Solved Win 7 home frozen after start up

[Mr2005]

Having an issue with windows 7. I few days I ago it starting just randomly rebooting. Then on reboots it started going to a black screen.

I ran my dell diognoatics and it says all the hard ware is ok. Popped in my win 7 disk and ran my startup repair.

Now windows 7 is loading, but now of the desktop icons responds. If I hover the arrow over the windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen, I just get the spinning blue icon?

Nothing responds. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Can I reinstalling wimdows without it deleting my c drive?


Running win 7 home n a dell xps 8300.

 

[karlsnooks]

Mr2005,
Welcome to SevenForums.

HOW TO USE MICROSOFT'S OFFLINE MALWARE REMOVER
Windows Defender Offline
· performs an offline scan of an infected PC to remove viruses, rootkits and other advanced malware.
· is a free standalone, bootable malware and virus remover from Microsoft.

Download Windows Defender Offline (about 785 kB)
You will have the choice of downloading the 32bit version (x86) or the 64 bit version (x64).
The link will help you determine whether you are running a 32 bit version or 64 bit version of Windows

NOTE!! You can download and prepare a 32 bit version using a 64 bit version of Windows
NOTE!! You can download and prepare a 64 bit version using a 32bit version of Windows.

You run the 32 bit version on a 32 bit version of Windows.
You run the 64 bit version on a 64 bit version of Windows.

The 32 bit download file name is: mssstool32.exe
The 64 bit download file name is: mssstool64.exe

For the curious, this program was originally name Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper.


INSTALLATION:
· Requires an Internet Connection.
· Insert 512 mB or larger USB stick into a usb port.
· Run the downloaded program--mssstool64.exe or mssstool32.exe
· NEXT button
· Choose the option On a USB flash drive that is not password protected
· NEXT button
· NEXT button
.
The install program will:
· format the usb stick using the NTFS format.
· download less than 230 mB.
· name the USB stick WDO_Media32 or WDO_Media64
· use less than 300 mB.

How to UPDATE the Windows Defender Offline USB stick:
· reinsert the usb stick
· run the installation program, mssstool64.exe or mssstool32.exe, again.
· the update will download less than 65 mB.

Since the malware database is sometimes updated several times in a day, always update before running.

PERFORM AN OFFLINE SCAN
Bootup your computer from the USB stick
Windows Defender Offline will automatically perform a quick scan.
After the quick scan finishes, Choose Full Scan
Select all of your drives

The initial, full scan can easily take several hours, but
Remember, your computer is being very thoroughly checked for all types of malware.

 

[Night Hawk]

When recently setting a dual boot of 7 with the Windows 8 Release Preview and booting into 7 from the next version's boot options screen both versions ended up seeing the exact same problem you seem to be running into there. A fast schedule of the Disk Check tool saw both booting up normally again once all the errors on the two used were cleaned up.

You can scheduled that by opening up an elevated command prompt right clicking on the command prompt icon to run as admin in the Start>Programs>Accessories and typing "chkdsk /r" followed by the enter key at the dos like prompt. Or you can right click on the drive's icon in any Windows Explorer or Computer window and open up the Tools tab and simply click the Check now button under the Error checking there.

You may find that will clean things up for you in one run.

 

[Mr2005]

Mr2005,
Welcome to SevenForums.

HOW TO USE MICROSOFT'S OFFLINE MALWARE REMOVER
Windows Defender Offline
· performs an offline scan of an infected PC to remove viruses, rootkits and other advanced malware.
· is a free standalone, bootable malware and virus remover from Microsoft.

Download Windows Defender Offline (about 785 kB)
You will have the choice of downloading the 32bit version (x86) or the 64 bit version (x64).
The link will help you determine whether you are running a 32 bit version or 64 bit version of Windows

NOTE!! You can download and prepare a 32 bit version using a 64 bit version of Windows
NOTE!! You can download and prepare a 64 bit version using a 32bit version of Windows.

You run the 32 bit version on a 32 bit version of Windows.
You run the 64 bit version on a 64 bit version of Windows.

The 32 bit download file name is: mssstool32.exe
The 64 bit download file name is: mssstool64.exe

For the curious, this program was originally name Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper.


INSTALLATION:
· Requires an Internet Connection.
· Insert 512 mB or larger USB stick into a usb port.
· Run the downloaded program--mssstool64.exe or mssstool32.exe
· NEXT button
· Choose the option On a USB flash drive that is not password protected
· NEXT button
· NEXT button
.
The install program will:
· format the usb stick using the NTFS format.
· download less than 230 mB.
· name the USB stick WDO_Media32 or WDO_Media64
· use less than 300 mB.

How to UPDATE the Windows Defender Offline USB stick:
· reinsert the usb stick
· run the installation program, mssstool64.exe or mssstool32.exe, again.
· the update will download less than 65 mB.

Since the malware database is sometimes updated several times in a day, always update before running.

PERFORM AN OFFLINE SCAN
Bootup your computer from the USB stick
Windows Defender Offline will automatically perform a quick scan.
After the quick scan finishes, Choose Full Scan
Select all of your drives

The initial, full scan can easily take several hours, but
Remember, your computer is being very thoroughly checked for all types of malware.

