[SSD probably screwed?] Extremely slow boot & huge start-up programs loading times

Hi there, now that I know for certain that my webcam is gone, yet another (and way more worrisome) issue comes to bother me and my Clevo P170EM...

Up until Wendsnday, everything was going fine as usual. At a certain point during late evening, I noticed that after a reboot the loading time after the BIOS screen was painfully slow, like 10 seconds longer than the usual. I didn't care at that moment, but when I logged in the truth hurt me in the face like a right hand from Mohammad Ali...Steam, AMD Catalyst, Razer Synapse, Skype, Rocketdock, Rainmeter and all the other softwares that were supposed to load right after start-up were nowhere to be found. They were eventually found, and started loading all at the same time, 3 minutes later. The only way to sort this out was to let the programs load, and then shut down and boot again with the fast start-up from Windows 8 enabled (the technology mixed with hibernation, that makes the BIOS screen say "Resuming from Hibernation" when you turn the laptop on). By doing so, all the programs load in the usual time. The problem is that fast start-up doesn't work with reboot...so it's kind of a pain in the .

Another thing I noticed is that during reboot or shut-downs, sometimes the laptop freezes when the screen turns black and I have to manually press the power button to shut the system down (I know that because the laptop LEDs ar still lighted on in the meantime). Never happened before.

Now, I got 2 guesses on this:

Hardware problem: likely, as this keeps happening even after a fresh install of Windows
Software/Windows Update problem: unlikely, because honestly I don't remember doing any update at the time and this issue kept going on on both Windows 8 and 8.1...

Any ideas/tools to sort this out?

edit: forgot to add, drive is a 128G Plextor M5S

 

To be sure, you've done a fresh install after the problem started and it still occurs? If yes, you didn't clean the M5S in any way, ie. Secure Erase or Clean All during install of Windows?

What are the SMART details on the M5S? Crystal Disk Info CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World and/or Gsmart Control GSmartControl - Downloads I use both to compare results.
Plextor's Plextool is installed and updated, newest version v1.1.0 and firmware 1.05? There were updates in September for both.

Be sure AHCI is enabled in the BIOS.

How full is the M5S? Is it OPed (over-provisioned), how much?

All those programs are set to start with Windows? Why? This will increase the time it takes to boot. Disable them all from starting with Windows to eliminate one or more as a possible cause. Compare results without them. Boot into Safe Mode, only essential drivers are loaded, check the time.

 

Update: got few games/programs on the SSD, and the loading times are lighting fast as they were before. Apparently is just a boot problem...

Yep forgot to mention it,the drive was formatted in the process.

No they're not, got to check them out. I doubt that's the problem tho, since everything run smoothly from September to three days ago.

Has always been.

80GBs free over 118 GBs available. Actually I don't know if the missing 10 GBs are due to a factory over-provising, BIOS conflict or just available but not displayed (would be interesting to know as the other drive, a 750 HDD, is also missing 50 GBs. But stupidly I never cared about).

Nananana, you are missing the point.

Before the problem: fast boot/reboot, all programs set to load on start-up loaded in about 20 seconds.
Now: slow boot/reboot, start-up programs take 3 minutes to load.

Thank you for your help by the way

P.S. During Windows 8 install, I noticed a 350 MB drive in the drives' list. Couldn't be deleted. I doubt it's related to my problem but I wanted to share.

 

You're welcome.

Yes, all those programs may have been fine before the problem started but to eliminate one or more of them from causing the boot problems you could temporarily stop them from starting with Windows. Testing one at a time with boot/re-boot adding a program as you go. Sort of like troubleshooting browser extensions for compatibility. But after reading about the 350MB drive, I'd start there.

Did you instal Windows 8 with more than the 128GB M5S physically installed, the 750GB was physically installed too? Read here about why you want only one drive installed and about the 350MB "System Reserved" partition.
Installing Windows 8, Be Careful of Drive 0

The 350 MB System Reserved partition is used for the Boot Manager code, BCD (Boot Configuration Database), System Recovery Options (Windows RE), and start up files for BitLocker (if turned on).

I would probably start with another clean install with only the M5S physically installed if the 750 was installed too.

The SMART data looks OK from Plextools.

The "missing" 10 GBs aren't really missing. Storage manufacturers use Decimal one KB = 1000 bytes, one MB = 1000 KB and one GB = 1000 MB. Your 750GB hard drive is 750 x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 750,000,000,000 bytes. Windows reports Binary one KB =1024 bytes, one MB = 1024 KB and one GB = 1024 MB. 750,000,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 698GB reported in Windows. Doing the same calculation plugging in the 128 M5S you'll end up at 119. But Windows reports it as GB and not GiB. 1024 is gibibyte.
Maybe a better explanation
HTG Explains: Why Do Hard Drives Show the Wrong Capacity in Windows?

 

Sorry, got that part of the post wrong. I tried disabling every single start-up program via task manager, but the problem still persist.

By "physically installed" you mean literally plugged in? Yes ofc it was, and I'm afraid I can't get rid of it because of my reseller's warranty policy.

 

Yes, literally plugged in. You are just going to unplug it. You can leave it in the drive bay just slide it back a little.

I would be surprised, (shocked) if a Clevo/Sager reseller had a warranty stopping you from swapping out a drive, upgrading your machine. This is just a temporary disconnection. You don't need to get rid of it. You can connect it right back after the windows install on the SSD. No one will be the wiser. I won't tell. There aren't any "void warranty" stickers sealing the drive bays?

One of the selling points of a Clevo is it's consumer upgradability. They encourage it by making every thing easily accessible, few screws. They don't even solder the CPU on these models like some other brands.

When you couldn't delete the 350MB was it Drive 0 and your M5S was Drive 1 or 2?

 

Ye you're right, actually I could do some tweaking previous notification to my reseller by I'm not so keen on doing it, also because I need to ship it back for customer support because left mousepad button is faulty (always been), same for wireless card and webcam needs replacement too Also, in March I actually ordered a Crucial m4 and not a Plextor as a SSD, so I'm using the occasion to get a brand new drive.

About the last question, iirc 350MB drive and SSD were both Drive 0, and HDD was Drive 1.

 

I would try reflashing the bios.

 

Just did a clean reinstall, I confirm the above. The 350 MB is a partition of Drive 0.

Anyway everything is working as intended now, I got a feeling that it might have been an SSD optimization guide I've been following during the last re-installs that caused the disaster...you know disable the fetchs, pagefile, etc. Could have messed with some settings about the boot in msconfig.

 

You should have said you had been messing about with the settings...

 

Good to hear it's working.