HP DV3736nr won't load in to windows - keeps rebooting

HP DV6736nr won't load in to windows - keeps rebooting

Hi folks, I’m new here so I hope I do this right…

The laptop in question is a HP Pavillion DV6736nr with 2GB of RAM running Vista Home Premium (SP1). I am unsure about anything else (unsure to boot into it) other than it has an AMD Turion 64 x2 processor and Nvidia graphics). Sorry for being sort of vague.

The laptop I have will not completely boot up. It is a friends laptop and he has been having problems with it so he asked me to look at it. I know a little bit about computers, but I am definitely not an expert. I know this doesn’t make it any easier, but he can not remember what he was doing when the problem started.

When I attempt to boot the laptop I get the “Windows did not shut down successfully” screen. I first tried “Start Windows Normally” which did not work. The computer would begin loading in to Windows. The windows Vista logo would appear and I would get a black screen with the cursor on it. After about 2 seconds the screen would go black and the computer would restart. When I tried “Safe Mode” and “Safe Mode with Netorking” I had the same error. So I am unable to boot in to safe mode as well.

The first time I tried safe mode I actually ended up with a BSOD, but the computer restarted to fast for me to be able to write down the code. I haven’t been able to get the BSOD again.

I am able to boot in to “Safe Mode with Command Prompt” and I am able to use the command prompt with no problem (Other than not really knowing what to do with it… :huh: )

I’ve attempted removing/ swapping the RAM with no success

I’ve attempted restoring to an earlier point using System Restore and I get an error that states “System restore did not complete successfully. Your computer’s system files and settings were not changed”

Details:

System Restore failed due to an unspecified error.
Data error (cyclic redundancy check). (0x80070017)

That error occurs no matter which restore point I attempt to use.

I have also tried “Startup Repair” and I get the error

“Startup Repair could not detect a problem”

“If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or portable music player, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

When I click “View diagnostic and repair details” all of the error codes are “0x0”

When I ran chkdsk after it runs it states the following:
“The master file table’s <MFT> BITMAP attribute is incorrect.
The Volume Bitmap is incorrect.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run chkdsk with the /F (fix) option to correct these.”

I attempted to run chkdsk /F it states “Chkdsk can run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)”

I say yes and it advises that it will be checked next time the system restarts, but when the computer restarts it doesn’t appear to do anything other then the same reboot-cycle as before.

The last thing I’ve tried is sfc /scannow which runs through and gives the following error:
“Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. I looked through the CBS.log file and I didn’t really notice any errors and to be honest I’m not too sure how to get it off the laptop to get it on to a working computer to post it here .

I am unsure what else I could do to attempt to fix this problem short of reformatting and starting over. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If I neglected to provide you with any information I apologize and will post it ASAP.

Thanks.

Hi,

Well there seems to be a bit of contradiction in that statement!

I assume you have been able to get to the recovery stuff from the disk (F11) or another boot medium?

Is there any information that the other party needs? If not, a full restore back to "Day One" is the quickest way forward.

What do you want to do?

Sorry...I forgot to mention that I'm accessing the the recovery options by pressing F8 at start up and choosing the "Repair Your Computer" option. Everything else I ran through the command prompt.

I would like to repair it if possible. I could probably grab most of files that may be on there through ubuntu if I need to format, though. I will generally just reformat and start over in a situation like this, but this is really bugging me for some reason. I just wanted to see if there was something that I was missing and figured some expert advice was in order

Well we do have an "Expert" in systems of this nature.

I have requested him to look at this thread & advise us of the correct course of action.

Please wait for "Niemiro" to post his recommendations (Currently off line).

Hello!

How old is this computer? I think this is actually a hardware problem. I think that this is a hard disk which died a little while ago, but was not replaced, and now all data on it is so badly damaged that it is beyond repair. I think that that hard drive has had it.

BSoDs. Corruption?
Corrupt System Restore cache.
Corrupt system files.
Corrupt MFT

I am thinking nothing but a really, really dead hard disk. A hard disk this dead will be difficult to recover data from as well.

I think that your best bet is sticking the hard disk in a caddy, or using Ubuntu: Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek

to get off as much data as possible, before yet more damage occurs.

We can check the hard disk later, so don't throw it out yet, and keep it for possible warranty return. If I have overguessed, and the hard disk is not a fault, we have the data, and can work out a new strategy.

Sorry,

Richard

P.S. Any strange clicking, scraping, grinding, knocking, loud buzzing, loud wirring or other noises coming from inside that machine?

I appreciate the speedy responses by both of you.

Niemiro, The laptop (At least based on what I was told) is about 4 years old. You are probably right about the hard disk. Although I have not heard any noises other than the normal sounds of the drive spinning up, this was what I was beginning to think was the problem. (or at least hoping because that is one of the cheaper fixes to do)

I am in the process of removing files from the hard disk as I type this. So far I'm having no problems. After I get some of the important files off of it I am going to attempt to reinstall on the same hard disk. If it does turn out to be the hard disk that is bad I'm going to have to order a new one as well as a disk from HP to reinstall windows. I hate the fact that a lot of these newer machines don't come with the installation disk and put all of the installation files on the hard disk itself.

Again, I really appreciate the replies

I hate the fact that a lot of these newer machines don't come with the installation disk and put all of the installation files on the hard disk itself.

Click to expand...

I agree.

Be aware that on these type of HP setups there is a way to burn one set of Vista installation media to DVD.

On my HP Compaq computer it is as follows:

Start icon > All Programs > PC Help & Tools > Recovery Disc Creation



Only one set is allowed per PC.

Hi,

Look here for a second chance to create the disks (It works): -

Recovery disk for a specific HP pavilion [Solved]

Thanks for the information on the recovery disks. I've been able to successfully load windows back on to the drive from the recovery partition and it seems to be running great. At first I had issues with the wireless, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by completely removing the old driver and installing the new one. I just finished transferring the backed up files from my external HDD to the laptop. I'm going to make a recovery disk for any future problems that might arise. Again, thanks to everybody for the help.