Karl, I got Microsoft defender from a neighbors clean computer. I am trimg to run it, when it starts the quick scams, it's stopping on 4 seconds and about 1300 items
scannned then it appears to freeze.any thoughts?

 

[karlsnooks]

was your friends computer also a 64 bit computer?

If yes, then:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html?ltr=R

Let us know the results of running 5 tests over all of your ram.

 

[karlsnooks]

Oh yes, you said Microsoft Defender.

THIS IS NOT WINDOW DEFENDER.

This is Windows Defender Offline.

You MUST download from the Microsoft link given the correct version for your computer and prepare the USB on your friend's computer. Then you take the USB stick to your computer.

 

[Mr2005]

To clarify,

It is windows defender offline. Still getting stuck at 4 seconds, will run the ram test tonight.

If it is a virus, will reinstalling windows elimate it?
Is it possible to reinstall windows without formatting my hard drive?

 

[karlsnooks]

To clarify,
If it is a virus, will reinstalling windows elimate it?

ONLY IF you wipe the disk CLEAN.. We have tutorials to show you how.

Is it possible to reinstall windows without formatting my hard drive?
NO.

Awaiting run of WDO.

 

[gregrocker]

Work through these steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot.

The steps work up to if necessary a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

 

[Mr2005]

.

Awaiting run of WDO.

Ran WDO a few times and it freezes 4 seconds in after scanning 1300 items.

 

[karlsnooks]

Have fun working your way thru the links provided by GregRocker.

 

[gregrocker]

Start with the hardware tests in the opening Note.

If there's further interference while booting a disk, reset BIOS to defaults: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

 

[karlsnooks]

Greg,

All of that has already been done.

 

[gregrocker]

All I see is Dell Diagnostics which are not as comprehensive and no report back on promised memtest. Nothing has even been mentioned before about resetting BIOS.

I would check if there is a newer BIOS update while you're at it.

 

[karlsnooks]

Greg,
My mistake. I got threads mixed up. You are correct.
karl

 

[Night Hawk]

To clarify,

It is windows defender offline. Still getting stuck at 4 seconds, will run the ram test tonight.

If it is a virus, will reinstalling windows elimate it?
Is it possible to reinstall windows without formatting my hard drive?

When a live program booting live from disk or flash drive stalls it's not due to any virus. The write to the flash drive was likely incomplete or the drive wasn't fully made bootable. I've seen that enough times working with live data recovery sticks as well as other live flash drive projects.

The Hiren's Ultimate BootCD would provide other live security tools while the run of memtest ruled out any bad ram problem.

As far as reinstalling Windows with or without wiping the drive clean would be a last resort. When simply replacing the present install with another without a full drive wipe you will see the leftovers packed away in the Windows.old folder from the previous install. Other folders you created or were created outside of the Program Files and Program Files(x86) folders plus the users will still remain on the drive.

 

[Mr2005]

Gentlemen, thanks for the help. I was able to get windows to start repair to run and it gave me this info.

Startup repair cannot repair this computer automaically.
Problem signature
Problem event name startup repaired feline

Problem signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem signature 03: unknown
Problem signature 04: 60
Problem signature 05: external media
Problem signature 06: 2
Problem signature 07: NoBootFailure
Os version 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
locale ID 1033

Not sure if this helps identify anything. Going to try the other things you recommended today.

 

[Night Hawk]

The log file for the Startup repair tool if used in Windows can be found at "C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\SRT\SRTTrail.txt". Some would simply wipe the drive and start over fresh as seen in one MS TechNet social site's thread. Win7 startup repair fails, but doesn't say what file is corrupt

Another similar thread here at SF dealt with the same problem as well and saw the same recommendation for restoring a full system image if you had one or performing a full clean install all over again. http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/92323-cannot-start-windows-startup-repair-problem.html

Problem Signature #4 is different with each one reporting the same type of problem. When the previous 7 install started freezing up solid once I was at the desktop here and went to click on anything the Disk Check tool cleaned it up in one run.

Of course a pending clean install was already decided while that saved the existing installation at the time seeing Windows load up normally once the errors on the drive were tended to. I didn't run into any problem with the Startup repair tool however that can be run when booted live from the 7 dvd if you tried it there.

 

[Mr2005]

I've reset the bios, run scndsk and chkdsk ( they both have locked up at 33% and 51% ).


My plan is to wipe my disk clean tomorrow night when i get off work unless anyone as any other ideas.

? On the install....my set up is a sdd dive c: with programs , the. 2 other internal drives with data. Should I unplug those data drives during installation! Ask because during this process it looks my drives have new letters associatd and I'd hate to wipe the wrong disk. If those data drives have something malicious on them, will malwarebytes be able to clear before c: gets infected again?

 

[gregrocker]

The first steps in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot
are to run Malwarebytes and disinfect all drives. Did you do this?

You should also unplug all other HD's and peripherals during repairs and reinstall. Run Startup Repair again once you do this.

Try running Disk Check again from Command line in installer System Recovery Options or System Repair Disk. If it fails again test the HD with maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan as I have already suggested. You need to be able to complete both of these HD tests in order to know the HD is good. Is it detected in BIOS setup?