Windows won't go past welcome screen!

[ElieJK90]

Hey!
So one day I shut down my laptop (Sony Vaio, E series, VPCEB15FG, Windows 7 home premium 64-bit). The following day when I tried to turn it back on it refused to go beyond the welcome screen.. And it just kept restarting. So I started it in safe mode with networking and that seems to be working fine.. I don't know why this sort of thing would happen.
P.S: I dropped it once a few times ago and the hard disk was damaged so I had it replaced.. I don't know if that might be related..
Help?

 

[zigzag3143]

If it starts in safe mode it is probably a driver conflict. Did you install anything new lately?

 

[ElieJK90]

I don't think I did.. The computer may have had automatic updates or something but I didn't install anything personally!

 

[ElieJK90]

Oh and I tried restoring the computer to an earlier date but that didn't work either...!

 

[zigzag3143]

Oh and I tried restoring the computer to an earlier date but that didn't work either...!

Well there is an app that will find the conflict called driver verifier.

I'd suggest that you first backup your stuff and then make sure you've got access to another computer so you can contact us if problems arise. Then make a System Restore point (so you can restore the system using the Vista/Win7 Startup Repair feature).

In Windows 7 you can make a Startup Repair disk by going to Start....All Programs...Maintenance...Create a System Repair Disc - with Windows Vista you'll have to use your installation disk or the "Repair your computer" option at the top of the Safe Mode menu .

Then, here's the procedure:
- Go to Start and type in "verifier" (without the quotes) and press Enter
- Select "Create custom settings (for code developers)" and click "Next"
- Select "Select individual settings from a full list" and click "Next"
- Select everything EXCEPT FOR "Low Resource Simulation" and click "Next"
- Select "Select driver names from a list" and click "Next"
Then select all drivers NOT provided by Microsoft and click "Next"
- Select "Finish" on the next page.

Reboot the system and wait for it to crash to the Blue Screen. Continue to use your system normally, and if you know what causes the crash, do that repeatedly. The objective here is to get the system to crash because Driver Verifier is stressing the drivers out. If it doesn't crash for you, then let it run for at least 36 hours of continuous operation (an estimate on my part).

If you can't get into Windows because it crashes too soon, try it in Safe Mode.
If you can't get into Safe Mode, try using System Restore from your installation DVD to set the system back to the previous restore point that you created.

 

[ElieJK90]

Ok I'm willing to do that but I don't have my installation DVDs.. I'm in currently studying abroad and I don't have them on me.. Should I go through with this? Or does my computer have a high chance of crashing?

 

[zigzag3143]

Ok I'm willing to do that but I don't have my installation DVDs.. I'm in currently studying abroad and I don't have them on me.. Should I go through with this? Or does my computer have a high chance of crashing?

Cant tell. Verifier is built into the OS, so it cant be that dangerous.

 

[ElieJK90]

Would it be safer to just redownload/reinstall all the drivers from the sony website?

 

[ElieJK90]

Ok I did what you said but windows still won't start except in safe mode...

 

[writhziden]

Start with http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html with both boxes checked for all drives. If you are asked to schedule the check for the next restart, let it schedule to run upon next restart and then restart your computer.

Also, what is the age of your system? Some of the older Sony systems have a problem with the Sony Firmware Extension Parser driver, SFEP.SYS, and need it to be updated using a newer model. You can find an update at: SFEP.SYS Update for VPCEB15FX which is the closest I could find for your model, but this driver seems to work with any model, so it should not be an issue. I would still recommend that you create a system restore point prior to installing it.

 

[ElieJK90]

I did the check disk thing.. How do I see the results for it? Cause the computer restarted after it was done (I'm assuming) and I didn't get the chance to have a look at the screen to see the results.
I bought my laptop about a year and a half ago.

 

[ElieJK90]

Oh and another thing. How do I create a System Restore point in safe mode? When I go into the control panel, system, I don't have "system security" on the left.. And I tried downloading the instant restore point thingie but that didn't work. The error said "This service cannot be started in safe mode".

 

[writhziden]

You can get the disk check logs from the event viewer logs: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/96938-check-disk-chkdsk-read-event-viewer-log.html

Yeah, some functions do not work in safe mode, unfortunately...

 

[ElieJK90]

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
263680 file records processed. File verification completed.
256 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 164 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
360266 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
263680 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 2 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
48294 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
33896384 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

312466431 KB total disk space.
106452348 KB in 208098 files.
147936 KB in 48295 indexes.
4 KB in bad sectors.
373535 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
205492608 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
78116607 total allocation units on disk.
51373152 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 06 04 00 94 e9 03 00 50 95 07 00 00 00 00 00 ........P.......
6a 8d 00 00 a4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 j...............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[ElieJK90]

This is the log! Is my disk damaged?

 

[ElieJK90]

Should I download the seep.sys thingie?

 

[zigzag3143]

This is the log! Is my disk damaged?

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems. If you have more than one disk you should run it on all of them.

See the instructions on how to do that.

 

[ElieJK90]

No other disks!!

 

[ElieJK90]

Now what? ^^

 

[writhziden]

You can check whether sfep.sys fixes the problem. More than likely, it will only resolve Verifier issues and power management problems, not boot problems.

Your boot issues in normal mode may be due to Windows file corruption. In safe mode, run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html up to three times to fix all errors with a restart in between each. Post back if it continues to show errors after a fourth run or if the first run comes back with no integrity violations.

Also, since you can get into Safe Mode with networking, can you follow the http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html and upload the reports using the following guide:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html
That will help us determine any other possible reasons for your inability to run Windows normally.