Resolved HP Laptop booting problems started after the dual boot SSD with Ubuntu OS was removed from Laptop..

HP Laptop booting problems started after the dual boot SSD with Ubuntu OS was removed from Laptop..

Not quite sure which section this problem belongs in.. Hardware or OS.... but my gut say's (Other PC Software).... My hardware is: HP Pavilion DV7 Laptop, i-7 Processor, 8 Gbs memory, 2ea HD bays (only one SSD is currently installed in the laptops primary HD position.) That SSD had Windows 7 on it and I just upgraded to the new Windows 10 OS (keeping all my old files & programs)..

Some history is: Laptop came with Windows 7 on it... When I added Ubuntu to the laptop I removed the SSD with Windows 7 from the laptop and placed a new SSD in the laptops primary HD position and then I installed Ubuntu on that SSD using the "Dual boot option" install process. I then placed the SSD with Windows 7 in the laptops secondary HD position. Everything worked as it should until I removed the SSD with Ubuntu on it.

I assumed the dual boot file would be on the SSD with Ubuntu, and with Windows 7 in the laptops secondary HD position it's original boot file would remain unchanged and dormant.. All worked good for over a year..

I did that thinking I would or could avoid any future dual boot problems if or when I removed the SSD with Ubuntu on it and moved the Windows 7 HD to the primary position at a later time..

A while back I physically removed the Ubuntu SSD and placed my then secondary positioned SSD with Windows 7 back in the laptops primary HD position. Ever since then I've had a problem booting the Laptop.. It would try to boot up but kept shutting down before completing the task..

I figured I try doing the upgrade to Windows 10 to see if the upgrade process would fix the rebooting problem.. It didn't, now the laptop crash's during the boot process and then rebooted itself 3 or 4 times. Then I would get a "Windows 10 help screen ". I would choose the "Advanced Option" then choose "Check Start Up Problems" and then usually the laptop would boot to Windows 10. Sometimes it would boot on the 1st try, other times I needed to repeat the process in order to get the Windows 10 Desktop.. Also at times after opening a browser window or some other task the laptop would crash and reboot.. other times it work OK for hours.. but only after going thru the reboot process a few times..

I'd try to boot to a Live CD (Ultimate Boot Disk Ver 3.50) to test the laptops hardware VS a missing or corrupt file on the SSD or bad instructions left over from the dual boot option, but after resetting the BIOS earlier, I find that hitting the Esc key during bootup does not bring up the boot menu..
However with the CD in the drive the computer does boot up to Windows 10 without any problems.. Tried it 3 times with a total shutdown between tries. Also tied it after removing the CD... Windows 10 booted correctly only once.. now I need to use the "Advanced option "-- "Check Start Up Problems" each time I boot up..

I next tried shutting down the laptop using the hibernate option thinking the session might save the boot instruction to the hibernate file.. it didn't work as hoped..

Some more info is: After I upgraded to Windows 10 my first problem was the Intel WiFi device was not recognized by the new OS.. That I guess was my error.. I had the laptops WiFi switch turn off prior to and during the upgrade.. After some research online I found that I needed to defaulted the BIOS back to factory new..

That fixed my WiFi problem but the rebooting is still a issue.. FWIW.. I did get some other info screens stating that some other apps or devices was not included in the upgrade process..

In the past you required some log files be included with the 1st thread.. is there a log file that might point to why the laptop keeps rebooting?

thanks, denny

 

Hi Denny, Have you tried a Fresh Install of W10? You obviously fell into the trap thinking W10 would fix your W7 problems. If prior to Upgrading your OS, the system has problems - you will migrate the problems as W10 is not designed to fix current troubles. MS advised that before upgrading, the user needed to ensure they had all updates installed in their legal OS W7/8/8.1 and to have drivers suitable for W10. Neil.

 

Hi Neil, Quick answer is no haven't tried installing Windows 10 as a fresh install.. I was hoping I could just edit or correct the boot ini file or whatever that file is now called in Windows 10.. Boot Configuration Data (BCD) ?? assuming that's what's causing my problem... Thinking someone in the forum could point out the cause of the error from looking at my Event log or some other log file created when the "system crashes ".. If that fails to happen I guess my next best choice would be to use the repair partition to return the laptop to Windows 7.. do all the upgrades & then see if the problem has corrected itself.. Then I could upgrade to Windows 10.

 

That could be your answer but have a look at this link and see if that's what you were after. Restore, Fix, Repair Master Boot Record (MBR) in Windows

 

That's was part of my earlier plan.. I tried numerous times to boot to a Windows CD so I could use the Bootrec.exe, but no joy.. for reasons unknown the laptop won't boot to any CD.. Device Manager shows the CD drive as OK. I tried hitting (Esc) on boot up and then choose the option to boot from the CD drive but laptop always boots from C:\.. On the brighter side...the laptop has not crashed in the past two days during startup.. Maybe one of the "Windows Repair attempts" finely kicked in.. My only other thought is to try to manually edit the file (with the forum's help) that replaced the old Boot ini file, as that option is above my knowledge base.. but for now just might give it a rest..

much thanks for the help..