Solved ASUS EEEPC 1005 startup repair loop-hardware issue?

[mraimondi]

Problem...
1 yr old (no physical damage) n450, 2gb ram, Win 7 netbook was stuck in startup repair loop. Would boot to safe mode, and safe mode w/ networking. Now after attempting an F9 factory system resore it gets to loading drivers, then fails, says it has to restart then fails again.

Things I've done...
System restore to several point-all successful, no change in problem
chkdsk- no problems
Windows memory diagnostic- no problems
Tried repairing with a full Win 7 disk in an ext DVD drive. Failed.
Windows

I'm thinking a hardware issue...but where do I start?

My wife LOVES this little machine, so any help is much appreciated!!

 

[theog]

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

 

[mraimondi]

Thanks for the reply. Just to be sure, I changed back to original 1gb stick. No difference.

I'm going to try some hd check utilities run from the ext dvd drive, and see what's up.

In your opinion what is the best/easiest hd utility?

 

[mraimondi]

I used Seagate's hard drive diagnostic utility since that's the HD that's in it. Both short and long tests confirm a good hard drive.

RAM- eliminated
HD-eliminated

Any other ideas?

A suggestion for a general hardware diagnostic tool to go beyond RAM and HD?
In a desktop, I would just start pulling parts until I found the culprit, but I can't do that with a netbook.

Thanks for any help in advance...

 

[writhziden]

What exactly are you able to do with the machine now? Can Windows start normally? In safe mode? Can you get to http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html?

 

[mraimondi]

Previously, I could boot to safe mode, or safe mode with networking. When I booted to windows normally, it would go into a startup repair loop. I tried a few things to fix that including repairing the registry hives (backed up first) but to no avail. Then I tried to do a clean install/ factory restore using the f9 option. Worked until it gets to the point of setting up hardware, then fails, and has to restart, in an endless loop.

 

[writhziden]

Do you have a Windows 7 install disc or repair disc? It sounds like you need to do a full format to clean out bad sectors on the hard disk.

 

[writhziden]

Previously, I could boot to safe mode, or safe mode with networking. When I booted to windows normally, it would go into a startup repair loop. I tried a few things to fix that including repairing the registry hives (backed up first) but to no avail. Then I tried to do a clean install/ factory restore using the f9 option. Worked until it gets to the point of setting up hardware, then fails, and has to restart, in an endless loop.

Also, did you create recovery discs before Windows crashed? It's possible your recovery partition is corrupted. If you do not have discs, you will have to order them from ASUS.

 

[Qdos]

These netbooks don't have an optical drive, with these machines you must rebuild them from a restore partition or with an external USB interfaced CD/DVD drive, or from a USB memory stick (in fact you can build a complete W7 installer onto a USB stick with a little patience).

It sounds like the thing may have become unbootable. However if you have kept the restore partition data you should be able to get at it using a bootable USB stick of some sort.

IMHO, and owning one of the Asus EEE variants, you must always keep an external bootable drive image on a USB device.

It'd be worth trying to check that the RAM is seated properly, as there's a slim possibility that could provoke a boot loop (it's under the HDD cover on the base).

 

[mraimondi]

Why would the recovery partition be bad? It started crashing before I touched the windows install. It's NOT the hard drive(tests of both the file system and hd health confirm), and it's NOT the RAM(switched out for original RAM confirm).

I had an old laptop with hardware issues once, would not allow windows to load it's drivers, reformatting crashed it at the driver installs. This sounds similar. I need a way(software?) to test the hardware components- or eliminate them one by one, which can't be done by unplugging parts like you could on a desktop.

PS I have an external DVD unit, and a Win 7 disk, but it's not for this computer.

 

[writhziden]

Why would the recovery partition be bad? It started crashing before I touched the windows install. It's NOT the hard drive(tests of both the file system and hd health confirm), and it's NOT the RAM(switched out for original RAM confirm).

I had an old laptop with hardware issues once, would not allow windows to load it's drivers, reformatting crashed it at the driver installs. This sounds similar. I need a way(software?) to test the hardware components- or eliminate them one by one, which can't be done by unplugging parts like you could on a desktop.

PS I have an external DVD unit, and a Win 7 disk, but it's not for this computer.

