W7 startup fails, even from original DVD...

[DmSProject]

Hi guys, found this forum from a lot of searches on google on this issue.

Bought new computers for my kids in december, now one of them has stopped booting into Windows from no apparent reason. Worked perfectly in the evening, did not work the next day. Used for gaming, surfing and MS Office.

No powerfailures, always normal shutdowns, no updates or installs between working and not working. It's a win7 home premium 64b install on a Corsair SSD Nova Series 2, 60GB harddrive. No overclocking.

As you start the computer you get the option to do a startup repair or start windows normally:

- Startup repair reads in files, then the screen goes black and nothing happens, I left it in that state for 30 minutes, nothing happens.

- Start normally leads to the picture "Windows starting" one dot from the animation is shown, then it just stops. Left it in that state for 30 minutes, nothing happens.

Tried booting in safemode, it reads files and stops after loading classpnp.sys, left it in that state for 30 minutes, nothing happens.

Tried last working configuration, same as starting normally, freezes on "Windows loading".

Tried booting from a real Win7 64 Home Premium disc to get to the repair tools, I get prompted to start from DVD, I do that, then it loads files and show "Windows starting", then nothing more.

- I've tried to change the HD-mode to IDE from ACHI for the SSD, did not help.
- I've removed the Nvidia gfx card and tried onboard gfx, same problem.
- I've tried booting with nothing else than keyboard connected, same problem.
- I've run memory diagnostics (got to it from pressing F10), no errors.
- All connections in the computer is checked, no problems, did not help.

Basically I can't even boot it from a windows original disc to do a re-install or repair Nor can I get to a command prompt.

I've read all the tutorials here from all the other threads on similar issues, but If I can't even get to the files on the DVD or get a CMD prompt I'm lost.

I normally can fix most errors on a computer, I normally build my own systems but bought this prebuilt for my kid to save some time.

This is all the hardware:

Cooler Master Elite 430 Midi Tower Black
Silver Power SP-SS500 500W PSU
Intel® Core i5-2310 Processor Socket-LGA1155, Quad Core, 2.9Ghz, 6MB, 95W, Tray
Akasa AK-CCE-7106HP CPU Cooler
MSI H61MU-E35 B3, Socket-1155 m-ATX, H61, DDR3, 1xPCIe(2.0)x16, GbLAN, VGA, DVI,
Kingston ValueR. DDR3 1333MHz 4GB KITCL9, 2 x 2GB, 1,5, 240 pin, Single Rank
Gainward GeForce GTX 560 1GB PhysX PCI-Express 2.0, GDDR5, DVI, native-HDMI, VGA
Sony Optiarc DVD±RW Writer, AD-5280S SATA, DVD±R: 24x, DVD+RW: 8x, DVD-RW: 6x
Corsair SSD Nova Series 2, 60GB SATA2, 2,5", 270MB/240MB/s read/write
Seagate Barracuda® 500GB SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3.0), 7200RPM, 3,5"

Thankful for all help.
/Dan

 

[wanchoo]

The best course to follow in my opinion would be to reformat the SSD Hard Drive with Partition Manager Boot Disk and reinstall Windows. If any of your hardware has not failed then this should get you back on board.

As the computer is new it should be in the guarantee period. Before trying out my suggestion it would be prudent to first contact the vendor and seek his opinion.

 

[DmSProject]

I've placed a support ticket with the vendor so they can tell me what's ok or not from a warranty perspective, we'll see what comes from that.
There should be a system-restore option on the preinstalled OS, but I can't figure out how to get to it. Good news is that everything except the OS is on the separate 500 Gb drive so that's a relief.

But partition Manager Boot Disc was new to me. Good tip, thanx

 

[DmSProject]

An update.
I found the original restoredisk for the computer.

First I tried booting with one memory stick, then the other one, then swapping slots. No luck in any configuration.

Then I tried to boot from an ubuntu live cd to see if there was anything under My Documents that I could copy to the data disk. Did not work. I got to the option to run it from CD, when I selected that the screen got black with a blinking cursor at the top, after a while the cd spun down and the keyboard got disconnected.

Then I unplugged the data disk and booted from the restoredisk to restore the SSD. First run I got the EMS restore option, but selected to back out of it since I hadn't disconnected the Data disk (better safe than sorry).

Tried again with only the SSD connected and exactly the same thing happened as before, it loads files, goes to Loading Windows, then black and the Cd powers down.

