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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
Details of problem: Hi everybody,
I have a Lenovo y570 running Windows 7 and it's about three years old. In the past month or so, the computer has been having major issues. In mid-March, I used the Lenovo-given onekey reset to factory reset my computer, but last week problems started popping up again. My uni ITS reimaged my computer this past Friday and I reinstalled a few old programs (Office, Skype, Dropbox, etc), some Windows updates for MSE and Office 2013, and Dota 2. After not using the computer at all over the weekend with it powered off, I turn it on tonight and Windows fails to start. I'm given the option of either starting Windows normally or running Startup repair.
In running Startup repair, Windows loads all the files successfully and the Microsoft corporation logo comes and goes, but then the screen goes black. After about 10 minutes, the Startup repair page loads without any text or options to act on something. Basically I'm starting at a blue W7 background with a cursor but no option to do anything. After waiting about 15 minutes on this page without anything showing up, I restarted the computer, repeated the process, and arrived back at the blank Startup repair screen.
I can get into advanced boot options but Safe mode fails to start -- see measures conducted for more details.
Solutions and measures conducted:
- Attempted startup repair three times now. Each time the situation was the same -- Windows loads files successfully, Microsoft corporation logo comes and goes, screen is black for 10 minutes, then the startup repair screen without any actionable items shows up and that's it.
- Booted into Advanced Boot options with f8 before the loading screen to test Safe mode. Windows gets stuck at loading CLASSPNP.SYS, the screen flashes, and I'm right back to the start of the problem with Windows informing me that it failed to load and that Startup repair is recommended.
Recent changes to hardware/software
- Computer reimaged two days ago by ITS
- USB driver for wireless mouse (cheap, GE brand, FCC ID: HQXAXM-915)
- Installed programs: Skype, Office 2013, Battle.net desktop client, Hearthstone client, Steam, Dota 2, Dropbox
System specs Computer is standard so all are listed here W7 version - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Processor - Intel Core i5-2410M 2.3 GHz Memory - 4096 MB, 4.00 GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24) Harddisk - Hitachi Travelstar 5K500.B HTS545050B9A300, 500 GB 5400 rpm 500GB SATA Mainboard - Intel HM65
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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
Oh, so after the third try for startup repair I left the computer on at the blank blue startup repair screen, and after approximately an hour the startup repair box actually showed up and started running. It's still running now, and I'll keep watching it to see if anything happens.
This suggests to me though that the issue is hard drive-related, perhaps? My computer is 3 years old and has a not-so-good hard drive (Hitachi Travelstar 5K500.B HTS545050B9A300, 500 GB 5400 rpm 500GB SATA) so the hard drive might just be slowing down to the point of breaking. I'm worried that something like a system restore doesn't treat the root of the problem... so maybe it's time for a new hard drive?
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You obviously tried just starting normally right?
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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
On April 14 2014 14:50 iTzSnypah wrote: You obviously tried just starting normally right? Ah yes, forgot to include that. Starting normally brings up the starting Windows screen (text + logo) but after a few minutes, the screen flashes and then goes back to the "Windows failed to start..."
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If it was just reimaged maybe something is wrong with that image? Get a fresh install off a iso or someone elses disk
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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
On April 14 2014 15:36 Leeoku wrote: If it was just reimaged maybe something is wrong with that image? Get a fresh install off a iso or someone elses disk I can try taking it to ITS again tomorrow for another reimaging. Whoever did the job might have messed up, but the computer worked fine after I got it back the next day (Friday) until now and shut down/booted perfectly fine after several tests.
Is it possible for an image-related problem to manifest itself after a few days (ie not immediately)?
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You should check the HDD's "SMART" data. There's a tool "CrystalDiskInfo" that can show that. It tries to judge a drive's health automatically, but you can also look in the "raw values" column to see what the numbers are exactly for errors (there's a menu entry to switch the display over to decimal numbers instead of hex).
If you can't get into Windows to do that, there's images for bootable CDs that you can burn onto a disc or put onto a USB stick (for the USB stick method, use the tool "Rufus").
I know of these:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd
UBCD has only text mode programs but Hiren's is some sort of Windows desktop and has Windows programs.
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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
Thanks Ropid. I'm still waiting on startup repair (stupid me failed to notice computer came unplugged halfway through last time), so hopefully I'll be able to access Windows on the laptop, download CrystalDiskInfo, and see what's up. If I can't get to the computer, I guess I'm learning how to use Rufus.
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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
Left startup repair running when I went to sleep, and after I woke up the computer had "repaired" itself. Downloaded CrystalDiskInfo and ran it.
