Are you running AV software that auto updates?
Have you recently updated any device drivers?
What are the most recent files from Microsoft Updates that have been installed?
What's the earliest date you went back to when you ran System Restore?
You need to ask these questions because
[1] you are able to boot into safe mode and
[2] the error returns after a few restarts.
Boot into Safe Mode and follow these instructions to determine exactly which startup item is causing the problem:
Windows 7: Troubleshooting Startup Using the System Configuration Utility
If Windows 7 won’t start, troubleshooting the problem usually involves trying various advanced startup options. It’s almost always a time-consuming and tedious business.
Launch the System Configuration utility (select Start, type msconfig, and press Enter) and display the General tab, which has three startup options:
- Normal Startup— This option loads Windows 7 normally.
- Diagnostic Startup— This option loads only those device drivers and system services that are necessary for Windows 7 to boot. This is equivalent to deactivating all the check boxes associated with the Selective Startup option, discussed next.
- Selective Startup— When you activate this option, the following check boxes become available (see Figure 1): Load System Services, Load Startup Items, and Use Original Boot Configuration. I talk about this in more detail, but you use these check boxes to select which portions of the startup should be processed.
Figure 1. Use the System Configuration utility’s General tab to troubleshoot the Windows 7 startup.
For a selective startup, you control how Windows 7 processes items using the following two categories (the Use Original Boot Configuration option is selected by default and can’t be turned off):
- Load System Services— This category refers to the system services that Windows 7 loads at startup. The specific services loaded by Windows 7 are listed in the Services tab.
Note:
A service is a program or process that performs a specific, low-level support function for the operating system or for an installed program.
- Load Startup Items— This category refers to the items in your Windows 7 Startup group and to the startup items listed in the Registry. For the latter, the settings are stored in one of the following keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
The specific items loaded from the Startup group or the Registry are listed in the Startup tab.
To control these startup items, the System Configuration utility gives you two choices:
- To prevent Windows 7 from loading every item in a particular category, activate Selective Startup in the General tab, and then deactivate the check box for the category you want. For example, to disable all the items in the Startup tab, deactivate the Load Startup Items check box.
- To prevent Windows 7 from loading only specific items in a category, display the category’s tab, and then deactivate the check box beside the item or items you want to bypass at startup.
Here’s a basic procedure you can follow to use the System Configuration utility to troubleshoot a startup problem (assuming that you can start Windows 7 by using Safe Mode Boot):
1. In the System Configuration utility, activate the Diagnostic Startup option, and then reboot the computer. If the problem did not occur during the restart, you know the cause lies in the system services or the startup items.
2. In the System Configuration utility, activate the Selective Startup option.
3. Activate Load System Services, deactivate Load Startup Items, and then reboot the computer.
4. Deactivate Load System Services, activate Load Startup Items, and then reboot the computer.
5. The problem will reoccur either during the
step 3 reboot or the
step 4 reboot. When this happens, you know that whatever item you activated before rebooting is the source of the problem. Display the tab of the item that is causing the problem. For example, if the problem reoccurred after you activated the Load Startup Items check box, display the Startup tab.
6. Click Disable All to clear all the check boxes.
7. Activate one of the check boxes to enable an item and then reboot the computer.
8. Repeat step 7 for each of the other check boxes until the problem reoccurs. When this happens, you know that whatever item you activated just before rebooting is the source of the problem.
Troubleshooting by Halves
If you have a large number of check boxes to test (such as in the Services tab), activating one check box at a time and rebooting can become very tedious very fast. A faster method is to begin by activating the first half of the check boxes and reboot. One of two things will happen:
- The problem doesn’t reoccur— This means that one of the items represented by the deactivated check boxes is the culprit. Clear all the check boxes, activate half of the other check boxes, and then reboot.
- The problem reoccurs— This means that one of the activated check boxes is the problem. Activate only half of those check boxes and reboot.
Keep halving the number of activated check boxes until you isolate the offending item.
9. In the System Configuration utility’s General tab, activate the Normal Startup option.
10. Fix or work around the problem:
- If the problem is a System Service, you can disable the service. Select Start, Control Panel, click System and Security, Administrative Tools, Services. Double-click the problematic service to open its property sheet. In the Startup Type list, select Disabled, and then click OK.
- If the problem is a Startup item, either delete the item from the Startup group or delete the item from the appropriate Run key in the Registry. If the item is a program, consider uninstalling or reinstalling the program.
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