New
#1
Fresh Win7 install randomly won't start/new HDD
I recently had to replace the HDD in my Alienware M14X R1 (went from a Samsung 500GB 7200 to a WD Black 500GB 7200). This was due to frequent and increasing BSoD's. Did a fresh install of Win 7 Home Premium x64 using an ISO on a DVD and it went well. Installed drivers from the Resource disk provided and updated via Dell's website. I've slowly worked away at installing my programs the past week and running Windows Update.
Off and on (more on than off), I have had Windows unable to start. It will show the Alienhead screen, go to the black screen and say "Starting Windows" but it doesn't start and I have to hard shutdown. When I restart, I am then prompted to run the Startup Repair tool. It usually doesn't complete and gives me an Unexpected I/O error. The enter and escape keys do not work and I have to hard shutdown again. I will then reboot and ask Windows to start normally and it usually does (9/10). The computer functions normally at this point. I have run the ePSA included and everything passes. In EventViewer, there is 4 errors after this last boot (1 Event ID 10 WMI and 3 Event ID 1001 DHCP-client). I also got a "Disk Read Error - Press Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot" error a day or two ago. When I hit ctl-alt-del, the computer booted normally.
What can I do to try and flush out what is causing this? Other than this, the computer runs like a dream and when it boots up normally, it boots quickly. Thank you!