Tried to reset the bios, after trying to boot I had to change it so it boots from CD first, default was USB.
Did not help.

Finally I unplugged both disks in the machine (both SATA & Power) and tried to boot into Ubuntu again, did not work, same as before.

So basically I get the same behaviour with or without harddrives, with or without the Nvidia card, in all memory configurations, with a reset bios. It's only the PSU, motherboard, CD-drive and processor left that I can't change.

I'll see if I can borrow a SATA drive tomorrow to see if that would enable a system restore, if so I'll yank the SSD and reformat it from my own PC and then try again.

And no, the Vendor has not replied on my supportrequest yet
/Dan

 

[fseal]

Yow

Maybe try going in the BIOS and read what the CPU temp is from there. If say one of the mounts for the cooler popped and it's not seated well, or the thermal paste was never well applied the CPU could be overheating shutting down. You should see it happening in the BIOS "Hardware Monitor" section if that was the case...

 

[DmSProject]

Bios reports temps in the 40's celcius idle and I'm not loading it so that's not the issue...
I've built a couple of rigs and got my normal racing rig to give 100+ fps over triple screens thanx to a small overclock and "a bit" of adjustements so I know some stuff about computers, but things like this can leave me stumped.
To just throw new hardware at it it's neither cheap nor fun... I'd rather try to find the root cause.
/Dan

 

[fseal]

Last time I had this kind of situation it turned out to be a bad motherboard.

I had to swap out every single other piece of hardware before isloating it to that. Got Dell to replace it, all original hardware worked fine. But that is the WORST place you want something to go bad as far as tracking down the cause... :/

 

[codekiddy]

I'm guessing this is a problem with HardDrive/SATA connector.
I read that you've done all that steps but try one more time:
(I hope you have patience)

in BIOS change SATA/AHCI to IDE or compatibility mode,
unplug your drives SSD and HD.
power of comp and wait some minute.
CHECK all the SATA cables and connectors.(unplug them and plug them again)
plug back the drive with windows installation only.
start the computer.
try with DVD/USB installation as well.

I'm saying this cos I had similar problem once with booting and these steps helped.

 

[gregrocker]

Work through these step for when Windows 7 fails to boot

 

[wanchoo]

I think you should wait for the Vendor's response to your request. From all the efforts that you have made, to me it now appears to be a hardware problem.

However did you try to boot the computer with a Partition Manager Boot Disk? If so were you successful?

 

[DmSProject]

@codekiddy:
Every cable in that computer has been unplugged, checked and plugged in again...
Same with every removable card & mamorysticks. I have not removed and reseated the processor though.

@wanchoo
I only had one empty CD/DVD at home and that was used for a dedicated recovery disk. But since neither Ubuntu, Win original disk, Original restore disk nor a dedicated Win repair disk will boot beyond a dark screen, I'm strongly suspecting that won't boot either.

@gregrocker

Work through these step for when Windows 7 fails to boot

Gregrocker

These steps will attempt to repair the OS by disinfecting and then using repairs via System Recovery Options. It does not cover hardware problems which might be indicated and can be tested using Memtest86+ to Test RAM and HD Maker's HD Diagnostic Extended CD scan.

- Memoryscan reports ok, done twice with different tools. Harddrive refuses to be checked, everything just turns black.

First try booting into Safe Mode with Networking to install, update and run a full scan with Malwarebytes.

- Will not boot at all from harddisk

If Safe Mode is not working, download, burn to CD or write to flash stick, boot and run a full scan with Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. If it fails try one of these FREE Bootable AntiVirus Rescue CDs.

- Will not boot at all from CD

Once the System is clean if it won't start boot into System Recovery Options via the F8 menu or disk as shown in tutorial, run Startup Repair repeatedly no matter what it reports. Post back results.

- Startup repair simply does not start.

If this fails, try System Restore from Recovery Options list, then if that fails open a Command Line to run SFC -SCANNOW Run in Command Prompt at Boot.

- Can not get to a command line

As a last resort boot free Partition Wizard bootable CD to Explore C to see if your files are intact, make sure C or the 100mb System Reserved partition (preferred) is marked Active, then click on HD to highlight it, from Disk tab select Rebuild MBR, Apply. If Windows 7 doesn't start and you restored Active flag, run Startup Repair 3 Separate Times.

