Can't boot Windows 7 after printer uninstallation

[TVeblen]

No, you can only do that (change drive letter) from inside the program, or Windows.

Curious: beside the comic relief, when you reinstalled the battery but did not plug in the power supply you said the laptop would not power on at all. Do you think that battery is dead (not charging)?

Try removing the battery and just using the power supply. Although I can't think of why that would change anything, I've been surprised before!

 

[kimouette]

I just followed your suggestion.. and just as you thought, it didnt make any difference!
I know my battery is almost dead. Trying to power up the computer when disconnected doesnt work. If I unplug it while it is already turned on I have about 20 seconds before it starts warning me and about 1 minute before it completely shuts down.

That is another problem, not bothering me as much as the "cant boot anything" kind of problem though

 

[gregrocker]

Ok I did it
The file was burn correctly (using Virtual PC on my Mac). Then inserted the cd in my Lenovo, powered the pc, but I'm still stuck on the Lenovo welcome page and the cd stops spinning after couple of seconds and nothing happens.
Greg mentionned something about changing the drive letter. Can I do that from the BIOS page?

I suggested using Paragon Rescue which will autostart on its own to copy out your files if you can't use the DVD or Repair CD method also linked.

It's drive-letter correction function is only if the correct drive letter changes which is not the case here.

I would concentrate on booting correctly the DVD, cd and Flash Stick as this may be the problem: How to Boot your Computer from a Bootable CD or DVD

Try also the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key to trigger booting, which on Lenovo is the blue Thinkvantage button.

Are you getting the prompt to "Press Any Key..." If so then find a Windows computer, confirm the ISO integrity and burn to DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed, or write to flash stick using this tool: Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux

 

[kimouette]

I'm about to give up!

The technicians that inspected my computer (and took 4 days to do so), are now telling me that they have no idea what's wrong with my computer

I spoke to another technician that asked me what were the symptoms :
- Cant boot anything (Windows 7, USB key, any bootable DVD or cd, system repair on cds and dvds), simply nothing!!
Without even seeing my computer he told me my motherboard was dead and told me to buy a new computer.

Am I naive to simply trust this guy and buy a new computer? Or does this all make sens?

 

[TVeblen]

In post #33 of this thread I suspected it could be a motherboard component failure.

But you don't just suspect something and act. You run some tests, do some diagnostics first. Once all possible solutions are tried and no results then you are left will the only logical conclusion: significant hardware failure.

You've done those tests. And if you had semi-competent techs physically look at the machine and they could not get it working then it is certainly not something simple, and that means you would need a much more highly skilled technician who could repair a motherboard.

And that's where the matter of cost comes in and buying a new laptop becomes more logical economically.

 

[gregrocker]

Ok I did it
The file was burn correctly (using Virtual PC on my Mac). Then inserted the cd in my Lenovo, powered the pc, but I'm still stuck on the Lenovo welcome page and the cd stops spinning after couple of seconds and nothing happens.
Greg mentionned something about changing the drive letter. Can I do that from the BIOS page?

I suggested using Paragon Rescue which will autostart on its own to copy out your files if you can't use the DVD or Repair CD method also linked.

It's drive-letter correction function is only if the correct drive letter changes which is not the case here.

I would concentrate on booting correctly the DVD, cd and Flash Stick as this may be the problem: How to Boot your Computer from a Bootable CD or DVD

Try also the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key to trigger booting, which on Lenovo is the blue Thinkvantage button.

Are you getting the prompt to "Press Any Key..." If so then find a Windows computer, confirm the ISO integrity and burn to DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed, or write to flash stick using this tool: Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux

Why do you just ignore these steps I took the time to type out for you?

If you want to determine with certainty what's wrong you've got to follow the steps, report back or ask questions to get them done.

 

[kimouette]

I suggested using Paragon Rescue which will autostart on its own to copy out your files if you can't use the DVD or Repair CD method also linked.

It's drive-letter correction function is only if the correct drive letter changes which is not the case here.

