Trouble booting up

My computer hasn't been working right for over a year now. First thing that happened was that it would have trouble booting up after updates and sometimes I would have to restore to pre-update to get it booted up. This got progressively worse until it wouldn't boot up at all. Weird part is that, if I left sit for a couple of weeks, it would boot up just fine.

Took it to the shop for a diagnostic - nothing wrong. They reinstalled Vista and things worked fine. For a couple weeks. Then it started having trouble again with restarts. It was the same progressive downward spiral, except the details and the symptoms were different. (Again don't remember exactly what they were) However, they were just as consistant. It was the same couple of errors or sequence of problems each time. Again, if I left it sit for a week, it was temporarily fine.

Took it back to the shop for another diagnostic - still nothing wrong. Reinstalled Vista and everything was fine for a couple of weeks again. Now I have a completely different, but very consistant, series of things preventing me from booting up. I can't boot up safe mode, except with dos prompt, and i get constant errors about C:\Windows\system32\UxTheme.dll causing trouble.

I feel like there's got to be a hardware problem, but don't want to start randomly buying parts. Any ideas?

Welcome
The most difficult part of diagnosing problems is to avoid letting exraneous events enter into our decision process. I do not think the updates are involved.
Sits a week and then ok, hmmmm, overheating?
Core Temp

Thanks for responding!

How do I find out the temperature? It seemed, early in this problem, that the computer worked better with it's side panel off, so I was thinking temperature also at that point. Do you think temperature would cause such consistent errors or would they be more random? Also, I thought the diagnostic at the shop would check for this - the diagnostic ran for 24 hrs according to what they said.

One other detail: The first time the shop reinstalled Vista, they left my hard drive partitioning intact. The second (most recent) time, they wiped the entire drive and set it up without separate partitions.

The last time I had trouble with a computer that no one could diagnose, I eventually pulled out a ram stick and it worked fine. But I've already tried that here.

Best to go one step at a time. My first post, click on core temp
Diagnostic shop LOL
We can do a memory test later, but for now
One step at a time.

Ok I'm sorry - didn't catch that. I can't download anything onto the computer because it doesn't work at all right now. When it started it's spiral towards death this last time, it ran checkdisk and the repair utility a number of times, but now it really doesn't work at all. When I get near the login screen, I get repeated error boxes about LogonUI.exe - bad image with c:\windows\system32\uxtheme.dll. And then, everything it tries to do gives another series of these error boxes.

I can get it into safe mode with command prompt, but that's it. And then it won't let me do anything with that file.

Do you have stuff that you do not want to lose?

Do you think I need to reinstall vista again to get a desktop?

No disc came with my computer and I was going to buy one and do it myself, but it was at the shop anyway, so, I was like "just go ahead and do it." The second time, I figured they owed me. I'm not going back to shops anymore though. They didn't even get my sound drivers right (both times!) and I had to track them down myself, so I'm like "what exactly are these people doing to fix the problem?!" But now I'm just ranting. . .

Yes, but I've already lost stuff when they un-partitioned my drive, so I'll get over it.

richc46 said:

Do you have stuff that you do not want to lose?

Click to expand...

LOL we were both typing at the same time

LOL

If you create a recovery DVD, you may be able to boot to recovery options
Create Recovery DVD.
Hard Disc Controller must be set to IDE in BIOS and Bios must be set to boot from the CD Boot Priority - Change

The Vista recovery disk is used to boot Vista when it won't boot - to run Startup Repair, System Restore, access a Command Line, Recover using a Vista Backup Image, etc.
System Recovery Options. Choose an option tht will not cause you to lose your stuff.

If Vista will not start now, boot the Recovery CD to run Startup Repair which automates System Restore as well as numerous other tests including System File Checker which can repair system files which are not corrupted beyond repair.

If Vista still will not start, try booting into Safe Mode to run sfc /scannow to repair System files.
Special Thanks Given to Seven Forums.




Below is a bulletin distributed by MS to explain the start up procedure when Windows will not boot.

• Startup Repair. Startup Repair is a Windows recovery tool that can fix certain problems, such as missing or damaged system files, that might prevent Windows from starting. Startup Repair is located on the System Recovery Options menu, which is on the Windows Vista installation disc. If your computer has preinstalled recovery options, it might also be stored on your computer's hard disk. For more information, see Startup Repair: frequently asked questions and What are the system recovery options in Windows Vista? If your computer does not include Startup Repair, your computer manufacturer might have customized or replaced the tool. Check the information that came with your computer or go to the manufacturer's website.
• Change restart settings in safe mode. If your computer is stuck in a loop where Windows fails, attempts to restart, and then fails again repeatedly, restart your computer in safe mode and select the Disable automatic restart on system failure checkbox. For more information, see Advanced startup options (including safe mode).
• Reinstall. If no other options have solved the problem, and you are sure that your computer's hardware is functioning normally, you might need to reinstall Windows. A custom (clean) installation of Windows will permanently delete all of the files on your computer and reinstall Windows, so only use this option if all other recovery options have been unsuccessful. After the installation, you will need to reinstall your programs and restore your files from backup copies. For more information, see Installing and reinstalling Windows**.

ok I'll give this a try. I do have an external hard drive that backed up my computer with an image file, but I couldn't get this this to restore the system, and the shop couldn't either. I don't know if that's relevant to this at all.

Lets see if we can get you to boot.
If not we will save your stuff, if you want
Then we go from there.

The computer I'm writing to you on is using xp. All the available computers in the house run on xp. Only the one that doesn't work runs on vista (bet you've never heard that before .

Will I be able to do this with an xp computer?

Also, I don't have a vista istallation disc, which the instructions call for.

I think I have a copy of xp around here somewhere. Should I just try installing xp on the machine so i can run the system diagnostics you recommend? I'm not going to lose sleep over the stuff on my hard drive - it was only a couple weeks worth of stuff that accumulated since the shop reinstalled vista. I lost of tons of stuff in that reinstall, so this isn't really a big deal.

Bottom line if you do install XP, Im not familiar with the system, you may have to go to an XP forum, if you have problems

That's cool - will I need to get a Vista disc to make a recovery dvd or is there a way around that? And then, if I do get a Vista disc, will I need to make the recovery dvd on a system that runs Vista? Sorry if I'm getting to be a pain in the rear

First you are not a pain, we are here to help.
In any event, you must borrow or buy, for cost about $25.00 a Vista DVD. You must have a key number to install it. You can just install it and have the OS.
But
Heres the problem, you must fix your computer, I think that it overheats. So even with a new install or repair, the problem will still exist. A reinstall or repair is a fix to the OS and not the computer.

yeah I totally understand about the difference between fixing the OS and the hardware. Ok - I'll see about getting a disc so I can reinstall and get the program to check the temp. Then I'll probably get back to you. Thanks so much for your help.

rik

Take your time, there will always be someone here to help.