Three sudden problems

[paul1149]

My system is four months old and has been performing almost without flaw. Today I noticed that the boot up, which had been quite quick, was sluggish. Then later I found that I could not put the system into hibernation. The monitor cut out, but then the system immediately switched to the log in screen. I played with that by turning hiber.sys off and back on, and the only difference now is that the log in screen does not come up until I move the mouse. But the system still doesn't go into hibernation.

Finally, I just noticed that msconfig's Boot tab is completely inert. Clicking anything does nothing. I know it wasn't this way in the past.

I checked the Restore Points, and there have been six Windows updates RPs in the past three days. I'm unaware of any significant changes to the system other than them. I guess I'm headed toward undoing those changes, though I don't want to. I was wondering if anyone else has seen anything like this lately.

Thanks,
p.

 

[profdlp]

The fact that the Startup tab on msconfig has been disabled looks fishy to me, especially since that's the easiest place for most people to disable a malware program. Are your antivirus definitions up to date? Have you run something like HijackThis to see what might be going on behind your back?

Be careful with HijackThis - most, if not all, of what it finds is good stuff which should not be disabled.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Another idea would be to boot in safe mode and run your antivirus program twice. Please let us know what if anything it finds.

 

[JamesNZ]

And if you haven't got an antivirus then you could run a scan with Windows Defender.

 

[paul1149]

Hi,

It's the Boot tab, not the start up tab. The machine is scanned daily and is clean. I thought that there's a possibility that using EasyBCD to configure the boot might have disabled the tab in msconfig, but the author says no. And that wouldn't explain the other problems.

p.

 

[gregrocker]

What were you config'ing with Easy? Do you have multi-boot?

Be aware that multi-boot works best on separate HD's booted via BIOS boot order and one-time Boot menu.

If you'll post back a screenshot of your maximized full Disk Mgmt drive map with listings, we might be able to spot problems.

Here are some troubleshooting tips for Win7: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-lags-every-couple-seconds-2.html#post1131640

 

[paul1149]

I was having problems getting into Safe Mode (since solved by pressing F8 IMMEDIATELY on boot screen), so I used EasyBCD to configure a boot screen with Safe Mode options. That was almost two months ago, but I never tested the MSConfig Boot tab, which I know used to work, after setting it up. The hibernation and sluggish boot-ups are brand new problems.

To post a pic I need to upload it to third-party site? I can do that, but I can tell you that there's a 200MB System partition followed by the main Win7 boot partition, then a utility partition and then finally Lenovo's restore partition. There are external drives, but they are not referenced in the BCD.

 

[gregrocker]

The partition listings are what's needed. Best to use Snipping Tool in Start Menu, attach using paper clip in reply box.

Can you boot into F8 now, and is Repair console on the list?

If you still have EasyBCD installed, please include a screenshot of its screen if more than Win7 listing is there.

 

[paul1149]

The plot thickens. I went to open easyBCD and got a missing file error. I'm including both it and the disk scheme shot. I think I need to use easybcd to "Reset" the BCD configuration.

 

[gregrocker]

I've gotten that error before and think it's not uncommon. What happens when you click Yes?

See if you have Repair console on F8 boot tools menu. If so, boot in and see what Startup Repair finds.

If you haven't run SysRestore then you could run it next.

 

[paul1149]

I think I have a couple of options. I'm looking at the eBCD Repair tab, and it lists a backup file that I had created. Or I could use eBCD to either "Reset" or "Recreate" the configuration - I'm looking into that now to see what it means. Or I could use the Windows Restore function you mention.

The System Restore - does that cover the boot files as well? I thought that was just within Windows.

 

[paul1149]

I ran Restore because I wanted to see how it worked. It seems to be a good tool, but it found no problem. I booted back into Windows with no problem, via the easyBCD boot screen. Yet easy still reports the missing data store. I don't know what to make of this. Presumably the Windows Restore checks the MBL as well as the PBL?

