Boot problem after switching off or restarting

[wardrin]

First of all I'd like to say hello to all of you. This is my first post at this forum.

I've spent couple of days browsing through other threads, but didn't find the case that would be the same as mine.

The problem is that whenever I restart or switch on my Vaio laptop it stops at the black screen with white text saying: "Starting Windows". Normally there should be an animated windows logo over the text, but it's not showing up, and nothing happens for about 15-20 min. After that time the computer restarts on its own and a boot option screen appears, I can choose two options:

• start windows normally or
• fix on startup

If I choose to start normally it again get stucked at "Starting Windows" screen, fix on startup screen takes me to startup repair. After repairing, the system starts normally, and everything is ok until I restart or switch off my computer again. Hibernation works fine.

I'll be grateful for any advice I can get.

 

[reventon]

What happens when you boot into Safe Mode?

 

[wardrin]

What happens when you boot into Safe Mode?

Same thing in Safe Mode. While checking the Safe Mode I realized one more thing. After each restart & repair there are 5 updates avaible to install. I'm not sure, but they seem to be the same updates every time, as if the repair process uninstalled them.

The updates are:
Windows 7 updates --> KB971033, KB978542
Windows Defender updates --> KB915597
Office 2007 updates --> KB981726, KB976321

Maybe one of these updates is the problem.

Edit:
I rebooted the system without installing the updates above and... everything works just fine!

4 out of 5 updates were published after the problem occured, so it seems the problem is connected with the KB971033 update published on 23rd February 2010.

Edit:
I've installed all the above updates but KB971033 and system still boots up fine, so that was the problem. I don't know why but this particular update causes problems on system startup.

 

[reventon]

The update that your system didn't like is a Windows Activation update.

Your copy of Windows 7 is genuine?

Have you activated it at all?

 

[wardrin]

The update that your system didn't like is a Windows Activation update.

Your copy of Windows 7 is genuine?

Have you activated it at all?

It is an OEM version that has been pre-installed on this laptop when I bought it. There is a label with product key on the casing.
I did everything the system asked me to do on first startup. Can I somehow check if it is activated to be absolutely sure that I did it?

If it was a pirate copy, shouldn't it just say so, instead of causing boot problems?

 

[reventon]

It is an OEM version that has been pre-installed on this laptop when I bought it. There is a label with product key on the casing.
I did everything the system asked me to do on first startup. Can I somehow check if it is activated to be absolutely sure that I did it?

Run the WGA tool: Genuine Microsoft Software

If it was a pirate copy, shouldn't it just say so, instead of causing boot problems?

It should - but a pirated copy may have extra code that could be causing problems.

 

[wardrin]

Run the WGA tool: Genuine Microsoft Software

Validation successful.




Edit:
Running WGA Tool required installing KB971033 update, which caused boot problem to reapper. After choosing the repair on startup option, the above update has been removed.

 

[reventon]

Given the problem is specific to part of the OS; I would suggest contacting Microsoft Tech Support.

They hide the option to email them fairly well, so I have done you the favour of finding it.
https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1513&ws=MoreInfo

Regards,
Reventon

 

[wardrin]

They hide the option to email them fairly well, so I have done you the favour of finding it.
https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1513&ws=MoreInfo

Thank you very much. I'll try to contact them.