Solved Boot Issue After 1/13/15 MS Updates

[gregrocker]

Sometimes the drive number assignment cannot be controlled: OS disk not disk 0 - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[jamis]

Sometimes the drive number assignment cannot be controlled: OS disk not disk 0 - Windows 7 Help Forums

WOW! Thanks for the research. I'll see what happens when I pull the E: drive from the system. BTW, I see 12 updates for Patch Tuesday. I thought WIN7 was done with these. Going to look at them closely and won't apply them until after I've pulled the E:.

 

[jamis]

1. Pulled the cleaned and formatted E: drive. Problem is unchanged, but the C: drive became drive 0 to Windows (Diskmgmt & Disk Part).
2. Plugged the E: drive back in. Problem is unchanged and the E: drive is now 0 and the C: drive is 1 to Windows. BIOS shows the C: drive on PM0 port 0 and the E: drive on PM1 port 0. The boot sequence is still DVD drive, C: drive:, and E: drive.
3. Tried to change cable sequence, but there is no second plug for the E: drive so it has to stay at the end of the harness. Not sure if this is really an issue from the above references.
4. Individually applied the 13 Windows Updates from Tuesday and Wednesday. This evening, when I returned home after four hours, the system booted properly. I'll give it a few more overnight tries before drawing any conclusions.

 

[jamis]

Boot up failed again this morning. Same thing. Screen goes dark after the "Windows Starting" message, but before the logo begins coming together. Wait a minute or so, turn the display off/on and get the log on screen, but screen goes dark even if you can select one of the users before it blanks out. Wait a bit, turn the display off/on and get the desktop. Select an icon if you're quick enough and the screen goes blank again. Turn the display off/on and the system is usable. Once this sequence is completed, the system and the display work fine. This only occurs if the system has been off for several hours. The monitor remains on in power saver mode when the system is shut down.

 

[gregrocker]

Test your hardware from Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

 

[jamis]

I have run all of the hardware diagnostics with no errors. I have again checked for driver updates with nothing applicable. I ran Malwarebytes, SpyBot, NIS, and MSERT full system scans and got zero hits from all of them. Finally Googled "WIN7 Black Screen At Bootup" and learned that this has been going on since 2010 with varied causes and solutions that appear to be very dependent on many things. Going to start working through some of the ones that sound similar. One thing I did notice was that no one reported that they could get past the Black Screen Of Death by repeatedly turning the monitor off/on like I have been doing. One thing I haven't looked into is the BIOS. Also going to try a different monitor and video adapter, but that will take a while due to limited time.

 

[gregrocker]

What driver is installed for your monitor? Did you Enable hardware auto-updating via Windows Update (Steps 3 and 6) to Check for Updates, install all Important and Optional?

I would also uninstall and reinstall the Display driver, in Control Panel>Programs and Device Manager.

If you have a separate monitor and turning it on and off resolves the issue, then the problem is almost definitely the monitor. There is nothing that turning off the monitor will do to reach into your PC - that only affects the monitor. So I would try another monitor.

 

[jamis]

Yes, the off/on cycle has always shown that the OS continued to boot up even if the display was black or blank. It would just wait at the log on screen and then continue the boot process after I logged on. I've been thinking about trying a different monitor, but haven't gotten my hands on it yet. I did check the driver for the monitor in Device Manager, but it always says the system has the latest driver. It occurred to me that W7 has always labeled it as a Generic PNP monitor ever since installation. Today, I installed the Lenovo L194 Wide driver from Lenovo. W7 now shows this as the attached monitor. It boots and runs fine with this driver, so we'll see what happens tomorrow morning after 6 or 8 hours of down time.

 

[jamis]

The "cold" boot failed again, so it wasn't the driver that was causing the problem. As soon as I can lay my hands on another monitor, I'll try that. At least I can get the system running with 3 or 4 off/on cycles of this monitor. Still not sure why it works fine once it's been up and running for awhile. It must be a heat related issue with the monitor's circuitry. Thanks for the help so far.

 

[jamis]

I still haven't be able to lay my hands on different monitor to test. This evening, I left the system on, but powered the monitor off. Came back two hours later. It took three off/on cycles of the monitor power to get the thing to stay connected and display properly. The system had gone into screen saver mode as it should have. It seems to me that this is a heat related issue with the monitor. Turning the power off allowed it to cool more rapidly than if it had gone into power saving mode (the default with this monitor). If this continues to hold true, I guess I need to replace the monitor. I really shouldn't be so cheap over a $200 or less item, but I'd like to know for sure before parting with my money.

 

[gregrocker]

Turn off the Screen Saver which hasn't been needed since there were CRT monitors at risk of burn-in.

Set a Win7 backgrounds slideshow theme to your liking to enjoy an Aero Theme.

 

[jamis]

Yeah, I know it's not needed, but we run it to display our thousands of family pictures when the system isn't being used. A digital picture frame if you will.

 

[gregrocker]

See if the problem goes away with it temporarily turned off.

Try the Win7 backgrounds slideshow with that pictures folder.

 

[jamis]

See if the problem goes away with it temporarily turned off.

Try the Win7 backgrounds slideshow with that pictures folder.

No change with either of these suggestions. I have done some testing and recording of temperatures of the monitor unit and the problem is not temperature related either. I am wondering if something changed on the system regarding Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and how it is being handled between the Lenovo L194 monitor and the Nvidia 7300LE graphics card. Both are rather old and I wonder if something has changed to cause them not to handle EDID properly during bootup. I'll be boning up on EDID and see what I learn. When I get some time, I'm going to plug the monitor into the mother board display output and see if that changes anything.

 

[jamis]

MS issued a patch (driver update) last night for the Nvidia 7300LE graphics card. It's tied to the January 2015 patches. I guess that explains why I started seeing it right after those updates. I won't know if it's corrected the problem until tomorrow morning. If it's good, I'll update this thread and close it.

 

[jamis]

Well, the driver update from MS did not correct the start problem. It still takes multiple off/on sequences of the monitor power switch to get past the "Starting Windows" screen and get the desktop loaded to the point that the display will stay. Again, after that point, everything works perfectly. I guess I'm going to have to break down and buy a new monitor. Tonight, I'm going to leave the system up and running, but I will power off the monitor. We'll see what happens when I turn it back on after 6 or 8 hours.

 

[jamis]

It took five off/on cycles to get the monitor to stay on this morning. The system was fine and the two applications that I left running (MSERT & Malwarebytes) had run to end of job and were displayed on the screen once I got it to stay on. This must be some sort of power issue with the monitor. I guess a new one is in order.

 

[jamis]

This morning, I turned the PC on and let it sit for 3 hours before attempting to log on. Since it had been off for about 8 hours, the monitor was blank, but powered on. After the 3 hour warm up, it only took one off/on cycle of the monitor power button to get past the logon and up and running. This has to be a hardware issue with the monitor itself. I'm calling it quits on this issue and will just wait until the device dies entirely.

Moderators: This thread probably belongs in the hardware forum. Feel free to move it. Thanks for the help.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you ever find another monitor to test?

 

[jamis]

Did you ever find another monitor to test?

No, the only one I had access to got sent to Goodwill for handling. I'm pretty sure it's the monitor, since it works fine if left on for any period of time. I wish I could defeat the automatic power saver function that's built into it, but there is nothing in the documentation that says it can be turned off.