Windows 7: On startup BIOS loads twice

I have recently inherited a problem which I can resolve.

Each time I start my PC the bios loads and the Windows 7 splash screen shows, but the Windows logo stutters onto the screen. At this point the machine restarts, loads the bios again and goes to a Windows startup screen which offers either a startup repair or normal Windows startup.

If I take the startup repair option it finds nothing wrong and I then start Windows normally without an issue. Similarly if I just take the option to load Windows normally it works perfectly.

This happens each and every startup.

I have run sfc \scannow which found no issues and selecting last known good configuration within Windows recovery options makes no difference.

Can any point me in the right direction please?



My os is Windows 7 32 bit. Thanks in advance.

Mervyn

Have you checked your BIOS settings?

When you say:Have you been recently given this machine or just that a problem has cropped up?
It would help to know what level of familiarity you have with it.

If you have not found anything abnormal in the BIOS
Try running this: Startup Repair

Thanks for your replies Anak.

The PC concerned has been running fine since installing Windows 7 on its release. The problem has only started within the last 2 weeks, but I haven't changed anything on the system.

When the bios loads for the second time I am shown the Startup Repair you mention. Running it yields no results.

I have not changed anything bios wise, but I have checked that the settings are ok, which they are.

I did notice one other thing today just as the system restarts I see a green bar vertically in the centre of the screen. It only appears momentarily. It is about 1cm high by .5cm wide.

Mervyn

Your welcome Mervyn,

First, and this is important. You need to fill out your System Specs
It helps with diagnoses.

Have you tried running it three times as Brink suggested?

Good.

This is where My System Specs would have helped. I do not know if you have a Laptop or a Desktop.

If this is a Laptop It is almost a certainty that the symptom you describe is leading to a fried GPU, if it is a Dell. A bad MotherBoard which also includes the GPU.

If a desktop then we can hope its only an encoder problem.

I have now completed my full system specs.

I have run the startup repair at least 4 times now without any success.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Mervyn

No need to be embarrassed A person gets into a hurry to try an resolve their situation, and will tend to forget to do that.
Only human nature is all.

Okay, good.

Your welcome.


Need to clarify a few things:
Cold (start up) boot hurts, warm (re start) boot okay? or It doesn't matter?

Has it been moved or bumped recently say in the last 2 to 3 weeks?

In researching for your machine parts were you diligent in making sure all the parts were compatible?
There are reports that corsair memory doesn't play well with athlon MB's.

I'm glad to hear You built your PC. How long has it been since you were last back inside?
No matter, because I'm going to have you go back inside.....

If your MB has led code lights on it watch for them, and see if you can determine if its throwing a code fault. Refer to the Mfg. manual or website. Could be any of the next three.

Check the seating of the CPU, memory, and video cards.

This will get you started.

There is more here at Troubleshooting Boot Problems Read up on
1.0 BIOS Beep Codes
1.1 No Video Splash Screen
1.2 System Does Not Complete POST

It doesn't matter, happens either way.

No. Hasn't been moved or knocked recently

Yes I looked into this carefully at the time and the Asus mobo was supplied with matched Corsair ram specifically designed for AMD processors.

No codes faults showing when the issue occurs.

All double checked and located correctly.

Regards

Mervyn

And still the problem remains?

Hi! Mervyn,

I'm trying to find out if you may have a problem with your BCDEDIT.
It's a new system MS developed to take the place of the old Boot.ini file, it started new with Vista.

You can find it here. BCDEDIT - How to Use

In the meantime if you wanted to run some stress tests on your memory, video card, and CPU the links for instruction are below.

RAM - Test with Memtest86+

Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...t-prime95.html

It wouldn't hurt to have a snip of your BCDEDIT report.

Ran BCDEDIT but haven't included the report here for the reason shown at the bottom of this reply

I already owned the full version of memtest so I ran the memory test from a boot disk, up to 1000% with no issues reported.

I also downloaded and ran the stress test software you suggested for both the CPU and Graphics card. Both ran through with no issues. I was really surprised at how the increased loading on the graphics card generated a fair increase in running temperature, just never run anything like that before! Anyway no problems were shown and then........

I run Panda Global Protection on my PC. I had version 2010 until yesterday, when I received an email telling me that I could download and install the 2011 version which I had pre paid.

This I duly did and during the installation process the software removes your previous version. Once removed the system reboots and completes the installation. Im sure by now you are ahead of me, yes when the system restarted it booted straight away with no issues. Panda 2011 installation completed and now my system reboots correctly each and every time! So I guess there was something awry with the previous incarnation?

Anyway, thanks very much for your continued efforts in chasing the issue for me Anak

Regards

Mervyn