Need some PC help please....

[Frosty]

OK, so I need some help guys, hopefully you'll tell me I don't have to reformat or get a new hard drive.

I usually leave my PC on for most of the day, after a few minutes the monitor shuts off through the power management settings. After a quick move the mouse the monitor comes back on(I'm sure most people do this). Anyway, just a little while ago the monitor wouldn't turn back on. It was like the PC froze. So I turned it off. Well now it won't boot, it gets to the windows 7 loading screen and freezes. The keyboard and mouse lights turn off right before it freezes. I can boot into safe mode with no problem, tried a system restore, nothing I've tried works.

Any ideas?

[NastyEllEssWon]

that happened to my last computer. then i tried to boot it into safe mode and it refused to boot past bios. it was diagnosed by a computer buddy later as a friend motherboard.

[Frosty]

I can get into safe mode with no problem, I'm starting to think the HD is fried, or at least part of it is.

Here's my driver boot list up until it freezes, any idea guys?

There are just a few of the last drivers, the list is HUGE so posting the entire list would big lol

Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\WudfPf.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\bowser.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\mpsdrv.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb10.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb20.sys

[Frosty]

Just ran the boot log again and it stopped even earlier in the driver loading.

I went into the bios and the date/time was different too. I know it's rare but could a bad or failing CMOS battery be the cause?

Like I said everything works in safe mode. I boot up normal, keyboard and mouse lights up then it gets to the Win 7 loading screen with the little Win 7 logo animation, the mouse and keyboard turn off and a few seconds later the animation stops the the computer just sits there.

[NastyEllEssWon]

thats the same exact thing thats happened to my other computer. its gonna get to the point to where it wont log in past bios. i tried replacing the battery and nothing worked. the hard drives were still spinning so that led me to believe that it was the mobo. just letting you on what happened to me and maybe it will help shed some light on yours. who knows. im by no means a computer person lol

[Frosty]

Odd, I just went back before SP1 and now it's up and running. How/why the F would a driver issue(assuming it's that type of issue) just now show up? I hate computers, I really do.

[WildBillyT]

Do you have automatic updates on?

[Frosty]

Nope. I DL and install everything manually.

[JL8Jeff]

Maybe part of the hard drive where one of the drivers was located went bad. You may want to run something to check the hard drive and mark bad sectors.

[Frosty]

It acted up again, can only get into Safe Mode and even that's hit or miss. Is it safe to say the hard drive is toast? What do you guys think? Should I try reinstalling the OS or just start with a fresh hard drive?

[V]

when my laptop got the blue screen of death, I assumed it was the hard drive. I got a hard drive dock and hooked it up to my other computer as a slave drive. I could access all my old files and stuff so it seemed my issue was just in the OS. I copied over any files I still wanted or needed and then did a complete windows restore to its "as new" setup. worked fine after that. Apparently it was a virus in the boot sector.

[Frosty]

No BSOD for me, just hangs up at the boot screen. I think I might reformat/put XP on it first.

[PolarBear]

Try the "repair Windows" from the Win 7 disc. I had an issue like that with Vista and the CD was able to fix it

[Frosty]

No disc....it was a...ahem..."borrowed" version. ;)

I'll just reformat and put XP on it just to see if the drive is OK. Hopefully worst case scenario is just the drive. I hope the board is fine, I would assume it is since I can get into Safe Mode with no issues.

[Frosty]

I took a chance and just reformatted the drive with XP, found someone selling a Win 7 upgrade disc so I just threw that on too...so far so good but I still have my suspicions about the hard drive being bad.

Thanks for the help and suggestions guys.

[PolarBear]

Clone your new configuration to a new drive now and save time by not having to install the OS another time

[Frosty]

Yup, was going to look into that. I've never done anything like that(I can build a PC just fine, don't ask me to start messing with programs lol). Is there a program you'd recommend? It would take the entire drive, every file, etc and move it over?

[PolarBear]

Yes it completely copies all the data over to the new drive so the drive will boot properly afterwards. I used to use Ghost (old version, like 5 or something) but Acronis True image is pretty cool too. If you have a WD hard drive you can get the True Image off WD's site for free, but it detects your hard drives so you have to have a WD drive in the PC. Intel also offers it for free if you have an Intel SSD

[Frosty]

Thanks for the tips :)

[Knipps]

Just buy a mac. I hear that's how most people are solving their problems these days.

[r0nin89]

when my laptop got the blue screen of death, I assumed it was the hard drive. I got a hard drive dock and hooked it up to my other computer as a slave drive. I could access all my old files and stuff so it seemed my issue was just in the OS. I copied over any files I still wanted or needed and then did a complete windows restore to its "as new" setup. worked fine after that. Apparently it was a virus in the boot sector.

Often times the first thing to go when a harddrive is on its way out is the boot sector/ capability. My friends computer had a harddrive on its way out that I was able to install in another computer as a slave and backup his files.

Assuming its the harddrive is bad diagnostic practice to be honest but in this case does sound like its your issue. Western Digital has a downloadable utility to test your drive. Another good tool is called memtest. You make a boot CD and it will check your memory w/o booting windows or anything. This is a more common tool for blue screens and random crashes though. Most always reoccurring boot issues can be traced to the harddrive either having corrupted data or going bad.

CMOS batteries would never cause that issue. Only thing a bad CMOS battery would do is make the bios default and it would act "recognize" new hardware everytime you booted the computer.

[Frosty]

Just buy a mac. I hear that's how most people are solving their problems these days.

Yeah, no.

[Knipps]

Yeah, no.

your sarcasm detector's broken

[Frosty]

I knew you were being sarcastic. ;) Maybe yours is broke! :D