

[KhunBENQ]

Do you see messages like seen here?

CHKDSK repeatedly.

Do you have frequent power outages, spikes?

Do you shutdown Windows in orderly manner or just switch power off (before shutdown complete)?

Edited April 4, 2016 by KhunBENQ

[elgordo38]

Sorry to be late but here is a posting of the screen I get. Thanks to all who have answered.

[KhunBENQ]

I see there is a 3 stage CHKDSK.

You always learn.

But indeed it is what I suspected.

Now comes the complicated part.

What's the reason?

If at the end no problems are indicated? and there is no power down/outage problem then one might think of forcing to stop this endless loop.

There are recipes on the net.

Or you hit a key before the thing starts. It trains attention

Edited April 4, 2016 by KhunBENQ

[elgordo38]

Do you see messages like seen here?

CHKDSK repeatedly.

Do you have frequent power outages, spikes?

Do you shutdown Windows in orderly manner or just switch power off (before shutdown complete)?

Thanks for your reply. I just posted the screen I get. No spikes or outages here the power really seems stable. I do the regular click on Windows shut down.

[elgordo38]

I see there is a 3 stage CHKDSK.

You always learn.

But indeed it is what I suspected.

Now comes the complicated part.

What's the reason?

If at the end no problems are indicated? and there is no power down/outage problem then one might think of forcing to stop this endless loop.

There are recipes on the net.

Or you hit a key before the thing starts. It trains attention

Thanks for your reply. I have tried the hitting the key part and it seems to have no effect it just continues on. Its a bit annoying but I can live with it. As for receipts on the net sounds good but sadly I am generations behind on this stuff and even Computers for Dummies baffles this old brain. Thanks again for your time and trouble.

[Don Mega]

You have a HDD that is not happy and has a limited future lifespan.

How many are in the machine ?

[lostinisaan]

I see there is a 3 stage CHKDSK.

You always learn.

But indeed it is what I suspected.

Now comes the complicated part.

What's the reason?

If at the end no problems are indicated? and there is no power down/outage problem then one might think of forcing to stop this endless loop.

There are recipes on the net.

Or you hit a key before the thing starts. It trains attention

Thanks for your reply. I have tried the hitting the key part and it seems to have no effect it just continues on. Its a bit annoying but I can live with it. As for receipts on the net sounds good but sadly I am generations behind on this stuff and even Computers for Dummies baffles this old brain. Thanks again for your time and trouble.

Here's an easy way to disable it.

[lostinisaan]

Each morning when I turn on my computer it goes through a 5 to 10 minute ritual of on a black screen with white letters doing a 3 stage check.

To me this sounds like a thorough disk check which happens usually after some fatal problem occurred on the hard disk.

BUT: this should happen once and fix the problem(s).

Sure it is only 3 stages?

Usually there is also a short message (timing out) to skip this step.

One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You may cancel the disk check, but ...

Do you see that?

If you get it up and running: do you have valuable data (documents, pictures, videos) on the disk?

If so: do you backup regularly?

If not: urgently backup your data to some external USB disk or the like!

You can't be sure that the PC will boot at all some time soon.

What about running Hardrive Sentinel to see the drive's health? http://download.cnet.com/Hard-Disk-Sentinel/3000-2086_4-10466403.html

[elgordo38]

You have a HDD that is not happy and has a limited future lifespan.

How many are in the machine ?

There is only one drive. I did a drive check and it showed 98%. The machine is about 5 years old so that should be acceptable correct???

[johnatong]

You have a HDD that is not happy and has a limited future lifespan.

How many are in the machine ?

There is only one drive. I did a drive check and it showed 98%. The machine is about 5 years old so that should be acceptable correct???

Which drive check did you do and what does the 98% relate to ?

[elgordo38]

You have a HDD that is not happy and has a limited future lifespan.

How many are in the machine ?

There is only one drive. I did a drive check and it showed 98%. The machine is about 5 years old so that should be acceptable correct???

Which drive check did you do and what does the 98% relate to ?

Crystaldiscinfo. 98% Disc health.

[KhunBENQ]

I don't know the details of this quite sophisticated tool.

Does it qualify this "98%" disk as "Good" or the like?

Is there a color coding for the value (green, yellow...)?

What are the missing 2%?

I tend to say: your disk HAS a problem and might fail completely sometime soon.

Errors might "grow".

Hopefully someone knows the tool better than me.

On the net I see screenshots like this:

http://i.snag.gy/QZJiZ.jpg

Edited April 4, 2016 by KhunBENQ

[lostinisaan]

I don't know the details of this quite sophisticated tool.

Does it qualify this "98%" disk as "Good" or the like?

Is there a color coding for the value (green, yellow...)?

What are the missing 2%?

I tend to say: your disk HAS a problem and might fail completely sometime soon.

Errors might "grow".

Hopefully someone knows the tool better than me.

On the net I see screenshots like this:

http://i.snag.gy/QZJiZ.jpg

I guess he tried Sentinel? I could always rely on this program. When health was down at 60 %, I received a warning and replaced my harddrive.

Still good enough to clone it and i only had to replace it. A great program in my opinion.

Edited April 4, 2016 by lostinisaan

[manarak]

Read the SMART data about the HDD and then interpret it.

OP: you shut down your computer using a windows "shut down" button, right? not the on/off switch on the back of your computer?

[elgordo38]

Sorry AGAIN for being so late to post the results of the Sentinel test. My computer really has slowed down a lot. It took me a bit to navigate the Sentinel site. My temperature seems to be running higher than the example posted. The disc seems to be OK from what I can see (Boy what an education I am getting) Yes this is a wonderful program. There is mention made of some 16 weak sectors on the surface of the disc. I would like to get rid of the disc check at the beginning when I turn the computer on. It says to hit any button to cancel the check which I have done but the check refuses to cancel and continues anyways. Many Thanks Again.

[Tywais]

It says to hit any button to cancel the check which I have done but the check refuses to cancel and continues anyways. Many Thanks Again.

Try hitting CTRL+C or ESC to see if it will abort the chkdsk. Been a very long time since I've seen a chkdsk run so a bit unclear which I used to stop it.

[johnatong]

These links may help.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/guide-to-using-check-disk-in-windows-vista/

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/check-disk-runs-at-every-startup-windows (Best not use the suggestions here unless confident about editing the registry )

[huahinjoe]

It could be your hard drive having some bad sectors which means every time it wants to check the disk before windows starts up. If thats the case better you get a new hard drive before you loose everything.

[longball53098]

You say the PC/HDD is five years old? I would say you are on borrowed time for that drive.

New HDD are cheap when you figure loosing important data is usually not cheap.SSD drives are a good deal now too.

Buy a new drive and replace that problem before it becomes a bigger headache.

[lostinisaan]

You say the PC/HDD is five years old? I would say you are on borrowed time for that drive.

New HDD are cheap when you figure loosing important data is usually not cheap.SSD drives are a good deal now too.

Buy a new drive and replace that problem before it becomes a bigger headache.

OP, buy yourself a new hard drive and clone it. Then you only have to change the hard drives and all is how it was before. Excluding the disc check, of course.

A 500 GB at Advance around 1,600 baht.