Vista hangs during startup

Barryco

New Member
I have built up a new system...been running perfectly since August 2008.

2 nights ago I had just finished an update to itunes and some other apple software which required a restart. Upon restart, the system hung while booting...didn't get to the user account log-in screen....it froze with a blackscreen with the mouse cursor sitting there in the middle.

I have done the following things and observed the following behaviour:
  • I have not added any hardware to the system
  • Windows Update has doing automatic updates
  • the systems boots and runs perfectly in safe mode with networking
  • I have reverted to a couple of different restore points prior to installing the apple software...no change
  • I have disabled all non-Microsoft software from starting up via Windows Defender...no change
  • I can get the system to boot to where it displays the user accounts login screen. When I click on an account and enter the password it will hang at that point. Mouse continues to respond but no further response. Disk drive light goes solid but no sound of the disk operating
  • If at the user account log in screen I select to shut the system down it will hang during shutdown
  • checking the event logs shows a range of various fatal errors....I can provide more info on this at later posts if needed but the messages look quite similar to other posts given for a range of different behaviours so I am not sure which if any are relevant.
  • Booting to the Vista CD and doing a repair found no errors.
In short, my perfectly happy and functioning system has suddenly gone mental for no obvious reason.

ANy suggestions greatfully appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo 8500
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte
    Memory
    4 Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated
    Sound Card
    Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 19" LCD
    Hard Drives
    750 Gb Samsung
Run memtest.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brew
    CPU
    Intel E7200
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
    Memory
    Kingston 4GB DDR2-800
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATi Radeon HD3870 PCIe
    Sound Card
    Creative Labs Audigy 2
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 940BW
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    Seagate 7200.10 SATAII 250GB x2 RAID 0
    Western Digital 640AAKS
    PSU
    Antec Neo550
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    Zalman 9500
    Keyboard
    Logitech S510 Combo
    Mouse
    Logitech S510 Combo
    Internet Speed
    Comcast @ 10Mb
Hi Barryco,

Seems the Apple updates have caused some damage somewhere.

The startup repair did not help, because the problem occurs after Vista has booted. System restore only restores the o/s settings to that point. Seems other applications/ drivers have been affected.

You could try a variety of things like checking drivers in device manager, uninstalling all apps. one by one to see which may have been corrupted, running SFC, analysing event log errors...

Or you could do a Repair install which takes just over 20 -25 minutes

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html

Hope it helps

SIW2
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
Thanks for the feedback.

SOme questions:
  • how do I run memtest?
  • What's SFC?
  • I can't uninstall the Apple apps because in safe mode when I try and deinstall them I get an error "The Windows installer service is not available in Safe Mode. Please try again when your system is not in Safe Mode or you can use System Restore to return your machine to a previous good dtate"
Re: System Restore I don't understand the earlier post. Isn't the whole point that it takes you to an earlier version of the systm? SO if I do a system restore to a time before I did the Apple updates, shouldn't the system be like the updates were never applied?

My head hurts....

Thanks
Barry
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo 8500
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte
    Memory
    4 Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated
    Sound Card
    Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 19" LCD
    Hard Drives
    750 Gb Samsung
Hi Barryco,

Suggest you try going into safe mode by tapping F8 after the Bios screen ( black writing on white screen ) and before Windows loads.

Arrow down to Last known good configuration and press Enter.

Hope it helps

SIW2
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
If nothing above helps, you probably need to reinstall Vista. Hope you have backup your data. Good luck.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    E6850
    Motherboard
    EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 680i
    Memory
    4 x OCZ Platinum 1GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
    Sound Card
    SB X-Fi X Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 23" 5MS
    Screen Resolution
    2048 x 1152
    Hard Drives
    2 x Barracuda 7200.10 320GB RAID 0 / 1 x 500GB Maxtor
    PSU
    Seasonic 600W M12
    Case
    CM Centurion 5
    Cooling
    air
    Internet Speed
    100Mbps

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    * BFK Customs *
    CPU
    Intel C2Q 9550 Yorkfield
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5Q Pro
    Memory
    8GB Dominator 8500C5D
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX ATI 1GB 4870 XXX
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD 7-1
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1x 47" LCD HDMI & 2x 26" LCD HDMI
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080P & 1920x1200
    Hard Drives
    2x 500GB 7200RPM 32MB Cache WD Caviar Black
    PSU
    Corsair 620HX
    Case
    CM Cosmos RC-1000
    Cooling
    Tuniq Tower 120, 2x 140mm and 3x 120mm case fans
    Keyboard
    HP Enhansed Multimedia
    Mouse
    Razer Diamondback 3G
    Internet Speed
    18.6Mb/s
    Other Info
    My First Build ;)
Alas SFC found no errors.

I think I will go for the repair install.

I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks again for the advice.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo 8500
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte
    Memory
    4 Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated
    Sound Card
    Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 19" LCD
    Hard Drives
    750 Gb Samsung
Hello Barryco!

Thanks for the update; yes keep us informed!















Later :shock: Ted
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    * BFK Customs *
    CPU
    Intel C2Q 9550 Yorkfield
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5Q Pro
    Memory
    8GB Dominator 8500C5D
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX ATI 1GB 4870 XXX
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD 7-1
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1x 47" LCD HDMI & 2x 26" LCD HDMI
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080P & 1920x1200
    Hard Drives
    2x 500GB 7200RPM 32MB Cache WD Caviar Black
    PSU
    Corsair 620HX
    Case
    CM Cosmos RC-1000
    Cooling
    Tuniq Tower 120, 2x 140mm and 3x 120mm case fans
    Keyboard
    HP Enhansed Multimedia
    Mouse
    Razer Diamondback 3G
    Internet Speed
    18.6Mb/s
    Other Info
    My First Build ;)
Well it's sorted out but I am not quite sure what happened.

I found that if I waited when the system appeared to hang at login it eventually came back and ran OK after 10 mins or so. At that point a window popped up to tell me that Windows Update needs me to shutdown.

AFter doinf the shutdown things are good.

I'm guessing that what happened was that Windows Update was in the middle of doing some damn thing and what I took for a hang was actually it doing its thing installing, cleaning up or whatever. I'm used to snappy response on my PC as it is a fairly high spec machine so I am not used to waiting for more than a second or two for anything.

I have now set it to download automatically but ask me to choose what I install so that I have somecontrol over the process.

Thanks to you all for your help.

Barry
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo 8500
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte
    Memory
    4 Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated
    Sound Card
    Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 19" LCD
    Hard Drives
    750 Gb Samsung
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