Win7 Boot-loop-of-death

[coolVariable]

After re-installing my system last week (new SSD), and getting it rock stable after some initial issues the first couple of days, I yesterday came home to a totally "broken" system.
Win7 would boot into a BSOD and restart. Startup repair could not fix the issue.
Safe Mode did not work.
Startup repair/repair from installation disk did not work/fix the issue.
BSOD would occur during (or after?) loading Atipcie.sys.
(Renaming that file, so that Win7 can't find it and skips that driver, did not work.)

WTF?!?!?!
What caused this? What could be at fault?
I did have some instability issues initially (I would come home to the message that Windows had to unexpectedly restart) but had managed to fix that.
chkdsk could not find any issues with my OS drive (new SSD).

 

[Nothinman]

Isn't there an option to not reboot on a STOP error?

 

[coolVariable]

Isn't there an option to not reboot on a STOP error?

Yes - gives a total BS BSOD error that can't be fixed and Win7 doesn't boot.
Right now I am looking at a total re-install ... after 7 days!!!
What the hell could have caused this?

 

[SimMike2]

Hardware failure is my guess.

 

[Skitzer]

Yes - gives a total BS BSOD error that can't be fixed and Win7 doesn't boot.
Right now I am looking at a total re-install ... after 7 days!!!
What the hell could have caused this?

What is the error message on the BSOD?

 

[coolVariable]

Startp repair gave this error:


Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unkown
Problem Signature 04: 21201024
Problem Signature 05 AutoFailover
Problem Signature 06: 18
Problem Signature 07: BadDriver
OS Virsion: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

and:
A recent driver installation or upgrade may be preveting the system from starting.

 

[RebateMonger]

Can you boot with a different video card installed? (Maybe an old PCI VGA card or an NVidia card?)

 

[JeffCos]

Hardware failure is my guess.

What he said

 

[coolVariable]

Reinstalled and everything is working beautifully.
Only what the heck was wrong?

 

[Binky]

Only what the heck was wrong?

The problem is that you didn't have an image/backup!

Sorry, somebody had to say it.

I have no useful advice. Sometimes you just get screwed.

 

[RebateMonger]

A few months ago, I was trying to get a second PCI-E video card working, to drive a HDTV as a third monitor on my PC.

I inserted a nearly-new NVidia 7300 PCI-E card into a perfectly functional Vista Business PC. It worked for a day and then the PC become unbootable and "unrepairable". When I pulled the second video card, the PC booted right up.

Then I put the same 7300 card into a week-old (and very clean) Windows 7 Ultimate installation. Again, it was as a second PCI-E video card. It lasted a week, working fine, until one day it restarted itself and wouldn't boot nor self-repair.

Again, I pulled the 7300 card and the machine booted right up.

I gave up and bought a new ATI PCI-E video card (my first new ATI card in twenty years). This second PCI-E video card has been working just fine for months now.

My only point is that video card functions and drivers are very low level, and a malfunctioning card or driver can do very bad things to Windows.

 

[Nothinman]

My only point is that video card functions and drivers are very low level, and a malfunctioning card or driver can do very bad things to Windows.

With "Windows" being the keyword there. Mysterious shit like that really only happens in Windows.

 

[coolVariable]

New clean install works fine for hours on end.
When I put it to sleep, I will come back hours later to an "Windows had to restart" error message. I got a couple of dumps now. How can I read them/make sense of them?

The video "card" is the integrated HD 3300 of the 790 chipset.
I ran memtest and had no problems.
Am currently running the video memory test.

 

[coolVariable]

I ran memtest86+ which found no errors.

Video memory test got a test fail: code 887601c2 - see below.

Trying 16bpp RGB: 565 mode ... OK
TEST FAIL (Code: 887601C2)
Trying 16bpp RGB: 555 mode ... OK
Trying 16bpp BGR: 565 mode ... NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001)
Trying 32bpp RGB: 888 mode ... OK
Trying 16bpp BGR: 565 mode ... NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001)
Pass completed (0 errors found).

The weird part is that Win7 obviously did not sleep (I started the test last night and check it only today) ... and it did not crash!
So the crashing is somehow related to the computer sleeping?

 

[coolVariable]

I think this might have been tied to a problem with MS security essentials (which would throw up constant errors in the even log).
After uninstalling MSE, I did not have any BSOD/reboots anymore and google shows that there are people reporting the same MSE errors and BSOD/reboots due to a MSE memory leak.

 

[coolVariable]

Reinstalled MSE and now everything seems fine. strange.

To recap:
Install Win7
Install MSE
MSE gives errors in Event Viewer
Win7 BSODs and reboots
Win7 goes into boot-loop-of-death refusing to boot into the desktop (even in safe mode)
No way to fix it
Install Win7
Install MSE
MSE gives errors in Event Viewer
Win7 BSODs and reboots
Uninstall MSE
No more errors/problems
Reinstall MSE 1 1/2 weeks later
No errors/problems

 

[C1]

"Reinstalled MSE and now everything seems fine. strange."

Not really. It can matter the order in which applications with drivers are installed. For example, if you ever tried to get a notebook computer working by installing the individual drivers downloaded from the manufacturer's website (eg, chipset, AHCI, video, sound, hotkeys, LAN, wi-fi, modem, touchpad, etc. etc.) the instructions for the drivers contain the order in which they must be installed (eg, chipset needs to be first, then video, etc.).

I would assume nothing about the system (ie, that it is working as intended) till you have some time on it. The general troubleshooting approach for such a problem is to keep uninstalling stuff till the system functions as intended. (I typically work backwards. That is, after verifying that a fresh basic OS install works as intended, then stuff is carefully added over time while verifying that no complications have occurred with each subsequent driver/application installation.)

 

[Modelworks]

Also watch out when combining applications. Especially applications that leave something running in the background like malware, anti-virus, firewall, and other clients.
People that run multiple AV type programs are asking for it.

 

[coolVariable]

Sorry to disappoint but the system install for this PC is ALWAYS the same:
Install Win7
Install drivers
Install codecs
Set up MediaCenter
Install MSE
Install DVDFab
Install Handbrake

... that's it!

Looks/sounds to me as if MS has issues with MSE ... based on the number of people (see google) reporting the error report/memory leak with MSE.