An infinite loop of madness

[AmuletOfNight]

Ok, I am so stumped at this. I am usually good with this stuff, I am an advanced user and can fix most things. But this is one thing I can't fix. So I'm coming to you. Here we go.

About a month ago my cousin sent me a message telling me his computer stopped booting into Windows Vista. So he came over, and I found out that Startup Repair reported a corrupted registry. There was nothing I could do, so I formatted and installed a copy of Windows 7. I installed MOST of the updates within the time he was over. And when he left, everything was OK. About a week later, he called and told me it was doing it again. Except this time it was Windows 7, there was an infinite loop. It would immediately go into startup repair even if you selected another option. There was nothing I could do, and start up repair reported a corrupted registry. Just like Vista. I reformatted and installed Windows 7 again. This time, I turned Windows Update off because he said it happened after an update. Only TWO days later, he called me, and told me that it did it AGAIN. I'm in awe, I don't know what to do. He came over, I let start up repair diagnose it, and sure enough, corrupt registry. I'm not going to touch it until I figure out what's wrong. It's a Sony VAIO. Has anybody ever experienced this before?

 

[gregrocker]

Have you wiped the HD to give the cleanest possible slate for install?

Make sure he has the lastest BIOS version update, set BIOS to defaults, then set SATA controller to AHCI first, then IDE if necessary.

After Win7 install, check for newer drivers in optional Windows Update then do your Updates, set a restore point or save a Win7 backup image, then slowly install programs to gauge performance after each.

After it is set up and running, save a Win7 backup image again so you have the ability to roll back in 20 minutes rather than reinstall every time.

Don't do any tweaking other than normal settings. Never use a Registry Cleaner or mess with registry other than CCleaner and Auslogics Defraggers.

 

[theglowman]

Sounds like the registry was getting corrupted quicker and quicker, perhaps the hard drive is going bad and files are loosing some bits. Could also be a virus that tunnels even after a reformat... You could try zeroing the hard drive a bunch of times and trying again.