Stuck at "Starting Windows."

Situation
I have just upgraded Vista Home Premium (SP1) to Windows 7 Ultimate, both 32bit. The Vista install I started with was clean. I upgraded instead of custom installed, because some of the drivers for my machine are hard to find.
After working fine, without apparent driver or software conflicts, startup started hanging at "Starting Windows."




Observations
For a while, it was possible to get in via Last Known Good Configuration, but mostly that doesn't work anymore.
Windows will boot occasionally, (directly or via Last Known) even when no settings have been changed in the last session.
Windows will boot every time, after chkdsk runs at boot. After that, it will hang again.
The situation was temporarily resolved(including clean bootlogs), for about 10 startups back to back, by moving the partition to another location on the harddisk. The odd thing is that neither chkdsk or other disk software finds disk or boot sector errors, nor did sfc find problems with system files. The Hitachi drive fitness test finds no problems.
Failure resumed when I tried to install software. (This software was not installed before, when the problem started and is not the cause itself, but may point to a problem with the boot data.)
I have seen several warnings that the system did not shut down cleanly, but the shutdowns seem clean.




Tried
Startup Repair - Can not find the cause.
Device Manager - No problems.
msconfig (services and startup) - Disabled half the services and startups, then the other half, then all but Microsoft, then all.
msconfig (bootlog) - Everything loads up to CLASSPNP, then lots of "did not loads".
msconfig (no UI) - Everything loads up to CLASSPNP, then nothing happens.
sfc - No problems.
dism - No problems.
chkdsk (/f) (1st) - Fixed several problems at boot. First boot after a chkdsk boot check is always succesful, eventhough chkdsk reports no further problems.
C: /Properties/Tools/Error checking/Auto fix & Scan bad (chkdsk /f /r) (2nd) - No problems.
perfmon (/report) - No problems.
bootrec (/fixboot) - Completes.
bootrec (/fixmbr) - Completes.
bootrec (/rebuildbcd) - Including rename C:\boot\bcd bcd.old. Finds OS and completes.
bootrec (/scanos) - Finds no OS.

+

(Suggested in reply 2) Manufacturer's drive fitness test - No problems.




Basic Information
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Pavilion tx2000 Notebook PC
System Type X86-based PC
Processor AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-64, 2200 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard F.08, 2008/04/18
SMBIOS Version 2.4

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 2.87 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.82 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.87 GB*
Available Virtual Memory 1.77 GB

*This is odd. Virtual memory is disabled and the page-file removed. This is confirmed by Computer\Properties\Advanced... and Resource Monitor.




Solution
Unresolved. Formatted the partition and clean installed Windows, adding drivers only when devices had not been recognized or when those installed during Windows installation were unsatisfying. Not pretty, but looks stable.




clean boot, hang, freeze, boot, startup, strange, intermittent, phantom, nothing wrong, setup, repair

Hello Cavaldi, welcome to SF!

Please follow these instructions to post the info we need to help?
https://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...tructions.html

Cavaldi said:

Ran the manufacturers drive fitness utility in advanced mode, no problems.

That is good news.. Please still upload info for further analysis?

OK... got some work to do:

Your drivers for your video card are outdated.

Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys (8.15.11.8610, 9.44 MB (9,899,360 bytes), 2011/07/08 03:13)

Download newest from NVIDIA DRIVERS 275.33 WHQL

But first completelyu remove old nvidia drivers, first step, the normal way amd then the extra step: using Driversweeper in Safemode. Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

HP doesn't seem to have updated drivers for your system if using W7... so we'll have to check for other drivers (if needed) by original manufacturer.

Have you done all your Windows updates? Your SATA driver is old and I would have expected that to have been updated just like the host controller was:

Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\mcdbus.sys (2.7.106.519, 114.00 KB (116,736 bytes), 2011/07/08 03:42)
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nvstor.sys (10.6.0.16, 139.08 KB (142,416 bytes), 2009/06/10 23:19)

Lastly... are you sure you've set it to create minidump files?

Post back if you need any help on these...

Cavaldi said:

NVIDIA 275.33 is not compatible with Go 6150.

Thank you for taking the time.

I concluded that solving the problem was taking too much time and effort.

I reinstalled Windows, only adding drivers when Windows itself couldn't work it out. Not pretty, but it looks stable. Should the issue return, I will return to this thread.

Ok, thx for posting back! If ok for now, please mark thread as solved?