Vista not booting (Startup Repair infinite loop)

Not terribly clear notes above IMO - Questions;

- You clicked "shutdown" and it blue screened as it was shutting down, correct?
- Now it boots to the "windows didn't shut down correctly" screen and asks if you want to repair it or "start normally", correct? [IIRC, isn't there also a "boot in safe mode" option?]
- "Sometimes I can access my desktop for a mS" - So, it is booting up and getting to the main screen (no login needed?) prior to, I presume, blue screening again?
- It boot's from your Ultimate boot CD - You get to the tools menu, but don't know where to go next, right?
- Do you have the original Windows install CD (and the key code)?

You obviously have access to another online 'puter, which is good. Given answers to the above, we should be able to get 'er back.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I would reinstall windows or upgrade to windows7.

 

Run a check disk in the command window, chkdsk /f to scan and possibly fix problems on the hard drive. It's possible your hard drive could be dying and have bad sectors. I would also test the memory with memtest. If you can get a hold of a Windows disk you can try doing a repair install.

 

Reinstall.

 

Not so easy without the original disk though.......

Cheers,
Ian

 

Not too hard to get your hands on one.

 

Alrighty then!..... Awesome - You've saved your **** (It's always my stuff, but "your ****" )

Very good.

*Personally*, and I've now helped >6 people doing this; Forget Windows! Go and get yourself the latest "Ubuntu live disk" - It's completely free and will "probe" your H/W to see if all is good - If it is (and I'm confident that it will be), go ahead and install it - You can now let it format the entire drive and build it's own boot loader without fear - Read & follow the instructions and you'll have a machine that's;

- Faster
- More reliable (no crashes or blue screens!)
- Has a wealth of s/w already installed (M$ Office clone, PS clone, etc etc)
- Virtually no chance of viruses / trojan horses etc.
- Community supported.
- Rock solid!

It is a little different to Windoze, but if you can use one, you can use the other IMO. [I've had a few folks ask a few Q's about webcams/Skype and the like, but none unanswerable.]

Once you get 'er going, load up your nicely saved pix & docs and off you go.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Ian
PS: YMMV, my 02c, not kid safe, trained professional on closed course etc.

 

fwiw, back in the day I found it pretty easy to get a vista image directly from ms. I haven't done it within the last year but when I did it was readily available. Its not the image that is the problem, its the key. However vista will run without a key for a period of time, during which time you need to call and get one (either go through the automated system or speak to a live representative).

The key is based on a hardware checksum so it helps if you don't go changing your HDD, memory, bios and/or video card before calling. In any case you get 2 keys per customer with no questions asked so you're probably fine anyway.

Now why somebody would go through all that in order to *preserve* a copy of vista is a different and unanswered question.

 

The majority of blue screens are hardware problems.

Did you check all the cables to see if anything has come loose? Re seat the RAM, check that the fans haven't stopped working and something isn't overheating.

Usually windows dump bluescreen messages to the hdd before rebooting. You can find it under "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP" notepad type app will read the file. at least with an error number it be easier to work out what went wrong.

I agree with Ian, using a Ubuntu LIVE disk is a great way of troubleshooting windows issues

Ultimate disk not reading the HDD doesn't mean much. It's more important that the BIOS can see the HDD.










reinstall should only be the last resort when everything else has failed. It's probably a little late to upgrade to Windows 7 as no8 will be on the market by the end of the year.

 

just curious, why would reinstall be a last resort. bdods can be caused by many things, that a reinstall will fix, and yet you lose nothing. so not sure why a reinstall, or even installing a completely new operating system, would be more desirable?

 

I have an issue with my old clunker Dell GX280 running Windows 7.

Last night power went out here. I went to restart my computer, it would power up...............but have a black screen with a flashing little tab in the top left corner.

I opened the old girl up, removed the battery (read about it once before somewhere) and checked the ram etc.etc.

All seemed ok, I closed it up and turned it on again. Now it works, but tells me "diskette seek drive failure 0". I can now get into the BIOS screen via F2.

Ok, did some Google research and it seems I have reset the BIOS when I removed the battery. Trouble now is, I can't get the bloody thing to boot.

I also couldn't get a difinitive answer on how to reset the BIOS via Google. People were explaining the process, but it didn't seem to apply to my computer.

If anyone has any ideas or can offer any help it would be much appreciated it.

I did a search and could not find anything at all, so I thought I would post here.

 

Find out what BIOS you are running. It tells you in the BIOS menu.

Your issue sounds like the boot priority has been set to 1st FDD 2nd CD 3rd HDD. Change 1st to HDD and it should work again or just set FDD to NONE.

 

BIOS A03

I have tried it all man. Setting the HD first and the rest etc..etc.

Set the HD only and still don't work.

Removed the HD and plugged it into Nicole's computer as a 2nd HD, works fine.

I have Googled the **** out of it, it seems like I have an older BIOS system, is there anyway to update it?

I just found this video, but of course when I click on the USB device like he does nothing happens.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPQWy7-kKP0[/ame]

 

Ok.....................all working ok now.

 

OK, good to hear! One of those "I didn't change/touch anything" scenarios!..... I guess it came back when you reinstalled it?

In any event, and without wishing to teach you to suck eggs, you do have it backed up somewhere, right?

Cheers,
Ian

 

Hi mate, it's ****ed again.

I didn't do anything to fix it, but hit F1 to "continue" after 200 times of trying it and it finally booted up. I re-started 3x times like this no worries. I thought it was all ok now.

I had to replace the ethernet cable, so I shut down again 10 mins later and now it's doing the same thing.

 

Do you have a backup of the thing? [It doesn't sound like an HDD issue, but it would sure be nice if any "valuable" stuff was elsewhere just in case......]

Once you're into the BIOS menu it should tell you a little more than "A03". IIRC, should be a string of hex digits after that - Please post the complete thing and we'll have a look-see.

Cheers,
Ian

 

the built in W7 features can image your drive, plus their's the sys restore.

I still use 3rd party imaging tool & just revert to it whenever a conflict happens or something causes a hit in performance.

Rather take 15min & do that than troubleshoot, not worth my time

 

Hi Ian,

Yep, I have everything backed up and the HD is working. I am not too stressed about it not working, but it would be nice to get one last run out of it before I replace it.

Once it's running, I will buy another computer and toss this one in the bin. I am more intrigued about what could be the issue and the fix, rather than the $50 computer itself.

A03 BIOS
Service tag- 93PFC1S
Express service code- 19815145408
Asset tag- (none)

Hope this helps mate and I appreciate yours and everyone's help.

 

Hello again boys, computer all fixed now.

After leaving it sit for a few days, I decided to have another play with it before I removed the HD and tossed it in the bin.

I ended up going into the "devices" setting in the BIOS and turned the USB port controller to "off".

I rebooted and it has been perfect ever since. Doesn't say that diskette drive failure anymore either.

Great stuff, all good now. Thanks for all for their help/ideas. Much appreciated.

 

so it was an IRQ (resource) issue. Happens.
usually when I'm playing with different softwares and trying different soft/drivers out

*I say "I" because I do not presume to know your usage

 

Cool, first time it's happened to me. Hopefully I remember how to fix it if it ever happens again.

Thanks again.

 

if it happens again, I'd try disabling the 'diskette' (A drive in BIOS.It seems that should fix the issue, but maybe the issue is/was greater.