Won't restart, reinstall?

[justjax]

okay, last night, I shut down my pc and it seemed to get stuck on the 'shutting down' window, so after 10 mins, I just held the power button down to shut it off myself. Didn't thnk anything of it until this morning when i started it up, it freezes just after the Windows 7 logo does its little animation. Tried rebooting, same after several tries. Tried safe mood, appears to freeze after several rows of file names, tried last known configuration, nothing and also tried repair, but it just comes with the Windows 7 sky background and a mouse pointer (if lower res mode) but seemingly no icons or options to click.

Any suggestions? Should I just try reinstalling windows over the current one? Haven't done this with Win 7 yet but i'm assuming it create a new windows folder and rename the old one? any other suggestions before I do this?

 

[mitchell65]

Have found Dinesh's answer for this here:
Windows 7 hangs on startup

This should help you

 

[Carl Lawrence]

If you do have to reinstall Windows 7 it does rename the windows folder to windows.old

 

[Ryan2320]

Did you install anything recently? Windows Updates, Programs etc

What are the Specs to your computer?

 

[justjax]

Have found Dinesh's answer for this here:
Windows 7 hangs on startup

This should help you

Thanks for the link, but Dinesh's answer doesn't work for me, or most people on that thread. Basically, I've spent the last 2-3 hrs, trying to reinstall or repair with no luck. Basically if I put windows disc in and select repair it just comes up with the windows background pic (sky with clouds, leafs, etc) and an mouse curor that moves, but noting else.

I've tried reinstalling a 2nd copy, but it too frozen about 2/3rd of the way in and when I reboot it gives me the option of booting into either, but none of them boot up. Have tried reinstalling since and it doesn't even get pack 'Setup is Starting' windows (bit prior to selecting country and keyboard, etc). Even tried disconnecting main drive and installing it on 2nd drive, but same, it just freezes at Setup is starting. Starting to worry there is something bigger wrong, as surely 'Setup is starting' is just running from the dvd drive? one other thing, I did find a link that suggested replacing classpnp.sys in windows32/drivers as that the file that it stop on in safe mode. Tried that using Umbuntu (which loads and runs direct from DVD okay) to access the drive and basically copied the classpnp.sys file on the Windows 7 laptop I have running the 7100 rc version to both versions on the main drive and no luck, still not booting up.
Next thought is to use Umbuntu to get access to the drive and copy everythng over/backup and then reformat main drive. Worry is, if its not getting pass 'Setup is Starting' now, will it makes a diff if its a totally clean drive, with other drives temporarly removed?

 

[not so gray matter]

That sounds more like a hardware or bios issue than a software issue to me, but then again, I'm not nearly as knowledgeable on the subject as others.

 

[gregrocker]

Reseat your memory modules, swap positions, then try removing one and then the other.

Test your memory using memtest86 CD for at least 6 passes: Memtest86 - Download Page

Check all cables, remove and replace or at least swap cables.

Check your BIOS version to make sure you have the most recent update from mobo or computer model Support Downloads webpage.

Clear the CMOS: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/clearcmos.htm

What is the SATA controller setting in BIOS? Try AHCI first for reinstall, then IDE.

I know you tried another HD, but continue testing all hardware by running full diag/repair CD scan on HD's: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Then zero the HD after removing files. Boot DVD to try clean reinstall. If necessary try a bootable USB flash installer to eliminate DVD: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

 

[zigzag3143]

Have found Dinesh's answer for this here:
Windows 7 hangs on startup

This should help you

Thanks for the link, but Dinesh's answer doesn't work for me, or most people on that thread. Basically, I've spent the last 2-3 hrs, trying to reinstall or repair with no luck. Basically if I put windows disc in and select repair it just comes up with the windows background pic (sky with clouds, leafs, etc) and an mouse curor that moves, but noting else.

I've tried reinstalling a 2nd copy, but it too frozen about 2/3rd of the way in and when I reboot it gives me the option of booting into either, but none of them boot up. Have tried reinstalling since and it doesn't even get pack 'Setup is Starting' windows (bit prior to selecting country and keyboard, etc). Even tried disconnecting main drive and installing it on 2nd drive, but same, it just freezes at Setup is starting. Starting to worry there is something bigger wrong, as surely 'Setup is starting' is just running from the dvd drive? one other thing, I did find a link that suggested replacing classpnp.sys in windows32/drivers as that the file that it stop on in safe mode. Tried that using Umbuntu (which loads and runs direct from DVD okay) to access the drive and basically copied the classpnp.sys file on the Windows 7 laptop I have running the 7100 rc version to both versions on the main drive and no luck, still not booting up.
Next thought is to use Umbuntu to get access to the drive and copy everythng over/backup and then reformat main drive. Worry is, if its not getting pass 'Setup is Starting' now, will it makes a diff if its a totally clean drive, with other drives temporarly removed?

You dont really have that many options do yoou. I would do the clean install.

ken

 

[richc46]

If you are going to try the clean install, do not forget to back up everything and have all of your DVD's and key numbers for programs.

 

[mitchell65]

justjax
If you cannot boot up this laptop you can't back up everything in the conventional manner so if you can quote: Next thought is to use Umbuntu to get access to the drive and copy everythng over/backup and then reformat main drive.
Then definitely do so. At least you will have your data safe. Then as zigzag says go for a clean install.

 

[dooley]

Hi justjax, I have just had the same problem, spent about 4hrs. doing all the same things as you, Googled "windows 7 not starting after forced shutdown" and came up with this...A computer that is running Windows 7 does not start after you force the computer to shut down..... fixed it in 10 min.

 

[justjax]

Hi justjax, I have just had the same problem, spent about 4hrs. doing all the same things as you, Googled "windows 7 not starting after forced shutdown" and came up with this...A computer that is running Windows 7 does not start after you force the computer to shut down..... fixed it in 10 min.

Thanks, had already rebuilt by the time I saw this. Landed up using Umbuntu to get access to the drives, copying everything over and then doing a fresh install.

HOWEVER I had a mild panic last night as it wouldn't shutdown again and eventually had to force it to shutdown (which is what appeared to get me in this place the first time), thankfully it restared okay, but now I'm worried about this shutdown issue again. Dooley, I tried installing the updated on the Windows page about, but it says its already installed. Anyone got any suggestions of limiting issues at shutdown? I do try and close programs down first, but I've noticed it sometimes comes up saying something like xxx is still running down I was to force it to shutdown and I guess there are things running in the background.

One of the earlier reponses to my OP linked to a thread that suggested that the original issue might be caused by the classpnp.sys corrupting?? as when the original problem occured and i tried booting up into safe modeit was stop when it got to classpnp.sys? or could pagefile.sys have anything to do with it?

 

[Peregrine]

If I understand correctly, In post #5 you report being unable to reload Windows. In your most recent post it looks like you got Windows reloaded. What changed that allowed you to reload now?

Have you run any hardware diagnostics (as gregrocker suggested) like chkdsk or memtest? Bad memory or bad hard drive (amongst other things) can give you odd behaviour. I would suggest running chkdsk /r on your c: drive to look for bad sectors and running memtest to test your memory. I would also suggest checking Event Viewer to look for errors and you may get some clues there too.