Windows 11 Lengthy Boot

I did install the updated driver for my realtek gbe controller . Problem persists. . And I checked for bloatware - nothing there. I also ran through the other links you provided (thank you) and either it's not pertinent to this situation, or I've done it already.

Here's a screenshot from TM during the event with one of my simulators running - which is what is generating the bit of network traffic. You can see the GPU spiking downward at the same time the Ethernet utilization is changing. You can't see what's happening with the CPU because everything there that's pertinent is at the thread level. But I've described the spike up in several threads already.

You can see that the spike up in 'receive' starts a bit prior to the downward spike in 'send'. And that the graph shows that the initial down and up spikes lines are overlaying each other - occurring simultaneously. Meaning one is probably affecting the other or are interrelated in some way.

Is there ethernet driver bloatware (driver software package) installed? Check in Settings > Apps > Apps & Features and uninstall it, reinstall only the driver.

For ethernet causing freezing in Windows try these fixes:

https://www.lifewire.com/fix-ethernet-driver-pr...

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/x...

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/freeze-...

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/l...

https://www.howtoedge.com/fix-ethernet-driver-i...

Report back results for each step so I know what else to suggest.

Feel free to ask back any questions. Based on the results you post back I may have other suggestions if necessary.

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Standard Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.

Alright - now we're getting somewhere!!! I noticed that monitoring my Ethernet utilization at the time the freeze happens there is a large spike in in Receive utilization, and a large decrease in Send. Disconnecting the ethernet cable the problem goes away, reconnecting it comes back.

Don't even know how to begin to troubleshoot that. Baseline Send is around 4 Mbs, Receive is close to zero. The drop off from Send is down to 1 Mbs, the Receive goes up to maybe 1 Mbs. Neither of these are huge numbers so it's not that the Ethernet card is getting pegged. But regardless the pattern is indicative of the problem. Unfortunately this computer does not have a wifi card so I can't check to see if the problem goes away with using that.

But now we have narrowed the issue down. I think that will be helpful but no idea where to go from here.

Have you eliminated everything that's enabled in Task Manager > Startup and Settings > Apps > Startup Apps, then also in msconfig > Services after checking Hide all MS Services (critically important!) Finally clear out Windows 11 Startup Folder: https://beebom.com/how-find-windows-11-startup-...

Then restart and test again. Check also if anything sneaks right back into any of those lists.

One way to confirm whether the issue is hardware or software is to unplug the hard drives/SSD's and boot a Linux live disk or USB to see if the issue happens. If not then it will means the problem is with Windows, the hard drive/SSD, or anything on the HDD/SSD.

A good Linux live disk or USB flash that can also test the hardware is here:

https://www.pcsuggest.com/best-linux-live-distro/

____________________________________________

Standard Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.