What version of 7 to get ?

[Markfw]

So I have this box I am working on for a friend. It has Vista 32 bit home premium. But quite often when you try to start it, it hangs during boot(and only a tiny disk flash every 10 to 30 seconds). If you push the power off button until it shuts off and restart, it won't start.

BUT (and this is very odd)

If you pull the power cord, then put it back in, sometimes a couple of times, it will start !

So I decided, lets get rid of vista, and upgrade to Win 7 64 bit. The below product at newegg, doesn't say 32 bit or 64 bit.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116713

So which is it ?? Will this one work as upgrade ? or start from scratch ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116754

 

[mb]

Either one will work. Go with the cheaper one. IIRC the only difference is with the OEM one you do not get email support from MS.

Also, every upgrade box I've seen (three, so not that many fwiw) has both 32bit and 64bit discs.

 

[Markfw]

Either one will work. Go with the cheaper one. IIRC the only difference is with the OEM one you do not get email support from MS.

Also, every upgrade box I've seen (three, so not that many fwiw) has both 32bit and 64bit discs.

OK, the OEM will upgrade, as in all installed programs remain ??

 

[mb]

Honestly I would do a clean install. Vista isn't THAT bad, so if software is causing any problems then might as well start clean.

But after reading the OP again, it sounds more like a hardware issue anyway.

Oh, and going from 32bit to 64bit will require a clean install anyway.

 

[hclarkjr]

So I have this box I am working on for a friend. It has Vista 32 bit home premium. But quite often when you try to start it, it hangs during boot(and only a tiny disk flash every 10 to 30 seconds). If you push the power off button until it shuts off and restart, it won't start.

BUT (and this is very odd)

If you pull the power cord, then put it back in, sometimes a couple of times, it will start !

So I decided, lets get rid of vista, and upgrade to Win 7 64 bit. The below product at newegg, doesn't say 32 bit or 64 bit.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116713

So which is it ?? Will this one work as upgrade ? or start from scratch ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116754

are you sure this is not hardware related and nothing to do with vista?

 

[Markfw]

I am curious what makes you think its hardware ? Once booted, it runs perfectly. I did a complete disk scan, no problems found. When it doesn't boot, you see the disk light once in a while, something is just hanging the boot.

 

[hclarkjr]

might be flaky bios battery?? just guess on my part???

 

[hclarkjr]

how far along during boot does it make it?

 

[RebateMonger]

are you sure this is not hardware related and nothing to do with vista?

Yeah, it doesn't sound like a software problem. More like hardware that will likely continue to be a problem after moving to Win7.

Regarding the software packages:

- Win7 Retail Upgrade packages contain both 32-bit and 64-bit DVDs.

- Historically. OEM disks will only install to an empty partition. I'm not sure how it works in Win7.

- If you are trying to "Upgrade" from 32-bit to 64-bit, you'll have to do a clean install anyway, losing all installed applications. You can't do an in-place upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows of any generation.

 

[Markfw]

how far along during boot does it make it?

Well, hard to say, it comes up with the little bar moving right to left, a lot of disk activity for a couple of minutes, then the bar keeps looking like its booting, and the disk light flashes once in a while, but I left it for 30 minutes, nothing more for progress. When it does boot, its like 1-2 minutes.

In my 30 years in PC's its one of the oddest things I have seen.

 

[lxskllr]

Could be flaky ram.

 

[RebateMonger]

Could be memory. Also, failing motherboard capacitors can cause all sorts of weird boot problems. So can a dead CMOS battery.

 

[spinejam]

definitely memtest first.

Then, i'd run a ubuntu live cd and see what happens. Ubuntu should run fine so long as there are no hardware failures.

 

[Markfw]

The problem is, its so consistant, thats why it doesn't seem like its hardware.

Running memtest now. And since the hang is in the middle of the boot, why would the battery have anything to do with it ?

 

[RebateMonger]

The problem is, its so consistant, thats why it doesn't seem like its hardware.

Running memtest now. And since the hang is in the middle of the boot, why would the battery have anything to do with it ?

I didn't read your post #10 very thoroughly. I based my responses on your earlier post(s) It COULD be a software problem. I've seen something like that after a failed Office 2007 Trial install. Except Windows would boot into Safe Mode. I ended up doing a Repair Install of XP because nothing else was working.

It never hurts to do a thorough hardware check first because things like memory or disk problems can trash Windows.

And is the failure really "consistant"? It's booting sometimes. As you noted, software is usually VERY consistant. It's hard to tell at this point if it's software or hardware.

The suggestion of trying an Ubuntu Live boot is a good one, too, if the hardware appears to be good.

 

[Markfw]

well, it (virtually) never boots unless you unplug the power cord, and restart, usually twice in a row, first time usually doesn;t work either. They said its been doing this for about 6 months, same thing, unplug, and plug in and restart.

I think Win7 is way more stable than Vista, at least thats what I have heard everywhere.

 

[lxskllr]

Win7 is Vista for all intents and purposes. Every MS O/S since 2kpro has been solid as a rock. I'd look elsewhere for the issue, unless you really want Win7.

 

[Markfw]

memory ig good. Burning a backup with all the pictures now...

 

[Compman55]

Find out the hard drive manufacture and run their diagnostics. I can;t explain why, but power cycleing with the cord drains the power supply and all voltages to the HD. When powered off but cord plugged in, there may be ever so slightly a microscopic voltage present to the HD. Its the best theory as to why, is this happend on a laptop. A new HD fixed it. I was able to ghost it over too.......

But I understand and support your reason to do a fresh install, I would too. See what happens.

 

[RebateMonger]

well, it (virtually) never boots unless you unplug the power cord, and restart, usually twice in a row, first time usually doesn;t work either. They said its been doing this for about 6 months, same thing, unplug, and plug in and restart.

That sounds SOOO hardware. My old desktop stopped cold booting, but would boot on a second try if I hit the "Reset" button. Later, I moved the memory from that motherboard to another board and one of the memory modules immediately gave errors.

But, hey, you never know. There's so many things that can go wrong with computers, I'm amazed they work at all.

 

[Steltek]

If the issue mainly occurs at initial cold boot, my vote is to look at the power supply first (especially if it is more than a few years old or is an off brand).

It takes a lot more juice to post the various boards installed in a modern computer while simultaneously spinning up the drives (both hard drives and CD/DVD drives) from a cold start than it does to keep everything running once the machine is fully booted up.

One quick way you can check is to unplug power to all extraneous equipment (including the power to any CD/DVD drives). If the machine boots straight up, you almost certainly have a power problem.

A borderline power supply may also exhibit this problem from cold boot, but warm boot restarts work correctly. This is because the electrical draw for a warm boot restart is usually less than that needed for a cold boot because the drives are already spun up to speed during a warm boot.

 

[Markfw]

Its NOT cold boot, its always in the middle of the regular boot !

And I have no idea what I did, but now it has booted 10 times in a row normal !

Hardware : Dell Inspiron 530

 

[Meghan54]

Still sounds like a hardware problem.....memory like suggested, capacitor on board close to failing, sector on hard drive going bad but not completely there yet, have even seen a failing video card give similar boot symptoms.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Closely examine your capacitors on the motherboard if you can. I've had several machines at work have crazy boot issues because of overheating/burned out capacitors.

 

[Markfw]

I reformatted, and re-installed Vista from the original disk. All problems gone.