Hanging on start up, system repair no go, sometimes works

Hello there, I'm sadiew. I got a HP Pavilion laptop that's been acting up and I hope you guys can lend me a hand.

Yesterday: I got my laptop back after ~3 weeks to get a fan replaced. It loaded kind of slow but not terribly. Some shortcuts were missing the programs but it was few and I just reinstalled. Avast caught two viruses when I was reinstalling anti-malwarebytes so I cancelled it. Driverbooster (iobit) found and installed 30+ dirvers. Otherwise my computer was a little slow but normal.

Today: Computer went up to the starting screen and it just hung there. I can do safemode and w/ command prompt. I restarted it and tried system repair but it did nothing.

What I've tried (don't remember the order)
1). chkdsk /f for c: and /r for d: and c:. C: was found and had no problems apparently, but it also had some error communicating with the log or something.
2). trying to restore but no restore points (even though I had iObit make one a few days ago)
3). Ran my anti-viruses in safemode. The only program that found anything was TKSS root killer. Wasn't able to remove them tho as the comp was responding too slowly.
4). Tried booting with last successful settings but it didn't do anything
5) Bootlogging, which leads me to...

Now: somehow my computer started up. I think it may be because I just waited a lot longer to turn comp off so I could see what bootlog got. It loaded insanely slow and there is still something wrong. But everything is going at normal speed now like windows and chrome, like it had just started up as usual.

I think the issue may have to do with the drivers because I've been reading about that in other places, but with 33 new drivers I have no idea how to see if one of them is the offender.

Thanks!


tl;dr: Computer was fine yesterday except slow. Installed 30+ drivers. Everything ok-good. Today hanging up at windows start up. Things that (I believe) didn't work: system repair, system restore (restore points missing?), chkdsk /r and /f, loading in last successful settings, restarting, etc. Went through this time after I tried bootlogging but may just be I waited without turning off my comp longer than usual. Maybe drivers are the problem? Thanks

Hello Sadie and welcome to Seven Forums. Sorry to hear you're having these problems.

Since you've indicated there may be some malware on your computer, I'd see if your installed anti-malware programs can remove whatever is infecting your machine. It may take a longer than normal time to run the scans but as long as the software is still scanning/removing I'd be patient and see if will finish (even if it takes several hours.) You could also try running a free software called Malwarebytes. (Always make sure to read the fine print on any downloads so you don't accidentally install unwanted "stuff" like toolbars, other software, etc.)

https://www.malwarebytes.org/free/

I'd also try running a System File Checker scan from an elevated command prompt (Option Two.) If problems are found, run the scan at least 3 times and reboot your computer immediately following each scan.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

It's also possible that an application or service is interfering with a normal start up. You could do a Clean Boot (AKA Clean Startup) and try to isolate any offenders.

Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

And one of the Forum experts prepared a troubleshooting guide with some additional things to try.

Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot

Hi SadieW,

Definitely install MalwareBytes. It is a common problem to pickup viruses from driver updates, and we all need to be careful about where we download drivers from and avoid driver "update programs" if possible, as these seem to me to be the most common virus spreaders (imho).

Anyway, in my experience Malwarebytes has caught many viruses not caught elsewhere. I'm not saying its perfect, nor that I am paranoid, but I run three different anti-virus programs. Having been quite happy with MalwareBytes free version (I love free software) I purchased a license to help sustain their efforts and get the automatically scheduled scans. But enough about that...

You said you found something with TKSS Root Killer that you could not remove. Can you provide more details?

FYI, if you are having trouble installing MalwareBytes, try this link:
Malwarebytes : Downloads for Chameleon (to install on infected computers) or scroll down for the BETA RootKit utility.

Hey mismimar and soho1. Thanks for responding

Thank you for all the great suggestions mismimar. Unfortunately the scannow command didn't find anything, same with malwarebytes. I did a cleanboot according to your instructions and I think it may have improved the loading time. My laptop is still very messed up still though. It slows down to sludge soon after boot, even safe boot (especially after opening a folder it seems). I'll try the other troubleshooting steps you provided tomorrow.

Soho1, I agree. Malwarebytes is awesome and it's usually the program to catch viruses on my computer. I didn't realize it was that common to find viruses, so that's very good to know. And yeah, I'm definitely going to avoid driver download programs. I like iObit a lot, but I feel like the drivers may have messed my laptop up.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear about the rootkiller. The reason I couldn't remove it was because the desktop was freezing/moving slow as sludge. I ran it again today and it came back with nothing, so it must have actually been able to delete them.

I will update when I see if the other steps helped. Thanks again for your help.

Update: It seems that now the problem isn't booting up itself, but rather the speed of the boot up and the desktop after I boot. This thread description doesn't fit the issue then, so I'll look up other solutions to the new relevant issues. Thanks for your help!

Sadiew1990 said:

Update: It seems that now the problem isn't booting up itself, but rather the speed of the boot up and the desktop after I boot. This thread description doesn't fit the issue then, so I'll look up other solutions to the new relevant issues. Thanks for your help!

This tutorial offers several suggestions on how to optimize and speed up Windows 7. Not all will apply to you but there may be a few suggestions that can improve your boot time. You can pick and choose which one(s) you would like to try, and in a worse case scenario of not seeing any improvement, you can always go back and undo the suggestion at it's provided tutorial link.

Optimize Windows 7

Is this factory preinstalled Win7 which is the worst possible install one can have of Win7, larded with bloatware and useless duplicate utilities which interfere with better versions built into Win7? HP has the worst load of bloatware in the industry.

That's why most tech enthusiasts will not run such an install but instead Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. Everything is provided in the blue link tutorial.

If you did reinstall after the repair then compare what you did with the Best Practices in the tutorial, which compiles what has worked best in tens of thousands of installs we've helped with here.

At the minimum I'd Clean Up Factory Bloatware.

If this doesn't resolve performance problems, work through these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.