Troubleshoot Computer wont boot, stuck on Starting Windows.

[robbyrob]

Briefly explain your current issue(s)

Wont boot

Steps taken to resolve, but have been unsuccessful

Tried to reformat.

So my moms computer started doing something which has me going nuts at this point. My mom has an older dell that has been giving her problems. This was actually my older PC i gave her when I got a new one. One day I got the call we all dread when we get from "anyone in the family that sees us as the computer guy/gal". She told me the computer wont start. Its stuck.

I said well she either touched some setting or some issues with the boot file etc. I went over thinking i'll just boot to install CD and either repair or worst case senerio reformat. No biggie. I get there and just turn it on to see what happen. Bios load windows starts and I get the windows logo with the starting windows and it just stays there. I said well lets try a repair. I insert the disk press F12 boot from disk, I get the touch any key I press it and it just goes back to the starting windows screen stuck.

Hmm. I said well lets boot into safe mode and see if I can do something through there. Press F8 select safe mode and boom I get all that stuff across the screen like its the matrix and then it just stay stuck there. Nothing..

I started thinking and then said 'I'll show you!!" Made a Ultimate boot CD and wiped the drive. My thinking was since I wiped the drive I can start new fresh drive and everything will be peachy from there. I wiped the drive and inserted the install disk and I couldn't believe it, back to starting windows and boom stuck again. At this point I do not know what else to try.

anyone have any ideas? Could this be a HDD issue? Just thinking out loud here but any help would be appreciated.

 

[BoraMurdar]

It smells on bad sectors on HDD, if you of course used non-defected ISO for installation... Try checking/resetting all connectors to all main components and check HDD for bad sectors from UBCD or Hirens

 

[robbyrob]

thanks for this.. will check and report back, going there tomorrow for some Memorial day fun!

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

Yep, drive taking a poop.
I think Bora called it.
Let us know what you find out brother.
PeAcE

 

[robbyrob]

Ok so I checked the drive for errors with UBCD and nothing. After it reached 100% it said 0 errors and 0 remapped.

I tried to reformat again and nothing. It just got stuck on starting Windows and got stuck. Checked the install Dvd just to rule that out in my gateway and it booted no problem.

Ok really weird. As I was writing this I said let me try one more time and the setup actually worked. It's installing now so let's see what happens. Just doing a clean reformat at this point. Will report back.

 

[shmu26]

It sounds to me like the first time you tried it, you reformatted a different partition than the one windows was installed on. The second time, you got it right.

 

[robbyrob]

hey guy sorry I didn't update this earlier I had to move and we all know how fun moving is and getting everything set up and going. The PC made it one day and went back to its normal self of not booting. I'm going to change the HDD and see if that has to do something with it. Will let you guys know once I cross that bridge what happens.

 

[Lucent Warrior]

hey guy sorry I didn't update this earlier I had to move and we all know how fun moving is and getting everything set up and going. The PC made it one day and went back to its normal self of not booting. I'm going to change the HDD and see if that has to do something with it. Will let you guys know once I cross that bridge what happens.

Next time you run into this, if you are lucky enough as in this case to get it to format and install again, or gain access, once loaded, open command prompt and run:
chkdsk /f

This is better run in the repair CD via command prompt though. It will check the drive for errors and attempt to repair them if found.

 

[jamescv7]

Based on my experience usually it can be a hard drive failure which makes your OS booting to be problematic.

So likely replace with a new one, considering that the computer is old enough.

 

[Vasudev]

Did you check date/time in BIOS to verify its accurate? If PC is older, consider replacing CMOS battery and check it out. You could analyse SMART data to check if HDD is failing? My lappie was doing the same thing, did a power reset and re-seated the CMOS battery and that worked!.

 

[Overkill]

I bet it's the HDD, change it out and you should be ok.
I have had drives go bad even though some software showed no errors.

 

[Niente]

Did you tested RAM with memtest or similar?

You should do it before replacing HDD.

 

[ravi prakash saini]

Did you tested RAM with memtest or similar?

You should do it before replacing HDD.

Yes ,first of all remove the ram from motherboard and then clean the motherboard and ram by blowing air then reinsert the ram and try to boot.while reinserting ram do not use force