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My old Gateway P-170L laptop (circa 2005) fails to boot 90+% of the time. It will usually freeze up at the initial Windows logo screen. After numerous restarts it may completely boot and continue to run normally. At this point I can often do a complete shutdown and it will start fine, but more often it is the same issue. I have replaced the battery and AC power adapter but that has made no difference. The clock is usually fine (though it is occasionally off by as much as 3 or 4 hours, but only recently). I have been booting with the wireless off so the clock should not reset anyway.

When it does run everything seems to work fine. I am running Windows 10 Home, 32 bit system, no peripherals except for a wireless mouse. Does this sound like a CMOS battery issue or should I be focusing elsewhere?

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It is unlikely (but not impossible) that this is a BIOS issue - normally these would manifest prior to Windows starting to boot.

It's a guess on my part, but it sounds to me like it could be a failing PSU (specifically capacitors not able to provide enough peak power during startup). It could also be a failing disk.

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