Help Diagnose, Windows keeps deleting itself, Ubuntu works fine

[dc42nr86]

I bought a used Lenovo x230 and upgraded with a brand new Samsung EVO 840 SSD 250GB and Crucial 8GB of ram on August 1st of this year (2014). The machine ran perfectly without a hitch for about 20 days straight.

I was running Windows 8.1 64bit. About 5 days ago, I was watching Netflix when all my applications started to disappeared and brought me to the log-on screen with no apps visible, no start bar, nothing but a blank log-on Screen. When I try to log back in, I got he User Profile has failed the Logon error.

I Googled on how to fix that issue. After trying to replace the user profile with a working one from my other pc, after trying to repair it, after trying to delete it, nothing seemed to work. I ended up formatting the SSD completely and reinstalling Windows about 32 times (no kidding). Each time I re-install windows, I would be able to use the PC for about 10-30 minutes before it restarts itself and gives me the User Profile has failed the logon error again and again.

I reformatted using every available method each time a fresh copy of Win8 was installed. I use a bootable USB, went thru command prompt, clean, and created a new primary partition but to no avail, the issue contiinues.

I tried to install Windows 7 and the same issue persists. I installed Ubuntu to run ClanAV antivirus but it did not find anything. Back in Windows OS again, I went into an administrator profile and was able to run internet explorer and downloaded every single antivirus program I can think of before the computer restarts again and it did not find any malware or virus.

The Anti-virus i have used are:

Trend Micro
Kaspersky
McAffee
Avast
ClamAV
and BitDefender

As of this point I thought it was a hardware issue with the SSD. I went back to bestbuy and exchanged it for ANOTHER brand new one, same model. On this new drive, instead of the User Profile error, my windows partition would just keep deleting itself. The computer would restart itself, and then it says no OS found.

In Bios, the SSD is listed, in command prompt the disk exist but there is no partition. I remake a new clean partition a few time using NTFS file system and the problem is still happening. I re-installed windows 7, then 8 a few more times but it keeps restarting itself and losing the partition about 15-30 minutes of run-time.

I ran the Lenovo diagonostic via BIOS and it pass every test (Memory, Storage, Motherboard, etc...)

For the past 5 days, i've googled and tried hundreds of things and none of them seem to fix it.

Please help

 

[TVeblen]

Hello dc42nr86. Welcome to the forum!

Well, you win the prize for the most confusing problem of the week. You sound very technically capable and I think you have done everything I would have tried. Given the results you post I have to say I'm baffled.

Here are some things that pop into my head:

• Boot Sector Virus: like Bigfoot, often mentioned - rarely seen outside a lab. But if any of the AV you have can do a boot level test then you can try that.
• Faulty SATA Controller: but this would cause entire drives to disappear, not just partitions. But could a bad one corrupt data? Possibly. Does this happen if you use a different HDD? Is the SATA controller set to AHCI in UEFI/BIOS? Try another SATA port?
• Partition exists but can't be seen in Windows. Download and burn a CD with Partition Wizard on it, and then boot into PW with the problem SSD attached (Windows missing) and see if PW can see the partition and what it's status is. Does it have a Drive Letter? Does it read healthy? Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online

Let's start with that and see where it goes.

 

[dc42nr86]

Tyvm ill give it a try ill have to go buy an external CDROM unless I can use PW with USB.

The Sata controller is set to ACHI. Boot sector seemed clean according to the AV programs, also did a fix mbr, fix boot and rebuildbcd.

Unfortunately the laptop only has one SATA port
The drive letter is gone accordingly to command prompt boot from USB, but the disk is listed in diskpart.

This is the second brand new SSD I tried on this machine.

 

[TVeblen]

Sorry, didn't get that this was a laptop.
PW does have a Bootable USB download. You have to prep the stick I recall.

Another thought: have you reset the laptop BIOS?
Shut off > remove power > remove battery > press and hold the power button for 30 seconds to a minute > replace battery & ps > restart.
A long shot - it does not sound like a BIOS problem, but a quick easy task.

EDIT: Your "My System Specs" say PC/Desktop. You should change that.

 

[Layback Bear]

dc42nr86 how many security programs do you have installed and could you please list them? All of them doesn't really tell us anything.

Hard Drives Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB
Antivirus All of Them
Browser Chrome

Use this tutorial by Brink to complete your system specs. Include the part number of your laptop.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

**Did you use the tutorials from this forum to do your clean installs?

**If not could you explain how you went about doing a clean install?

 

[dc42nr86]

Layback Bear, I have the AVs listed. I'll post the rest when I get to work! Thanks for the help!

 

[dc42nr86]

Already pulled the battery and turn on w/o it in. Sorry forgot to mention.

