BSOD When Booting From CD - Page Fault in Nonpaged Area

HP Pavilion a4316f-b, Home Premium, 64-bit

The PC was displaying symptons of page hijacking, so I ran MalwareBytes and got rid of 17 objects. Did not make a difference, so I ran TDSSKiller. It found 1 bit of malware but the hijacking persisted. I downloaded ComboFix and ran it in Safe Mode. It gave me some sort of error that was only visible for a split second before it disappeared, leaving only the initial small blue CF box, which stopped functioning, and I noticed that the CF task was gone. This happened 3 times in a row.

I then tried a system restore to about 3 weeks ago. It probably sat on the 'restoring files' screen for a half hour before finally saying 'Shutting Down'. After 45 minutes of (not) shutting down I pressed the power button and turned it off.

A restart brought me to the Windows Error Recovery Screen where I am presented with but 2 choices - Launch Startup Repair or Start Windows Normally.

The 'repair' option takes me to a Windows Boot Manager screen which prompts me to insert the install disk and reboot, indicating that
The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible

So I use the CD. When booting from that CD I can see it loading files, then it says Starting Windows, the initial blue sky screen displays for a few seconds - then the BSOD: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA with an 0x50 code. This always happens with this disk.

A different Windows 7 CD has given me the same start up to the blue sky, but with 3 different BSODs. One had
Bad Pool Header
and the other said
An attempt was made to write to read-only memory
and the 3rd had the same PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Only 3 of the 4 choices presented to me at HP opening boot screen seemed to work when I first started this awful task. F11 for Recovery did nothing. I DID use f9-Diagnostics and it passed all the tests. Now, sadly, the only option that works is ESC to change the boot order.

I have no frickin' clue at this point.

Media Boot Issues:


Remove Malicious Items and Resolve Boot Issues:

writhziden said:

1. Shut down and turn off the computer.
2. Unplug the computer from the wall or surge protector (then remove the battery if it is a laptop).
3. "Remove the computer from any port replicator or docking station, disconnect
   cables to printers or devices such as external monitors, USB memory sticks or SD cards, headset or external speakers, mouse or auxiliary keyboard, turn off WIFI and Bluetooth wireless devices." (Use Hard Reset to Resolve Hardware and Software Issues HP Pavilion dv5000 Notebook PC series - HP Customer Care (United States - English))
4. Hold down the power button for 30 seconds. This closes the circuit and ensures all power from components is drained to clear the software connections between the BIOS and hardware and clear any corruption in the temporary memory.
5. (If it is a laptop, plug the battery back into the laptop and then) Plug the computer back into the wall. Do not reconnect any unnecessary peripherals; monitor, keyboard, and mouse should suffice and be the only peripherals reconnected.
6. Turn it on to reinitialize the software connections between the BIOS and hardware
7. Then, clear the CMOS: three ways to clear the CMOS.

Click to expand...

Had completed all of these steps already, but did them again. This time I took out the CMOS battery (it is a desktop) and replaced it.

writhziden said:

Remove Malicious Items and Resolve Boot Issues:

Proceed with http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html. I am guessing you will need to use steps 9-10 to backup your system and do a clean re-install.

When you get to the clean install steps:

Command Prompt at Windows Installation startup.

Use the clean all Diskpart command to wipe the drive and make sure all malicious items are removed. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html
​

Click to expand...

While I certainly appreciate the reply (any reply, actually), you've apparently not grasped the crux of the problem - I CANNOT BOOT FROM THE WINDOWS 7 CD. Sorry about shouting, but as I said in the heading to my post, I get a Page Fault BSOD even when booting from a fresh (burned it yesterday) Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit disk, so I have no oppurtunity to get to a command prompt or the recovery console.

Additionally, I have removed the HD from the PC, put it in a USB caddy and connected it to another working PC. The working PC does recognize the HD, but if I try to left (or even right) click on it, I get a BSOD on the working PC, which when I reboot that, informs me that Windows has recovered from a serious error.

I did grasp the problem.

I was hoping the BIOS steps would resolve that particular issue. Apparently that was not the case given the frustration still oozing off your post.

Have you tried using Linux to get to your files?

What about a disk check through Linux?

Ubuntu Linux:

Backing up with PartedMagic:

Hopefully that will give you something to get started with.

writhziden said:

I did grasp the problem.

I was hoping the BIOS steps would resolve that particular issue. Apparently that was not the case given the frustration still oozing off your post.

Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right... there was a pretty fair amount of oozing in that last post. Sorry. I think I have managed to somewhat staunch the flow in the meantime. I perhaps have a certain naievete when it comes to forums such as these. I see so many cookie-cutter answers (understand, please, that I'm NOT referring specifically to this forum) where it seems obvious that the replier has failed to completely read the poster's questions. Where he (or she) have given a quick knee-jerk answer to something that needs a bit more depth - and I guess I'm guilty of thinking you did just that with this question. Apologies all around.

writhziden said:

Have you tried using Linux to get to your files?

