Computer crashes after the Windows sign appears during startup

[WeeScottyc]

About an hour ago, I took the side panel off my computer to get rid of some dust inside the case. Once I had finished up, I started up the computer again to find the message 'reboot with proper start up device' or something a long those lines. I proceeded to put the disk of Windows 7 into the disk tray and load in up. After windows had finished loading files, the computer appeared to start up as normal, but just blanked screened after the windows logo appeared. This now occurs every time I start up the computer. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The reason this is in hardware and devices section, is because when I go into the EFI BIOS, it doesn't have the HDD as listed component in the boot priority.

 

[Terronium 12]

Something you can try right away is shut down everything (make sure to flip the power switch on the PSU or unplug it and discharge any left over power by pressing the power button) and disconnect and reconnect the SATA power and data cables. If that doesn't work, try a new SATA port. If that doesn't work, try a new SATA cable.

 

[WeeScottyc]

Hi, and thanks for the reply. I have already tried changing SATA port, but have not tried changing the cable. How would this be done? I'm not very comfortable with the wiring!

Ok, I managed to do this, and now the HDD is being recognised on the BIOS boot priority list. However, when I put the HDD as boot priority, it comes up with a different error now - 'a disk read error occurred'

 

[Terronium 12]

I can't tell much from your available specs, but if you put together the system yourself then you'll easily be able to find a new SATA cable inside your motherboard's packaging. If it's pre-built you'll have to purchase one.

Before worrying about that you mentioned earlier you were able to run what I assume to be Startup Repair (correct me if I'm wrong, please) which seems to indicate it's just the BIOS having a bit of trouble reading the HDD. Does it show up at all when you scroll the available boot devices?

 

[WeeScottyc]

I have managed to change the SATA cable, and now the HDD appears in the boot priority. I am seeing this on the EFI BIOS settings page that is brought up when pressing delete when my computer starts up. I put the HDD to priority boot, but now the error 'a disk read error occurred' is appearing

 

[Terronium 12]

Boot into the Recovery options and run Startup Repair. You may have to run it several times.

 

[WeeScottyc]

Is this done from the BIOS screen? Or must I press something else during booting up?

 

[Terronium 12]

You'll need to use your W7 installation disc.

 

[WeeScottyc]

Ok, I'll try now

 

[Terronium 12]

Remember, when you get to the "Install Now" screen, hit the "repair your computer" link beneath it.

Let me know how it goes.

 

[WeeScottyc]

Having some trouble getting to the repair screen. When I boot the system using the windows 7 disk, it gets to the windows logo, and then just doesn't do anything after this?

 

[Terronium 12]

Did you hit any key so it would load from the disc?

I'm just making sure because it shouldn't halt like that. Better yet, change the boot order so the optical drive is primary and the HDD is secondary.

 

[WeeScottyc]

Yes, I did hit the key to load from disc. I will double check boot order now, but I am pretty sure optical drive was first.

Optical was first in boot order. Tried again, and it still halts. If its of any use, the computer goes silent after about 30 seconds of the windows logo, as if the disc has stopped spinning.

 

[Terronium 12]

Alright. Let's forget about the disc for now then.

Remove it, set the HDD back to primary and continually press F8 during bootup and see if you can initiate it that way. If successful, go to "repair your computer". It should be the topmost option above safe mode.

 

[WeeScottyc]

This isn't working for me. Pressing F8 during boot up just leads to a menu allowing me to choose boot priority

 

[Terronium 12]

I think you might want to kick your computer a little.

Does attempting to load from the disc still result in nothing at all? You can try this: Create a System Repair Disc

If creating a disc isn't a viable option (and it doesn't appear to be) you can create a Repair flash drive.

 

[WeeScottyc]

Earlier this morning, the boot up worked with the disc and I ran repair and it fixed the problem. All runs smoothly in boot up now, but it says I only have limited access to my Internet. When I up the network and sharing centre, it says that the dependency service or group failed to start. Any ideas what this is or how to fix the problem?

 

[Terronium 12]

Yes, there are couple of things you can do to resolve that issue.

Start with the simplest first, open up an elevated (run as admin) command prompt and input the following:

sfc /scannow (for the entire rundown click me)

If that doesn't resolve your issue then we'll move onto the other methods.

 

[WeeScottyc]

Just carried out this step, and resulted in 'Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations'

 

[Terronium 12]

Crap. There's a workaround for that, and I can't remember what it is right now.

Try restarting a couple of times and attempting to run it again. Before you do that though, did the scan complete or did it stop at some odd percentage?