7x64 crashed and died

[RogerR]

System has been stable and fine for months (though some comparatively minor waking from hibernation issues) but today it just woke up really cranky.

Hung system, reboot, verrry slow reboot, then some murky operation and another hang, forced hard reboot ... well you know the death spiral.

After a few reboots it sorta ran for a while then locked up. Then couldn't find any shortcuts. I did get it to run sfc/scannow and it reported 'no integrity failures'.

If I try to boot in any safe mode it stalls at system32/drivers/atiPcie.sys ... every 4th to 10th boot it starts up and then fairly soon fails to respond. I tried a sytem restore and selected a restore point but got an error message.

I checked for dust bunnies etc and it does not seem to be a heat / hardware issue. I have not changed or added any hardware for many a month. The only program recently changed was a Java Update.

I REALLY don't have the time for a clean install. Is this a corrupted MBR issue? Other ideas?

 

[CarlTR6]

Have you gotten any dumps from the crashes? If so, please upload them to us.

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

 

[RogerR]

No dumps. It has booted a couple of times and suggested a startup repair (which then could not complete) but mostly its hanging the Starting Windows screen before I can even get there. Last time, once booted it crashed with an explorer not responding error.

 

[chev65]

System has been stable and fine for months (though some comparatively minor waking from hibernation issues) but today it just woke up really cranky.

Hung system, reboot, verrry slow reboot, then some murky operation and another hang, forced hard reboot ... well you know the death spiral.

After a few reboots it sorta ran for a while then locked up. Then couldn't find any shortcuts. I did get it to run sfc/scannow and it reported 'no integrity failures'.

If I try to boot in any safe mode it stalls at system32/drivers/atiPcie.sys ... every 4th to 10th boot it starts up and then fairly soon fails to respond. I tried a sytem restore and selected a restore point but got an error message.

I checked for dust bunnies etc and it does not seem to be a heat / hardware issue. I have not changed or added any hardware for many a month. The only program recently changed was a Java Update.

I REALLY don't have the time for a clean install. Is this a corrupted MBR issue? Other ideas?

Hey it's RogerR, the man who used to have Homegroup problems. Have you tried doing a start up repair Roger? Sounds like something is pretty messed up. Could be a hardware problem also.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[RogerR]

[
Hey it's RogerR, the man who used to have Homegroup problems. Have you tried doing a start up repair Roger? Sounds like something is pretty messed up. Could be a hardware problem also.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

yep, lil ole me again. Wishing homegroup was my only issue! (Got that mostly fixed btw.)

I'm starting to lean to a hardware issue. Although I really have no signs of overheating
when I switched to boot from CD to run a repair from disk, it has stalled on me again.

BIOS finds all the drives OK, and I get no video crash, but I'm wondering if a hot display adapter could cause this? Don't really know where else to turn - the hardware is all pretty new and durable.

 

[RogerR]

OK - I take that back. From CD its offering a restore.

"All data on the drives to be restored will be replaced with the data in the system image". The image is a 2 wk old backup to drives P and C. C is windows and I think P is my data drive.

Do I really want to do this? I don't seem to have an option to just restore C:. IF this is a MBR problem a restore is not going to fix it eh?

 

[RogerR]

So, to restate the question;

Is an image restore my best option here? Overwriting my data drive sounds, frankly, terrifying. I guess theoretically, I will still have an image in the Backup drive, but this is new territory for me.

 

[chev65]

You may not have many options left is the only problem. I would backup everything of value first but most of your old stuff should still be intact. You might want to clear the board first by shutting down and unplugging the PSU then pushing the start button. Clearing the cmos might also be worth a shot at this point.

 

[RogerR]

You may not have many options left is the only problem. I would backup everything of value first but most of your old stuff should still be intact.

Well - that's kinda the issue. Without being able to operate the OS its hard to backup... It says it backed up last night at 3AM, I've just never actually had to USE a backup before.

And since booting has been problematic I've been sitting here looking at the image-restore option from the CD boot for an hour or so - trying to decide if this is the best/only option.

Clearing the cmos might also be worth a shot at this point.

Good thought.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Since it hung even outside of Windows, it is pretty safe to assume it is a hardware problem. In that case, a re-image will not likely work. In fact, even a clean install is doubtful to work.

I'll suggest some hardware tests. My first suspicion is hard drive. See this link: HD Diagnostic

 

[RogerR]

Here is what I got so far:

NO OS files found on disk

Partition table repair failed Error code = 0 x 490

So, this is an MBR issue isn't it?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Maybe, maybe not.

Can you take the hard drive to another machine to test out? Add it as a secondary drive, and run SeaTools on it.

If you can boot up the repair disc at all, open a command prompt (Shift+F10 at the language screen), and run the following:

[CENTER]DISK AND FILE SYSTEM CHECK[/CENTER]
chkdsk /r

[CENTER]MARK THE PARTITION AS ACTIVE[/CENTER]
diskpart
list disk
select disk [number of your OS drive]
list partition
select partition [number of your C partition, or the 100MB partition if you have one]
active
exi
[CENTER]REPAIR THE BOOT SECTOR AND MBR[/CENTER]
bootsect /nt60
bootrec/fixmbr

 

[RogerR]

When I boot from CD I get Windows Boot Manager and Setup [EMS enabled] - what is that and how do I ditch it for a regular boot from CD?

 

[RogerR]

From a command prompt on the drive that contains windows (E: ) chkdsk /r returns

type of file system is NTFS
cannot lock current drive

"Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk may be run if the volume is dismounted first. ALL OPENED VOLUMES WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume?

 

[RogerR]

just getting back on this ... the drives all seem to be healthy ... from the prompt to add drivers (from the repair option) I can access all the drives and even move data to removable drives.

So, again - is this not simply an MBR failure?

 

[RogerR]

btw, I also have an XBoot) drive listed. This is mentioned on another thread, though not conclusively, as possibly being a RAM drive. Whatever it is, I'm wondering if it is stopping me from doing a repair install?

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

btw, I also have an XBoot) drive listed. This is mentioned on another thread, though not conclusively, as possibly being a RAM drive. Whatever it is, I'm wondering if it is stopping me from doing a repair install?

Hello,

Try this Ultimate Boot CD - Overview run the Diagnostic for Hard Drive, RAM. I doubt whether the Repair Install would fix it since it could be a Hardware issue.

Hope this helps,
Captain

 

[RogerR]

Hard drives are healthy and RAM is error free

 

[RogerR]

Update:

The problems did indeed turn out to be a Master Boot Record failure. After all the poking prodding and analyzing, all it required was a quick minute with a bootable Partition Wizard Home Edition disc.

To all those not familiar with this free program, I heartily suggest you add it to your software rack before your next untimely event.

And folks who have any kind of "windows failed to load" episode are advised to give this a quick look before taking drastic other steps. All my shortcuts, installed programs etc were intact and after a few clicks it was all back to normal.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Thanks for the report! I'll have to do some playing in a VM, thanks for the tip.