Vista Boot Failure - never gets to login

[4net]

Hi,
I have a 3month old PC - clean installed with Vista Home Prem OEM. As of 8
days ago will not finish booting - simply ends with a mouse pointer on a
black screen (pointer moves when mouse is moved). Have tried - everything -
full memory diagnostics, chkdsk /r, System restore (found no restore points),
all SAFE modes, Last good config. In place upgrade is disabled as it is an
OEM build. Intel P35 chipset MB, E6850 CPU. No new hardware installed. No bug
check codes displayed (no blue screen). Was fully up to date with WU, and
drivers - and was running well since built.
It is as if the profile is corrupt - but there was no indication of a
problem. If this was Win XP I would do a Repair Install. Obviously no way to
do that in Vista. This was before SP1 came out this week. The drive has been
fully scanned for virii and spyware (HDD added to a clean working system and
scanned), came up clean.

I do not want to give up and clean install - there has to be another way. I
have been a PC tech since 1986 - and VERY RARELY give up.

4net

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Just some thoughts:

- It can't be a corrupt profile if it never reaches the logon screen. It
would have to be a corrupt installation if it's a software issue.
- If you cannot load safe mode, then your options are going to be limited.
Can you load the recovery console by booting the disk?
- Failing hardware components, possibly the power supply, can cause this
type of fault.
- If the drive itself is ok, then cherry-picking data from it as a slave in
another machine is often a good idea before progressing on recovery
operations.
- Sometimes, you just aren't going to be able to recover an installation.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Lucvdv]

Hi,
I have a 3month old PC - clean installed with Vista Home Prem OEM. As of 8
days ago will not finish booting - simply ends with a mouse pointer on a
black screen (pointer moves when mouse is moved). Have tried - everything -
full memory diagnostics, chkdsk /r, System restore (found no restore points),
all SAFE modes, Last good config. In place upgrade is disabled as it is an
OEM build. Intel P35 chipset MB, E6850 CPU. No new hardware installed. No bug
check codes displayed (no blue screen). Was fully up to date with WU, and
drivers - and was running well since built.
It is as if the profile is corrupt - but there was no indication of a
problem. If this was Win XP I would do a Repair Install. Obviously no way to
do that in Vista. This was before SP1 came out this week. The drive has been
fully scanned for virii and spyware (HDD added to a clean working system and
scanned), came up clean.

I do not want to give up and clean install - there has to be another way. I
have been a PC tech since 1986 - and VERY RARELY give up.

I don't know how much time you gave it before deciding that something was
broken, but the black screen sounds familiar.

I've had this once when rebooting after installing one of those monthly
batches of updates. Also tried safe mode etc., it just wouldn't finish
booting.

Then I just left it powered on in that state while I was doing something
else. After about 20 minutes of black screen (I think, but definitely more
than 15 minutes) it spontaneously rebooted, and from then on all was back
to normal.

It's done it again a couple of months later (or could have been only one
month), and again it happened while rebooting from a batch of updates, but
it didn't take as long this time. Still a few minutes of black screen,
though.

 

[4net]

Thanks Lucvdv,
I wish this was true - but alas I have left the system running for 8 hours,
to no avail.
thanks for your reply.

Barry Mc (4net)

 

[Thomas]

I think I have a similar problem happens to me last night.
I cannot get out of the screen saver mode, then I reboot and after reboot
first it took a long time( I would says at least 5 minutes) before getting to
the black screen with the green bar moving, then it stays on this screen and
will never go to the logon screen.
I will try Lucvdv's suggestion and see if it fix it when I get home tonight.

 

[4net]

Hi Rick,
mentioning the profile was was to indicate that it was well into the boot
process that the loading fails. Hard to tell if it is a pre or post login
failure as their is no password on login so a normal boot will go straight to
the desktop. Yes I can get to the recovery console after going into the Vista
RE environment via the OEM DVD. But all of the repair options I know only
help in fixing the system boot and early initialization files. Their is no
indication as to why the loading just ceases.

If it was a similiar problem in Win XP - I would try a repair install - if
that failed I would use the "shift F10" key sequence during a repair install
(a VERY rarely documented feature - often not even known by MS techs) to run
either compmgmt.msc (if winxppro) or nusrmgr.cpl to create a new profile.
I have not found anything similiar in Vista Home Prem.

I appreciate you quick reply - any suggestions welcomed.

Barry Mc (4net)

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Have you tried enabling boot logging from the boot menu, then pulling the
ntbtlog.txt file and checking it?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[4net]

Yes,
not much help, the last 4 lines of the ntbtlog.txt follow:
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nmsunidr.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\peauth.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\secdrv.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\tcpipreg.sys

and that's it
no indication of a problem

Barry Mc (4net)

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

It could be that the last driver loaded is hanging. You might try disabling
the network card to see if it progresses beyond that point.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[4net]

Thanks Rick
Latest update:

Disabled the NIC - double checked all BIOS settings, unplugged all USB
cables from the mainboard (setting up the system to be as barebones as
possible) - swapped memory modules (just to be sure). Still no luck

Installed a new hard drive - did a clean install of VHPrem (obviously
removing the customers drive). Installed and runs perfectly. Attached the
customers hard drive as a second drive to double check the file system and to
make sure that it was clean of all virii (including root kits) and spyware.

Even rang MS tech support today - they say I have tried everything they can
think of - there is nothing anywhere in their database of a similiar problem.
Gee I wish I knew what it was. I HATE being defeated, and having to resort
to a clean install.

Barry Mc