What about a disk check through Linux?

Click to expand...

I've got a free Ubuntu disk that I picked up somewhere - 8.10 Desktop Ed. And I did boot off it, and I did select 'try Ubuntu instead...', but I'm lost after that. When I click on Places/Computer I get a page with several icons. The one labeled HP would seem to be the one I want, but clicking on it only brings up a msg box 'Unable to mount the volume HP', with details specifying that there was an unclean shutdown (me turning off the PC after waiting over an hour for a restore to complete?), that the mount operation was denied because NTFS is marked to be in use. I get the same box when clicking on the System or Factory Image icons.

As far as a disk check thru Linux, I suppose I've got to get a newer version than my old free 8.10 'cause I can't find it.

And PartedMagic: I went to the link but really don't know what to download. Should it be Partition Windows 7 Magic? Does it give me an iso image file? I did click on it and it looks like I have to pony up 30+ bucks. I'm now looking at the downloads section and am DLing pmagic_2012_06_26.iso. I guess that's what I want.??

I used to have this great Winternals CD that I used for Windows XP back in the day. What a terrific tool that was. Now I've got Hiren's boot CD and UBCD which together seem to have about 10% of the functionality of Winternals.

Parted Magic - I obviously am missing something. It boots to a blue screen with a number of choices, then automatically boots, does a lot of scrolling, them the CD drawer opens and the screen turns light blue. Difficult to know what to do because your link Backup Files Using PartedMagic supposedly has attachment images, but they don't work anymore, and this step:
On the desktop, single click the icon with the words Mount Devices below it (See Image 2) has no relevance to anything I saw on the screen before it booted.

On to Linux...

Image links fixed. PartedMagic comes with Ultimate Boot CD. That is how I accessed it myself for the steps I gave for becking up using it.


Ultimate Boot CD Download Site:

I'm starting to ooze again...

On the PartedMagic application... the screen that displays does look (more or less) like image 1 from your link. But option 1 (and I assume that's the option to choose, since it's hilighted) - Default Settings (Runs From RAM) definitely does not bring up image 2. AIAS it simply does a lot of very fast scrolling through a lot of verbiage, after which the CD ejects from the drawer.

And the Ubuntu 11point something that I burnt to ISO brings up a dark purple screen while I hear the CD spinning furiously.... then the screen turns light gray.... and ....nothing. It just sits there with no disk noises.

So I've wasted some time and some disks. and I have yet to see any value in the Ultimate Boot CD.

Are you able to boot the software if you remove the hard disk? That would be the first thing I would recommend trying. It would rule out other hardware as the issue and point directly at the disk that is already suspected to be bad.

If that does not work, try a hardware stripdown.


Memorytest86+

Hardware Stripdown:

Okay, my patient friend, here's the latest news....

Having run out of ideas late last night, I decided to try the CD one more time. I had noticed that with every W7 boot disk I'd used there was always a slight hesitation before the BSOD.

So I used the CD and hit <enter> to repair the computer the very second the screen fully displayed. It took me, as it should have all along, to the OS screen (looked OK), and then to the startup repair. It was probably on that application for close to 45 minutes, before it told me to restart. The restart did a chkdsk (/f I guess) that effected a shitload of repairs. When the PC did boot, everything looked normal....

However, I am now experiencing problems with restarting/shutting down that seem to be tied in to Windows Updates.

When I shut down the PC I get a 'please wait' msg which gives way to 'preparing to configure windows. do not turn off...'

When it then reatarts, I get a 'configuring windows' screen which then proceeds to show me by pct just how far along the configuring is. When it gets to 100% it does another shutdown, preparing to configuring windows, restart, configuring to 100% when it tells me that there was a 'failure configuring windows', and that it is reverting changes. It then shuts down again, and restarts, this time normally.

I downloaded from MS a thing called System Update Readiness Tool for x64 and installed it, then tried to run Windows Update. It indicated that everything (SP1) had gone well and that a restart was required, A restart brought the very same cycle I outlined above, culminating in a message box telling me that the Service Pack installation was not successful (error 0x800f0816).

When I try to run sfc /scannow as an admin, it informs me that 'there is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart and run sfc again'. Of course doing that accomplishes nothing.

Should I be trying my luck with subsequent repairs using the CD, or do you, or anyone else, have other suggestions?

Thanks.

