Win 7 Stuck on Starting Windows Screen

jon777 said:

MilesAhead said:

Before you wipe it I'd at least look at the command line safe mode boot screen. It shows all the drivers loading. If it hangs, it might just be one file you need. Not likely, but you could get lucky. :)

Both Safe Mode w/ Networking and Safe Mode Command Line load just fine...

I know they load fine. But there still may be a driver that the log says "Loading whatever.sys" that never loads. It times out. That may prevent you from getting to the desktop.

jon777 said:

Question: On this step:

4. Make your Recovery Disks so you have a path back to factory condition, following the steps given in your PC's setup literature or in the Manual located on the Support Downloads webpage for your model computer. As an alternative to Recovery Disks you can save a Windows 7 Backup Image or Macrium Image of the entire HD.

● If you have a Recovery or OEM tools partition, these may not run after clean reinstall so be sure to make your Recovery Disks.

● You can wait until afterwards to see if Recovery or (Diagnostics) Tools partitions will run from boot to decide if you want to delete those partitions and recover the space into C or elsewhere (using Step 3 here).

I don't think I can make recovery disks, given that I can only boot into safe mode, can I? FWIW, there is a Recovery partition (D:\) as well as an HP Tool partition. Should I skip this step, or is there something I should do here?

Or should I use the HP Recovery to restore to factory settings, then make the recovery disks, then do the Clean Install?

Good question. On some recent models you are given an option for Minimal Recovery when you run HP System Recovery which is nearly as good as a Clean Reinstall, so after doing your backups I'd boot into it to see. If not then proceed with Clean Reinstall deleting all partitions which are wasting space otherwise.

If Minimal Recovery works then you'll only have the Wireless Manager crapware which you can uninstall in Control Panel after enabling Use another Manager in its prefs. Then connect with Win7's superior wireless utility from the System tray.

I see a lot of hits where it won't load the video driver. There's one chance that should not hurt anything. It's a standard support trick. Open Device Manager in safe mode. Delete the video card driver. Reboot. See if Plug and Play reloads it successfully. You shouldn't be any worse off than you are now. :)

Edit: If that doesn't work I'd get the latest video driver for you machine and install it in safe mode if you have to. There's a lot of failed driver loads in the log. Chances are you may have to do an install. But you have nothing to lose trying the shortcut.

Edit2: May as well back up all your files first anyway though.