Windows 7 wont get past login screen

[disgruntled]

Hi nice to meet you all, but I'll cut to the chase as I've not got long left for lunch.

Windows 7 machine working fine from 20 april 2011 - 5 October 2012

I found an old cd and stuck it in the machine to see what was on it. Turns out a few scanned hi-res images and a fujiimage viewer.exe file. I thought i'd open the image viewer and see what it was. Double clicked and away we went. I moved the mouse to navigate to the start of the image viewer and the computer froze (blue circle thinking icon) I waited 5 mins and then ctrl + alt + del to get to task manager. Pulled that up - image viewer not responding - so attempted to close the program from task manager. Poof windows lost all my desktop icons and went to the loading screen background not my desk top background. I waited another 5 mins and then hit th re-start button.

So comp goes back to loadup - gets to the bit where windows is loading and the flag comes up all nice and shiny. Freezes. Reset. your computer falied to load. Options to check and repair or star windows normally. Start win normally, get to flag screen. freezes. back to your comp failed to load. go to repair. wait 1+ hours. windows cant repair. reboot. your comp failed to load (im getting sick of typing it let alone looking at the bloody thing). Start win safe mode. starts gets to log on. loads desktop. looks ok. restart. gets to logon. slowly ( i mean over 5 mins to get to desktop). gets to desktop. hit Ie falis to load. firefox fails to load. desktop greys out. try to shut down. takes 2 mins to get past logging off sign. then hangs on win shutting down sign. I reset again

I knew bios battery was on it's way out so I changed that, also f8 at startup and chose load from last known good configuration. over 40 mins to get to desk top. after 2 mins of trying to click on the desktop icons greys out. cant pull up task manager.

I think and call me a bit weird it's probably to do with the fuji software. please forgive my sarcasm this is driving me crazy and I'm not computer savvy enough to fix it.

I doubt anyone will be able to pin point the problem exactly but I have the feeling that the startup code's been corrupted. Can I re-store this with a win7 disk or will I have to re-format? I've not setup a sys restore point either (i know dumb ass).

Any help, insight, or tranquilisers would be a bonus.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Dis!

 

[marsmimar]

Hello disgruntled and welcome to Seven Forums. Couple of things you can try and hopefully get your machine back to where it was before that pesky CD messed things up.

See if you can get into Safe Mode and then see if you can use a system restore point to roll back everything to a date/time prior to running the CD.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

If that doesn't work you could see if you have any damaged or corrupt system files. Also in Safe Mode run a system file checker scan from an elevated command prompt (option two.) If problems are found run the scan 3 times and reboot un between each scan.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

If still no joy, one of the Forum experts prepared a couple of troubleshooting tutorials. They're time consuming but have helped many.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html

Please post back if anything helped or not.

 

[disgruntled]

My eyes yare so red from crying

Ok so I tried to follow your instructions and thanks so much for supplying them I thought no probs I can follow these. So off I went 1st problem was I thought it a bit weird that I was in the x:\ so I persevered and nothing happened then I read that I needed to be in the correct win drive on my PC to find the 'system' 'sam' etc files. So I start to hunt in cmd prompt for the right drive c:\ yields nothing... D:\ says the device is not ready. So I'm stuck in X:\ I cant load the repair, I can't get past the sfc scannow 1st stage as windows wont reboot properly. I know that it's dodgy reg change which is the problem and I need to restore the reg but can I figure out how. Nope not on your nelly!

I'm tired I have images to edit, I'm poor and my computer knowledge sucks ass.

Any advice would be great. Tell me what you need to know from my end I'll try to get it for you but you may have to baby walk me through the process.

Thanks in advance
Dis

 

[marsmimar]

Try this:

Press the WIN Key (that's the key with the Windows "flag" - usually lower left on keyboard.) If the start box appears, press the right arrow key twice. Then press the letter "R". See if that restarts your computer.

 

[disgruntled]

I can't even get to that point.

I turn the pc on and start windows normally - after a min it starts to auto repair. Win background with a 600 x 800 resolution as the arrow cursor is about 3 x times the size of my normal cursor. I wait another few minutes for it to load and search for problems.

Diagnosis and Repair details:
Last successful boot time 12/21/2001 10:31:27pm (GMT) - this is because I changed the bios battery I think.

Number of repair attempts: 7

Session details

--------------------------

System disk = \Device\harddisk0
Windows Directory = D:\Windows
AutoChk Run = 0
Number of Root causes = 1

Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Check for updates
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 0 ms


Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: System Disk test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 16 ms


Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Disk Failure diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 73 ms


Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Disk Metadata test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 280 ms


Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Target OS test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 13198 ms


Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Volume content check
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 718 ms

Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Boot manager diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 0 ms

Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: System boot log diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 0 ms

Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Event log diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 2839 ms

Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Check for updates
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 0 ms

Test Performed:
------------------------
Name: Internal state check
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time Taken = 94 ms

Root cause found:
--------------------------
Startup Repair has tried several times but still cannot determine the cause of the problem.
-----------------------
-----------------------

It repeats the above 2x more then I get this message:

Root cause found:
----------------------
Registry is corrupt

Repair action: Registry roll back
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 78781 ms

So I view the advance options here where I can choose one of the following:

Startup Repair -Been there done that (7 times according, feels a lot more)

System Restore - didn't set a restore point

System image recovery - Dont have an backup image

Windows memory diagnostic - not used

Command prompt - Ok I'll use Scannow function in here, see what it says.

