Win 7 suddenly won't restart

[DocBrown]

Usually on an OEM computer there are a couple of hidden HD partitions. 100mb for some hidden win7 files, an OEM recovery partition, & the C: partition that win7 shows you when it is normally running.

 

[bpreston]

Tonight I've inserted the original win system builder disk and got to the option to install or repair. I tried repair. It finds the win 7 OS on the D drive, and given your last explanation of how it names drives, this appears to be what I call my D drive. It concludes that it can't repair automatically, and this is the details page text:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
" " 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Prob sig 03: unknown
Prob sig 04: 21201062
Prob sig 05: ManualRepair
Prob sig 06: 3
Prob Sig 07: NoBootFailure
OS Version 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID 1033

In the diagnosis and repair details log, it reports
System Disk = \Device\Harddisk0
Windows directory = D:\Windown
AutoChk Run = 0
Number of root causes = 1

Every test performed is listed as completed successfully with error codes 0x0
Root cause found: Unspecified changes to system configuration might have caused the problem.

So, where do you think I'm at? Might this be a failure of some component? A root kit virus? A gremlin of indeterminate cause? A wrinkle in the space time continuum?

Should I try anything else? Like opening up the box and disconnecting components. I don't have too many--a cd/DVD drive that works, the hard drive, a video card (an additional component faster than the onboard video), a wireless card since I'm usually running on wireless. I can jack into my FIOs router for the time being. My printer is wireless. Or should I try diagnostics from my bios software? I recall there might be something in my ASUS Express Gate that checks components or does a diagnostic.

Or go directly to a reinstall. I have lots of software to reinstall, but my data is automatically backed up and I should be able to get that back. Pain in the butt, of course, since it's not clear what's causing the problem. The names of all the tests are pretty comprehensive in terms of software systems, HD, etc.

Thanks again.

 

[bpreston]

Doc,
Since I've discovered, perhaps by chance, that as the system tries to heal itself, the screen goes black and everything appears to be dead, sometimes for more than an hour. So I've been starting a procedure and just leaving things run. Tonight, when I went to my desktop after work, the usual boot screen was up waiting for me to select my login or my wife's. I logged it and saw that a system restore had completed successfully--rolling back to a 3/7/ll image. I'm up and running apparently just fine.

So, here's what I am going to do. My virus has automatically updated, so I'll fun a full scan of my system and backup drive. Then run Ad-Aware Pro, then Spybot (I've seen these two find lots of items working together.) I'm checking my backup drive via my laptop just to see the dates of the last backups. Then I'm open to suggestions about what I might check next.

I was looking at my automatic backups and I noticed four updates were installed last night. When I left my machine there was a blank screen and it was trying to do a system restore, which appeared to be going nowhere. Now I see it finished sometime about 3 a.m when it checked for updates and downloaded four. It also lists updates on 3/16, which I assume are now gone due to the rollback. So, should I recheck manually?

Does my saga sound like a bad update, perhaps a corrupted file, that was bypassed by the roll-back? An intermittent device card in my system? Should I go to Win updates and reinstall those that were rolled back? Should I defrag the disk now or later? And, if it's a bad component, any suggestions about diagnostics?

I think the last question for tonight, since I'm smiling pretty broadly now--crisis amended though perhaps not diagnosed. I am checking the backup disk on my Win XP machine, and I see a folder called WindowsImageBackup, which has the latest copy of my Win 7 backup. Is this an adequate image of the machine from which I could have reinstalled everything had I needed to blow off the desktop drive and reinstall the OS? I know there were options to go back to an image file, but I couldn't try that since I couldn't see the backup drive.

Again, thanks. Any tips for poking around and trying to determine what actually happened will be welcomed.

Brian

 

[DocBrown]

Since you are up & running, that's good I would change the Windows Update settings to let you choose what & when to install for now. I beleive that 3am is the default setting for auto update & install.

View attachment 145202




Continue for a few days to watch for any problems. I use the Free version of MalWareBytes to check for ADware & Spyware ( as do many members here at SF).

Malwarebytes

I would make sure that you create a spare Recovery CD/DVD to keep in a safe place if ever needed later. I would also make another backkup to your Ext HD after the Anti-virus & spyware scans are completed.

Still hard to say what caused your problem initially, not sure what I would poke around at until something acts strange. Keep us posted as to any progress or problems.