[Solved] MSI PR211 laptop hangs on booting after updating drivers

[JohnandVal]

Hi All,

 

I’m new here so please be gentle! My 4 year old MSI PR211 laptop is running Vista. In recent weeks it has occasionally had a video driver fault from which it automatically recovers. (Possibly associated with overheating.)

 

To ensure the drivers were ok I updated all drivers (first time in 4 years). Big job and the machine hung during the process so I eventually forced a shutdown.

 

Now for the real problem. The laptop appears to go through the POST test ok, but hangs early in bringing up Vista. In safe mode, booting from the hdd it loads lots of drivers, then hangs, the last driver loaded being crcdisk.sys. Booting from a 4 year old recovery disk it gets as far as disk.sys before hanging.

 

It arrived (from a reputable source) with vista installed and a COA, but no windows disk, so I haven’t been able to try booting from the original disk. A vista disk from another machine doesn’t get any further either. (I didn’t expect a good result, but hoped to get at least a little further!)

 

And do I have a recent backup…….? No….. :mad: shame.

 

Can anyone suggest a way to make this beast perform? I’d really appreciate some input on this one – my brain is going numb!

 

Cheers

 

John

[KenB]

Hi John and welcome to ExTS

 

If you use F8 to get to the Advanced Boot Options ...... is "Repair your Computer" an option ?

see below

 

http://images.knowhow.com/Computing/Windows_Vista_Advanced_Boot_Options.png

 

If so - what happens if you click on this ?

[JohnandVal]

Hi Ken,

 

Thank you for your response. "Repair your computer" hangs with the Microsoft copyright screen showing, same as standard startup.

 

Something I have tried since originally posting is to create a bootable dvd with Mint Linux and using that the machine comes to life, which I think clears the essential hardware of any blame. I've also used Seagate's self booting tools to check the hdd - no issues there. With Linux I'll have the opportunity to copy from the hdd any valuable stuff, which is a relief. Lacking a bootable copy of windows however is a real pain.

 

Any further suggestions will be most welcome!

 

Cheers

 

John

[KenB]

Hi John

 

You will need to take the hard drive out and connect it either direct to the motherboard of a second machine or use an external enclosure ( or hard drive to USB adapter ) that will connect the drive to a USB port.

 

If you can do this and the hard drive is recognised in "Computer" make a note of the drive letter. ( Let's say X )

 

Then Start ....type in ....cmd ......right click on cmd.exe that appears top left of screen > Run as Administrator

At the prompt type:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=X:\ /offwindir=X:\windows .................where X is the drive letter of your drive.

[note the spacings]

 

Hopefully this will check the system files on the problem drive.

[JohnandVal]

Hi Ken,

 

Thank you again for your assistance. Did just as you suggested and got the attached response which appears to be simply stating the function of this command. Is this what is expected? If so, it would appear that nothing has been done???? (Long time since I worked in DOS... brought back fond memories!) Hope I've set up the attachment correctly - its just a screen dump after running the cmd.

 

Cheers

 

John

[KenB]

No - it should have scanned the external drive.

 

Your external drive letter .......... is L correct ? Seems a bit odd.

 

I am away for a couple of days - I will pick this up then ( unless somebody else assists ) :)

[JohnandVal]

Thanks Ken. Managed to find a log file of zero size, but maybe that related to the machine I was using to talk to the suspect drive, rather than the suspect drive itself. I've found the Microsoft material relating to sfc.exe so will stumble on and report any success.

 

Cheers

 

John

[JohnandVal]

Hi Ken --- Progress!! Went through the process you suggested again and got a result. Some files are corrupted and the process could not repair them. I haven't yet found the log file containing details, but I'm working on it. (The obvious files don't appear to include the results of the sfc scan.)[ATTACH=CONFIG]988.vB5-legacyid=1890[/ATTACH]

 

Cheers

 

John

[KenB]

Hi John

 

Progress :)

I am just on my way out - will pick this up Sunday / Monday

[JohnandVal]

The Resource Checker SFC is supposed to log its results in the CBS.LOG file. It has not added anything to either the host machine's log file nor that on the suspect drive. SFC appears to be doing what it should (and taking 10 minutes or more to do it!), but where are the log entries going??????

[KenB]

but where are the log entries going?

The log should be found ....

C: > Windows > Logs > CBS

[JohnandVal]

Thanks Ken. I'd found the C:/Windows/Log/CBS/CBS.LOG file and also the log file on my L: disk (the crippled one). Neither seemed to be changed at all by the SFC process, which seemed very strange. I've run the scan many times now and once (I think) I got a one line response. Below is a listing of the last few records including that response, the "scavenge" one about 1/3 of the way down the list. I've tried restarting then running SFC - no result; in fact the listing below "scavenge" arose from the restart and as you'll observe there's nothing added by the subsequent scan. Does that "scavenge" line mean anything to you?

