Revisiting 'Doing clean install....' with a return of old problem

In my last post to my original thread "Doing a clean install and need advice" I spoke prematurely as all had gone perfectly yesterday. This morning I started it up and was greeted with it "installing 100 updates" or something like that. That done it restarted and all was fine for an hour or so. At that point I had to leave for a bit and just left it on. An hour or less later I returned, jiggled the mouse and nothing occurred. Had to hold the button to shut down and then restart, which it did but now had red fine pinstripes covering the entire screen, but it was still functional. Had to do two Restart Repairs and finally got to a Safe Mode. Made a screen shot of the Event Log which is attached that shows the stripes also. I tried the System Restore option, selecting 4 different times to restore from and none would complete the restore.

In so doing I recalled that before doing the reinstall yesterday, when I was having all of the previous problems with screen freeze and striped screens, etc., many times all functioned fine until I left the computer running while I was out for as much as an hour or more. When I returned the thing would be frozen and often returned with stripes and colored swirls and other problems, all similar to today's lousy results. Did multi Start Repairs and reboots to finally get it to work.

Could any of these problems be associated with a video card? I checked and its fan is running and I don't know what to do beyond that point. I removed and re-seated it.

As before, all suggestions will be appreciated. Maybe the event log will mean something and point the way to a solution. Should I just get a new video card and give that a try? What else should I do? Could one or more of the updates have caused the problem? Thanks, Roving.

Have you got the latest drivers for your video card?

Checked and it reports that it has the latest driver.

Do you know what updates were installed?

Did you install the drivers manually from vendors website or let MS do it. I found that letting MS update the drivers can and do cause issues that your are experiencing. MS will determine what the best driver is needed all right, even if it's an old out dated driver.

It's recommended to always download drivers from the source and install manually just after a clean install.

I must respectfully disagree with bassfisher. Based on countless thousands we've helped to http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164 it's best to go with the drivers given by the installer and quickly updated via optional Windows Updates when you enable Automatically get recommended drivers and updates for your hardware.

This is not XP. MS spent close to a billion dollars getting the drivers into the installer and via Updates, even paying manufacturers to build them under WHQL so they wouldn't hold out and MS would have them first.

There is a one-in-a-million possibility a driver in the Updates package caused this problem but it could also be an Update itself. This is why as it says in the tutorial it's best to break the Updates into smaller packages and observe their install just like Program installs to watch that they install correctly and gauge performance after each install.

What I would do now is http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html to before the Updates were done, then install them in smaller groups monitoring closely each one's progress. If the problem reoccurs then Restore to before that group and install those Updates singly to find the problem update, post it back here and in our Updates forum. MS also provides free email support for Windows Updates on its website.

If you didn't follow the Best Practices for Win7 install in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164 then I would start over and hew more closely to them as there are rarely problems reported when they are followed.

It has been set to automatically get the updates as Rocker suggests.

You'll need to set Updates to notify you so you can break them up into smaller groups to isolate the problem update. Take small bites until you find the one that's choking you.

I am now at the point with my new clean install where all is running smoothly andhave 111 important updates and 8 optional updates waiting for download and install. I plan on doing 15 at a time and then using it for two days or so and then adding 15 more and using the same routine with them. I will be creating a new defined restore point after each segment proves that it is all OK. That should help finally isolate the problem if indeed it lies within the updates as now suspected. I'll also be adding back my usual group of regularly used programs. This should do the trick......I hope. Thanks for all of the help!

Are you sure you downloaded the latest ISO as gregrocker advises - this does seem a lot of updates. I have done the clean install and certainly didn't have 111 updates.

Be sure to check optional Updates for drivers which I would do singly first. That may be where it choked.

roving said:

I am now at the point with my new clean install where all is running smoothly andhave 111 important updates and 8 optional updates waiting for download and install. I plan on doing 15 at a time and then using it for two days or so and then adding 15 more and using the same routine with them. I will be creating a new defined restore point after each segment proves that it is all OK. That should help finally isolate the problem if indeed it lies within the updates as now suspected. I'll also be adding back my usual group of regularly used programs. This should do the trick......I hope. Thanks for all of the help!

Click to expand...

