Vista - SP2 Crashed my Toshiba laptop

Hi hope someone can help.

I installed vista sp2 yesterday and now my laptop won't start. it offers two options, start in repair mode or start normally.

I have an 18 month old Toshiba Equiium running vista home P 32 bit.

If I start normally, the microsoft logo comes up and then the screen blips blue momentarily then it goes off. If I run the repair, it scans for faults, then prompts to run a system restore. I take this option and then it takes many minutes to attempt repairs - ultimately ending with 'windows cannot repair..."

there is a log with lots of 0x0 type errors notices (which are meaningles to me)

I can't even get to the point where I could elect to restore to last best save or whatever.

I have all my docs backed up on a portable HD but I cannot get past this failed repair message.

Any clue where I should go next?

Many thanks

Ian (sending this from an xp pc)

If the system blue screens before you can get into the Safe Mode boot screen, then it's most likely a disk problem - either with the hard drive itself, the various sectors of the drive (MBR and boot sector), or with the Boot Manager.

So, boot into the Startup Repair console and select "Command Prompt"

In the command prompt window, type these commands followed by pressing Enter after each one (taken from this article: How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista ):

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /RebuildBcd
chkdsk /r

Once that's done, type "exit" (without the quotes) and press Enter. This should shutdown or restart the system. If it doesn't (I'm not sure of this part of the procedure) then close the command prompt window and select "Shutdown" from the Startup Repair options menu.

What does it do now?

After you respond, please run a hardware diagnostic on your hard drive. Instructions are at this link: Bootable Hard Drive Diagnostics - Vox

Thanks USAMA,

I am afraid I cannot get anywhere:

I do not understand what you mean by "boot into the repair console"

my only options are to let it run to the black screen (windows error recovery environment, where i have the option to run the repair, or start normally. if I start normally, it blue screens and restarts brining me back to the error recovery environment.)

If I select the repair tool then as I said before, it searches, prompts for system recovery, I clik ok and it attempts to repair but fails, suggests I contact system admin - won't let me into advanced - says my account has been disabled

I can press F2 or F12 but don't know what to do in there

I do have a Toshiba recovery disc for use with F12 but it says it will loose all data (I have my docs backed up on a portable)

but will it take out my programmes (I can reload,) will it remove vista? - as I have no way of reinstalling it

Kind regards

Ian

This sounds like a low-level problem to me (either a virus or a hardware problem). Do you have any other bootable disks that you can try booting from? That'll test the ability of the system to load stuff into RAM.

The recovery disks will put the computer back into the state that it was the day that it left the factory. So all of your data, settings, and programs that you've installed will be gone - but the Windows Vista, drivers, and inbuilt Windows programs will be there.

I'd suggest these two tests before attempting to restore the system:
Bootable Memory Test Diagnostics - Vox
Bootable Hard Drive Diagnostics - Vox

If either fails, then it's a hardware problem (and restoring the system won't help until the hardware problem is fixed). If they both pass, then restoring the system will perform as described above.

BUT, you can try one of the downloadable Recovery Environment disks to see if you can repair things with it (before restoring the system): Startup Repair ISO's (originally posted 22Mar08) - Vox

wow............................

DUDE I had the same exact problem.

look, reinstall vista os.

UPDATE all your drivers through device manager.

and than you can install SP2 trust me i went through this weeks ago

Thanks guys, appreciate the help, but, how do I force the pc to boot from the downloaded disc? I can't seem to make it do anything? - I am thinking I have to do somthing using F12? but I have no idea what

thanks again

Ian Taylor:

A question and an answer.
-------------------------------------------------------------
First: If you start up the computer and immediately and continuously begin pressing the
F8 key, does this take you to Safe Mode?
-------------------------------------------------------------
How do I force the PC to boot from the downloaded disc?

When you first start the PC, while the screen is still dark, eventually some text should
appear at screen-bottom. It will offer various choices and keypresses to access these choices.
The actual wording varies by manufacturer. On mine, I press repeatedly on Esc .
This takes me to Boot Mgr. From here I can choose which drive to have the PC boot from.
Your Toshiba should have something similar.

Ardneh

Toshiba uses the F12 key. Wait until the first screen shows up when booting. Then repeatedly tap the F12 key - it should show a message that the boot menu (or something similar) is loading.

Hi Guys,

again, thanks for the help - wish I was more savvy with the computers - I went through this: Startup Repair ISO's (originally posted 22Mar08) - Vox

downloaded on the other pc, burned onto disc ect - got it to run (so I can boot from a disc) - but all it was was the same recovery console that I was describing before - which my laptop does automatically

however, I wrote down the report deails:

Root causes found = 1

unspecified changes to system configuration might have caused the problem,

Repair action: system restore
Result: Failed. Error code 0x490
time taken= 0 ms

Repair action: system integrity check + repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x2
time taken = 732643 ms

these were the only two 'failures' in the report, everything else said 'completed successfully'

does this shed any light on it

Many thanks

Ian

Ok, since doing that, I went back to the laltop and noticed that although it was the same repair programme as I had access to, my on-board version did not offer the other repair tools.

so I now had access to the command prompt and also to restore options

I tried to restore to a previous restore point - but despite it saying it was restored, the problem remained.

so I tried the command stuff:

fixmbr - completed succesfully
fixboot - success
rebuildBcd: Total identified instances of windows = 0

chkdsk:
type of system = NFTS

Cannot lock current drive. Windows cannot run disc checking on the volume because it is write protected

I also tried /ScanOs: total identified instances of windows - 0

I then downloaded the Hitachi HDD diagnositic onto a disk (other pc) from USAMA's site and ran that,

in quick mode - no issues

in advanced mode - Problem detected 0x70

does this help?

Kind regards

Ian