BSOD 7B, The Long Nightmare...

[Jeff Stewart]

Hi Everybody, I'm a lurker making my first post (cry for help)....

This all happened after the system unexpected shut down during a power failure.

Details as follows:

System boots up to the Windows 7 splash screen then restarts.

Selecting the "Don't restart on failure" option produces a blue screen with
7B and 0xc0000034 as the pertinent data.

Selecting the "Generate bootlog" option fails to produce an ntbtlog.txt, so the failure is before driver loading?

Cannot boot into Safe Mode either.

NO FRIGGIN' RESTORE POINTS!!!!!!!!! (Yes, they HAD been there).

Booting to WinRE, System Repair says that it can't fix the system.
The last item in the details list is "badpatch".

Attempting to boot with the debug option fails to produce minidump files.

Multiple runs of chkdsk from WinRE report a clean system. All files available. File system intact.

sfc /scannow reports files that it can't repair, but IT doesn't generate a cbs.log file, so I don't know what the files are.

I've also tried copying the backup registry files and booting with those. No go.

I REALLY don't want to have to do a clean install. It will be very painful and enormously time-consuming to get back to the previous working system.

What I'm really curious about is why things that SHOULD be generating data (like sfc and the debug option generating a minidump) aren't?

Welcoming any and all suggestions.

 

[Thorsen]

If you have the installation disc, you might be able to solve with a Startup Repair:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[Jeff Stewart]

Sorry for the confusion. In my original post, I said "System Repair" when I meant "Startup Repair".
It is "Startup Repair" that is reporting the "badpatch" in the problem details after reporting that it cannot repair the system.

It does this from both the Installation DVD and from the boot option "Repair my computer".

 

[Thorsen]

Sorry I was afraid of that. Is there any more info you can provide from the BSOD?

 

[Thorsen]

Are you able to get to a C: prompt through Startup Repair options?

 

[Thorsen]

bapatch I think has to do with the partitions or MBR Master Boot Record. there might have been something that happened with the record or a problem with the HDD. I think there is a command you can run to fix boot record issues. I will see if there is any info I can find.

Meanwhile, can you also fill in your specs and what kind of HDD's you have type/speed/Raid Setup. Also if you are dual booting or ever have.

If you have another computer to test or do stuff with, take out the HDD and put it in another computer and see if it comes up the same so we know its not another hardware issue. If you cant then there might be a test program you can get to test the HDD.

 

[Thorsen]

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

Look through this Tut from Microsoft and see if this helps.

 

[Jeff Stewart]

In answer to all the questions before this reply:

Yes, I can get to the C: prompt in WinRE from both the "Repair your computer" boot option AND the Installation DVD.

I neglected to say that I've been through the whole bootrec thing ... /fixmbr /fixboot etc.

I've also checked the BIOS options about SATA vs. IDE modes on the SATA controller. BIOS doesn't allow me to change it.

I've also checked the BCD and it seems fine. I've also gone the route of recreating it.

I CAN post full data from the blue screen, but it won't be until tonight. I'm away from the system until then.

 

[Thorsen]

Alright. Sorry I couldn't be more of a help. I have searched for as much info as I could think of. I will post for more help. Maybe one of the Gurus here will know of something else to try.

 

[Thorsen]

I asked for help for you in another running thread for help requests. I hope people can give more options if there are any. If you do end up needing to do a clean install, then there are some things you can try before doing it.

I would suggest getting Ubuntu on a CD and running it to see if it loads up without errors. If it loads up fine, then you can probably get stuff like your files/pics/music/etc. and back them up on a usb before doing a clean install.

If this is not an option, then you can attempt to do an install over the old version and it should put all your files in a windows.old file. Not sure if this works like this with a win7 install over an already installed win7 OS.

 

[Jeff Stewart]

OK Thanks,

One additional bit of info: In previously playing around with the problem, er, excuse me...diligently applying sound scientific troubleshooting... bootrec /scanos would report zero OSes found, even though the Installation DVD DOES seem to find it (when it scans for valid installations to repair).

