Defiance III excessive CPU activity / heat on BOOT very slow to load W10 login prompt

[HAL900]

Defiance III excessive CPU activity / heat on BOOT very slow to load W10 login prompt

Ok so Defiance III i7 6700, GTX1060 6gb 12GB RAM (came like that, always had 12GB) was working totally fine, no changes, no updates no nothing. I take care of this thing. It 'sleeps' in a case, I undervolt (its not that) I have a cooling pad. I dont run max settings in games so it runs cooler than the average. Mostly get reports of CPU and GPU around 60-70 degrees C while gaming, at IDLE etc its more like 35ish. I've had it about 2.5 years now and had no major issues since a Windows 10 update a long time ago wouldnt apply, but since then I've been getting regular updates etc and all is well.

Edit: boot disk is a 256GB M2 SSD

Suddenly about a week ago Windows 10 is taking an AGE to boot, there is a black screen and a long wait before the login prompt appears. During this time the CPU (NOT the GPU) fan is going nuts and the left side of the case is getting HOT (CPU side) when it finally gets to Windows login and I go in theres nothing. No weird processes, nothing.


Sometimes it just doesnt ever load the login prompt and I have to force a reboot. It just sits on black screen cooking itself.


I've tried installing updates when it does go into Windows, no difference, removing updates (says there arent any to remove) via the advanced startup repair options.


I've tried safe mode, startup repair several times and nothing seems to help.


Tried chkdsk via cmd from startup advanced options, said it fixed some things but upon reboot its the same.


I've removed the anti-virus (bullguard) and its the same.


It still takes ages to boot, it sometimes eventually does but in the eventvwr I can see the firmware is limiting the CPU, becauase its going insane on the CPU usage at boot which doesnt make sense. Theres no other errors and no weird activity. No SMART errors for HDD etc


First thought is virus, mining crypto on boot which explains the excessive CPU activity....but that doesnt make sense because if it does get into W10 its fine. Low CPU activity. Or its a hardware issue, but this doesnt seem to manifest itself in ANY way while the machine is running. No bluescreens. I can still play games.


All fans seem working.


Is there a diagnostic I can do via the BIOS etc? - also a couple times when I've been looking in the BIOS its just locked up and I have to force a reboot.


This is weird.


The last 'changes' I made was to install Flux and to update the powershell help files. So, yeah.


Also, how can I show the boot / post instead of the pc specialist logo on boot? Cant see this in the BIOS.


Help plz

 

[Mustafo95]

I literally had this very similar problem last week when I installed Windows 10 1903. Pretty much the same symptoms, the os would start, get to a black screen with spinning circle at the bottom and it'd stay that way. In my case the problem was Intel's integrated graphics card. I force shut down my computer couple of times until I managed to get into advanced startup, then went to safe mode and completely uninstalled the iGPU from device manager. Then restarted normally, windows came on, downloaded a fresh copy by itself and everything was honky-dory.
Whatever problem you have, it must be getting recorded on event viewer. Maybe check Event Viever -> Application and Service Logs -> Microsoft ->Windows -> Diagnostics-Performance -> Operational.
You might find something useful there, most likely nothing that's helpful but you never know.

You always have the nuclear option of just erasing everything from ssd/hdd and reinstalling windows from scratch so I wouldn't worry too much

 

[Stephen M]

It seems it is not a virus but if you want a second opinion Clam is a good AV scanner: https://www.clamav.net/

 

[ubuysa]

The Event Log is the place to start. Your best option is to export your logs, upload them to the cloud somewhere, and post a link to them here. If you read this post it will explain how to export event log entries; export the Administrative Events as explained in that post.

We can then load that into our event viewers and take a proper look see.

I know you're certain that the undervolt isn't the cause but it would be wise to remove the undervolt and check again...

 

[HAL900]

Thanks for the responses all, I reset my undervolt settings back to stock and did a new installation and scan with Malwarebytes and there's nothing. Then I got bored and played some games for a while, all was fine.

Now its being weird again and I can't get to the login screen so I'm using another device right now.

I think 'MUSTAFO95' may be correct with the graphics issue as I tend to not update the Intel drivers as I've had a bad time in the past with that. I'll try and get in again and check the Windows version as this sounds a lot like the issues mine is having.

I'll check out the other suggested event logs, I was just looking through system and application when I was in the other day.

I suppose the best option might be a fresh installation. It could be the m2 drive is on its way out and SSD's are cheap now. Saw a 500GB WD one for £40 the other day, makes me sad I spent £100+ on a 500GB on not too long ago!