I would concentrate on booting correctly the DVD, cd and Flash Stick as this may be the problem: How to Boot your Computer from a Bootable CD or DVD

Try also the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key to trigger booting, which on Lenovo is the blue Thinkvantage button.

Are you getting the prompt to "Press Any Key..." If so then find a Windows computer, confirm the ISO integrity and burn to DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed, or write to flash stick using this tool: Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux

I did not ignore these suggestions, I already tried them!!

Paragon Rescue wont load at all! The cd spins for 5 seconds and stops
I already tried to boot both from a flash drive and from a bootable CD. These 2 things took me an entire night, they don't work
I already tried everything I could from the BIOS menu (and from the Lenovo care-button). It suggests me to run a diagnosis or to run the pre-boot service partition... both options brought me on a black screen, and nothing happens
No I never get the "Press Any Key..." message, otherwise I would be glad to press a key to run a CD !!

All these suggestions were very helpful in terms of "what I should do before giving up" but unfortunately the problem seems to be related to some piece of malfunctioning hardware.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you see if Partition Wizard CD will autostart to wipe the HD, which will force the Win7 installation DVD or Recovery Disks to autostart on its own?

 

[kimouette]

Yes I have tried that. The Partition Wizard CD, just like every other CD, will start spining and then stop on a black screen

 

[gregrocker]

Can you change out your Optical Drive with another?

Have you tried writing the Win7 DVD to a USB flash stick on a Windows computer? Just install this program, select Win7 in dropdown and format then write stick: Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux

What are the exact results of then trying to boot with the stick, which should be listed under USB or HD's in BIOS Setup boot order or one-time BIOS Boot Menu key?

If it will boot, run Startup Repair

 

[Britton30]

Hi again Kim. It may help if, during the time you are trying to boot, take a pic of each full screen that appears, not a close up.
I'm thinking as Greg, your CD drive may have bit the dust. This would be far more common than the mother board going bad, but that could happen too.

 

[TVeblen]

But she has already told us she can't boot USB sticks either!

 

[gregrocker]

But she has already told us she can't boot USB sticks either!

She tried to write the flash stick using an Apple computer. I suggested she try to find a Windows computer to use the simplest method, and provide feedback on what happens when trying to boot the stick.

Or perhaps she can borrow a DVD drive to swap in.

Any other ideas?

 

[TVeblen]

Both good ideas Greg.
If it were me I would certainly exhaust all possible solutions before buying a new machine.

I'm not very familiar with Apple stuff. I can't see how an ISO burned on a CD on a Mac would be any diiferent that one burned on a PC. But I can see how a USB boot stick could be written in the wrong format, so that is definitely a good test for the OP to run, just to be sure.

 

[kimouette]

Got it!!
We were all looking at the wrong component. All my fault since I said the HDD was looking fine (the bios showed information about it + I managed to use my universal USB kit to extract my folders from it using another computer). But another technician simply swapped my hdd with another one and he says everything looks fine now!

That's weird, I mean the other guy didn't even try that? And why the hell was I able to make it work just as if it was an external hd using my usb kit? In other words, mechanically it works fine, but just cant boot anything with it.

I still haven't seen it with my own eyes, but this afternoon I'll pick up my computer and buy a new hdd and will install Windows 7. I cant wait to hear the sound of the Windows 7 installation cd spin and see something else than a black screen after that!!

I'm so happy that the motherboard is ok and no need to buy a new computer!!!


Just for the info, the bootable usb boot stick I created with my Mac, is just fine. The commands I wrote in a previous post are the ones to use in order to create a bootable usb stick under Mac os X, just like if you were using a PC. I checked the infos on my Mac, it is now a bootable UDF volume that can only be reformated under Windows.

It sucks that in the end all those software and bios modification were useless in my case, but I guess all these suggestions you guys made will be usefull for someone else in search of solutions for a boot problem.

Thanks soooo much for not giving up with me and for all the precious solutions!

