Solved windows 7 home premium 7600 freezes on restart - windows 7 four panes

[olesoccer]

Upgraded from XP to 7 Home Edition on a Dell 400 XPS with 4 gB ram; 500 gB hard drive; and a Diamond HD 6450 gaming card. The install was a custom and during restart - we went past windows is starting screen - to the blank screen with arrow - and then to the Windows logo screen and it freezes here before the welcome screen and the login icon.

Ran windows update and the computer restarted OK. Did a shut down and then a restart - same problem as above.

Did multiple repairs using F8 - no luck. Did safe mode and all applications work fine. Did a restart and same problem.

Did a restore and the computer booted normally. After a shutdown and start up - same problem as above.

Did a registry scan and optimizer - no change in startup.

Did a restore and windows booted normally. Upon shut down and start up same problem.

Did a malwarbytes scan and 370 objects were removed (included windows.old files). Deleted the objects and did a restart. Computer restarted OK in normal mode. Did a shutdown and startup and the same problem existed.

Suspected the driver for the HD 6450. Went to diamond's website and downloaded the current driver for Windows 7 32 bit. We have the CD for the HD 6450 game card that remains available.

When trying to load an on-line game which worked fine with XP - an driver error after initializing .

 

[alphanumeric]

If it was me I'd start over and do a clean install of 7. Backup any personal files to external media before hand though.

 

[olesoccer]

Did a full scan and then a "clean" install as recommended. Everything was going well and Windows was operating in normal mode. Then I installed the software for the Diamond HD 6450 gaming controller and initiated a restart sequence of Windows Starting - black screen - windows four window panel - windows sounds - and then back to the windows panel. Never got to the welcome screen.

so the problem has been detected. What will be next is a system restore and then to Dell's website for an analysis of the Dell 400 XPS to see if the conflict can be found and a firmware update on the DVD controller.

New issue did come forward in that the USB connections would not install the thumb drive. The device manager said all the hosts were working properly and the devices and printers icon for the thumb drive (Cruz blade) was present.

Also using device manager found in other devices > media center controller was yellow so I disable the device until after a did an analysis.

 

[Mellon Head]

Rather than reinstall the Diamond HD 6450 driver, you might want to consider going to

www.game.amd.com

and downloading the most recent AMD drivers for that card. They may work better. Sometimes the manufacturer's drivers can be old and out of date, and they can cause problems. You can try it, though I would do a System Restore before you install. That way, if it does go wrong you can undo it easily.

 

[olesoccer]

Roger. Before the clean install, I used the drivers from the website and the same issue. The startup sequence must look for the media center controller which is currently disabled, since I could not find a driver. Next up will be to follow MS recommendation on how to determine the information for the controller to find the driver from the manufacturer.

 

[olesoccer]

No windows login scree

Could the login icon used to identify the user be hidden? After the windows starting, black scree, four panel windows and then the windows tune - - the four panel windows screen appears and there is no further video, however the hard drive continues to be very active. So is it possible that the login icon is hidden and thus can't get to the welcome windows? I'm thinking since the driver and software for the HD 6450 caused this problem with getting to the login icon and then the welcome screen there could be a simple fix?

 

[Mellon Head]

OK, so I'm confused...

1. You did a clean reinstall of Windows, yes?
2. It worked fine until you loaded the 6450 drivers from the AMD website?
3. The Media Center controller is a remote of some kind? And it's currently disabled? Why?
4. Your USB has failed to load your thumb drive?

Have I got this right? You have so much going on here, it's hard to tell exactly what's wrong.

 

[olesoccer]

I disabled the controller (internal to the Dell 400 and displayed by device manager) due to windows not finding a driver. I now have the instructions on how to determine the manufacturer of the controller.

Yes this was a second clean install. Yes the usb host did not recognize a 4 gB cruz blade

Yes the driver update for the Diamond HD 6450 seems to cause the problem.

Currently - the tech folks from Staples who installed the HD 6450 under XP media renamed the hard drive to i: from c: - why? I have no clue.

 

[Mellon Head]

Thanks, that makes it a bit more clear.

Can you boot into safe mode now that they've renamed your drive? If they've renamed your boot drive you may not be able to boot at all. If you can get into safe mode, rename the drive back to C:

Does your motherboard have integrated graphics, or does it just use the HD 6450? One idea, if you have integrated graphics, is to remove the 6450 and see if it boots properly.

EDIT: I looked through your service manual and you don't have integrated graphics, so never mind that last bit. Can you check the BIOS and determine if the graphics setting is PEG not PCI? It should be PEG first.

 

[olesoccer]

Did a check on the BIOS for PEG then PCI. BIOS settings were correct. Did a repair three times as suggested and got a windows update first, then some updates were not installed, automatic restart and windows started normally.

I need to do a firmware update on the DVD devices and check the host on the USB ports. Next will be to install the drivers for the HD6450 device. Will do another update on these multiple issues after completing the above.

Thanks to all to this date. Been a real challenge

 

[Mellon Head]

I would suggest doing all of the updates and then doing a system image before installing the HD6450 drivers. That way you don't have to go through the entire reinstallation procedure of all the drivers, etc. if the 6450 driver messes things up again.

Keep us posted.

 

[olesoccer]

Well there are more issues now than when we did the first clean install. Downloaded the Windows 7 with SP1 from Dec 11 and will attempt a clean install after a malware/virus scan and defrag the hard drive.

 

[olesoccer]

Just an update one device is not installed PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_244E&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_E1\3&172e68dd&0&F0
multimedia video controller. I found a vista 32 bit file from drivers lookup. I would like to go to pcidatabase.com and find the vendor. Any help from the deviced details PARENT above. Hardware id is PCI\VEN_4444&DEV_0016&SUBSYS_FFFB1002&REV_01