Computer Will not complete boot

I recently upgraded my computer system.

Specs are:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum
2x 512mb GeIL DDR400(existing modules from previous system)
Sapphire X800XT PE
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS
420 watt Turbolink PSU(retained from previous system)
and then a Western Digital 36gb 10k Raptor

I put this together probably a month and a half ago and its been working great and
flawlessly till this Friday.

Was using the computer under normal conditions, turned it off, went to do something
else, came back turned on the computer and it hung at the Windows load screen, with
the little progress bar. The progress bar would stop, and then about 10-15 seconds
later start going again and it continually repeats this. So I turned off the power,
rebooted, and it gave me the option to go into safe mode or start normally, try and
go into safe mode and it checks all the system files on load and stops at
mup.sys..... It acts just as is does with the windows load screen, trying to load
it, stalling and then trying to load it again.

I decided to reinstall windows after failing to repair it via recovery
console(including disabling the mup.sys file), reinstalled windows fine, was on the
internet again, updated windows fully, installed the motherboard drivers, video card
drivers and sound card drivers. Upon restart from the sound card drivers however the
stalling at load problem occurred again exactly as it was before!

So I reinstalled windows AGAIN, immediatly installed the sound card drivers,
rebooted and it was fine. And then after rebooting a few more times for various
reasons the problem occurs once again.

Now I tried last night to run chkdsk again via the recovery console, something I did
before when it had this problem, but now chkdsk is stalling at 20%, doing the same
thing as the other stalls, hanging and then trying to load again, over and over and
over. I managed to get into safe mode by some fluke, tried chkdsk via "Run" in the
start meno and it hangs at 81%, stalling, trying, stalling and trying some more
until finally it actually fails and comes up with a "Unknown Hard Error" and then
will keep bringing up that error when you try to do anything until you shut down the
PC and then it won't go into safe mode.

Is the hard drive failing? What the heck happened to my PC?!?!?!?!

Thanks

 

Welcome to the board.
I edited your title to something a little more descriptive so that you will get the help you need faster.

Sounds like it may be your video driver.

DO you know how to do a repair install?
Same as a new install only select repair when windows finds the previous install.
A repair install will just remove all cab files without changing your settings.

When you repair do not install your video driver and see how it runs.

 

Run the harddrive manufacturers utilities to scan the disk.

Strange that Chkdsk does not know what the problem is. If you have no luck, set it as slave or secondary master in another computer and run Chkdsk on it from that system.

Matt

 

Why do you think it could be the video drivers Mr. Smith? In this current state which is a 2nd reinstall of Windows I don't have the video card drivers installed and its still locked up.

As for repair install, I have tried recovery console and the last known good configuration and that doesn't work.

I e-mailed Western Digital and then suggested their drive diagnostic test aswell, like matt, so I will do that tonight and let you guys know

Thanks

 

OK, I ran the drive diagnostic program in safe mode and it comes up with "Unknown Hard Error" while running and it freezes at a current sector and despite pressing ok, it keeps popping up that little window without changing sectors?

 

Well this may be a moot point now but my reasoning for looking at video as the problem is because mup.sys is the last file that loads before AGP drivers load indicating it was either a hardware or software issue with video.

Sounds like you have a hard drive issue though.

For future reference neither one of those steps is what I was refering to.

A repair install is just like a clean install except right before the format stage you are notified windows has found a previous install and would you like to repair or install a new copy.
This is well beyond the stage of recovery console.

 

I am not quite sure what you mean. The WD diagostics (Lifeguard tools) should run from a boot floppy disk.

There may be an error on the disk that has a running process on it (maybe along the lines of graphics files like Scott was thinking).

I think you need to boot to the Lifeguard tools and run those. If there is a bad sector there it will tell you, but will be unable to repair it. You will need to put the drive into another computer and run chkdsk/scandisk on it with that system.

Check in the BIOS that your drive is recognised correctly.

You may need to delete the partitions on the drive, if there may be a problem with the partition information.

If all else fails, do a low-level (zero) format on it. I don't think WD have a low-level format program, but I think there are third-party programs to do it. Try www.majorgeeks.com

Matt

 

No they told me to run the Win DLG program which is an .exe..... Umm, the drive is recognised fine and when I reinstalled I completely redid the partition....

I guess I will try the low level format, but Western Digital told me to get a new drive

 

I won't presume to know more than WD. I think their policy is if a drive has an error, just get a new one. They may not want to expend the energy with ones that are not "fully-working ".

Try the low-level format. It will wipe all the information in the boot sector (partition information, the file system, the MBR and any nasties that may be hiding there).

If there is a bad sector at 81% of the data on your C: partition, it may no longer be useful as an OS partition. Even if you get chkdsk/scandisk to "mark it as a bad sector ", the sectors around it may start breaking up with time and you will probably get the same error message again. Where it would be useful, in that circumstance, would be as a secondary drive for storage, temporary data, etc.
You may be able to set the area around the bad sectors as unpartitioned free-space.

I have a drive that developed some bad sectors after a power blackout. The sectors were not in the OS partition. It has developed a few more bad sectors in the same area over the past 4 years, but causes me zero problems.

You could just toss it like WD says, I would see if I could find the cause and try to make some use of it. (EDIT, that's why I'm here. If the solution to everything was to get a new one there would not be much point ).

Matt

 

Alright thanks much

 

Your welcome! I hope some of that info may help you get it going again or, at least, get it to serve as additional storage space.

Luck
Matt