Freezing at startup on the ol' PC

danthrax

danthrax

Member
Hello all,

I have been trying to diagnose my mother's computer. The issue is as follows: When the computer is powered off, she pushes the power button and the screen lights up and things start happening. Upon startup it gets to the screen that says Windows and the progress bar with the green bar that scrolls from left to right starts moving. It scrolls about 4 times and then freezes..... That's it. It will not get to Windows. The only option you have is to shut it down manually and restart it. I took it to my house and cleaned about a pound of dust out of it and it worked just fine! I ran a hardware diagnostic test and installed the latest Windows updates. It worked ok the whole time I had it. I gave it back to her and the same issue started occuring.

Any ideas?? What should I try next to get this issue properly diagnosed? Is it a hardware issue or a software issue? Please ask any questions you need to ask, I am going to look at it again this weekend and will update this thread as needed. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot guys.
 
Its most likely a software issue. See if you can run a linux live CD. If it will load that fine, then the issue is in windows. Could maybe be a overheat issue. What you will need to do is go into the Error logs when you get windows operational again. This will tell you what the problem is.
 
Most likely a failing hard drive. Might want to run a hard drive diagnostic on it. What brand of hard drive is in it?
 
You should have a good feel for the PC having had it for a while. You should look at any differences when you had it and your mother has it. What peripherals are connected there that you did not have, including mouse and keyboard. Try booting with no peripherals.

If it's convenient, get the PC back and see if it runs OK at your place. You seemed to imply that it would run if restarted, "The only option you have is to shut it down manually and restart it". That does not sound like a fatal issue. Did you clean out everywhere - power supply, around HDDs, all fans? You could check the HDDs with something like WD's HD Tune.
 
johnb35 said:
Most likely a failing hard drive. Might want to run a hard drive diagnostic on it. What brand of hard drive is in it?
Click to expand...

It is a Western Digital Caviar. At this point I have not been able to get to Windows at all, freezes every time. Another thing is that when I push the power button to power up I don't believe I hear any HDD moving at all. Also, I have checked the BIOS settings to make sure the HDD is boot priority 1.
 
Its a long shot, But be sure that the HDD cables (data and power) are attached properly. Since you recently cleaned it out you could have knocked them loose.

IIRC, ckdsk can help here, but I am unsure where you would get it.
 
wolfeking said:
Its a long shot, But be sure that the HDD cables (data and power) are attached properly. Since you recently cleaned it out you could have knocked them loose.

IIRC, ckdsk can help here, but I am unsure where you would get it.
Click to expand...

Also run "sfc /scannow" in a command prompt along with "chkdsk -r"
 
he has been unable to get to windows, so command prompt will not work. There may be a way that a bootable disk of ckdsk could be made? Or a bootable version of Western digitals hard drive checker.
 
wolfeking said:
he has been unable to get to windows, so command prompt will not work. There may be a way that a bootable disk of ckdsk could be made? Or a bootable version of Western digitals hard drive checker.
Click to expand...

I am downloading ubuntu to create a Linux Live CD. If I boot from that CD and it works does that mean that my hard drive is shot?
 
from the ubuntu disk, you will have to go through like your going to install, and when it ask where, just see what drives show up. If your hard drive is shot, you wont see it as a bootable disk in partition manager.
 
linkin said:
What about safe mode? Hold F8 while the machine boots.
Click to expand...

I get to the screen where I can choose the Safe Mode options, hit Enter on Safe Mode --- Then it says Please wait... and loads a bunch of files. At this point it freezes and I have to manually power off.

Another thing, in BIOS there is a SMART test where you can test the HDD. I go into BIOS and it recognizes the hard drive and does not find any problems when I run the SMART test... Would this indicate that my problem is not with the hard drive but with Windows itself? No matter how I try to get to Windows (safe mode, starting normally, or restoring to last known good configuration) it will freeze at the screen where the green bar scrolls from left to right, or when loading Windows files in safe mode.

I have a couple different computers at home, could I try taking my hard drive from my working computer (the one I'm trying to fix is my mother's) and see if it boots from that? Or do you guys think I have a software problem that could be resolved by a reflash?
 
Alright so I tried doing a system recovery a couple different times using my recovery discs. It would load Windows files and then go to the screen where the green bar scrolls from left to right and freeze again... I tried doing system recovery several different times and the same thing happened every time. I also ran a hardware diagnostic test (pushed F9 during startup) and everything passed the test including the hard drive. I am weary to just replace the hard drive because I have no solid evidence that it is what's causing the issue.

Any advice at this point? Could this be a motherboard issue? Thanks!
 
Alright so I tried doing a system recovery a couple different times using my recovery discs. It would load Windows files and then go to the screen where the green bar scrolls from left to right and freeze again... I tried doing system recovery several different times and the same thing happened every time. I also ran a hardware diagnostic test (pushed F9 during startup) and everything passed the test including the hard drive. I am weary to just replace the hard drive because I have no solid evidence that it is what's causing the issue.

Any advice at this point? Could this be a motherboard issue? Thanks!
 
At this point, going from what you say here, it is definatly a hardware issue (assuming your restore disk has no damage). You may try a new hard drive and see where you get.
 
wolfeking said:
At this point, going from what you say here, it is definatly a hardware issue (assuming your restore disk has no damage). You may try a new hard drive and see where you get.
Click to expand...

I am weary to replace the hard drive because every hard drive diagnostic I have ran has came back ok. So wouldn't that indicate that the hard drive is ok and there is another issue? Another thing that had happened too is that it would freeze at the blue screen on startup where it says HP and shows the F8, F10, F11, and F9 options. So at this point it was freezing before it probably even was trying to boot from the hard drive.

Any more ideas or advice?

Possible motherboard issue...?
 
generally the HP screen is in the BIOS. Its possible that you could try flashing the BIOS with any updated one to see if that helps.
 
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