------------------------------
My default drive is x:\

I know that my hdd is labelled D:\ so am I firstly in the right place?

I type D:\ and get this message - The system cannot find the drive specified.

I type dir and get this info:

Directory of X:\
07/13/2009 07:40pm 106,760 setup.exe
07/13/2009 06:33pm <DIR> Program Files
07/13/2009 07:42pm <DIR> sources
07/13/2009 06:33pm <DIR> Users
07/13/2009 07:14pm <DIR> Windows
1 Files<s> 106,760 bytes
4 Dir<s> 32,747,520

So I'm going to use the sfc /scannow :

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart windows and run sfc again.

Ok so this is the problem, I can't restart windows because as soon as it reboots it starts to auto repair. I can't get to the login screen, I cant get to my desktop. I can't boot in safe mode. I can't do anything except go round on this loop.

I'm so grateful for your advice but I don't know where to turn next. I'm running win 32 bit - I've left my win disk at my parents house which is in another country and I don't have access to it. I could download a torrent version and try to run it to fix the problem that way. Is that a possibility.

Thanks
Dis

 

[x BlueRobot]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html

Hope this helps,

Harry

You may need to perform a Repair Install since your Registry has become corrupted.

 

[disgruntled]

I can't select my D:\ drive which I need to bypass the loop - In cmd prompt it states that the drive is not ready or that there is no drive of that name.

 

[x BlueRobot]

How many physical hard-drives do you have? Have you checked the BIOS if the hard-drive(s) are being recognised?

Please be aware, that you may need to perform a clean reinstall which will require reformatting of the partitions, and therefore the loss of data.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[disgruntled]

I have 1 drive - which the bios recognizes but - occasionally when I reboot I have to select which drive I'm trying to boot from. It's a SATA. I don't know what number is after it. I'd like to avoid a re-install as I've a lot of photo's on the drive which I've not backed up this month.

I've been a little more patient with it today and it's gone round the repair and startup route once - I scanned it and a new message came up about rebooting immediately. I've done that about 40 mins ago and the computer is thinking now. It gave me the option to start windows normally so I clicked yes - it black screened and as I started to type this its just gone onto windows repair screen and is attempting to fix the problem.

This is the 1st time I've given it so long without forcefully re-booting so I'm going to keep on with this tonight and see where I get to with it.

I'll post again when I make my next move.

Thanks for the advice by the way.

 

[x BlueRobot]

You could disconnect the hard-drive and then reconnect to a different computer (e.g. a friends) and move your files onto their computer.

Have you considered a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?

Have you tried running Check Disk from the Command Prompt using a Windows Repair Disc or Windows 7 Installation Disc?

 

[disgruntled]

I'd like to try this but as I mentioned in my previous post, my win 7 disk is at my parents house which isn't accessible as they live in a different country to me. I could get them to post it over if that is a possibility. How would I go about a repair install? just pop the disk in and select the option?

Thanks

 

[disgruntled]

Hi again, windows has just re-started after about 40 mins of the startup repair loading screen. I've got a black screen now. So I'm going to let it run through the whole thing again - I selected start win normally from the options instead of choosing startup repair.

I'll keep you posted - time now 19:24

 

[x BlueRobot]

Hi again, windows has just re-started after about 40 mins of the startup repair loading screen. I've got a black screen now. So I'm going to let it run through the whole thing again - I selected start win normally from the options instead of choosing startup repair.

I'll keep you posted - time now 19:24

I guess you aren't able to access Windows at all? I've just remembered that you can only perform a repair install from within Windows 7

A clean reinstall will be the only option, however, you may wish to disconnect and reconnect the hard-drive to a different computer in order to transfer the data, as it is better to delete and format all the partitions when doing a installation.

 

[disgruntled]

No I can't access windows at all... yet. I'll keep on trying this and see where it get's me. I don't have too many friends here in London so I don't think I'll be able to get my stuff off of it. That's a bit concerning for me. =(

Start up repair's processing the info again so I'll keep my fingers x'd.

Thanks for all the advice dude.

 

[x BlueRobot]

No problem, and a Start up Repair will be better.

 

[x BlueRobot]

You will be able to perform a Startup Repair from your Windows 7 Installation DVD and may work better than Windows attempting to perform it itself.

 

[disgruntled]

It's just re-set once again and I had the option to send it round again.... however it's taken since 4pm this afternoon to get to here - I've to get up for work tomorrow so I'll try once again after I get home.

night

 

[x BlueRobot]

I would wait until you can get your Windows 7 Installation DVD back or get it posted to you, and then perform a Startup Repair from the DVD instead.

 

[gregrocker]

What steps did you take for disinfection? Win7 will often not repair because it is infected causing damaged System files. That's why those are the first steps in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start

 

[disgruntled]

I've not taken any steps for disifection due to the fact I've got Kaspersky anti virus on there and I've not opened a virus program. Also I can't get into windows at all, not via safe mode, not via loggin in. Theres no way to run anything. Heck I can't even see the D:\ in cmd prompt.

I wouldn't know how to download the malbytes program.

Sorry