Well, T&C, this one has me pretty much stumped because I literally can't seem to find the problem.

 

Specs:

 

Intel Core i5 760

P55-USB3 motherboard

4GB DDR3 1333MHz

AMD 6870

Corsair 650TX

Samsung Spinpoint 500GB

 

First and foremost, and possibly relevant, this problem happens intermittently and always after a cold start. I've already done the logical thing and tried both system restore and startup repair, to no avail. I get the all clear system beep when I start up, even after Windows fails to boot, so I'm almost certain that it's not a hardware issue - coupled with the fact that it works when Windows actually boots.

 

Of note, it started happening after the electricity company messed with my power. Everything was off at the time and I would daresay that it's one of those nasty coincidences, but I've had several outages recently and some Windows files might be corrupted. Worth a reinstall, or can someone shed some light on the problem?

 

The only hardware change I've made in 3 months is a new mouse, but this is redundant because the same issue was present with my old one.

 

There are no viruses or malware either.

First things first can you clarify what exactly the problem is.

You've done a great job of explaining everything but the actually problem.

 

The title says "hanging at splash screen" but then you description skims over "fails to boot"

So which is it? Is it just hanging at the splash screen or is it failing to boot?

 

Hanging at the splash screen from a cold start is pretty obvious: It's running slower than usually cause its cold.

Failing to boot certainly sounds like something is corrupted, but I wouldn't rule out hardware. It could be BIOS thats screwed or the mobo itself, or even possibly the harddisk or perhaps short circuiting RAM etc.

Well yeah, it hangs at the splash screen. Can usually be solved if I hard reset and it boots up fine.

 

It's pretty weird. It runs fine when it does boot into Windows properly, no freezes or hanging.

 

It could just be a case of sometimes it boots into Windows slower, and I'm being impatient. It's definitely logical.

I'd say odds are its just booting slow from cold and you're being a little impatient.

 

Roughly how long does it hang before you reset it?

Normal bootup from splash to welcome is about 15 seconds or so, so I usually give it about another 30 and reset if it's still hanging. Maybe I just need to leave it for a bit?

 

It pretty much seems like that. I've had no problems with gaming/anything else intensive, benchmarks and temps are fine, checked my HDD benchmarks and they're fine too. I guess the last thing to do would be to run a memtest or something. At least if it is dodgy RAM it won't cost a fortune.

Yeah I'd say run a RAM test and try sitting through the hang, see about how long it actually lasts (assuming it does eventually boot). Anything under ~2mins I'd just right up to natural lag from a cold start; I know at uni in winter when my room was like 5C in the morn my desktop took like 3 mins to boot up compared to the usual 15 seconds of so.

Wait a half an hour. If it stays at the splash screen then you have a problem.

 

P.S. I think he means cold boot meaning turning it on after it being off in comparison to a warm boot where you restart the computer using the restart option.

P.S. I think he means cold boot meaning turning it on after it being off in comparison to a warm boot where you restart the computer using the restart option.

I would think so too.

 

Does this problem occur with a linux live distro off a disk or USB? Could help you narrow the issue down.

I know what cold booting is, but it gets its name from the fact that system parts are room temperature/cold due to having not been on. Their being cold can cause lag time, and the colder they are the more lag it can cause, hence my example where the cold weather made the cold boot epically lag.

"Hung" this morning, went to make tea, came back and everything was fine.

 

There you have it, I guess.

There shouldn't be a problem unless other symptoms start showing up.

 

If you want to investigate further you can time how long it takes exactly or do as Guy suggested and try a linux live CD/USB booter.