Windows won't load

[Alex C]

I built my system about a month ago, and two weeks after I had it running windows stopped loading. It would get to the windows loading bar and never progress past that. It would get stuck loading the drivers when I tried to use safe mode, and the restore option didn't work either. The windows repair tool found nothing wrong. I reformatted the partition, reinstalled windows, and no problems.

Today I tried booting up and the same thing happened again. The only hardware change was the addition of a usb card reader a few days ago, nothing that should affect performance. The last time it happened, it was a few days after updating the MB BIOS (it reported a successful update), the BIOS hasn't been touched since then. I had been OCing my E8500 to 3.8GHz and running my Corsair RAM at tighter timings (4-4-4-16 vs 5-5-5-18), this setup was 24 hours stable in Orthos and passed memtest as well. I reverted the BIOs to the defaults, and still no luck.

Any idea what might be going on? I thought that if it's the updated BIOS it would have happened sooner, but I don't know what else it might be. Any ideas?

 

[mpilchfamily]

The repair tool is worthless. You will have to force a repair install.

Boot from the Windows disk. When prompted choose to install windows. Don't choose the repair install yet. The system will check the drive and find the previous windows install and ask if you want to over wight that install or repair it. This is when you choose repair. If it happens again you may have an issue with the HDD or the RAM.

 

[Alex C]

I was running the windows memory checker it was about halfway through the first test when I left the room, and when I came back it was at the logon screen. I'm afraid to restart it and see if it'll work again. Is there a way to check the HDD from within windows?

 

[kh4130]

Have you tried running scandisk from windows? This will require reboot.

Open My Computer, right-click you system drive (typically c:\), properties, tools tab, error checking (check not button), check both check boxes and hit "start" button. After this you will get a message stating that the system will run a scan after next reboot. Hit ok, reboot and let the scan run. The scan will run right before windows loads... it will be a blue screen with text.

If all else fails, I would try the windows repair install as stated above.

 

[Alex C]

I ran scandisk, and it was almost done when my block lost power. After that, windows wouldn't even make it to the loading screen. I used the command prompt in the installation dvd to run another scandisk and it took about five hours and repaired a ton of stuff, but even after that it would only get me to the loading screen and then it would reboot. I have an OEM disc, so I don't have the repair install option and I ended up having to reformat the partition and do a clean install. Luckily I didn't loose too much data, just a few saved games that I forgot to back up. I've got another HD on the way that I'll use as my primary and if this one gives me any more trouble I'll send it back.

 

[kh4130]

Next time you could try the in-windows system file checker (If you can get the computer to boot)? -- Start > Run > sfc /scannow