 

[Layback Bear]

No problem we can wait. Proper and correct information is more important than time.
We only know what you post. You are are eyes and ears when it comes to your system.

 

[dc42nr86]

I dropped the laptop off to get it diagnosed for $35. Im almost certain they will not find an answer though. I will get the laptop back Friday.

I did my best to update the system's detail without running that .exe, I wouldn't be able to run it anyways because the Windows doesn't really exist lol.

When i get the laptop back i'll run the Partition Wizard on it like you guys suggested.

Regarding the clean install methods I used:

1) Used Windows 7 Bootable USB to wipe partitions and install.
2) Used Windows 8 Bootable USB to wipe partitions and install.
3) Used command prompt through the bootable USB, did diskpart, selected my disk, clean, format fs=ntfs, create primary partition, select partition 1, made it active, restart and used the USB bootable disk to install.
4) Repeated steps 1-3 on the brand new drive that I exchanged at best buy.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

My two cents worth - the AV's why so many? and I know for a fact as I have run it for just on five years now that Kaspersky does NOT like playing with other AV's it tolerates the MBAM real time and some of the free on call scanners but those others are a real no no - in my experience.

Now whatever media you are using to install it may be corrupt - I don't know for sure but you can do the install using this
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164 choose only the version you had originally as some get greedy and think they can get a higher level version and it ends in grief because the activation code tied to your motherboard will only install and activate say Home premium for example if that was the first version put on. See pic
If the problem carries on then maybe the SSD is faulty in some way - have you tried diagnosing it with Samsung Magician when you have had chance to keep it running?
Samsung SSD (Solid State Drives) 840 EVO | Samsung SSD US

The other way to wipe that drive is with a USB to SATA gadget and access to another machine then you can use diskpart or the Partition Wizard wipe feature
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

see my pic for the PW wipe

 

[Layback Bear]

Lets start off with the for sure things that are simple.
When you get the computer back from the shop.

***Check and see how many anti virus programs you have installed.
You must have only one anti virus program on one computer at one time.***

Let us know what the repair shop finds and what they corrected.

 

[Gator]

The only time I see two AV's playing well together is when its with MSE. Even then, I don't think its really needed.

 

[TVeblen]

All good advice about multiple AVs. I recon the OP tried them one at a time, or ran them independently. I would not assume he installed them all on the hard drive at the same time.

EDIT: you should confirm that dc42nr86. Did you install more than one at the same time?

But I don't see how any of that is going to explain erased partitions.

 

[dc42nr86]

Sorry, those were all the ones I used to scan. Only one was on the system at each time. Two more days until I get it back, wish me luck!

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes I rather guessed it was that as loading that many would have taken forever on boot oh and good luck.

 

[dc42nr86]

I got the machine back from the store I bought it from with no luck at all. The repair tech think it has something to do with lenovo's firmware on the hard drives. He says there might be a key on the HD that needs to match the motherboard or something. It looks like this machine still has warranty so I'm going to be calling Lenovo up and see from there.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Good idea mate as I have never heard of a "key" for a hard drive - the OS yes which is tied to that motherboard by the rules of using Windows especially an OEM version which Lenovo would have been using their licensing agreement with Microsoft. The retail version that an individual can buy is transferrable on a certain number of occasions to be used on one machine albeit a different one at any one time ie if the original motherboard should be bricked or you just buy a new machine and not use the previous one.

I stand to be corrected on what I have stated of course but as far as I know that is how it is.

 

[TVeblen]

Yours is a very unusual problem. It will probably take some out of the box thinking to track it down.

But the basic fact is that this machine does not function correctly and it is under warranty so it makes sense to get satisfaction through the manufacturer.

That said, there is firmware in a hard drive, but it is not Lenovo's firmware, it's Samsung's. And since you tried a second drive it is less likely it could be a corrupted firmware.

That leaves your PC firmware - the BIOS. If you have reset the BIOS defaults, and set the SATA Controller to AHCI mode, then it should work with any hard drive, spinning or SSD. The system will make no distinction.

You might check to see if there is a BIOS update that addresses SATA issues. Be sure you know the best way to update a BIOS before attempting an update though.

But if the SSD works normally in another computer then I suspect there is a problem with the SATA controller on your motherboard.

Did this system come with a spinning hard drive? Does the same thing happen if you install Wiondows on the spinner?

 

[dc42nr86]

I haven't tried on a spinning hard disk. The computer knows there a hard drive connected (per bios, diskpart, and even the bootmgr). I hope Lenovo takes care of it because I think I've tried everything lol

 

[dc42nr86]

Lenovo is sending me a repair disk, they think it has something to do with it activating the retail version vs oem version -_-, we'll see lol