 

[Mustafo95]

I suppose the best option might be a fresh installation. It could be the m2 drive is on its way out and SSD's are cheap now. Saw a 500GB WD one for £40 the other day, makes me sad I spent £100+ on a 500GB on not too long ago!

I don't know how good you're with computers and what your time constraints are like but if you have a 16GB usb stick, you could install Linux Ubuntu on it and use that as a boot drive to test some more.
Also safe mode with networking is useful. If you have absolutely zero problems on safe mode, if it boots very quickly then you'll know for sure it's a driver problem or some other software problem.
Ultimately, all you need to figure out is if the problem is harware related or not

 

[HAL900]

Does pretty much the same thing when booting into Ubuntu via a usb stick. The CPU activity seems to be abnormally high and I can feel the heat and the fans are spinning up. It then seems to freeze, I can move the mouse but can't select anything.

Went into the Bios as well and that's freezing.

I think its a hardware problem which after only 2.5 years its really disappointing considering the cost of the laptop and the fact that I always used it on a stand and never ran anything max settings and always kept it cool

The Windows SSD might just be toast from all the reboots. The boot is toast because it just black screens. Wont even go into safe mode.

Is there a hardwire diagnostic I can run for Clevo laptops on boot?

Maybe I can try removing disks / RAM until it does something else.

 

[ubuysa]

Does pretty much the same thing when booting into Ubuntu via a usb stick. The CPU activity seems to be abnormally high and I can feel the heat and the fans are spinning up. It then seems to freeze, I can move the mouse but can't select anything.

Went into the Bios as well and that's freezing.

In that case I would be calling PCS because that's clearly not a Windows issue.

I think its a hardware problem which after only 2.5 years its really disappointing considering the cost of the laptop and the fact that I always used it on a stand and never ran anything max settings and always kept it cool

Stuff breaks, and electronic components fail, and they sometimes break and fail a lot earlier than we'd like. Sadly there is no way to predict when any given component will fail. You don't really think that PCS deliberately built a laptop that was designed to fail after 30 months do you?

The Windows SSD might just be toast from all the reboots. The boot is toast because it just black screens. Wont even go into safe mode.

That's based on a myth, modern SSDs have a lifespan as good as almost any HDD. Whatever this issue is, all those restarts will not have shortened the life of your SSD in any noticeable way.

Is there a hardwire diagnostic I can run for Clevo laptops on boot?

Not that I know of, though if you search

Maybe I can try removing disks / RAM until it does something else.
[/QUOTE]

 

[HAL900]

TLDR: even though it feels / seems like hardware failure, removing all the disks apart from C, reinstalling Windows seems to have sorted it, even though it would also freeze in the same way using a Ubuntu USB boot. BIOS still freezes though. (very strange)

So after speaking with PCS I have 3 years warranty but only labour, they suggested its the SSD and to install some monitor software, but it wont always boot to windows.

Heres the thing, I removed all the hard drives and it'll still freeze in the BIOS. I'll boot into Ubuntu from USB and the keyboard / mouse wont respond...CPU fan going nuts whole time, can feel the heat...clock frozen, time doesn't work.

Put the Windows SSD back in...

I'll boot into Windows (every 3rd or 4th attempt gets to the logon page nearly) and the keyboard will respond for 1 or 2 seconds, enough to put a character in then it'll freeze, the mouse may or may not move....cpu fan going nuts again. Cant click anything, display is frozen, clock doesn't tell correct time.

Feels like hardware / motherboard failure.

Get into BIOS, freezes. reboot, repeat several times. Loaded defaults, freezes, repeat several times, eventually load defaults and managed to save.

Still freezes in logon screen if it gets there, safe mode doesnt work.

Reinstalled Windows, CPU activity still seems high for no reason but its working again somewhat consistently although the BIOS will still freeze, if I select boot options it always freezes.

This version of Windows 10 looks much different to before so I imagine an update bricked it but what doesnt make sense is that the problem affected Ubuntu and Windows. I dont see how a Windows update could've made a firmware change.

Either way I guess I've got to risk updating the BIOS and updating all the Clevo drivers / software etc. Still havent put my other HDDS back in but for now it seems like it might be ok.

 

[ubuysa]

You eliminated overheating in your first post so I'm inclined to agree that this is probably hardware since a Linux distribution has issues as well. I doubt it's the BIOS, your symptoms just don't sound like a BIOS issue to me, but what have you got to lose?