windows failed to boot

[kuliksco]

Sorry for the long post in advance....thanks for reading:

My monitor has an SD card reader and two USB slots that can be accessed by hooking a USB cable from my computer to the back of the monitor. I was copying files to an SD card and thought it was finished but noticed the copying window was still running after I pulled the card out. The copying window did not go away once I pulled the card out and pressing cancel just made the windows stick on canceling. So...i rebooted and after a few minutes my computer was hanging on shutting down I powered it off.

The next time i powered on the computer it would hang just after posting the cpu information and half of the word memory. something like

Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4GHZ
Memor

is all I would get. After cycling on the power I finally got past the POST screen. Anway, I unplugged the USB cable that was connected to the monitor and was able to see the starting windows screen but it would immediately put up a screen saying Windows Failed to Start. I have tried to boot into safe mode, from a windows 7 cd to repair, last known good configuration but everything ends up eventually saying Windows Failed to Start. I have tried with different memory configurations and even booting from Windows PE which resulted in a BSOD after the Windows XP loading was finished.

Next I have tried unhooking all drives but I am still unable to even boot from a Windows 7 disc. I know something on the hard drive must be corrupted and I don't mind doing a reinstall but I can't even get the system to boot up from a Windows 7 disc. Please help!

 

[chev65]

Have you tried to clear the cmos yet?

 

[kuliksco]

I have reset the bios to fail safe settings. Do you mean pull the battery and put it back in or is there another easier way to clear CMOS?

 

[chev65]

Yes there will be either a jumper with three pins or a small button on the board somewhere. You can also do it by shorting the battery. In any event check your settings and write down any that aren't at default settings. You may also need to reset the bios clock time/date. Messing with USB devices can mess up the bios farily easily.

Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

 

[kuliksco]

thanks. I will try that as soon as i get home.

 

[natekolvek]

Clear it first and test. if it still happens flash the bios to the most updated version. I have run in to some issues with vista and 7 where it wont startup, wont finish loading safemode and startup repair does not see a problem. I ended up doing a OS repair from the disk. fixed the problem. Only downfall is you'll have to run all updates again but your installed stuff will remain.

I had a service call once where the machine wouldnt boot with there usb printer attached (hanging at post). pulling the plug and resetting allowed it to reboot and load but the bios had to be flashed in order for the machine to boot with the printer attached. Quite possibly the same scenario.

 

[kuliksco]

well...i tried to clear the CMOS but it didn't seem to help. I downloaded the latest BIOS (double and triple checked i had the correct one) and flashed successfully. However, now when i boot up i just get the gigabyte splash screen and nothing ever happens. It also doesn't respond to any keyboard commands.

I tried clearing the CMOS again but didn't help either. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[natekolvek]

when the splash screen first comes on, there should be a key to show the post session. usually esc key or tab. Hit one of them to see where it is hanging on post. Some motherboards are still set in the bios to read the floppy drive on boot, if no floppy present the bios will hang there if not set to ignore errors (i used to set it to ignore all but keyboard). You just need to see the actual post session to see where its hanging and go from there. the more you rule out the closer you become to fixing it.

flashing wipes your bios config so you just may have to reset a few things in the bios.

 

[kuliksco]

finally got a chance to work on my computer a little more today. I tried hitting TAB to remove the post screen but I would get no response.

I ended up pulling out all but 1 stick of RAM and everything booted up without any issues! I eventually popped in the other 3 sticks and everything seems back to normal, seems that maybe they needed to be reseated again after all the messing around I was doing.

thanks everyone for helping me solve this!