Repair Windows 7 4

[Gavona]

64Bit Windows Home Premium on a Dell laptop.
Daughter told she was having problems with her laptop. I found multiple issues - as far as I can tell due to a hard disk damage (see 5 below).:

1 It had had no Windows Updates since December. Windows Update reports: "Windows could not search for new updates.
Errors found: Code 800700C1"

2 Office 2007 products and others report "The operarting system is not presently configured to run this application"

3. On start up/ initial login I see:

DellDock.exe Bad Image
C:\Windows\microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\culture.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact......

AdobeARM.exe
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)

4. cmd run as administrator
sfc /scannow
windows resource protection could not start the repair service

5. I ran chkdsk /r and errors were found. Can't recall exactly but implied that the disk was damaged. I am not sure where the report got stored.

6. Control Panel, Programmes and Features, "Turn Windows Features on or off" shows no features

I have tried start up repair. Issue remains.
What next? Could I manually download SP1 and install it?

Gavin

 

[flyboytim]

I have had issues with windows 7 (x86) failing updates on several machines, and the only remedy seems to be to reinstall, and let windows updates bring everything back up-to-date. Attempting to install SP1 on a machine with blocked updates seems to bring up a paradoxical situation.

It takes ages (1hr +) to install, during which time the machine should not be used then restarts, spends further time configuring itself then fails to complete the configuration, rolls back the installation to square 1 and suggests that you go to a webpage to try a few other things before reinstallation.

After doing those things, on attempted reinstallation of SP1, it fails in exactly the same fashion.

Try system restoring to a point in time before the failed updates if possible, then apply SP1 - I have not tried this yet, but it may be worth a try.

http://www.fxxxingcomputers.co.uk

 

[vacunita]

5. I ran chkdsk /r and errors were found. Can't recall exactly but implied that the disk was damaged. I am not sure where the report got stored.

If this is accurate, then installing or reinstalling anything won't fix those issues.

To make sure the drive is the one having issues, download either the hard drive manufacturers diagnostic tool, or Ultimate Boot CD and use the diagnostic tools contained in there.

If it comes back with errors, you may need to start looking for a replacement hard drive.



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[BadBigBen]

The 0xc000007b error usually suggest that there is something wrong with the drivers for the SATA controller...

but it could just as well be a malware infection (W32/Virut for instance which compromises all EXE files)...

now I would do the following:

1. install an updated driver for the SATA controller... reboot...
2. run a scan with an updated AntiVirus, followed by a scan with MalwareBytes Anti Malware, and a scan with SuperAntiSpyware... reboot between scans...
3. download CCleaner then run and have it scrub the registry and get rid of unwanted (unnecessary) files... reboot after the registry scrubbing...

post back with the results...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[linney]

Finding the ChkDsk Log File in Vista (or Windows 7).

It's located in Event Viewer/ Windows Logs/ Application/ item "Wininit" (listed under Wininit with an event ID of 1001).


The Event Viewer (Windows Logs/ System may also have lots of Red X's indicating Disk Failure.

When looking at the Event Viewer, make sure you are an Administrator.

Better troubleshooting capabilities with Windows Vista's Event Viewer

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6108150.html

I too would contact the hard drive manufacturer who will have free diagnostic software that is bootable, or that may even run from within Windows, that will thoroughly check the condition of your hard drive.

Once you have ascertained the condition of the hard drive you can look at other options.

 

[Gavona]

Thanks for your responses. It may take a day or two before I get to them but I will keep you in the picture.


Gavin

 

[kjv1611]

Here's something else to try that I'd of not thought of, had someone not brought me their Dell laptop last night, and had I not found it online.

On some Dell Insspirons, at least, beginning with Vista (I think), there is an issue with 2 things: AHCI vs ATA mode for the SATA controller, and the Flash Cache Module. By default if both these are available, then SATA Mode is set to AHCI, and Flash Cache Module is set to Enabled.

Basically, it looks like - so far, I've not had time to test further, yet, that if you simply switch AHCI to ATA, and disable the Flash Module, then either allow Windows to repair itself, or THEN run a reinstall, that it'll fix the issue.

