Solved Infinite reboot loop after a BSoD and attempted windows updates

[Sk8kidamh]

A few days ago my computer blue screened with some sort of memory error. When I attempted to start it back up, it began installing windows updates that I had been putting off. After it looked like it had mostly finished, it got to a screen that said "preparing to configure windows. Do not restart your computer". After sitting on that screen for about thirty seconds the computer rebooted, and then went back to that screen. After about 20 minutes of this, I decided that it probably wasn't going to fix itself.

Things I've tried:
Booting into safe mode (when I attempt to boot into safe mode I end up in the same loop)
There's a tutorial on this site about repair the registry hives, I followed it but It had no effect
I found a tutorial on another site that suggested using the dism took to revert pending installations. This also had no effect
I used a windows 7 install disk and a repair disk and have had no luck with them.
The automatic start up repair tool lists error "system file integrity check. Code: 0xa" or something similar

 

[Vuxy]

Hello Sk8kidamh,

That issue certainly doesn't sound good.

Can you just clarify that you cannot log into your computer, but you can get into options, such as system restore, command prompt, start-up repair?

If so, please open System Recovery Options (What are the system recovery options in Windows? - Windows Help) and select Command Prompt. When in Command Prompt, please type sfc /scannow and select enter.

Hopefully we can resolve this issue.

Thank you,
VinnyBuxton

 

[Kaktussoft]

A few days ago my computer blue screened with some sort of memory error. When I attempted to start it back up, it began installing windows updates that I had been putting off. After it looked like it had mostly finished, it got to a screen that said "preparing to configure windows. Do not restart your computer". After sitting on that screen for about thirty seconds the computer rebooted, and then went back to that screen. After about 20 minutes of this, I decided that it probably wasn't going to fix itself.

Things I've tried:
Booting into safe mode (when I attempt to boot into safe mode I end up in the same loop)
There's a tutorial on this site about repair the registry hives, I followed it but It had no effect
I found a tutorial on another site that suggested using the dism took to revert pending installations. This also had no effect
I used a windows 7 install disk and a repair disk and have had no luck with them.
The automatic start up repair tool lists error "system file integrity check. Code: 0xa" or something similar

Why repair registry hives? why revert pending installations that way? I think you realy screwed the machine by doing that(?)

Can you still perform a system restore to date/time prior to problems began? If not... post error message.

Sorry to say but: "and have had no luck with them" is not very specific. How can I know what you did and what errors it gave. "Code: 0xa" or something similar" is not very specific either.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Hello Sk8kidamh,

That issue certainly doesn't sound good.

Can you just clarify that you cannot log into your computer, but you can get into options, such as system restore, command prompt, start-up repair?

If so, please open System Recovery Options (What are the system recovery options in Windows? - Windows Help) and select Command Prompt. When in Command Prompt, please type sfc /scannow and select enter.

Hopefully we can resolve this issue.

Thank you,
VinnyBuxton

sfc /scannow in recovery environment will do a "system file check" of the recovery environment itself... not the win7 you want!

 

[Sk8kidamh]

I cannot even get to the login screen. I can access anything that can be accessed before a full windows boot.

It looks like the sfc/scannow command isn't going to work. I'm getting the error "there is a system repair pending. Please reboot and try again".

I tried rebooting and trying again, I rebooted and let the system cycle through its loop a few times, and I tried navigating the the recovery options through a windows repair disk, with no luck.

 

[Vuxy]

Can you try opening Command Prompt again and type the following:
dism.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

 

[Kaktussoft]

windows repair disk->recovery options. Select your win7 install. Select "system restore". Go back in time prior to problems began. Successfully? If not... what error message?

 

[Sk8kidamh]

A few days ago my computer blue screened with some sort of memory error. When I attempted to start it back up, it began installing windows updates that I had been putting off. After it looked like it had mostly finished, it got to a screen that said "preparing to configure windows. Do not restart your computer". After sitting on that screen for about thirty seconds the computer rebooted, and then went back to that screen. After about 20 minutes of this, I decided that it probably wasn't going to fix itself.

Things I've tried:
Booting into safe mode (when I attempt to boot into safe mode I end up in the same loop)
There's a tutorial on this site about repair the registry hives, I followed it but It had no effect
I found a tutorial on another site that suggested using the dism took to revert pending installations. This also had no effect
I used a windows 7 install disk and a repair disk and have had no luck with them.
The automatic start up repair tool lists error "system file integrity check. Code: 0xa" or something similar

Why repair registry hives? why revert pending installations that way? I think you realy screwed the machine by doing that(?)

