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Dell laptop, Win-7-HP, new HDD - System Repair/Restore fail
Hello everyone,
(I'm really sorry but this is lengthy, because I've tried so much and I'm really stymied. I hope you can bear with me.)
I picked up a Dell Latitude e4310 from a client about 10 days ago. Hard disk failed diagnostics, so I bought a new one, stuck it in and loaded Windows 7 HP 64-bit. Loaded device drivers - no yellow flags. Ran Windows Update ad nauseam until there were no more. Loaded my standard suite of software (AVG, MBAM, Adobe Flash/SWF/Reader, Skype, iTunes, 7-zip, etc.) and the created User Accounts and copied the data over.
Took an afternoon, ready to return computer to client, but there was a blinking battery issue ("not recognized.") Turns out it was the power supply.
Turned it on one last time, logged in, saw another Windows Update available, so I agreed to download/install them. WU said it was fine, "Restart Now," so I did.
System cannot start. Went to System Repair. Could not repair Windows. Went into System Restore. I tried the last snapshot. No luck. I tried the one prior. No luck. I tried the first one available. No luck.
I researched the problem both for Dell Latitude e4310, Windows in general, and any other wild ideas. Nothing.
So, I started from scratch, being a bit more deliberate this time. Delete partitions, erase, format, install Windows, loaded only Ethernet driver, did updates - several rounds. No third party software, no user accounts, no user data.
Same result. Thrown into System Repair, which fails and System Restore (only 2-3 options) doesn't work.
<big sigh>
Pull up my jeans, roll up my sleeves, lots more research but nothing really definitive.....
Restart #3: erase, re-install with a different (newer?) version of Windows 7 HP 64-bit. After initial install, WU reports 2 updates. I do these. After reboot, WU reports 108 updates. Something I found on this site (New set of 9 Microsoft Updates Crash Windows 7 64 Bit Desktop) reports "9 updates that crash Windows 7." List seems similar to several on my list of 108. I check all updates except these 9 and pray. They all load fine, system reboots, all is good. I load more device drivers. Reboot - fine. I load software, reboot, fine. I reboot over and over again, no problem.
But, I can't bear to return the laptop to the client and having to tell them "Don't ever do these updates." Plus, I want to figure out which *one* is the real culprit. So, I decide to test the System Restore, with a system that is having NO PROBLEMS booting.
Restart, F8, "Repair your computer", System Restore, choose the last one listed (before installing iTunes or Skype or something). "System restore completed successfully." Restart - CRASH. Same result as before. System Repair fails. System Restore fails. System is rendered completely useless.
Now desperate, I have even tried Windows 7 HP 32-bit. Without all the detail, I did the first round of 100+ updates and..... same frigging result.
(Aside: this computer was purchased when the client's son was attending a private school. The school's IT department deleted the Recovery Partition, so I don't have that on the original bad disk to work from, either.)
I'm at my wit's end. I've never really used System Restore much, but it's worked the 2-3 times I've used it before. But, the fact that a system update could render the whole thing useless (ON A CLEAN INSTALL!?!??!) just floors me.
While I do this for a living and feel confident that I can always figure something out, I am so deep into this one and have 7-10 days worth of frustration behind me, so I'm sure I'm no longer acting methodically or thinking straight.
Please, if anyone has any suggestions, links, thoughts, I'd be very grateful to hear them. I feel like I've tried everything, but I hope there is something that someone else might think of. I'm also hoping to learn something valuable for future such situations.
Thanks for sitting through this. All - well, most - comments welcome.