Just because the hard drive isn't bad doesn't mean it can't have corrupted sectors. Corrupted and bad sectors are two different things. Corruption is data related, whereas a bad sector is a hardware issue. And I believe you can still have a few bad sectors and still pass a hard disk diagnostic because the bad sectors are fixable/swappable. Obviously if a full format does not fix your issue, then you know it is probably a different piece of hardware causing the issue. I am just trying to narrow down possibilities.

Edit: It is also still possible that the data contained in the recovery partition was corrupted, even if the hard disk is fine and has no bad sectors. It could still have corrupted sectors.

 

[mraimondi]

Why would it run fine in safe mode and safe mode with networking but not normal mode?

 

[writhziden]

Why would it run fine in safe mode and safe mode with networking but not normal mode?

Because safe mode does not load all drivers to run. You said you had issues loading drivers through the recovery. Safe mode probably does not load any of the drivers that could not load from the recovery partition, so it is not affected by the lack of drivers.

 

[mraimondi]

No, safe mode worked BEFORE I tried to reformat. Now Windows is half loaded, and there is no safe mode. Every time I start it, it begins loading windows.

I think I'll just eject the win 7 HD from my laptop, put it in a an external enclosure, and rule out hard drive all together.
Either that, or take out the netbook drive, put it in the enclosure, and see what happens when booting using my laptop.

As of yet, no one has given me a solution on how you diagnose hardware issues, that DO NOT involve RAM or HD.

 

[writhziden]

No, safe mode worked BEFORE I tried to reformat. Now Windows is half loaded, and there is no safe mode. Every time I start it, it begins loading windows.

I think I'll just eject the win 7 HD from my laptop, put it in a an external enclosure, and rule out hard drive all together.
Either that, or take out the netbook drive, put it in the enclosure, and see what happens when booting using my laptop.

As of yet, no one has given me a solution on how you diagnose hardware issues, that DO NOT involve RAM or HD.

Clearly you are frustrated. If you want to test hardware, you can do so using the diagnostic utilities included in Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

Sorry for wasting your time trying to make sure it truly is a hardware issue.

 

[mraimondi]

Sorry, I didn't mean to take my frustration out on you. I appreciate the help. Thanks for the link. That is AWESOME!

I will continue to eliminate hard drive issues, then move on. If it's not HD, then I'm not sure how much hardware I can actually change out of a netbook.

 

[Qdos]

Just use your external DVD drive and reload Win7 "over the top" and download the netbooks latest drivers from Asus afresh.

Use your Windows OEM key from the sticker on the Asus machines base.

Strongly recommended is to make a bootable USB key using Acronis TrueImage, or similar, and keeping a "bare metal" restore file on the USB stick too.

I normally partition the HDD into two on EEE's. Circa 35-40Gb for Windoze, the rest for personal documents - and I've never had to reinstall Windoze on my own EEE as a result

 

[mraimondi]

OK, I used Mini XP on a flash drive to fully(slow) reformat the drive. Reloaded win 7 from the recovery partition. SUCCESS!!!!

I let Windows do it's updates. After it installs the updates, BAM!! BSOD!
STOP 0x0000007F (0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000)
-divide by zero fault

What about this idea...
Would Windows updates try to install a generic driver that is incompatible with at netbook?

If so, how do I find the offending update?

How do I prevent further install in the future?

 

[writhziden]

OK, I used Mini XP on a flash drive to fully(slow) reformat the drive. Reloaded win 7 from the recovery partition. SUCCESS!!!!

I let Windows do it's updates. After it installs the updates, BAM!! BSOD!
STOP 0x0000007F (0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000)
-divide by zero fault

What about this idea...
Would Windows updates try to install a generic driver that is incompatible with at netbook?

If so, how do I find the offending update?

How do I prevent further install in the future?

If you upload your blue screen error report via the http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html, we will be able to help you track down the offending driver and determine what to prevent/update for Windows to run properly.

 

[mraimondi]

OK, done, but the performance monitor utility failed. I am in safe mode, not sure if that matters.


Details
ASUS 1005PEB
Win 7 Starter OEM- just reinstalled from F9 factory restore
1 GB RAM (had 2GB in but switched back for testing)
1 year 3 months old, well used, but not abused

You guys rock, BTW, this is the only forum I'm getting help from, so thanks a million!!