I haven't tried the /scanos for a while and have tried other things to repair it, so I don't know if it's still valid. I'll look tonight and let you know.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Sounds like maybe the hard drive is having problems. Boot up the Windows disc, and open a command prompt. Enter the following:

diskpart
list vol

Take note of the letter of your Windows partition. It will probably be C.

exi

chkdsk /r /f X: //replace X with the drive letter.

Also run one of these tests on your hard drive: http://www.carrona.org/hddiag.html

Also test RAM. Download a copy of Memtest86 and burn the ISO to a CD using Iso Recorder. Boot from the CD, and leave it running for at least 5 passes.

 

[Thorsen]

yep, thats what I saw with info found online for this BSOD code was either "OS not found" or "Hard-Drive not found" or "couldn't restore/go into safe mode"......but no solution found that fixed anyones issue.

If your hardware is old, then it might be failing RAM or HDD, but if all your stuff is good quality, then this is most likely not a hardware issue. I wouldn't rule that out completely either. the HD might have a bad sector that wasn't seen or the RAM might have a bad spot that was being written to when the error occured. I dont know. Let us know what happens when you do the /scanos.

 

[Jeff Stewart]

I have run memtest86 and it tested clean.

Chkdsk was run on the system partition and it was also clean.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Run one of these hard drive tests: HD Diagnostic

If you are overclocking, stop, and restore everything back to default settings.

What exactly on your machine do you need to save? If hardware checks out clean, I suggest a custom install. That will save your data in Windows.old and do a clean install. You will still need to reinstall your programs, but at least your files will be saved.

 

[Jeff Stewart]

I have HDD Regenerator. I'll start running it tonight and see if it finds anything.

 

[Jeff Stewart]

Hi Gang, me again...

OK, I ran HDD Regenerator and the drive is clean. When selecting "disable restart, etc." and I get a blue screen, it says "Windows has shut down your system to avoid causing damage to your system", or something like that. The relevant codes are 7B and the second of four was 0xc0000034 .

I tried doing a fresh install, which was successful, but Windows renamed the installation drive to a different letter (C(for a variety of reasons, it used to be E and I'd need to contact Microsoft to reactivate, so it'd take me a while just to get it running the way I wanted even before reinstalling software. So I'm hoping to give this thing one last try if anyone has any ideas. I've already renamed the Windows folders so that Windows.old (the original) is back to Windows, etc. and it boots the same old way with the same old errors.

 

[Thorsen]

Since this installed fine and was running correctly, there shouldn't be anything wrong with the drive. a new table space was created to hold all the files.

Then you imported the windows.old files into the new install? and the problem persists. I would say it is something in the registry or drivers that is causing the errors. I cant think of how to fix this. I will look for a solution maybe copying over part of the registry or doing a selective import from the windows.old file? I will look

 

[Thorsen]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/16282-windows-old-folder-restore-into-new-installation.html

This is the Tutorial on how to do a restore from the windows.old folder.
Did you follow this?
Or something similar?
or do it another way completely?

 

[Jeff Stewart]

Hi Thorsen,

No, I didn't realize that tutorial was there. I just booted in to the installation DVD recovery environment and renamed things.

All that did was put things back the way they were (same old problem). However, it eliminated the concern that it was the bootrec or something, (since a new one was generated).

As someone pointed out at the tutorial link you cited, just renaming folders isn't enough, you have to do stuff with the registry as well.

So, for my next trick, I backed up the old config folder yet again and then copied the "system" hive file from the clean installation. I booted into Partition Manager and ran the "boot corrector" to ensure that all references in that hive file were changed from "c:\" to "e:\" (which is where it's supposed to be on my installation). This time, it booted to a mouse pointer before blowing up. This will allow me to at least get minidumps and ntbtlogs and stuff. I've already generated an ntbtlog (last thing in it was monitor.sys), but haven't tried disabling restart and letting it blue screen yet or looking for minidumps. (This is all extraordinarily time-consuming and I only have so much time to give). More later.