Windows 7 will not Boot after upgrade from vista

[sizzlefire]

Hello everyone,

Yesterday I upgraded one of my computers from Windows Vista to Windows 7. After the install completed and the computer restarted, it shows the Windows 7 "Starting Windows" screen and then loaded a black screen after that, and after a long time with the harddrive light blinking, the computer restarted itself and then stuck at the same black screen again.

I tried putting the Windows 7 disk back in the computer and running startup repair, but it said it found no problems.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should try next?

 

[steve-pressman]

Did you do a fresh install or an upgrade from Vista? It is always advisable to do a clean install.

have a look at this first and then get back to us if you have no joy.


http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...on-installation-problems-their-solutions.html


Steve

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Was you system clean when you did the install of Win 7?
When I did mine I made sure I ran MBAM, scanned with AV,then just before I installed I disabled AV, went off line and then installed Win7. I did this so nothing could interrupt my install.

 

[theog]

Did you have linux installed to the HD?

 

[sizzlefire]

When I tried to work on it today, I ended up finding out what happened. When I tried to boot into safe mode it gave me an error saying that windows setup never finished and that it couldn't finish in safe mode and that I had to restart. I then booted it into low graphics mode and it said that windows setup encountered an unexpected error and I needed to reinstall. Windows setup rollback is still an option when I start up but it just crashes if I try to use it. So I have decided I'm just going to download a linux live cd and attempt to mount the harddrive and make sure I got all my files and then do a fresh 7 install. That should fix the problem I hope.

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Good find.........Keep us posted on the final results. It may help others.

 

[sizzlefire]

Okay, well apparently the error was not caused by the upgrade. After booting in and getting my files out, I started a fresh install. After the install completed and the computer restarted however, it never asked me to setup my user account or anything, it just started to a black screen. If it restarts itself I am going to attempt to play with the Advanced Boot Options but otherwise I'm pretty much out of ideas, I figured the upgrade was the problem before, but I guess it wasn't. Something is making me think that its a problem with my monitor somehow due to the fact that the only way it will give me anything on the screen is if I boot into low graphics mode.

If anyone has any suggestions on what else I should try, it will be greatly appreciated.

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Did you do post #2 to make sure you clean to go?
Make sure you have all drives updated from Manufactures sites.
For monitor...
Go into Control Panel/Performance Info and tools and check on adjusting visual effects.

 

[sizzlefire]

Alright, I finally figured out what was causing the problem. The problem was with the nvidia graphics card I have. I managed to finish the install by accident, I left the computer so long it went to sleep and when I came back and took it out of sleep mode it worked fine, however when I restarted it went to a black screen again until I put it back to sleep and then was able to login. I am hoping by installing the newest drivers from nvidia it will fix the problem. I have them downloading now, and since I have a slow internet connection I figured I'd post an update while they loaded.

 

[steve-pressman]

You might also want to try reseating you Graphic card just to make sure it is in firmly.


Steve

 

[sizzlefire]

Alright, I finally got it working now, I feel rather stupid now that I have figured out what happened. Somehow my monitor was being detected as the second monitor, even tho I only have one monitor, so I managed to get logged in after installing the nvidia control panel, and I now have my "second" monitor set as my first and it works fine now. I have no idea how it is picking up a second monitor however, as the video card has only 1 video output....nonetheless I'm glad it is finally figured out.

 

[steve-pressman]

Glad to hear you got it resolved.


Steve

 

[gregrocker]

You never answered if you have had Linux on that HD, because if you did you need to wipe the HD clean of all Linux code or it can interfere with booting Win7: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html

 

[Tepid]

Yes, I have seen this before. The graphics get screwy somehow and 7 thinks the main monitor is a secondary.
If you have on-board graphics, you can check the BIOS and disable them. My problem was when I had my TV hooked up and when I unplugged it from my graphics card, I did not have the issue anymore. Finished the install and plugged TV back in, changed the orientation in the graphics control panel and all is good now.

and it did not matter if I switched the ports, it always detected the TV as the main monitor.
I have an ATI Card, so I do believe this is a Win7 Default VGA driver issue. Or something with something stating the main monitior is a secondary, or a high resolution is the main.

It took me about 20 minutes and several retires to figure it out cause it would always start off OK. I had my TV on watching TV, so I switched it over and bam there was the picture I was looking for.

This issue has nothing to do with Linux.

 

[gregrocker]

I didn't say the solved issue has to do with Linux. I said that if Linux was on the HD, it needs to be wiped to avoid future boot problems. We see this all the time here. That's why theog asked.

We learn to look for potential problems here, too.

 

[theog]

If you have on-board graphics, you can check the BIOS and disable them.

Never disable on-board graphics in BIOS, if you remove the graphics card for any reason, you can not enable on-board back in BIOS.

 

[Tepid]

Ok I will admit I did not think about that,,, however.....

if the video card goes bad, most likely they would replace it.
And you can always reset the BIOS by jumppering it if that is absolutely needed.

It's not the end of the world.

It's an option for this particular problem though.