The American Girl Who Likes Wearing Berets (mystical_chickn) wrote in computer_help,
2013-01-26 21:33:00

vista not starting. bsod at startup, probably my fault

ugh, I hate having to post here again so soon but I'm having another problem. I had scheduled a CHKDSK last night for the next time my computer was booted up. Turned it on about two hours ago and the startup screens came on fine but CHKDSK didn't start, instead it was just a black screen (monitor off completely, seemingly--similar to the problem I had last time). I waited about 8-10 minutes for CHKDSK to start but it never did and nothing else happened either. After about 15-20 minutes I did a hard shutdown, which was probably a Huge Mistake, because Vista bluescreened at startup (can't remember error message, sorry) and the computer restarted. Got the "Windows did not start correctly" error screen. Did startup repair, upon finishing laptop restarted and I got the Windows startup error again. Did ANOTHER startup repair. This time when it restarted after finishing, bootup screens displayed fine but now I've got a black monitor again (been about 30 mins), and the Caps Lock light doesn't turn on when I press that button. I'm scared to turn the laptop off again since I'm pretty sure that's what got me into this trouble in the first place (either that, or scheduling the CHKDSK run). Also I can't seem to boot into Safe Mode, F8 doesn't do anything when I tap it during startup. I don't have any recovery disks or anything either. Using Vista sp...2, I believe, 32 bit. Laptop is HP Pavilion DV6000.


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EDIT: After trying about half a dozen+ "fixes" which didn't work, I finally had to reformat/recover Vista. Luckily I've only had this laptop for about a month so I didn't have much stuff on there, and I was successfully able to back up everything on my external HDD. Reformat/recover worked, I haven't had any issues with this computer since then (did it on the 27th I think).
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  • 16 comments

mystical_chickn

January 27 2013, 06:42:43 UTC 4 months ago

(can't edit on mobile, sorry) Okay, after about an hour or so of waiting, the computer restarted and the monitor came on after booting up, however Vista does not seem to be starting. It's just a blank screen with the cursor. Any ideas?

mystical_chickn

January 27 2013, 06:44:47 UTC 4 months ago

...and by "cursor" I mean "mouse pointer", there's nothing else, no blinky text input cursor or anything.

mystical_chickn

January 27 2013, 07:24:43 UTC 4 months ago

Okay, did another hard shutdown and hit F10 at the first screen to go into the BIOS setup utility page. Doing a primary hard disk self test now, it's 10% complete w/comprehensive test (quick test passed). Will update here when it's finished.

mystical_chickn

January 27 2013, 09:02:52 UTC 4 months ago

Comprehensive and SMART tests both passed. Looked around BIOS screens for anything else that might have helped but couldn't find anything. Exited BIOS, comp restarted. Got "Windows did not shut down correctly" error page, so I started in Safe Mode. All drivers seemed to load okay (although I'd have no idea if there were any missing) but again got KSOD with mouse cursor. Hard shutdown, chose to start Windows normally after getting "shutdown" error again. Again, KSOD after bootup screens. I'm kind of at my wits' end here.

revchris

January 27 2013, 17:58:39 UTC 4 months ago

It would be easier to help you if you could give the error codes from the BSOD screens.

How old is your computer, and have you ever updated the BIOS? I recall that there's a common problem with older HP Pavillions where the screen goes blank and it won't boot due to the video chip coming unsoldered from the motherboard.

mystical_chickn

January 27 2013, 18:33:24 UTC 4 months ago

It's a used laptop, from around 2007 I believe. I personally haven't updated the BIOS (I've only had it for about a month), but the previous owner may have, I'm not sure. As for the BSOD error codes, it flashed by too quickly for me to even see them before restarting itself, and I'm not getting them any more, rather KSODs (with mouse cursor) after startup but before Windows loads. I've tried about half a dozen solutions I've found online and nothing has worked. Sticky Keys via Shift doesn't work (just "trills" at me, nothing else), Ctrl Alt Del does nothing, chkdsk run via startup repair cmd prompt found no errors, memory test passed, startup repair didn't work (although at the bottom of the details box it said "Root cause found: System volume on disk is corrupt" which is probably what my problem is, but I can't seem to fix it), and I did a couple other things I found online as well with no luck. The irony is that I'd been planning to do a backup of my files onto my external HDD last night. :/

revchris

January 27 2013, 18:56:52 UTC 4 months ago

Is this, basically, what it was doing the last time you asked about similar problems?

