Windows won't boot, even after reinstall

[Geckat]

A couple weekends ago when I was using my laptop, I fell asleep and awoke to find that it had turned itself off. I rebooted it to find that after the BIOS screen, nothing happened: I just got a blank screen with a cursor. I have seen this thread but unlike the fellow there, I had no problems at all just doing a clean install from a USB drive, as I'd done the same only a week or two before and didn't exactly have much data to lose. The install went completely fine, including the two restarts required, right up to the "Welcome" screen after connecting to a network, upon which it went to "Shutting down", did so, and I was once again back where I'd started, with the blank screen and flashing, immobile cursor and nothing else. I've tried re-creating my bootable USB drive, and the sfc /scannow command in Windows Repair options wouldn't run, saying that I have a process already running that requires Windows to restart (which I can't do, and which doesn't go away even after yet another reinstall). I've tried reformatting and recreating the partition (I have just the one) before installing as well.

The laptop is fairly old: a four-year old Acer Aspire:
2GB RAM
Pentium Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
Nvidia 7000 (256 MB)

All I know off the top of my head; will give more info if it's needed. Because I was able to install Windows 7 completely right up to the Welcome screen after which my desktop should have been prepared, I don't think this is a hard drive issue. When reinstalling Windows 7 on it, it recognized that Windows 7 was already on it and correctly gave me the size and space remaining on the drive.

Any advice would be very greatly appreciated. Thanks very much in advance.

 

[gregrocker]

This time follow the steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
starting with downloading and burning to DVD or writing to flash stick the latest official installer.

But add the step of wiping the HD with Diskpart Clean Command from installer command line before beginning the install.

If the failure persists try entering Device Manager during install to disable any erroring devices so install will complete and you can update them from the desktop: Device Manager - Access During Windows 7 Installation

 

[Geckat]

Tried the clean all command along with disabling all devices that either had a yellow icon or I was sure wouldn't be necessary (including my video card and one of my RAM chips as suggested by a friend). Unfortunately nothing changed whatsoever.

I might note that my DVD drive crapped out about a year ago and no longer works at all (not even powered) nor does it show up on the Device Manager.

 

[gregrocker]

You only needed the Clean command as suggested so wasted a lot of time.

Did you write the latest official ISO to flash stick using the tool in Steps 1 and 2 of the Clean Reinstall tutorial? I would also unplug the DVD drive.

 

[Geckat]

I did that too, yes. Sorry. And I know I should unplug the DVD drive; I've been a little lazy, but I don't imagine that's what's causing this issue.

 

[Geckat]

Update: Windows is now loading. Not sure why, but I discovered that it is at least doing so after quite a while (about three minutes) hanging on that blank screen with a cursor. I'm not sure what worked but I suppose it's possible that this whole time it has technically been working, just taking a ridiculously long time (more than fifteen minutes at least). I'm not sure I should call this problem solved or if I should change the question to: how do I stop this hanging?

 

[gregrocker]

Test your hardware: Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

 

[Geckat]

Using those instructions I tested my HDD (with SeaTools, using the self-check and long generic tests; it's a Toshiba 1246GSX ATA) and my RAM. No errors came up.

 

[gregrocker]

What's the status now?

Are you using the latest official installer I provided earlier? http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

 

[Geckat]

Still no change. And yes, I installed using the latest ISO. The computer is working perfectly apart from the fact that it takes ages to decide to run Windows.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you test the RAM for 5-6 passes or overnight with memtest86 CD? Follow the steps given in RAM - Test with Memtest86+ to test both the sticks and slots.

Besides that, try removing a stick at a time to test run it to see if the problem goes away, then swap sticks and slots to try every combination.

Then work through the other troubleshooting steps to gather clues.

 

[Geckat]

I did so for seven runs, but I'll give the stick removal a shot.