- Will not boot into anything from CD

If these all fail you can copy out your data using your Windows 7 DVD or Repair CD: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console or Paragon Rescue CD.
System Repair Disc - Create

- Will not boot into anything from CD

Then run Factory Recovery from its partition or disks you made or order from Tech Support, or find a Windows 7 installation DVD to clean reinstall using Product Key on COA sticker: Clean Reinstalling Windows 7

- Will not boot into anything from CD


So thank you for all the steps, but with no commandline, no booting from CD, no options in startup reacting I can't go through any of the steps

/Dan

 

[Golden]

Hi Dan,

Have you tested to see whether you can boot from a USB drive?

Regards,
Golden

 

[DmSProject]

Actually no.
I'll create a bootable one and try after work.
/Dan

 

[DmSProject]

Managed to borrow a clean sata drive at work. Disconnected the other ones and tried to boot from a linux live cd, a restore disk, an win install disk. Nothing even got close to giving me a cmdline or a menu with install/repair options.

So now I've ruled out the harddrives, memory, graphicscard, the cd drive works and bios has been reset,
all that's left is motherboard, psu and processor (seems unlikely). Still no answer from the vendor.
They will get a firm phonecall tomorrow, that's for sure!
/Dan

 

[dnsfail]

I don't have anything super-helpful to say except that I had almost the exact same problem you first reported. I heard from a friend that had the same problem that it was cased by a Java update corrupting the registry. I haven't been able to verify that, however, and I'm not sure why that would cause a hang on classpnp.sys.

I was able to use the repair utilities to restore my system to a previous state, but I would have to do that every time it booted. Eventually, I just backed everything up to an external drive and used the repair console to format the drive (because I couldn't format the drive from the install screen because I couldn't get the install screen to load). After formatting the drive, I was finally able to get the install CD to pass the loading screen - it must have been getting hung up by something on the drive.

The key distinction between what I did and what you did seems to be that I never messed around with my hardware. I suspect you damaged something in the process of experimenting with your hardware which then caused your current problems and inability to boot even an Ubuntu Live CD - lord knows I've bent a pin or two in my time. Of course, you could have a simple hardware failure that wasn't your fault - hopefully that's the case and not the former.

In any case, to reiterate, the solution I found to the software problem of reinstalling is to use a repair console to format your install drive and then reinstall, just in case you or someone else runs into the same problem again.

 

[DmSProject]

Appreciate the input, but the inability to boot from cd was identfied before I opened the case so I feel safe on that.
/Dan

 

[gregrocker]

Formatting does little or nothing that could benefit an install problem or hang. You don't even need to format as Win7 will do it for you just by clicking Next on the selected HD, partition or unallocated space during install.

What can make a difference in install or even startup hangs is wiping the HD with Diskpart Clean Command to clear the boot sector of possibly corrupt or conflicting code, if necessary using DISKPART At PC Startup . But since this is destructive we try other troubleshooting steps first to try to start unbootable Win7.

 

[dnsfail]

Appreciate the input, but the inability to boot from cd was identfied before I opened the case so I feel safe on that.
/Dan

When you tried the install CD, did you never even get to the screen where you select a keyboard language? If that's the case, I guess you can at least tell yourself you probably didn't break anything physical.

To Gregrocker:
I don't think I exhausted all of my options before reformatting, but for whatever reason, formatting fixed my hang problem when I tried to reinstall. I'm hoping that the disk didn't need to be cleaned now... Either way, that's only peripherally related to DmSProject's problem.

 

[DmSProject]

Correct. I'm not getting even close to a step where I can input anything.

 

[gregrocker]

Most times failure to boot into System Recovery Options is user-related - not tapping the F8 key in time or vigorously enough, DVD or Repair CD not set to boot first and then triggered correctly - does it prompt you to Press Any Key to boot disk? If not the disk might not be burned correctly - burn DVD at 4x speed using ImgBurn. Do you have the Win7 install DVD to use its Repair console? It's in the last link below.

If you're certain you've done this correctly, then entering BIOS setup to check settings and perhaps reset to defaults is the next step to know all is being done to boot the disk.

In the rare case where the disk simply won't boot and hardware is cleared of fault, then one can autostart free Partition Wizard bootable CD to wipe the HD from Disk tab, which will in turn force the installer to autostart so you can Clean Install Windows 7 or Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM

To rescue your files you can use a Linux boot disk which is an OS on a CD, to copy them to external. Or you can use Paragon Rescue CD freeware which will autostart.