No POST screen, straight into Windows 7 startup screen, and freeze

[Lazume]

Usually POST screen would show up first with a laptop company logo, but now Windows 7 startup appears first instead.

Then, the Windows 7 startup screen freezes immediately.

What's the problem? Motherboard or corrupted BIOS?

Thanks.

 

[TVeblen]

Try a BIOS reset first.
Shut off the computer, remove the power supply, remove the laptop battery. Then press and hold the POWER button for about 30 seconds. Then put everything back together and boot.

See if that gets you the boot screen.

 

[Lazume]

Problem still persists.

This is Toshiba Qosmio x775

POST screen is skipped, followed by Windows bootup screen which freezes up. This happened after an Intel driver update. Laptop has 2 graphic chipsets: 1. Nvidia 2. Intel

When hard drive was swapped to a different laptop, the OS becomes bootable.

 

[TVeblen]

When windows freezes during the black-screen, "Starting Windows" phase, that almost always indicates a hardware problem. The fact that you installed a new driver just before this behavior basically confirms that.

You may need to roll back the installation to before that driver install. There are 2 ways you may be able to accomplish that:

• When you first start the laptop, press the F8 key repeatedly. This should bring up the Windows Startup Menu. Then choose "... Last Known Good Configuration"
• Or, boot with a W7 installation DVD or Repair Disk, go to "Repair Your Computer" (lower left), and then use the System Restore option from the System Recovery Options to restore to a time before you installed the driver. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

But one thing concerns me: you say "When hard drive was swapped to a different laptop, the OS becomes bootable".

Is this hard drive originally from the other laptop? Or has it always been installed in the problem laptop?
It is curious that a W7 installation from one laptop would work in another without any adjustments.
And the answer to this question may change what you will do a lot.

 

[Lazume]

I realized that I should have asked this in a Windows 8 forum, I apologize. I am actually diagnosing this problem for my friend's laptop (Windows 8, upgraded from Win7). I have a laptop too (Win7).

When windows freezes during the black-screen, "Starting Windows" phase, that almost always indicates a hardware problem. The fact that you installed a new driver just before this behavior basically confirms that.

Yes, I suspect that too. It's strange that no POST or BIOS screens were seen, indicating that system-checks might have stopped occurring, and what might possibly be happening is that the OS tries to boots up without the checks, resulting in a freeze-up?

You may need to roll back the installation to before that driver install.

I removed the W8 hard drive from my friend's laptop and put that into my laptop. W8 harddrive becomes bootable so I went into the system and did a system restore + removed the intel drive update. Problem still persists when I put back the Win8 HD.

[*]When you first start the laptop, press the F8 key repeatedly. This should bring up the Windows Startup Menu. Then choose "... Last Known Good Configuration"

Win8 laptop does not respond to any keys during the immediate freeze-up. I tried F2, F8, Del, shift+F8, shift+F2, Esc>F1, I couldn't access boot order. Putting a USB stick and liveCD linux does nothing, putting a Win7 installation disk does nothing, although CD Rom runs.

Interestingly, I then put my Win7 harddrive into his Win8 laptop. The exact same thing happened: No POST/BIOS, and I saw it froze when the Win7 logo was starting to form.

I also contacted TOshiba support. Tech wants me to activate hidden recovery partition. I was told to hold down the zero key when powering it on. Once turned on, BIOS screen is seen, saying "Qoismo", There are options below, which gives F2 and F8 (to access boot options). But seriously both of these do nothing other than bringing me to Windows setup, back to Default Factory Win7.

I then did the Windows 7 setup. After installation, it was time to reboot. Then the problem happens again. Stuck at Win7 logo formation.

Thanks for taking the time answering my problem.

 

[TVeblen]

I am very confused about what you hope to accomplish by switching hard drives/laptops. Unless you both have the exact same laptop this is not going to work (start Windows). Windows is installed hardware specific. That means that if the system boots up with a "new" windows installation that installation is going to either not boot at all, or worse (for the other PC) start making system and driver changes. You could even lose Windows activation status.

You need to deal with that Windows 8 installation in/on your buddy's laptop. You are just complicating things by switching things around.

Here's the first thing you should check: remove the hard drive and then start the laptop. You should be able to get into the BIOS Settings without the hard drive installed. If you miss the BIOS setup you should get a message that says something along the lines of "No boot device found".
But you've got to get into the BIOS settings to check and be sure it is configured properly.
So let's start there.

 

[Lazume]

Thanks for the advice.

Removed the hard drive: "No boot device found"

 

[TVeblen]

Can you get into the BIOS settings with the drive removed?

 

[Lazume]

No, I can't get into BIOS

 

[TVeblen]

Well, that is where you need to focus your attention. If you can't get into the Basic Input Output System (or UEFI if the laptop is new enough) then any concern about Windows is secondary.
Your original concern about a bad motherboard is a distinct possibility. But you should test it out completely before sending it in.

Is this laptop still under warranty?
What was the original OS installed (what is the license for on the sticker)?
What is the history of this laptop? What major changes have been made?
Is this a corporate laptop given to a employee?

Can you boot a bootable CD or DVD?

EDIT: What is the model number of the Toshiba laptop?

 

[Lazume]

Thanks for your help. My friend sought help from another and told me that the BIOS was the culprit. Friend realized that he tweaked the MSConfig (boottime) causing the BIOS to run improperly.

+rep

 

[TVeblen]

Fascinating. Do you know how they were able to fix it? Did they reset the BIOS defaults? Or roll back Windows?