Windows 7 - Stuck at "Applying Settings" for up to 90 minutes

[Iain.Faulkner]

Morning all,

 

In the last week or so we seem to have developed a strange issue with our Windows 7 PC's.

 

Turn the PC on, it goes through the various BIOS screens as usual but once it starts going through the various processes before it gets to a logon screen, it sits on "Applying Settings" for up to 90 minutes. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it, it is affecting random PC's all over the place and can happen multiple times.

 

We don't believe anything has changed centrally (other than we had an Impero issue last week which was fixed by detaching the logs and reattaching them) and initially thought it was a Windows update but don't think it is any more.

 

Anyone had anything similar? Any pointers as to where to look? We've checked the event logs but there is nothing standing out as being a problem.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Iain

[sultan966]

Sometimes just press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and you will get logon screen.

[synaesthesia]

Are they being shut down correctly?

[Iain.Faulkner]

Are they being shut down correctly?

 

We've got one particular PC with the issue and it is definitely being shut down correctly. Just out of interest, what would the implications be if it wasn't being shutdown correctly?

[jertsy]

I find if they are not shut down correctly, they can take a while longer to boot back up, but not 90 mins. Have you enabled verbose logging so that you can see policies as they are being applied during boot up? I did this and they were sticking on a printer policy.

[Iain.Faulkner]

I find if they are not shut down correctly, they can take a while longer to boot back up, but not 90 mins. Have you enabled verbose logging so that you can see policies as they are being applied during boot up? I did this and they were sticking on a printer policy.

 

Verbose messaging is on but the message we get is simply "Applying Settings" :-(

[synaesthesia]

On machines here where they don't shut down correctly they're self checking on reboot, can sometimes add 10 minutes to logon times on older, HDD based machines.

[Davit2005]

Try Disabling all non-microsoft required startup services till you find the culprit service, I had an issue at one place I started where all the desktops would take 30mins to get to logon screen.

 

Start in Windows Safe Mode with Networking etc... type tests.

[jertsy]

I would check the group policy operational log in event viewer, under applications and services to see what DC the machines are pulling their policies from, I had a DC once that went bad and any machines connecting to that were getting GPO's not correctly applying, but next time they booted they went to the good DC and all was good. Failing that, I would disable one GPO at a time to see which one could be causing the issue. Hope this helps

[Iain.Faulkner]

Apologies, the message we see on screen is "Applying Computer Settings" not "Applying Settings"

[mikkydoos]

I've had this when a domain controller wasn't networking properly or the client couldn't communicate with the DC... I think it was DNS... I'd have a look for duplicate A records to the DC's and flush the local DNS on the clients Edited February 9, 2017 by mikkydoos

[Vegas]

To recycle the repository and get a PC to boot preventing the 'Applying Settings' issue you need to do the following:

 

Browse to C:\Windows\System32\wbem\

 

Stop the WMI Service (Windows Management Instrumentation)

 

Delete the Repository folder (or Rename it Repository.old) and Reboot the PC.

 

It should now reboot fine and prevent this issue (you can now browse to the C:\ drive and delete the old folder if you chose to rename it).

[Michael]

Is re-imaging the machine out the question if the event logs say nothing interesting?

[Iain.Faulkner]

To recycle the repository and get a PC to boot preventing the 'Applying Settings' issue you need to do the following:

 

Browse to C:\Windows\System32\wbem\

 

Stop the WMI Service (Windows Management Instrumentation)

 

Delete the Repository folder (or Rename it Repository.old) and Reboot the PC.

 

It should now reboot fine and prevent this issue (you can now browse to the C:\ drive and delete the old folder if you chose to rename it).

 

Thank you for that, i'll give that a whirl as well as the other suggestions.

 

Do you know what is the cause of the issue and why renaming the repository folder may resolve the issue?

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Is re-imaging the machine out the question if the event logs say nothing interesting?

 

Reimaging is an option.....but it's affecting too many machines for it to be viable as a whole school solution.

[Jamman960]

Has anyone come up with a more permanent solution/cause?

 

We've recently started experiencing the same thing after applying a backlog of patches, random pc's are getting stuck in different places in the group policy process. certain policys are taking upwards of 20 minutes to deploy despite only having a single item and being applied in less than a second on pc's that aren't experiencing the same issue.

 

I've found similar thread on the spiceworks community (https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/324801-winlogon-notification-subscriber-gpclient-error-taking-605-seconds-to-boot) which suggested a wmi repository related fix via a script(included below) however in once case I've had to apply the fix twice in a week, I'm also having to manually end svhost.exe in order to get the wmi service to stop, prior to stopping it uses 500mb+ of memory.