From the prevalence I saw online in different forums, etc, I'd say it very well may be a Dell BIOS or controller issue.

I suggest trying making those BIOS changes (Search the web for more references - there are plenty of them), then when you attempt to boot into Windows, if given the option, allow it to run startup repair, and let it do whatever it thinks it needs to do... load into Windows if possible (was possible for me yester-evening), then reboot when prompted, b/c it'll have to "install new hardware" since your hard drive will be recognized differntly by Windows.s

If the repair doesn't work, then try a reinstall... or a repair install... or facctory restore if you have that option... whichever you prefer..

Then you may be good to go....


BUT just to be sure... I'd go exactly in this order:
1. Change the 2 BIOS settings
2. Run the HDD Scans from the HDD manufacturer... or just run the Dell Diagnostics, they're not half bad. Try the UltimateBootCD if you want another alternative, as mentioned by vaccunita - it has loads of different programs on it.
3. Attempt the repair install
4. After final reboot... if it asks for a scandisk, you can let it finish the first time... if you get it again... you may want to do some further testing of the drive to be sure it's okay (that's where I'm at right now, and I know I won't get to it again until this evening).

Anyway.. the one I was asked to look at, it'll just sit there at the Windows Vista logon, and the bar will move continually.... or if try to start in safe mode, it reaches a certain point and sticks.... well, it DID do that anyway... every time I tried to run startup repair, it would scan for a long time, and say "trying to fix errors on the hard drive.." Then I found the solution for changing the BIOS settings.. tried that, and after another startup repair, it actually went into Windows.

If I don't forget, I'll post back here with whether the one I'm working on ends up being fixed for good, or whether it's still a hard disk problem. Many people reported making the BIOS changes, but then having to reinstall Windows, which I was expecting to be the case, but so far, so good.

 

[Gavona]

[purple]Thanks Linney[/purple]. ChkDsk /r reported this (I don't fully understand it so am posting in full):

Checking file system on C: The type of the file system is NTFS. Volume label is OS. A disk check has been scheduled. Windows will now check the disk. CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)... 218880 file records processed. File verification completed. 408 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 0 EA records processed. 92 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)... 269286 index entries processed. Index verification completed. 0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)... 218880 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 39 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9. Cleaning up 39 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9. Cleaning up 39 unused security descriptors. Security descriptor verification completed. 25204 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal... 34671040 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed. CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)... [red]Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0x8f128000 for 0x10000 bytes. Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0x8f12d000 for 0x1000 bytes. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 354 of name \Windows\rescache\rc0015\Segment3.cmf. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 784 of name \Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\MICROS~1\Windows\WER\REPORT~1\NO3384~1\Report.wer. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 7286 of name \Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\MICROS~1\Windows\WER\REPORT~1\AP2C87~1.EXE\Report.wer. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 27098 of name \Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\MICROS~1\Windows\WER\REPORT~1\NOA763~1\Report.wer. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 27103 of name \Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\MICROS~1\Windows\WER\REPORT~1\NOBAFB~1\Report.wer. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 27106 of name \Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\MICROS~1\Windows\WER\REPORT~1\NODCF9~1\Report.wer. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 45385 of name \Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\MICROS~1\Windows\WER\REPORT~1\AP0F7A~1.EXE\Report.wer. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 45386 of name \Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\MICROS~1\Windows\WER\REPORT~2\APPCRA~3.EXE\Report.wer. Windows replaced bad clusters in file 45393 of name \Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\MICROS~1\Windows\WER\REPORT~1\AP3E42~1.EXE\Report.wer. 218864 files processed. File data verification completed.[/red] CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)... 92222661 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete. [red]Adding 1 bad clusters to the Bad Clusters File. CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap. Windows has made corrections to the file system. [/red]472984599 KB total disk space. 103687188 KB in 107404 files. 68864 KB in 25205 indexes. 4 KB in bad sectors. 337899 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 368890644 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 118246149 total allocation units on disk. 92222661 allocation units available on disk. Internal Info: 00 57 03 00 0c 06 02 00 ff b4 03 00 00 00 00 00 .W.............. 81 02 00 00 5c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....\........... 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ Windows has finished checking your disk. Please wait while your computer restarts.