 

Next step – cold boot then run SFC. A few lines added to CBS.LOG by boot, nothing by SFC.[ATTACH=CONFIG]989.vB5-legacyid=1891[/ATTACH]

 

Is it time to throw in the towel!

 

Cheers

 

John

[JohnandVal]

Sorry - that doesn't look legible. The "scavenge" line reads "scavenge: Package store indicates there is no component to scavenge, skipping."

 

Cheers

 

John

[KenB]

Hi John

 

That line seems to indicate that the system was looking for something but couldn't find it - so skipped on to the next.

SFC does not fix all problems - it depends what it finds.

 

A vista disk from another machine doesn’t get any further either

You said this earlier....

If this version of Vista is exactly the same as your own ( Vista Home Premium for example ) you should be able to buy a new hard drive and use this to install the Operating System. You would need to make sure that you used the product code off the sticker from your machine.

[JohnandVal]

Ken,

 

I think it's time to wrap this one up. I'll do as you suggest, with a variation. Take an image of the problem drive so that I can at least resurrect it to its crippled state if all else fails. Then format it and use my recovery disks to reinstate it to original. If that fails, try a fresh install using the windows disk from my desktop machine.

 

Thank you for your assistance. I've imposed excessively on your time and expertise, both of which you have contributed most generously. I won't bother you further, but will report back to announce my success!!

 

Regards

 

John

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, a couple of questions, the disk for your desktop that you mention, is this the Vista disk?

is it exactly the same operating system, i.e. Home Premium or Professional for example?

Is it a genuine Microsoft disk, or a disk that came from the desktop manufacturer?

 

If it is the Vista you mentioned,

If it is the same grade of operating system,

and also a Microsoft issued disk and not a computer manufacturer disk,

 

Then all should be OK so long as you follow Kens advice regarding the Product key which should be on a sticker on the laptop.

 

If any of the above differs, you may have problems, please let us know if there are any differences so we may be able to advise further.

 

Nev.

[JohnandVal]

Hi Nev,

 

Thank you for your response and offer of further assistance. My desktop disk (created by Microsoft) is labelled "Windows Vista Home Premium", the laptop's COA is "Vista Home Premium OEMAct" . Does that sound close enough?

 

Cheers

 

John

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, yes indeed, the fact that both are home premium it should be OK, the original OEM install on the laptop shouldn't matter in this case, though Ken will be able to confirm or not.

The important thing is the product key or code number on the laptop sticker, as this should be entered during the install, you are usually prompted for this anyway.

Again Ken may be able to confirm this as I think he may have done a lot more system installs than I have, the last one I did was on XP a long time since.:D

 

Nev.

[KenB]

Hi John

 

Nev is correct with his advice.

The "OEM" is exactly the same Operating System but is supplied to system builders like Dell; Acer; HP etc.

They get it cheap and you are limited to having that specific OS on that specific machine. It is not transferable.

 

You can, however, use the disk labelled "Windows Vista Home Premium".

This is limited to one installation at a time - but not on any specific machine.

In other words - you completely own it to install on whichever machine you wish .......... as long as it is only on one machine at a time.

You couldn't install it using the Product Code on two different machines.

 

If you use this disk to re-install then you MUST use the OEM Product Code from the problem machine.

[JohnandVal]

Well……. About a month ago I sought assistance with this one. Following Ken’s advice, and after due procrastination, I bought and installed a replacement drive. This one accepted the recovery disks I’d created on day 1. After a huge update session the machine is now fully operational. All that’s now needed is the time and enthusiasm to replace the clutter of stuff that’s accumulated on the old drive over the past 4 years! (The old drive now lives in a usb caddy.)

 

Without Ken’s ( and Nev’s) guidance a perfectly good laptop would have eventually become landfill because of a few corrupted bytes.

 

Thank you for your input.

 

The next project is to create a bootable DVD to house image backup software. Not so easy in the “home” versions of Vista it seems, as Microsoft hasn’t included provision to create bootable media. (Thank you Microsoft!) This has taken on a new urgency as the household’s powerful desktop machine (also Vista) is becoming cranky at boot time.

 

But that’s a new saga!

 

Thank you again for a successful outcome.

 

Cheers

 

John

[KenB]

Thank you again for a successful outcome.

 

John, you are very welcome.

You know where we are if you have any more problems :)