Laptop won't boot into Normal Mode

Dear WhatTheTech experts … My laptop won't boot into Normal Mode … after the Welcome (Windows Vista Home Premium) screen, it will either freeze or restart itself. I was helped by one of your kind tech member "mowman" from the Malware Team to identify any possible virus, spyware or malware but nothing was detected. I was then directed here to see if i can seek any helps on my Windows … I am very grateful if any techs out there can give me advice or guidance to fix this problem on my laptop. JazzBiondi

Have you tried booting to safe mode?

If not, go here: Start your computer in safe mode. and choose Last Known Good Configuration.

Hi Lee … thanks for looking into my case and for the advice. For your info, i tried this method on "Last Known Good Configuration" … but ended up with the same result (freeze or restart). At the moment, i can only access to my desktop screen + internet access using the Safe Mode (with networking), which i am currently using now to reply to your post. JazzBiondi

Boot into safe mode and choose the command prompt option

Type in chkdsk c: /r and press enter. Don't forget the two spaces.

If that doesn't work you could also try chkdsk c: /f

Hello Lee …

Sorry for my late reply. After more than 2 weeks … finally i managed to access to the Normal Mode for the first time after taking your advice of doing a chkdsk c: /r, but have to say it was a long precedure … approximately 25 hours for the full scan and completion (no joke ). Nonetheless, worth the wait …

Is there a way or methods to find out if the Windows is 100% functional now? (Eventhough all looks good to me now except for the startup … abit slow for a 4GB RAM / 80GB free space on my laptop). Really appreciate your kind assistance …


JazzBiondi

25 hrs?
WOW, that is a long time indeed, but I'm glad you were sensible enough to let the process complete

I going to get you to run another test but it only takes a few minutes. It will let me know what is happening on your PC as I am a bit concerned and curious as to why your Laptop needed a chkdsk c: /r run. In the meantime, make no changes to your programs or settings and if you have a Registry Cleaner program please don't use it, or better still, remove it from your PC as they are often the cause of an inability to successfully boot-up. Same goes for PC "Optimizers" etc.

Just in case you have a hard drive on it's way out, now might be a good time to make sure you have all personal data backed-up to a USB drive or disks.

————————————————————————————
PC Pitstop 'OVERDRIVE' for XP, Vista and W7

Before making any changes, let's get a better overview of what is going on in your PC from PC Pitstop.

OverDrive is Fast, Comprehensive, and Free.
In just a few minutes, OverDrive creates an extensive report of your PC's performance, security, software, drivers, and more. In order to receive the full benefit and display the full Results of OverDrive, use Internet Explorer.

Note: Vista/Windows 7 users with UAC must first Right-click IE - Select "Run as Administrator"

1) Close all instances of Internet Explorer and any other open programs.
2) Click on Vista or W7 Start
3) Right-Click on Internet Explorer and choose "Run as Administrator"
This will give your machine full privilege to take advantage of all the features of PCPitstop's OverDrive full test.

4) Navigate to PC Pitstop's Overdrive using Internet Explorer and click on "Create free account"
5) Register and accept the necessary active-X needed to run Overdrive
6) Run PC Pitstop Overdrive
7) Post the URL link here from the address bar which will allow us to view your results.

Caution: During the testing of your PCs Video Adapter, a variety of patterns, shapes, colors and text are “flashed” onto the users monitor screen. In the many thousands of daily uses of the PCPitstop full test over several years, two individuals who suffer epilepsy experienced discomfort and temporary dizziness when viewing the flashing patterns. If you know that you are susceptible to photo driven seizure, please look away from your screen during the Video Adapter testing sequence.

Note: PCPitstop is a free service, but like many free services and programs, it is supported by various paid product and we do not necessarily support their use.

Cheers,
Lee

Hi Lee …

Here's the URL to the PC Pitstop's Overdrive result of my laptop …

http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/sec.asp?conid=24639515


JazzBiondi

You have a good Laptop there with plenty of everything.

Something was hogging your RAM during the Overdrive test and the prime suspect is Virgin Media Security (previously PC Guard) and also using a nice slice of your RAM would be Spybot Search and Destroy HIPS features (active features) if enabled. I'm no fan of either program.

I would suggest a few changes if I may.

Virgin Media Security (previously PC Guard) This should be removed as it can be a problematic program and is a known resource hog. Some user opinions or look here. I would recommend un-installing this program. To do so it must be disabled first as any security app. can be a real problem to un-install. If enabled it will try to protect itself.

Click Start / open RUN command / type in msconfig / click on Services / tick Hide all Microsoft Services / un-tick anything belonging to Virgin Media Security / Re-boot.

Go to Add and Remove Programs and uninstall -

1) Virgin-Media-Security

2) Virgin Media Service Manager

3) Virgin Media Digital Home Support

Reboot.