The Dell Diagnostics reported nothing unusual.

I have twice ran the startup repair though actually the problem is not with Startup.

McAfee is running. The scan that ran the other day reported 7 Trojans. I find these in the vault (never looked there before):
RUNDLL32.exe (several of these with different detection dates - guess they may be a problem?) CONVERU.EXE These both report the threat as GENERIC.DX!VLF.
Back last year a couple of others but not repeated so I assume ok.

Should the Trojan thing and the prolonged lack of Windows Update lead me to simply re-load from the image I took over a year ago??

I do have a repair partition thingy installed by Dell, Vista HP disk plus Win 7 Upgrade disk and an image of the Disk after I had done the initial cleanups when received from Dell 15 months ago / installs of software etc. Daughter feels she has backed up all files. I have used Windows Easy Transfer just in case but would be wary of using as I fear it may replicate errors. So restoring the system from an image is a real option and if that fails there are other options. However the system is not bloated or obviously slowing down and no doubt various settings would be lost - so I will try the other things first - I might learn something!

[purple]kjv1611[/purple]: I am a little hazy on why 1 (Bios stuff) before 2 (surface scan). If I do have a damaged disk then surely I want all the bad sectors mapped out before I start?

You guys are the experts but are saying slightly different things. I think I will go with this:
1. Full McAfee scan overnight. Then empty the vault.
2. Surface scan etc using manufacturers disk
3. Update SATA controller driver if I can find one on Dell's website
4. KJ's suggestion re AHCI to ATA etc
5. Repair Install
6. Scan with Malwarebytes etc as Ben suggested
7. CC Cleaner
10. If I am not there then look to re-load from the drive image.



Hoping you will respond overnight and I will try the next step in the am.


Gavin

 

[BadBigBen]

OK, your list needs to be amended just slightly...

point 3, SATA driver can be skipped if you are changing from AHCI to ATA (point 4)...

besides that sounds fair...

"You guys are the experts but are saying slightly different things. " - correct, we all have different experiences and approach problems from different angles... ;-)



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[linney]

If you can't get a clean bill of health for your hard drive (bad sectors etc.) in repeated chkdsk scans and manufacturer diagnostics, then reliability may be hard to achieve, at least until you replace any faulty hard drive. A drive will function with bad sectors that are known to Windows and therefor avoided when writing, but they are still a sign of a likely failing hard drive in the future.

 

[Gavona]

If you can't get a clean bill of health for your hard drive (bad sectors etc.) in repeated chkdsk scans and manufacturer diagnostics, then reliability may be hard to achieve, at least until you replace any faulty hard drive

There is nothing so far to indicate that I am in that situation. The drive passed the full SMART tests.
The issues all appeared in a short space of time, possibly all at the same time. In mid February McAfee Security Centre was installed and the laptop was taken on holiday. We do not think MSOffice had been used after that point. Daughter reported difficulty with accessing our home network. That turned out to be due to different passwords on different machines and, I think, a McAfee setting. I am assuming that is unrelated to my issues. Having sorted that I was trying to make sure everything was up to date when I found the windows update issue together with the inability to get into office. I guess my working assumption is that the laptop got dropped and there is physical damage to a critical area of the disk.

"You guys are the experts but are saying slightly different things. " - correct, we all have different experiences and approach problems from different angles...

Absolutely and there are usually several different ways of solving a problem. I certainly didn't intend any critism and have so much respect for you all - its so great that you are all willing to share!

Last night's scan revealed Adware-GameSpyArcade which I have quarantined and will delete.

Gavin

 

[kjv1611]

Last night's scan revealed Adware-GameSpyArcade..

That can be argued whether it's spyware or not. I don't like games on my pc that look like spyware to many vendors, but the manufacturer for years, best I recall, has denied it is any sort of adware or spyware.

Regardless, that one is practically impossible to be causing any of your issues.

 

[Gavona]

The Toshiba/Fujitsu utility did an extended test that the web says includes a surface scan. However it did not show me any detailed results.