I use a bit more caution than what you are considering. I install updates, one at a time, and wait to see if it requires a reboot. If I am prompted for a reboot, I allow the system to go through the reboot process and then go back to installing the remaining patches/updates until I find another that requires a reboot and follow the same procedure. My experience has been that the reboot process when installing patches/updates is best done on an "as required" basis and not en masse.

HTH

I finally did a clean install using my original Windows 7 DVD. The object being to install just a few updates at a time and hopefully find one or a few that caused it to crash. HOWEVER, maybe things are narrowing down quickly. Two days ago I started with a clean HDD with only a new install of Win7 and without any updates that I was aware of. That is why the large number of them awaiting install. I had done a a clean reinstall with the latest ISO last week and the problem still occurred.

After leaving it on most of Tuesday and making 3 or 4 shutdown and restarts all was still working well. I did not install any updates at all, and was feeling quite smug when at 5:30 pm it suddenly Blue Screened on me and the only words on the whole screen I had time to recognized were: "attempts to reset display driver............." and then it turned to black. That driver had been checked and was the latest available.

My present thought leads me to wonder if the video card is failing due to getting warm. The fan functions fine, but all along with this current problem my screen has showed thin red stripes off and on, and pink and blue swirls at various times. But a cold start this morning brought up everything just as it ought to be. I'm going to let it run today and see what happens.

Would any or all of you agree that the video card is a suspect rather than the OS?

I would go for the video card especially when you mention the colored stripes! I can't see it being an OS problem otherwise everyone who downloaded it would suffer the same. That said are you using the same ISO file that you strated with? If so i suppose there is a slight possibility this was corrupted during the download.

What is the make and model of the display device?

What driver did Windows Update deliver to use for it?

What driver is available for update on the Support Downloads webpages for your HP and Display device model? Have you also tried these drivers?

Have you tried uninstalling the video card, cleaning its port of debris, reinstalling it?

Is there onboard video chip to default to? Check on board and in BIOS. Enable it to see what driver it wants and how it performs.

OP has a bad videocard, time for a new one.

agreed with oldmx.

bad drivers can cause bsod and driver stopped responding errors.

however when artifacts start appearing and not overlocking or overvolting card that suggests a hw failure.

in terms of drivers on micrsoft update I tend to avoid them.

my rule is.

dont update a driver period if its stable and does the job, if do need an update the try manufacturer first. on this laptop I am using right now I am using the intel display drivers that came with the OS, all newer ones caused issues, the drivers maybe 3-4 years old but they work.

on my main rig which is in my sig, I use the msachi drivers which default with OS instead of intel newer drivers as another example. I think graphics drivers are very volatile to bugs and they are ones ill advised to blindly always update to latest. especially with amd and nvidia.

I use dual screens, an 18 and a 22. It will do the same crash on either one and both are using the same driver: MS dated 6/21/2006 Version 6.1.7600.16385. Doesn't look like any updated version there.

I don't overclock or such and never fancy graphics, just the ordinary boring stuff of word processing or viewing pictures and the like.

In the long list of uninstalled updates there is just one recent update showing for my Nvidia GeForce 8400GS, at 165.2MB. The update is dated 6/22/2012. Maybe I should just install it and see if anything changes. I have a restore point set so that I can back out of it easily.

I have removed the card and found no dirt buildup or such and just reinserted it, and no change.

And thanks to all for continuing interest and help. I can get a new video card for less than $20 and for that it might be best for me to give it a try. If it works, Hooray, and it would sure save a lot of time for you great helpers.

Why do you still have a long list of uninstalled Updates, including Display driver? Install it now.

If it performs OK then install the others in small groups.

Update. Away for three days. Finally got it started yesterday a.m. and got to Nvidia site and downloaded their latest that it found form my video card. Ran perfectly all day through three restarts with no problems, so hope it would be that way today as I had time to do the lengthy update drill. Started fine this morn. Did some email checking and suddenly a black screen announced it had no signal. HDD kept clicking and then came the blue screen with all of the white words that disappeared in just seconds. Restarted and it began with the vertical red pinstriping and finally got to Safe Mode. Did a restart with same bad results. Ordered a new video card to hopefully solve the problem or eliminate it as a cause. Will report back when I get the card installed.

Thanks again to each of you for sticking with me and the persistent problem. Roving