Windows startup repair on my laptop

[runzwithsizorz]

Have an older (4yrs) Gateway laptop, and about once a week it does not boot properly and Win startup repair kicks in. Takes about 20 minutes of repair and then the laptop is fine. I hear no "clicks" or other sounds that would indicate any hard drive failure. No bsod either. Question: How do I troubleshoot what the problem is? Win repair does not indicate what it repaired!:\

Thank you

The Wife

 

[Ketchup]

According to TechNet the logs are in C\WINDOWS\System32\LogFiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt. If you haven't run a chkdsk yet, might be a good time to do so.

Since the repair app is so secretive, it would be hard to say much more without seeing what's in the file.

Is there a flash of a blue screen before it finishes the shutdown process?

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Is there a flash of a blue screen before it finishes the shutdown process?

Haven't noticed that. Will try to find logs and run ckdsk.

 

[Matt1970]

Have you tried booting normally after it fails to boot?

 

[runzwithsizorz]

ckdsk found no problems. It boots partially, but then win repair kicks in and fixes the problem. It then boots normally...this repair only occurs once per week (so far about 4 times did win repair kick in). This has only been happening for the past month.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

1. Win repair is now kicking in almost every time I start laptop
2. I hear no clicking sounds, but I do hear a whirring sound when I first start the computer
3. I just cancelled the Win repair, did a restart and the laptop started normally
Is this the hard drive or something else?
Also, can the hard drive be replaced if this is the problem, or is it even worth it to replace HD?

Thanks for your replies.

The Wife

 

[Ketchup]

If it runs fine otherwise, you may want to backup your data and to a factory restore. If you are still experiencing the issue, but no problems otherwise, you might want to get an SSD for the laptop. Would put new life in the laptop for sure. Just keep in mind you will probably want to have recovery DVDs to make the swap.

 

[Polar2002]

An old laptop/computer may be as simple as the CMOS battery 2032 needs replacing.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Sounds like the hard drive to me. I hope you have everything backed up.

I have had several hard drives fail, and I cant say that it was accompanied by any unusual sounds, so I dont think the lack of noise rules out the hard drive going bad. The last hard drive that failed for me showed much the same symptoms. Doing startup repair, and then the repair becoming more frequent until it could no longer start at all.

 

[Steltek]

Push comes to shove, determine the manufacturer of the hard drive in Device Manager (or by entering the BIOS) and download a bootable ISO from the manufacturer to test the hard drive. An extended drive test is always best in this particular circumstance as the short tests or SMART may miss something.

Before you do any testing, though, make sure you have backed up your files. The longer you use the hard drive, the more likely it is to finally fail if it is developing a fault.

If the hard drive tests out good, try running a bootable MEMTEST86+ session to test your memory modules for faults. File system errors or damage to important system files can often be a result of a failing memory module.

 

[stinger608]

An old laptop/computer may be as simple as the CMOS battery 2032 needs replacing.

This could be the problem. Does the date and time reset?

Also, which Gateway is it? Operating system?

 

[Smoove910]

have you tried running Malwarebytes to see if any malware is installed on your lappy? This 'win repair' thing sounds a little sketchy to me. Yea, chkdsk will run at bootup if you tell it to, but WTF is 'Win Repair'??? Sounds like malware if I've ever heard it.