 

[Britton30]

Woo Hoo! Hope it work fine for you Kim. I'm not sure I have followed all you said, but if you were trying to boot from a USB HDD, that won't work, you can use an eSATA port to boot an external drive though. By this I mean a hard drive, not a flash drive.
Good luck and let us know.

 

[kimouette]

Oh my god I'm back to square one and I just lost 85$ for another hdd

I put the new hdd in my computer and installed Windows 7 using the installation CD. So everything was working fine until I tried to do a system image recovery !!!!

I managed to install Windows 7 normally and the hdd is brand new, so this time I KNOW the problem does NOT come from my hdd. I boot the Windows 7 installation cd again and chose system recovery while my old hdd was plugged in my computer (with my universal USB adapter kit, which used to work just fine everytime I wanted to restore my system). So the restore is completed after couple of minutes and I get the usual message saying (restore completed, your computer will restart in 25 seconds) and after that delay the computer reboots and I'm back on the frozen Lenovo screen!!

At that point I thought I could just forget about the restoration and simply re-install windows 7 and reinstall everything from scratch, but the god damn CD stops spinning, the USB no longer is detected and I can ONLY access the BIOS. EXACTLY like it was when the problem occurred couple of days ago.

I guess there is a virus or something on my hdd, but it cant just kill my new HDD. How can I reformat it??? Or do these symptoms show another problem?

I hate myself for even trying to recover my old system!!! What the hell is happening?

 

[essenbe]

Read this tutorial ready HD/SSD for reinstall. Just be aware that when you run the 'clean all' command, it will take several hours to complete. So nothng is wrong. It will get rid of a virus if there is one there. And don't connect the old hard drive.

 

[gregrocker]

If you had successfully reinstalled Win7 on the new HD, why were you trying to do a System Image Recovery on top of it? You want to do one or the other - both cannot exist together.

Unplug the old HD, boot the Win7 installation DVD and try reinstalling again to the new HD. Reinstalling Windows 7

If this fails try wiping the new HD as Essenbe suggests - it might have been already infected by the failed reimaging. If install then works, keep the old HD unplugged until it is thoroughly disinfected by booting it alone to run Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper

 

[kimouette]

If you had successfully reinstalled Win7 on the new HD, why were you trying to do a System Image Recovery on top of it? You want to do one or the other - both cannot exist together.

Maybe I'm missing something but when simply putting the new hdd in my computer and run the Windows installation cd it would not let me choose my other hdd (plugged with usb adapter) in "system image recovery"(it did not detect it on any of my 4 usb ports). And that's why I installed Windows 7 .
And since after installing Windows 7 it would then let me choose my hdd, well I thought maybe I was just ignorant thinking I could restore my computer while the new HDD didnt have Windows installed.

And there is one important information I forgot to mention... The HDD I'm plugging with my adapter (the one I want to restore my computer with) is not the last one I was using but another one I've used to create a system image backup. Since I've used it twice and never got any problem, until last week, I thought it was 100% clean. And it sure saves me hours of app installation.
It's so weird that now it infects 2 different hdd

Unplug the old HD, boot the Win7 installation DVD and try reinstalling again to the new HD

That's the first thing I tried after I noticed the screen was stuck on the lenovo page. But guess what? It wont load the Windows cd anymore!!

Read this tutorial ready HD/SSD for reinstall. Just be aware that when you run the 'clean all' command, it will take several hours to complete. So nothng is wrong. It will get rid of a virus if there is one there. And don't connect the old hard drive.

I still haven't read that tutorial carefully, but I think it starts by either booting a dvd or launching a command prompt... and I'm afraid that's not something I can do.

Now the only solution I can think of in order to atleast save the new hdd I paid for, is to find another pc and reformat my hdd with it. After that I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope I can put it in my computer and run Windows 7 installation cd again. Of course I wont even try to a system image recovery... but since I had 3 partitions all set up the way I needed them to be, it is gonna take me days to set them up!