Googling for "Root cause found: System volume on disk is corrupt" that answer seems to be, if your hardware all tests out, that it's time to reinstall Windows.

I'd suggest starting by doing a BIOS update, and then I'd use your VISTA disk to see if you can a repair install (here are some directions on how to do it).

mystical_chickn

January 27 2013, 19:21:02 UTC 4 months ago

No, last time it black-screened, it was as if the monitor was off completely, I didn't have a mouse cursor or anything. Doing a startup repair finally fixed that problem. This time, the monitor is on, but Windows won't load and there's just a black screen with the mouse pointer. And I don't have a Vista disk, but there is a recovery drive on the computer itself, which probably doesn't help me too much.

revchris

January 27 2013, 19:38:23 UTC 4 months ago

Can you boot into the recovery drive?

If you can boot into the recovery drive, can you see your files? Can you also see your external drive? This may allow you to make a backup of important files (I haven't used the recovery drive in a long time so I don't remember if you're supposed to be able to or not).

I looked around online and don't see a download link for Vista Home w/SP2, but there are websites that say you may be able to get it from DigitalRiver. There also are sites that say that since you have SP2 you'll need the tools from an SP2 disk to fix it as earlier ones aren't compatible.

It may make sense at this point, if you can back up your files, to upgrade to WIn7, as then you may have an easier time finding disks for it than for Vista SP2, and, if you're going to have to buy disks, you might as well buy a more up to date version of Windows.

mystical_chickn

January 28 2013, 04:19:38 UTC 4 months ago

I can get to Recovery Manager via the Startup Repair screen menu, however, backing up to the external HDD is now out of the question, because I just accidentally f***ing dropped it and it hit the leg of the TV tray I have my laptop on, and now it won't spin up. Could anything else POSSIBLY go wrong, good lord. I have no idea what to do now, I'm not sure if a blank CD-ROM would have enough room for all my files, and is there a way to save my external HDD? There's a bunch of stuff on there I do NOT want to lose.

mystical_chickn

January 28 2013, 04:41:54 UTC 4 months ago

Okay, false alarm on the external HDD issue. I had plugged it in using a different USB cord than it came with, so I plugged it back in with its original cord and it spun up fine. Doing a backup via System Restore now, although I'm still unsure if I'm actually going to do the restore itself unless I literally run out of other options.

mystical_chickn

January 28 2013, 04:44:19 UTC 4 months ago

...although I'd really like to know why it's backing up program files when I only checked the documents, pictures, music, and Internet settings boxes... :/

mystical_chickn

January 28 2013, 06:16:19 UTC 4 months ago

Okay. Backup completed successfully and then it automatically went into "Factory image recovery" window, and started reformatting and I can't cancel it, so I guess there's no turning back now. At least I was able to back up my files, if anything goes wrong with this.

bronze19

January 31 2013, 10:29:03 UTC 4 months ago

Try to use memtest86+ utility. Burn bootable CD and test motherboard and memory. Good luck!

mystical_chickn

January 31 2013, 11:01:30 UTC 4 months ago

Aah, I forgot to edit my post to say that the Vista reformat/recover worked. Haven't had any issues with this laptop since I did it.

colourlessau

February 8 2013, 03:35:35 UTC 4 months ago

I want to say this is what you get for having Windows Vista :P But.. sadly i had a similar issue with my old trusty Windows XP!

Sounds like if a reformat or recover fixed it something eroded in the system file set? I guess.. i do know that sometimes when you download and install a windows update (Or it does it on it's own) if something goes wrong it can really mess with the system and cause a whole host of issues.. glad you got it fixed though. And get windows 7 :P It's awesome >_>