Windows 7 Windows 7 Pro will not boot

[Matto]

Hello,

I recently bought Windows 7 Pro from Microsoft's The Ultimate Steal program (I downloaded an ISO from them and burned it to a DVD).

I am installing on a Dell inspiron 1525 laptop, which originally came with Vista. The Vista installation had become corrupt so I took the oportunity to put Windows 7 on (repartitioned, reformatted, did full install) - I did not run the compatibility utility to make sure that Windows 7 would support the hardware I have, but I had read a number of reports of people running Windows 7 on an inspiron 1525. I am also using the 64 bit version because I plan to upgrade my RAM up to (and hopefully over) 4gb.

Anyway, Windows 7 installed fine and downloaded a number of updates. I was able to install Office and a handful of other applications. All my hardware worked perfectly. Initially there were 2 driver updates that were downloaded, installed, and did not negatively affect anything. Everything worked fine for a day, however there was a final round of automatic updates (no driver updates that I recall) which were installed. After rebooting, the "Starting Windows" screen goes away and I see my wallpaper and the mouse cursor (which I can move) but it stays stuck there every time. I cannot hit CTRL ALT DEL, I can't click or right click. After this, if I reboot I get 2 choices: Launch Startup Repair, or Start Windows Normally.

If I start Normally I get stuck at the same point again - blank desktop.

If I choose Startup Repair I get the "windows is loading files" progress bar, then the small green progress bar, then a blank black screen which it stays at for about 10 minutes. Then I see my wallpaper and the mouse cursor but again, I am stuck here.

If I try to boot up in Safe Mode, the list of drivers goes quick but pauses for a minute on \Windows\system32\DRIVERS\CLASSPNP.SYS after which I get a blue screen of death for such a split second that I can't read it, then it reboots. Safe Mode does this every time.

If I choose Last Known Good Configuration I see the "starting windows" message, then a black screen for a minute and then it reboots every time.

If I boot off of the DVD and choose Repair Windows, i get stuck at a blank desktop just if I were to boot normally. This particularly concerns me.

If I choose Repair Your Computer (via F8 - not the DVD), I sit at a blank screen for many minutes, then get stuck at the desktop.

What should I try now?

Thank you for any advice!
Matto

 

[reghakr]

Hello and welcome to the windows7forums.

How much RAM do you have now?

I would stat over and change Windows Update to let me choose whether to download and install updates.

The Vista installation had become corrupt

Could you elaborate on that?

Are you sure your hard drive isn't failing?

 

[Matto]

reghakr,

Thanks for your response!

The computer currently has 2 Gb of RAM. I like the idea of starting over and approving individual updates, but how will I know which ones I should allow and which I shouldn't? I could do them one by one until I figure out which one kills it (and then start over a third time).

The previous Vista installation caught a virus, though I am not sure which one. The computer is actually my wife's, and she got the virus though a computer lab at her school. Whatever it was it wasn't coming up on our virus scanner (AVG) or whatever the school used, but the school did announce that they were hit with an unknown virus. IE and Firefox became unusable - they would crash and hang the computer when we tried to browse. The computer name also kept getting reset to all hyphens. I have not yet ruled out hardware problems, but I am pretty sure most of the problems we had recently under Vista were virus related.

Is there any kind of publicly available boot CD that will let me test RAM, HDD, and other hardware at least to rule that out?

Thanks for your help.
Matto

 

[Matto]

Drew,

Thanks. I'm likely to experiment more and run whatever diagnostics I can before I start replacing hardware. I definitely appreciate the suggestion, but am kind of surprised that replacing the hard drive is where we would begin.

edit: Also, I will verify what speed the DVD was burnt at. I think my older laptop that burned it may only go up to 4x, but that's good to know.

Matto

 

[busydog]

Drew,

Thanks. I'm likely to experiment more and run whatever diagnostics I can before I start replacing hardware. I definitely appreciate the suggestion, but am kind of surprised that replacing the hard drive is where we would begin.

edit: Also, I will verify what speed the DVD was burnt at. I think my older laptop that burned it may only go up to 4x, but that's good to know.

Matto

I agree with Drew.... since it worked for awhile and then started acting up, you likely have a HD going south. If you have problems with a new HD, keep the old for a backup target once you get Win7 working. If you have a boot disk that can run chkdsk on your C-Drive, you might want to do that before you go the new HD route. I have seen chkdsk fix some bad sectors (relocate the data) that permitted a boot to your OS. If you can burn a new Win7 ISO I would also try that just in case.

 

[reghakr]

I agree also,

I run two hard drives in all my machines.

 

[Saltgrass]

If this is one of the infamous black screens, as far as I know, a definite solution has not been found. In fact, there may be several reasons for such a circumstance.

I remember one poster that was having problems getting the updates to complete and got in a loop. He, and I am not recommending you do this, removed the battery while the system was running.

I was thinking perhaps you might try hitting f8 during boot, or interrupt the cycle somehow. You might, just to check, after you shut it down tonight, unplug it and remove the battery for a while. You might even try booting without the battery installed later.

I have no idea is this will have any effect, but I think we are all basically throwing darts concerning this problem.

 

[reghakr]

If it is a black screen, this is a possiblefix:

The issue is also reported to be affecting other Microsoft OSs, including Vista and XP. British Security firm Prevx have published a fix for the BSOD / KSOD , although they state that it won’t work in all situations. According to Prevx, the root cause of the Black Screens of Death is a modification in the Windows Operating Systems lock down of registry keys with the November Microsoft update causing certain registry keys to be invalidated.



To fix the Black Screen of Death Windows 7 issue:

• 1.Restart your PC
• 2.Logon and wait for the black screen to appear
• 3.Make sure your PC should be able to connect to the internet (black screen does not appear to affect this)
• 4.Press the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys simultaneously
• 5.When prompted, Click Start Task Manager
• 6.In Task Manager Click on the Application Tab
• 7.Next Click New Task
• 8.Now enter the command: ”C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” “http://info.prevx.com/download.asp?GRAB=BLACKSCREENFIX”

Note this command assumes that you are using internet explorer as your browser, if not substitute your browser path and file details for those of iexplore.exe or use the Browser option of Task manager to locate it.

• 9.Click OK and your browser should start up and begin the download process
• 10.When prompted for the download Click run, the black screen fix program will download and run to automatically fix the issue.
• 11.Now restart your PC and the black screen problem will hopefully be gone.

 

[Saltgrass]

I think Prevx has recanted that accusation.