My computer never gets shut off, has current antivirus and firewall software, and I don't click on random garbage on facebook.
Several weeks ago I came downstairs to see a generic VGA screen that said something along the lines of "Windows was unable to start, do you want to run Starup Repair (recommended) <etc>" First time I ever saw that screen, so I said No, rebooted and it came right up. I immediately scanned it with 50,000 tools to make sure nothing was growing, ran sfc on it, etc - all showed good.
Middle of last week there was some kind of power interruption at the house. 90% of what counts is on batteries, so the only way I really knew it happened was that a few appliance clocks were defaulted. Of course the battery took a dump for this PC's UPS and I haven't replaced it yet, but it is on a good, trustworthy surge strip. Came home from work to the same message on the screen. So this time I figured if it was due to a power outage I would run it. I ran it and it went through it's long, boring process and told me nothing was wrong, but "If you added a new device recently you should remove it". The system booted up good.
Went upstairs for dinner and when I came down there it was again. Again the process said nothing was wrong. This time it wouldn't boot. It would get to "Starting Windows" and the 4 magic dots rolled out. Right after that, just when it looked like it was going to kick in the hi-res video, etc *click* off goes the power - then a couple seconds later it started booting again - just about the same spot, *click* off goes the power.
Well about this time I <expletives deleted> commented on the quality of the build and assumed it was the power supply - maybe it took a hit from whatever that power interruption was. At one point it was so bad that it wouldn't even get out of the BIOS splash screen before the power went off.
I've been doing this a long time, so I started troubleshooting - first thing shed some load (NZXT PP800 800W PS). I disconnected the 4 extra case fans, spare HD, and all the USB stuff exc the keyboard and mouse. Still wouldn't boot. Tried Safe mode with network and it cut out right about the time I figured it was initializing the LAN ports, so I tried Safe mode only and that booted up. Now at this time I was pretty convinced it was the power supply, but it's a weird size so I didn't go shopping yet.
So now I do know that I took a new video driver off Windows Update a couple weeks ago so I went on my spare (old) computer and downloaded the exact manufacturer driver. I installed that and told it to do a clean install (wipe previous). Then I went into device manager and deleted both network cards, and prior to all that, just to cover all the bases, I rolled it back a good month with System Restore. After doing all that I then restarted it and tried again. It no longer made the power unceremoniously dump, but it got to the "Starting Windows" screen with the 4-color logo and just sat there. There was HD activity so I left it go and went to dinner. 3 hours later I came back and it was still sitting just like that.
So now I hit the reset button and was able to boot into Safe mode with network. I ran sfc again and it came up clean. I ran the malware checker again and it came up clean. I can run most of my programs, get online, get my mail, etc - but a lot of stuff won't run in safe mode.
It absolutely will not boot past the startup screen on a normal boot. Nothing I have run indicates any OS or HD problems. I have reconnected the second HD but have not put the case fans back because I left the cover off. I have increased the screen res to 1280x1024 but it is still running the generic VGA driver and not the NVidia 9800 one for the card. It will run for hours and hours like that without shutting off.
So that throws me into questions about if it's really the power supply. I don't want to go out and buy a $150 power supply (and go through the wiring mess to change it) if that isn't the problem. Has anyone ever heard of a power supply that can deliver enough to keep the system mostly running but cuts out on overload when it gets stressed? I don't think it's thermal - I have a lot of ventilation in that case. Does anyone have any ideas why it won't boot past that point, of if there is some kind of bootlog file that I can access that wouldn't get overwritten when I reboot it in safe mode? Would I suspect a problem with the MBR even though it boots up in safe mode just fine?
I'm sure there are folks out there that have delved deep into the guys of Win7 that might be able to share some helpful information. I can easily back up all my data and stuff, but I really don't want to wipe the whole thing and re-install all 10 million apps when it seems to be running fine except for not booting outside of safe mode.
Thanks!
Several weeks ago I came downstairs to see a generic VGA screen that said something along the lines of "Windows was unable to start, do you want to run Starup Repair (recommended) <etc>" First time I ever saw that screen, so I said No, rebooted and it came right up. I immediately scanned it with 50,000 tools to make sure nothing was growing, ran sfc on it, etc - all showed good.
Middle of last week there was some kind of power interruption at the house. 90% of what counts is on batteries, so the only way I really knew it happened was that a few appliance clocks were defaulted. Of course the battery took a dump for this PC's UPS and I haven't replaced it yet, but it is on a good, trustworthy surge strip. Came home from work to the same message on the screen. So this time I figured if it was due to a power outage I would run it. I ran it and it went through it's long, boring process and told me nothing was wrong, but "If you added a new device recently you should remove it". The system booted up good.
Went upstairs for dinner and when I came down there it was again. Again the process said nothing was wrong. This time it wouldn't boot. It would get to "Starting Windows" and the 4 magic dots rolled out. Right after that, just when it looked like it was going to kick in the hi-res video, etc *click* off goes the power - then a couple seconds later it started booting again - just about the same spot, *click* off goes the power.
Well about this time I <expletives deleted> commented on the quality of the build and assumed it was the power supply - maybe it took a hit from whatever that power interruption was. At one point it was so bad that it wouldn't even get out of the BIOS splash screen before the power went off.
I've been doing this a long time, so I started troubleshooting - first thing shed some load (NZXT PP800 800W PS). I disconnected the 4 extra case fans, spare HD, and all the USB stuff exc the keyboard and mouse. Still wouldn't boot. Tried Safe mode with network and it cut out right about the time I figured it was initializing the LAN ports, so I tried Safe mode only and that booted up. Now at this time I was pretty convinced it was the power supply, but it's a weird size so I didn't go shopping yet.
So now I do know that I took a new video driver off Windows Update a couple weeks ago so I went on my spare (old) computer and downloaded the exact manufacturer driver. I installed that and told it to do a clean install (wipe previous). Then I went into device manager and deleted both network cards, and prior to all that, just to cover all the bases, I rolled it back a good month with System Restore. After doing all that I then restarted it and tried again. It no longer made the power unceremoniously dump, but it got to the "Starting Windows" screen with the 4-color logo and just sat there. There was HD activity so I left it go and went to dinner. 3 hours later I came back and it was still sitting just like that.
So now I hit the reset button and was able to boot into Safe mode with network. I ran sfc again and it came up clean. I ran the malware checker again and it came up clean. I can run most of my programs, get online, get my mail, etc - but a lot of stuff won't run in safe mode.
It absolutely will not boot past the startup screen on a normal boot. Nothing I have run indicates any OS or HD problems. I have reconnected the second HD but have not put the case fans back because I left the cover off. I have increased the screen res to 1280x1024 but it is still running the generic VGA driver and not the NVidia 9800 one for the card. It will run for hours and hours like that without shutting off.
So that throws me into questions about if it's really the power supply. I don't want to go out and buy a $150 power supply (and go through the wiring mess to change it) if that isn't the problem. Has anyone ever heard of a power supply that can deliver enough to keep the system mostly running but cuts out on overload when it gets stressed? I don't think it's thermal - I have a lot of ventilation in that case. Does anyone have any ideas why it won't boot past that point, of if there is some kind of bootlog file that I can access that wouldn't get overwritten when I reboot it in safe mode? Would I suspect a problem with the MBR even though it boots up in safe mode just fine?
I'm sure there are folks out there that have delved deep into the guys of Win7 that might be able to share some helpful information. I can easily back up all my data and stuff, but I really don't want to wipe the whole thing and re-install all 10 million apps when it seems to be running fine except for not booting outside of safe mode.
Thanks!