I tried to run (as administrator) C:\Windows\System32.CMD and now get the message Windows cannot find ..... I get this even if I navigate to the file and select run as admin from the context menu. THIS IS A NEW FAULT!

I am running Dell Diagnostics on the hard drive. They look really thorough. I am 100% through the "Confidence Test", 34% through the suite of Hard drive tests. One worrying error so far relating to "Performing Surface Scan on remainder of the media":

Error code 0F00:1344
Msg: Block 35490153: can't read, replace disk

I am continuing the test and it probably won't finish for a while - but is it still worth trying the AHCI to ATA or is that now ruled out as a solution?

Gavin

 

[vacunita]

One more point towards a physically damaged drive.

I think its safe to say there's some actual damage there. Unreadable clusters, and unreadable blocks point to actual damage.

Its entirely possible, the damaged areas include certain parts of the Windows installation, which is why you can't read it completely or correctly, and therefore can't run it. Have you tried "command" instead of "CMD"

Also have you tried running CMD from Safe Mode?


----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[BadBigBen]

I certainly didn't intend any criticism

I actually did not pick that up as criticism, thought I'd just point out that different minds work differently...


now, as Vacunita pointed out, a damaged surface is a sure bet that things will not run as they should... best option you have is to replace the drive and reload Windows...

now I am not sure, as I don't work on Dell Laptops, you may have create an Install DVD, in case you do not have a (OEM) Win7 DVD to do a fresh install...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Gavona]

Great advice - thanks all.

Changed from AHCI ==> ATA in Bios but Dell gives access to very few settings and I couldn't find one for "Flash Cache Module".

Repair didn't succeed and I didn't bother to try to re-install. At this point Dell diagnostices reported the same issues as before. I don't think these utilise Windows so, I accept the drive is reretreivably damaged and I should replace. I assume I can't simply map out the bad block.

1. Any suggestion re make/model of drive (I am in UK)
2. Will Win7 license be affected if I don't buy from Dell
3. I think I used Macrium reflect to image ALL the disks it could see(i.e. including Dell's recovery partition). But to be sure I will make a further copies of each logical disk it can see (if I can get it to run). Then I will copy the image to the new drive (which will presumably replicate errors that either can be repaired or I will need to restore the older image just of the C drive)..... Does Dell do anything odd that will stop this approach from working?

Dell Inspiron 1545 Service Tag 2DFHZJ1
T660, 4GB, HD4330, Win7 64 bit
500GB SATA Toshiba MK5055GSX (100Gb used as most music and data is stored to a network drive)

I have run Belaric Advisor to capture software licence details

I have the following DVDs

Vista HP 64bit SP1
Win 7 Upgrade Assistant
Win 7 Upgrade

MS Office 2007
McAfee Security Centre
Drivers and Utilities
Application –Cyberlink PowerDVD DX 8.3 for Win 7
Application – Webcam

Any thing else to think about?

Gavin

 

[linney]

As long as any new drive is able to hold all the images you wish to restore to it then you should be OK. Any operating system restored that way may need to be reactivated due to hardware changes.

This is not really related if you go down the image restore path (and assuming you are restoring a Windows 7 system), can you make use of this information rather than ever in the future having to do any Vista to Windows 7 steps?

Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

 

[G0AOZ]

Try scanning the drive with MHDD. This can often reveal slow (and very slow) to read (and write) data blocks which CHKDSK and many others just don't find.

You can spend an awful lot of time checking and trying to figure out what is wrong with a drive, and it depends upon whether or not your time for doing this is costing money. Commercially, we'd probably cut our losses and bung in a new hard drive.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[Gavona]

You are quite right Roger, I am trying to do this in spare moments between my weekend jobs so not putting much value on my time. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised when I found how little the new drives cost - which further re-enforces your point. That said, the AHCI/ATA issue and the fact that I had never tested restoring from my disk image persuaded me to restore the C: drive from my image and see what happens.

Amazingly this seems to have solved the problem. I am running the Dell diagnostics now and it will take a few hours yet to complete but it has completed tests that failed before, including a surface scan. If that gives the all clear then I will try MHDD as I will still replace the disk if there is any hint of reliability issues.

Gavin