cannot get past Start Up Repair

Dell Inspirion 570, AMD X2 2.8gh, 2mb with 3gb ram (3x1)
Win 7 X64 OS - machine is 16 months old and only had a 12 month warrantee

Bearing in mind that I am far from being an expert user but I do manage to “muddle through” Please offer any suggestions regarding these symptoms. I remembered the sequence as best as I can but probably have something out of order.

This computer has been trouble free (although I still can’t get comfortable with Win 7) until last week. McAfee popped up a box saying a Trojan had been safely quarantined but from that point on I had a very annoying redirect virus in my IE. I downloaded Spybot which has always served me well and it asked me to allow it to make a copy of my start configuration? I walked away and when I returned Spybot was gone and the computer was stuck on “initializing update 52 or 55” and could not get past it. I had to force a shutdown. Upon reboot it said “Applying 18,042 of 18,042 objects” then “Failure configuring Win updates- Reverting Changes”

The computer now keeps stalling at Start Up Repair (all tests were successful – SUR cannot determine the cause of the failure) I couldn’t even get into Safe Mode because I couldn’t get past SUR.

Problem signature 05 AUTO FAILURE
Problem signature 06 14
Problem signature 07 CORRUPT FILE

Ran Dell memory check and all Passed but I still pulled all three sticks and tried to boot with each one separately but it made no difference.

Tried to run MSCONFIG at the command prompt but it said “unknown – not recognized”

Only had one previous “saved configuration” so I reverted to that but still had the redirect virus.

Got frustrated and ran Dell Data Safe and Emergency Backup which, happily, seems to have saved all my files and data. This seemed to reload a clean copy of my OS from the separate partition on my HD. When I shut down it said “initializing updates” but seemed to stick on 50 something of 61 updates. Next bootup it was back to stalling at Start Up Repair.

Then I got smarter and unhooked the internet connection. Used “reload from a previous date saved configuration”- computer seemed to shut down and reboot normally. Loaded the following from a jump drive without connecting to the internet;

Ran Malware Bytes – 37 minutes, 376000 objects – all CLEAN
Ran Ad Aware – 1 ½ hrs, 203000 objects, quarantined boot execute Trojan win 32 generic, Win 64, Backdoor.Z.access
Was going to run Spybot but it said it “may conflict with Ad Aware” so I aborted.
I read in the Forums that MS has some compatibility issues with updates so I loaded their System Update Readiness Tool for Win7 x64 KB947821 (stored on my desktop)

At this point I reconnected to the internet and IE seemed to work great- no redirects. Machine worked normal so I was about ready to try and reload Thunderbird, MS Office, and all the zillion other programs that had been erased. Shut down one last time and it loaded 61 updates without a problem. Rebooted and it loaded 57,302 update operations and then promptly went to Start UP Repair which could not determine the cause of the problem. F8 Safe Mode stalls at Start Up repair as well so I am back to “square one” for the third or fourth time.

Sorry this is so long but I tried my best to get everything close to the right order of events. It sure seems to me that something in the MS updates is conflicting with something in my OS?

Hello, sorry for your troubles. Its possible the dell recovery partition is corrupted and/or your previously saved configurations are infected. First thing I would try is run a dell restore, then if theres a startup issue, use a system repair disk or a win7 install dvd to run startup repair. You need access to a working computer running 7 64 bit to create a repair disk otherwise try to locate one on the web.

System Repair Disc - Create

You can also try running bootrec commands, sometimes it helps when automated startup repair helps.

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

Also try running a sfc scan at boot.

SFC /SCANNOW : Run in Command Prompt at Boot

If this gets your windows running, we can move ahead. Even if it doesnt, you can always clean install windows and activate with the sticker key.

Did you make recovery disks? If yes, try recovering to factory from those, may help if the partition's screwed up.

You are using some old generation tools which don't work as well with Win7. Perhaps the very worst AV one can have for dysfunction is MucAfee - I would replace it with MSE or Avast 6 recommended by most of us here.

Spybot and Adaware also have seen better days. Use Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware for best Win7 performance.

When Updates fail or cause no boot, use the System Restore point which is set with every Update package, from the booted Repair CD if necessary by running Startup Repair which automates SysRestore, or running it directly from the list. You can also if necessary run from the Repair CD Command line SFC -SCANNOW Run in Command Prompt at Boot as suggested by Bill to check your System File integrity.

Thank you both for the suggestions. I have a proper repair CD and have booted from it and am trying to run scannow from the command prompt. every time i enter the command it says;
"Beginning system scan, etc." but immediately says
"There is a system repair pending that requires reboot to complete. Restart and run SFC again"

I have rebooted several times but cannot get past this message?

Try Checking the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

Run Startup Repair from the CD a few times first as well.

Thanks, Greg, but Startup Repair never completes, it just says unknown problem, reboot, etc. Shall I keep rebooting and running it in the hope it is gaining a little each time?

Make sure Win7 or it's 100mb System Reserved boot partition (preferred) is marked Active. You can do this with free Partition Wizard bootable CD which also has a feature on its Disk tab to "Rebuild MBR" that can work on its own. Otherwise use Diskpart: Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)

Then boot the DVD Repair console or REpair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots. Does it find an installation to repair. If not, click into tools list to open Command Line to run bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /fixmbr to see if it discovers installation now to run Repairs x3.

If this fails, you can copy out your files using Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

Then either run Factory Recovery from its partition or disks you made or order from maker, or find a Win7 installation DVD to clean reinstall following these steps for Reinstalling Windows 7