Solved Fully updated Win 7 SP1 will not boot after shutdown

[WCOrpheus]

I have reinstalled Win 7 Home Prem 64 3 times in the last 3 days because after everything is updated and I use the computer for 10 hours, if I shut it down, it will not boot back up. I either get a constant Welcome screen or a blinking underscore (which is what I have this time). Also system repair or system restore never work. I am at my wits end as to why this keeps happening. Below is all my specs and 95% (it may have varied from installation to installation, but theses were all on the last instance) of the programs I've installed. Each instance also had SP1 installed and all drivers up to date.

Specs:
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth 990FX
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Memory: 4 x Corsair 4GB 1333Mhz
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 SSD 256GB
(I also have 3 other HDD but they are only used for data, no instances of Windows are on them)
Video Cards: 2 x AMD Radeon HD 6900 in crossfire

Programs:
Steam (2-3 games installed)
LibreOffice
AVG Free antivirus (scans clean)
VLC video player
uTorrent
AMD video card controller program (forget it's exact name)
Malware Bytes (scans clean)
CCleaner (scans clean)

I am looking for ANYTHING that might explain this issue, or any tools/tricks that might be able to help me figure out why this keeps happening. Also, at this point I CANNOT use any Win 7 or system restore disks (receive a "This disk is not compatible with this version of windows" error). But if someone can give me some advice on what to look for once I install it again.

Thanks

 

[Arc]

Welcome aboard. Can you post a screenshot of your disk management window?

1. Right click on Computer icon on the Desktop > Manage. It will open the Computer Management Window.
2. Make the window Full Screen.
3. Click on "Disk Management" in the left pane.
4. Take a snip using Snipping Tool
5. Upload it here.

 

[WCOrpheus]

As I cannot boot, even in safe mode, I cannot not do this now. If you are saying there is no way to save this instance of Windows 7, then I will format my SSD and install a new instance of Win 7.

 

[Arc]

As I cannot boot, even in safe mode, I cannot not do this now. If you are saying there is no way to save this instance of Windows 7, then I will format my SSD and install a new instance of Win 7.

Have I said it ? No! Let us try.

Follow the method two of the tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html. Mark either the 100 MB hidden system reserved partition as active, or, if it is not there, mark C as active.

Then run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html for three separate times, with restarts after every single run.

Let us now if it is working properly now or not.

For some more info, you may follow http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html

 

[WCOrpheus]

I must be missing something. Even when I try to boot from a recovery cd or the original win 7 installation cd in order to do anything, I am getting an error saying "this cd does not work with this version of windows". Any other help you can offer before I do the reinstall? I'll be able to send you that jpeg of my device manager at that point.

 

[Arc]

I must be missing something. Even when I try to boot from a recovery cd or the original win 7 installation cd in order to do anything, I am getting an error saying "this cd does not work with this version of windows". Any other help you can offer before I do the reinstall? I'll be able to send you that jpeg of my device manager at that point.

If you boot from the disc, you should not get this message.

Enter into BIOS settings, set DVD drive as the first boot devise, and when prompted to "press any key to boot from CD or DVD", do it.

Otherwise, restart the computer with the disc in drive, after power on, motherboard screen will be visible. Press and hold the boot menu key until the list of boot devices appear. Select the DVD drive using up/down scroll arrow key, hit enter.

You should boot into the disc nicely.

 

[gregrocker]

Are the disks the same bit-version, or were the disks made before SP1 and does your Win7 have SP1? They need to be the same. The latest official installer is provided in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot .

If the disks are correct then boot into BIOS setup to check if you have an EFI Boot disk in BIOS boot order. If so Repairs must be booted into the same as here: UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums .

Next try writing the installer to flash stick from same link to see if anything changes. Try tapping F8 at reboot to see if Repair console is on Advanced Boot tools menu.

Is the HD detected in BIOS setup? Test the HD with maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan, followed by a full Disk Check from the installer/repair CD's Command Line accessed by pressing Shift + F10 at first screen booted into.

Next test your RAM - Test with Memtest86+ for 5-6 passes or overnight.

Then continue with Troubleshooting steps.

 

[WCOrpheus]

Ok, I was able to install SP1 and it was working for a few hours, and then I shut down the computer and when it rebooted it stopped working. I will download the new installer with sp1 and use that disk to try and boot from that disk and try everything already suggested on the thread and get back to you with the results. Appreciate that help!

 

[WCOrpheus]

So to make a VERY long story short, after a few mess ups by me while I was trying to handle the situation myself (poor judement I know) I used a second computer to use the disk manager tool (which showed the SSD as "foreign") to delete all partitions, and recreate the drive as Basic.

I then reinserted it into my original PC, and installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit WITH SP1. It installed without incident and even went through updates, restarted and booted. I did recieve one error (Windows Update 80070103). Update KB2505438 failed to install. I have not attempted to install it again.

Attached is the snippit of my computers Device Manager (computer is called TheBeast, please ignore the juvenile name). I have not expanded any sublists, so please let me know if you need to see it in more detail. Also I have no installed ANY third party software (including anti virus) and have disconnected the three other internal drives which are usually attached. (None have ever contained an instance of Windows or any other operating system, and are only used to store data and backup of data)

All of this would happen in the past, and it was not until I was properly settled that the computer would fail to boot. Could you please instruct me as to what I should check and how to make sure that I can prevent having to go through this ordeal again. Again, I appreciate any help you can offer.

 

[gregrocker]

There are no drivers missing or errors indicated in Device Manager. How is performance?

Read over these steps to benefit from the Best Practices which are offered to get a perfect reinstall, including for retail. Use the tools and methods to setup and maintain your install and you'll have good performance all the way.

 

[WCOrpheus]

So I did everything and the performance is working great. I even used Memtest86, to check my memory, and it didn't come up with any errors as far as I could tell. I also looked up a few tweeks for using windows 7 with an SSD and went through those. (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/70822-ssd-tweaks-optimizations-windows-7-a.html)
I have already made another recovery disk, and am backing up the system now. I'm going to start installing my old programs on it, and hopfully everything continues to work properly. I will let you know how it turns out.

 

[WCOrpheus]

So i installed a lot of my programs, excluding utorrent and avg (using windows essentials). I was able to run Torchlight 2 really well, no issues at all. Starting to get everything right. Then I shut down because i had some updates to install (forgot to check what for but I have already installed win7 SP1) and on reboot had the usual problems. Tried recovery CD and nothing happening. So I ran MemTest86 again, and I am getting a massive amount of errors (over 110,000 before I exited) so I'm guessing that it might have been a RAM error all along. I'm going to remove 2 of my chips, and run the test again. I know this is the wrong forum for this question, but since I already have the tread, any advice on how to properly find the right chip? (It's a brand new motherboard so I would be very surprised if it was the DIMM slot)

 

[WCOrpheus]

I realize the last three posts were me, but I wanted to just show the resolution here. Turns out that with the amount of RAM I had at the speed I had it was not compatible with my motherboard. The max it could handle was 8GB, not 16GB. I removed two chips, ran the memory test with no failures, and my computer booted numerous times without incident. Thanks for all your help.

 

[gregrocker]

No one here or anywhere else recommends AVG. Why would your replace the recommended MS Security Essentials with such crapware? Did you just ignore the steps given for getting a perfect Clean Reinstall?

Why install SP1 when you were also provided with the latest official installer with SP1 to use?

If you have RAM errors you can isolate the stick and/or slot causing the problem following the steps in RAM - Test with Memtest86+.