It sounds like you still have some hard disk related problems. You should again run Disk Check with both boxes checked for all HDDs and with Automatically fix file system errors checked for all SSDs. Post back your logs for the checks after finding them using http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/96938-check-disk-chkdsk-read-event-viewer-log.html (you may need to search for wininit instead of chkdsk).
For any drives that do not give the message:
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems
run disk check again as above. In other words, if it says:
Windows has made corrections to the file system
after running the disk check, run the disk check again.

Okay.... well, it's sure taking a LOT longer this time around. When it made all those corrections, it blew through all 5 steps in about 90 seconds.

This time, however, it's been running for hours. It's about 70% of the way through stage 5, and stages 1-4 had absolutely no errors, and if I remember my chkdsk, (don't the errors display as they're encountered?) nothing so far in stage 5. I don't know if that's good or bad news.

In efforts to run sfc .scannow I have done a search on the PC for any pending.xml files and found none. I have also (from the recovery console) run SFC /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\ /OFFWINDIR=D:\Windows, and have gotten the exact same msg as before.

See attached chkdsk log

Disk check came back clean. Good news!


For the SFC issue, you may need to run a Startup Repair to resolve it. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html

That may also be why your update issues are occurring.

How do I reset Windows Update components? may also be a good idea to read through and do the steps.


I still advise checking your RAM at some point with Memtest86+ if you have not already done so. 7-10 passes would be preferable.

writhziden said:

For the SFC issue, you may need to run a Startup Repair to resolve it. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html

That may also be why your update issues are occurring.

Click to expand...

After the initial problems were somewhat solved thru startup repair, 2 subsequent runs of it failed to detect any problems, but I guess I can try a third time.

writhziden said:

How do I reset Windows Update components? may also be a good idea to read through and do the steps.

I still advise checking your RAM at some point with Memtest86+ if you have not already done so. 7-10 passes would be preferable.

Click to expand...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058 has already been run. I allowed Microsoft to perform the 'Fix-It'. It fixed nothing.
I have also already tested RAM w/ Memtest86+. I just let it chug away for about 4 hours and it detected no problems. I didn't make a note of the number of passes, but it was gobs.

I'm about ready to say f***-it and just give the damn PC back to my uncle (it's not mine). It works, except for the 'little problems' of not being able to update Windows, or run SFC /scannow. If I turn off the update notification, will he ever even notice? Not if I know my uncle... And I refuse to back up all of his stuff, and reinstall Windows, and then load it all back, and re-setup his email, and redownload an antivirus, and reinstall Home and Office, and reinstall Firefox, and re-setup Skype, etc, etc, etc.

The only think I do wonder about is the inability to update Java. When I attempt that, I get a msg box that tells me that 'the program can't start because msi.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix the problem' Thing is, I DO have msi.dll on the PC - right in the Windows/System32 folder where it's supposed to be.

Seems like running sfc /scannow would SURE go a long way to fixing this puppy.

See what the Startup Repair yields first. If that allows you to run SFC /SCANNOW, let us know. Otherwise, I will leave it up to you how to proceed.

Here is my recommendation if you cannot get SFC /SCANNOW to run:
Keep in mind this is only a recommendation and is entirely up to you whether you want to try it.

Well, for the third time in a row - Startup Repair could not detect a problem. And, also for the third time in a row, with and without the /offbootdir & /offwindir parameters - There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again.

I've had it. I'm sick of Windows 7 and their cryptic messages. And I find myself longing for the days of Windows XP. Every new OS they come out with supposedly has better tools to deal with problems. I don't see it. To me it doesn't seem like it would take a computer genius to design software that would first overlay only the system files for your OS, and then would rebuild your registry.

Thanks for your suggestions, but I'm not doing a Repair Install.

You're welcome. Sorry we were unable to resolve all problems for you.

writhziden said:

You're welcome. Sorry we were unable to resolve all problems for you.

Click to expand...

So I was in a better frame of mind today, decided to bite the bullet and do the Repair Install you suggested.

However, after I click on the Upgrade option (Step 8 from your link), I am told that there is a Compatibility Report that has been generated to my desktop, and that Windows needs to be restarted so necessary changes to system files can be made before continuing. Unfortunately the report fails to tell me what those compatibilty issues are (both the CD and machine are W7 Home Premium x64), and whether this reboot should be accomplished with the disk still in the tray.

Rebooting with the disk in just seems to reboot the PC, no msg about hitting any key to boot from the CD. What do I do now? Take the disk out while in Windows and put it back in again?

Anyway, that's what I did... and after re-initiating the repair install, it is now going through the 5 steps (currently at 6% on step 2 - gathering files, settings, etc)

Just wonderful (see the sarcasm, enjoy the pain)....
On step 5 - Windows could not configure one or more system components. To install Windows, restart the computer and then restart the installation
My improved state of mind has evaporated.