Can you still perform a system restore to date/time prior to problems began? If not... post error message.

Sorry to say but: "and have had no luck with them" is not very specific. How can I know what you did and what errors it gave. "Code: 0xa" or something similar" is not very specific either.

The registry hives are, as far as I can tell, exactly the same as they were before. There's a tutorial somewhere on this site about fixing similar infinite reboot loops by doing that. The recent pending changes appears to have had no effect, as the things that I reverted have all returned to pending. The first thing I thought about was doing a system restore, but for some reason I didn't have any restore points.

The exact error from startup repair is "unspecified action to system configuration might have caused the problem. Repair action: system files integrity check and repair. Result: failed. Error code=0xa" this is the same error as when I first ran start up repair immediately after I discovered the loop.

"I have had no luck" is a pretty clear way of saying nothing I have tried has worked or produced any noticeable change in what is happening.

 

[Sk8kidamh]

windows repair disk->recovery options. Select your win7 install. Select "system restore". Go back in time prior to problems began. Successfully? If not... what error message?

"No restore points have been created on your system"

I swear I've seen and even used system restore points before, so I have no idea what happened here.

 

[Sk8kidamh]

Can you try opening Command Prompt again and type the following:
dism.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

I have done this before, but I'll try it again.

After attempting the computer continued its looping with no noticeable changes.

 

[Vuxy]

Is your computer under warranty if I may ask?

 

[Kaktussoft]

windows repair disk->recovery options. Select your win7 install. Select "system restore". Go back in time prior to problems began. Successfully? If not... what error message?

"No restore points have been created on your system"

I swear I've seen and even used system restore points before, so I have no idea what happened here.

Did you have the same error message PRIOR TO restoring the registry?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Can you try opening Command Prompt again and type the following:
dism.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

I have done this before, but I'll try it again.

After attempting the computer continued its looping with no noticeable changes.

Is the command working without errors?

DIR  C:\

This is really the win7 disk (drive letters may differ in recovery environment)?

 

[Sk8kidamh]

windows repair disk->recovery options. Select your win7 install. Select "system restore". Go back in time prior to problems began. Successfully? If not... what error message?

"No restore points have been created on your system"

I swear I've seen and even used system restore points before, so I have no idea what happened here.

Did you have the same error message PRIOR TO restoring the registry?

Yes. Using a restore point was the absolute first thing I tried. I figured I had just screwed up installing something and jumping back before that would be an easy fix.

 

[Sk8kidamh]

Can you try opening Command Prompt again and type the following:
dism.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

I have done this before, but I'll try it again.

After attempting the computer continued its looping with no noticeable changes.

Is the command working without errors?

DIR  C:\

This is really the win7 disk (drive letters may differ in recovery environment)?

What do you mean "without errors"? Everything I've run on the command prompt has worked fine. My windows install is on the D: drive, though I'm not certain why that is.

 

[Sk8kidamh]

Is your computer under warranty if I may ask?

It might be. Why?

 

[Vuxy]

If it is, your computer manufacture should be able to offer you supportif it comes to it.

 

[Sk8kidamh]

If it is, your computer manufacture should be able to offer you supportif it comes to it.

I mean, I can reinstall windows if it comes to that, but when I asked them for software help awhile ago they were completely useless.

 

[Kaktussoft]

C or D or E .. it's just a drive letter pointing to a volume on disk. Mapping of the drive letter is done in the registry.
But in windows recovery environment .... the windows recovery environment registry has been loaded ... not the win7 registry. Drive letters are different now!! I bet you have another partition that is marked ACTIVE, so the boot volume with the bootmgr and bootmenu. That's called C now. D is the volume with the WIN7 stuff. So do:

dism.exe /image:D:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

To check the system files:

SFC /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows

 

[Sk8kidamh]

C or D or E .. it's just a drive letter pointing to a volume on disk. Mapping of the drive letter is done in the registry.
Bu tin windows recovery environment .... th windows recovery environment resgirty has been loaded ... not the win7 registry. Drive letters are different now!! I bet you have another partition that is marked ACTIVE, so the boot volume with the bootmgr and bootmenu. That's called C now. D is the volume with the WIN7 stuff. So do:

dism.exe /image:D:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

To check the system files:

SFC /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows

I just did the first one a minute ago with no effect.

The second returns the error "there is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart windows and run sfc again". Rebooting does not make this error go away.