 

@Echo off
If EXIST "c:\Wbem.txt" GOTO END

:BEGIN
Echo.Checking following services...
Echo IPHelper (iphlpsvc)
Echo SMS Agent Host (CcmExec)
Echo Security Centre (wscsvc) 
Echo Windows Management Instrumentation (winmgmt)
Echo.

Set Service1="ccmexec"
Set Service2="iphlpsvc" 
Set Service3="wscsvc" 
Set Service4="winmgmt"

:CHECK
for /F "tokens=3 delims=: " %%H in ('sc query %Service1% ^| findstr "        STATE"') do (
 	Set Service1State=%%H
if /I "%%H" NEQ "STOPPED" (
  		echo.%Service1% still STOP_PENDING. Press Any key to check again otherwise Ctrl C out of the script
  		net stop %Service1%
	timeout 10
	cls
	GOTO Check
	)
)
for /F "tokens=3 delims=: " %%H in ('sc query %Service2%  ^| findstr "        STATE"') do (
 	Set Service2State=%%H
if /I "%%H" NEQ "STOPPED" (
  		echo.%Service2% still STOP_PENDING. Press Any key to check again otherwise Ctrl C out of the script
	net stop %Service2%
	timeout 10
	cls
	GOTO Check
	)
)
for /F "tokens=3 delims=: " %%H in ('sc query %Service3% ^| findstr "        STATE"') do (
Set Service3State=%%H
if /I "%%H" NEQ "STOPPED" (
  		echo.%Service3% still STOP_PENDING. Press Any key to check again otherwise Ctrl C out of the script
  		net stop %Service3%
	timeout 10
	cls
	GOTO Check
	)
)
for /F "tokens=3 delims=: " %%H in ('sc query %Service4% ^| findstr "        STATE"') do (
Set Service4State=%%H
if /I "%%H" NEQ "STOPPED" (
  		echo.%Service4% still STOP_PENDING. Press Any key to check again otherwise Ctrl C out of the script
  		net stop %Service4%
	timeout 10
	cls
	GOTO Check
	)
)

:STATUS
CLS
Echo.%Service1% is %Service1State%
Echo.%Service2% is %Service2State%
Echo.%Service3% is %Service3State%
Echo.%Service4% is %Service4State%
echo.
echo.All Services Stopped... Please Wait... Repairing WBEM Repository
del C:\Windows\System32\wbem\Repository\*.* /q
rd C:\Windows\System32\wbem\Repository* /q
timeout 5
cls
echo.Fix complete. Your computer will Restart in 60 seconds.
shutdown -r -t 60
echo.WBEM Script Control > c:\WBEM.txt
timeout 60

:END

 

I'm suspecting its a dodgy patch to blame but pin-pointing it could be interesting

 

 

 

James

[2ilent8cho]

When we have these kind of issues on our Windows sites we use the Windows Performance Toolkit to find out what the problem is https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/test/wpt/ a mini guide here https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askpfeplat/2013/03/22/troubleshooting-windows-performance-issues-using-the-windows-performance-recorder/

[dapaulio]

Hi

I am the author of the script detailed in the spice works link and I have been investigating the cause of this issue for a long time.

 

My finding is that the ACS hang is a progressive issue and will is caused by a corrupt wbem repository which the computer is trying to repair and failing.. The bigger the repository the longer it takes to repair.

 

This is caused by a simulated power cut or a ungraceful shutdown of the computer. I am guessing that students and teachers or caretakers turning the computer off at the wall or 5 sec power button hold.

 

The solution is not permanent as the wbem can be corrupted at any point.

 

The script stops and checks all dependent services. Deletes the wbem repository then wait 60 sec to allow it rebuild before restarting the computer. (This ensures all services are restarted

 

Sometimes it takes longer than 60 sec to rebuild, so you could extend the timeout if you wish, however it does continues to rebuild once the computer restarts which shows a briefer ACS hang again but this time doesn't take as long.

 

Once the repository is fully rebuilt the computer passes through ACS almost immediately.

 

You could run the script on a schedule each night however rather than run a fix which not necessary all the time I have made my users aware and to report any computers that hangs for longer than 30 seconds.

I then remote on to the computer run the script and allow the pc to reboot itself

 

This method is alot quicker than reimaging

Hope this helps and you are welcome to pm me if you want further advice

[Jamman960]

In our case I've found that the following hotfix has resolved the issue to date: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2617858/unexpectedly-slow-startup-or-logon-process-in-windows-server-2008-r2-o

 

I simulated a bad shutdown on my own machine following the patch and it booted as normal.

 

Regards

 

James

[dapaulio]

Were you experiencing symptoms before you applied the hotfix. I found that the wmi repository doesn't always corrupt on every improper shutdown.

I cant be a 100% certain but I'm sure I came across this hotfix or one similar that didn't work.

If you deployed it across your network keep an eye and let us know how you get on with it