 

[gregrocker]

Using EasyBCD to create a Dual Boot menu with Safe Mode is suspect, so I would remove the non-Win7 listing in EasyBCD Edit Boot Menu tab.

If this doesn't help I would use the EasyBCD backup or rebuild the MBR:

Another method:
Using your Windows 7 installation disc or Repair CD, boot to the command prompt at startup. Type in these comands below, and press enter after each one.
​

bootrec /FixMbr
bootrec /FixBoot
bootrec /RebuildBcd

 

[paul1149]

Greg, I'm not clear on what would be wrong with using easyBCD to add Safe Mode options to the boot menu. IAC, last night I did run its Write MBR function, and was surprised to find that it left intact the boot screen it had created. Obviously I'm not clear on what protocols are involved here, and I need to read up on it. The Repair CD sounds like a good idea, and easy bcd offers a couple of heavier-duty options itself, but I'm going to study up first.

Thanks for that information,
p.

 

[gregrocker]

What could be wrong is some boot corruption which needs to be sorted by repairing or rebuilding the MBR (if you're lucky) or ultimately wiping the HD to get a fresh slate for a clean install.

 

[paul1149]

Can I please get feedback from anyone who has a default Win7 installation, where a small Active System partition was created before the main Win7 partition, who has not altered the BCD, as to whether the options on the Boot tab of MSCONFIG are active or not? We're trying to ascertain whether changing the BCD turns off the Boot tab options.

Thanks,
p.

 

[profdlp]

Can I please get feedback from anyone who has a default Win7 installation, where a small Active System partition was created before the main Win7 partition, who has not altered the BCD, as to whether the options on the Boot tab of MSCONFIG are active or not? We're trying to ascertain whether changing the BCD turns off the Boot tab options.

Thanks,
p.

My system fits that description. They are indeed still active.

 

[paul1149]

Thanks for that feedback. We've been pursuing this over at easyBCD, and it seems that something has commandeered the BCD. I tried Greg's BootRec commands, above, and when I ran the /scanos switch it found no windows installations. I thought I had bricked the install, but when I rebooted the old boot options screen came up again, impervious. I looked into the system partition and found a file, EASEUSLD.LDR, which looks suspicious. I've got a query in to Easeus on it.

 

[paul1149]

It turns out that Easeus Partition Master rebuilds the BCD in a "nondestructive" way. Evidently this means it constructs its own BCD alongside the original, and then direct the boot stream to it. Thus, I could edit the original BCD all day long, and nothing would change with the way the machine booted up.

I believe in being safe, but sometimes playing it too safe creates more problems than it's worth. And that's what happened here. There seemed to be no way to reinitialize the boot process, and that's a frustrating place to be. I doubt I'll use Easeus to perform that function again.

Thankfully, EasyBCD came to the rescue, with its "Change boot drive" function. I simply recreated the boot process in a "new" drive, which actually was the original EFI drive, and I regained perfect control over the boot process with its BCD.

I think the sluggishness I've been experiencing is due to the MS parental controls I've been experimenting with. I believe they grab a hold of the machine in a pretty significant way, and that takes boot time.

The hibernation issue has been more perplexing. I thought the boot thing would solve it, but as soon as I call for hibernation the machine presents the log in screen. Something fundamentally wrong there.

 

[paul1149]

I wanted to update this thread. The root of the problem was that the system reserve partition had somehow had its drive letter removed. I probably did that in an attempt to re-hide the partition after exploring it. It turns out there is a functional difference between removing a drive letter and merely Hiding a partition. Windows was having a hard time accessing the partition without its drive letter.

The Windows Disk Manager allows only one way to hide a partition - by removing its drive label. But in many cases that is not the best way. I used Partition Wizard to hide the drive without removing its letter.

Once I restored the letter, the Boot tab of MSCONFIG became alive again. I could access the BCD stores in the system reserve partition. The ability to hibernate returned, and my boot-ups became fast again.

It would be fascinating to know how all these things interplay, but for now at least I found the root cause.