Replace with Microsoft Security Essentials which is free, low on resource usage, good protection and easy to use.

Turn off all HIPS features of Spybot or remove completely and replace with WinPatrol program Guard. (free) The best HIPS around and very user friendly.
As you already have Malwarebytes (paid version is worth consideration as it's an extremely good live Internet surfing guard) you do not need Spybot.

Download Auslogics disk defrag. (free version)

Run program and defrag drive C:

You should be good to go now

PS Edit: If you want a good stand-alone Firewall, I would recommend Online Armor (free version), but when installed, right click it's icon in the systems tray and click on "disable HIPS" if you have installed Win Patrol program guard.

Hi Lee … Thanks for your kind help n recommendations … Initially all went well with the laptop but after defragmentation, now when I log in there will be a black screen saying … "SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Drive 0: WDC WD2500BEVT-75ZCT2-(S1) Warning: Immediately backup your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent. Press F1 to continue." Is there a recovery from this problem or there's no way out and need to have the hard disk drive replace? Sorry for all these headache that I had given you these few days … JazzBiondi

Hi Jazzbiondi,

S.M.A.R.T. is Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology… built into the firmware of all modern mechanical Hard Drives, it is an important tool that should be heeded.
I have never encountered a situation where SMART threw a false-positive – alert a warning when a true problem did not exist.

You should stop all other use of your computer and focus on complete backup of any and all important saved files, media, messages, tunes, documents, etc. that you wish to keep.
Back-up should be to an external Hard Drive or similar removable media.

I recommend you use Puppy Linux to do your backup, since it runs from optical disk and RAM, not touching or interfering with the hard drive (which is failing)

http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/windows-vi…disk-vista.html

Why go to the trouble of using Puppy Linux?
Because if your HD really is failing, then it only has a short period of time left as functional… short-time-to-die.
Running your Windows and software to accomplish back-up will stress and possibly use-up your remaining HD functionality.
Puppy Linux will not further stress the HD.

If you already have your important files backed up… then good for you and ignore my comments.

Replacing a Hard Drive is relatively simple, even in a Laptop.
And Hard Drives are relatively inexpensive to purchase for replacement.

The time-consuming part will be reinstalling your Operating System (Windows), updating, and all of your application software programs.

Sorry you are probably facing the above scenario.

I'm sure your regular helper will be back shortly to assist with details and any questions you may have.

Best Regards

If you had an external USB hard drive you could make an image backup of you laptop hard drive to it using Macrium Reflect Free or DriveImage XML Free. Then swap out the drives and boot a rescue disc (both programs tell you how to create one) and restore the image to the new drive.

External hard drives are also fairly cheap and it would be a good idea to have this for future backup anyway. For instance, a

Seagate 500 GB External hard drive - 480 Mbps - 5400 rpm

is $47 plus shipping.

Just a suggestion.

Very good suggestion, Ztruker. "after" documents, media, saved files, etc. have been backed up. Hopefully, the Hard Drive will have sufficient life to allow backing up of important files AND creation of the Drive Image. Creating that Drive Image will allow Jazzbiondi to be up and running in little time, especially when compared to re-installing and updating. Good one.

Hello and thanks for the advice Doug (Admin Team) and Ztrucker (Tech Team) … Backup is all completed and done with my external hard drive. Now the question is … my laptop working PERFECTLY well, will not freeze, no problem with BSOD, internet speed is fast, without a doubt, many thanks to assistance given from Lee (my tech helper). However, everytime when i switch on the laptop … the black screen with this info (i am not comfortable with this) "SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Drive 0: WDC WD2500BEVT-75ZCT2-(S1) Warning: Immediately backup your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent. Press F1 to continue." Is there a recovery to this problem, apart from changing the hard disk drive? If its true like what you had said Doug .. "SMART will not alert a warning when a true problem did not exist", can i conclude that only solutions now is to change the hard disk drive? Kindly advice …. and any help and suggestions is much appreciated. JazzBiondi

You can wait till it fails, which could be 1 hours or two years. There is no way to know. If this was my laptop, I would replace it. You said you completed the backup. Did you do an image backup that can be restore to a new hard drive or just your data?

Hi Ztruker … sorry for my late reply. I was busy preparing for my studies (doing my assignment n reports). Having a short break now (during this festive period), its a must for me not to forget and to show my appreciation to the tech guys here for helping and guiding me to fix my laptop. For your info, I was doing the image backup half way through … it hangs for few hours before i decided to let it go . Nonetheless, at least i have only one option now … to change the hard disk drive. Thankfully as well, with all the assistance i get here, i managed to backup in time all the important datas to an external hard drive before it was too late. Take this opportunity to wish everyone @ WhatTheTech? a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Regards. JazzBiondi