I've been having a bizarre issue lately where my computer boots up to a grey screen with a static underscore in the top left corner. It's taking about 5 minutes to boot, which is a drastic change since it used to only take around 10 seconds. This started happening after I experienced some hard crashes while playing Battlefield 1, which prompted me to update Windows. Since then, I've noticed this long boot time. Here's what I've done so far:
1. Cleared the CMOS and swapped the battery.
2. Reseated the RAM, drives, and GPU one by one to rule out hardware problems.
3. Tried an in-place upgrade followed by a clean install of Windows.
4. Swapped the DisplayPort cable to the motherboard.
5. Used DDU to clean and update GPU and chipset drivers.
6. Rolled back and uninstalled Windows updates.
7. Reset and updated the BIOS.
8. Unplugged the GPU for a test.
9. Checked and replugged every cable.
I'm considering doing a fresh Windows install on a spare SATA drive, but the drive health shows 95%. When I was using the bootable USB to reinstall Windows, the long boot times still occurred. I'm unsure if that will help or not.
3 Answers
FINAL UPDATE - I got it sorted! After trying everything imaginable, I figured my components were fine. So I disassembled the whole system to inspect everything closely, and I found that the USB 3 connector had some bent pins. I managed to straighten them out, although I broke two in the process. I reassembled everything, expecting nothing to change, but now it boots in 10 seconds, and the system is stable! I doubt the front USB ports will work again, but I'm okay with that after all the hassle.
Here’s a screenshot of what I see when I boot up, just in case it helps: . It happens no matter if I restart or power up after shutdown.
That grey screen with the blinking underscore often indicates a hang before the OS bootloader takes over. Since you've checked the RAM, GPU, and BIOS, I'd really suspect the boot drive or the boot partition. Even if your hard drive shows 95% health, some early firmware issues on NVMe/SSD can cause those annoying slow transitions from POST to boot.
I tried a different boot drive after removing everything else, but the problem is still there. I’m starting to think the motherboard might be the culprit. Time to consider RMA.
Does it make a difference whether that symbol is blinking or static? Mine stays static for 5 minutes, but then everything works fine after that. I'll definitely give a spare drive a shot too. I just hope I’m not dealing with a dying SSD right now.