+ Show Spoiler [ASCII text] +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CrystalDiskInfo 6.1.12 (C) 2008-2014 hiyohiyo Crystal Dew World : [url=http://crystalmark.info/]http://crystalmark.info/[/url] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OS : Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64) Date : 2014/04/14 12:47:46
-- Controller Map ---------------------------------------------------------- - ATA Channel 4 (4) [ATA] + Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller [ATA] + ATA Channel 1 (1) - WDC WD5000BPVT-24HXZT3 ATA Device + ATA Channel 2 (2) - Slimtype DVD A DS8A5SH ATA Device - ATA Channel 4 (4)
-- Disk List --------------------------------------------------------------- (1) WDC WD5000BPVT-24HXZT3 : 500.1 GB [0/0/0, pd1] - wd
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) WDC WD5000BPVT-24HXZT3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model : WDC WD5000BPVT-24HXZT3 Firmware : 03.01A03 Serial Number : WD-WX21A81W0074 Disk Size : 500.1 GB (8.4/137.4/500.1/500.1) Buffer Size : 8192 KB Queue Depth : 32 # of Sectors : 976773168 Rotation Rate : 5400 RPM Interface : Serial ATA Major Version : ATA8-ACS Minor Version : ---- Transfer Mode : SATA/300 | SATA/300 Power On Hours : 11342 hours Power On Count : 2004 count Temperature : 38 C (100 F) Health Status : Caution Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ APM Level : 0080h [ON] AAM Level : ----
-- S.M.A.R.T. -------------------------------------------------------------- ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name 01 200 200 _51 000000000000 Read Error Rate 03 174 172 _21 0000000008F3 Spin-Up Time 04 _98 _98 __0 0000000007DA Start/Stop Count 05 200 200 140 000000000000 Reallocated Sectors Count 07 197 193 __0 0000000000E9 Seek Error Rate 09 _85 _85 __0 000000002C4E Power-On Hours 0A 100 100 __0 000000000000 Spin Retry Count 0B 100 100 __0 000000000000 Recalibration Retries 0C _98 _98 __0 0000000007D4 Power Cycle Count C0 200 200 __0 00000000003C Power-off Retract Count C1 197 197 __0 000000002B6E Load/Unload Cycle Count C2 109 _87 __0 000000000026 Temperature C4 200 200 __0 000000000000 Reallocation Event Count C5 199 199 __0 000000000071 Current Pending Sector Count C6 100 253 __0 000000000000 Uncorrectable Sector Count C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count C8 100 253 __0 000000000000 Write Error Rate
-- IDENTIFY_DEVICE --------------------------------------------------------- 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 000: 427A 3FFF C837 0010 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 0000 Bz?..7.......?...... 010: 2020 2020 2057 442D 5758 3231 4138 3157 3030 3734 WD-WX21A81W0074 020: 0000 4000 0032 3033 2E30 3141 3033 5744 4320 5744 ..@..203.01A03WDC WD 030: 3530 3030 4250 5654 2D32 3448 585A 5433 2020 2020 5000BPVT-24HXZT3 040: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010 0000 2F00 ..../. 050: 4001 0000 0000 0007 3FFF 0010 003F FC10 00FB 0100 @.......?....?...... 060: FFFF 0FFF 0000 0007 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0000 ...........x.x.x.x.. 070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 001F 1F06 0004 004C 0040 .................L.@ 080: 01FE 0000 746B 7D09 6123 7469 BC09 6123 407F 003D ....tk}.a#ti..a#@..= 090: 003D 0080 FFFE 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .=.................. 100: 6030 3A38 0000 0000 0000 0000 6003 0000 5001 4EE2 `0:8........`...P.N. 110: 0649 7B5A 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 401C .I{Z..............@. 120: 401C 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0029 0000 @................).. 130: 0000 0000 0000 16FE 012D 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .........-.......... 140: 0000 0000 0004 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 150: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 160: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 200: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 7035 0000 0000 4000 ............p5....@. 210: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1518 0000 0000 .................... 220: 0000 0000 101F 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 230: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 1000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 240: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 .................... 250: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 2AA5 ..........*.
-- SMART_READ_DATA --------------------------------------------------------- +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F 000: 10 00 01 2F 00 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 27 .../...........' 010: 00 AE AC F3 08 00 00 00 00 00 04 32 00 62 62 DA ...........2.bb. 020: 07 00 00 00 00 00 05 33 00 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 .......3........ 030: 00 00 07 2E 00 C5 C1 E9 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 32 ...............2 040: 00 55 55 4E 2C 00 00 00 00 00 0A 32 00 64 64 00 .UUN,......2.dd. 050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0B 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 .......2.dd..... 060: 00 00 0C 32 00 62 62 D4 07 00 00 00 00 00 C0 32 ...2.bb........2 070: 00 C8 C8 3C 00 00 00 00 00 00 C1 32 00 C5 C5 6E ...<.......2...n 080: 2B 00 00 00 00 00 C2 22 00 6D 57 26 00 00 00 00 +......".mW&.... 090: 00 00 C4 32 00 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 32 ...2...........2 0A0: 00 C7 C7 71 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 30 00 64 FD 00 ...q.......0.d.. 0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 32 00 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 .......2........ 0C0: 00 00 C8 08 00 64 FD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .....d.......... 0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E0 2E 01 7B ...............{ 170: 03 00 01 00 02 77 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .....w.......... 180: 00 00 01 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E6 ................
-- SMART_READ_THRESHOLD ---------------------------------------------------- +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F 000: 10 00 01 33 C8 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 15 ...3............ 010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 8C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 030: 00 00 07 00 C8 C5 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00 ................ 040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 060: 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C0 00 ................ 070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C1 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 090: 00 00 C4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 00 ................ 0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0C0: 00 00 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 ................ Mousing over the yellow Caution sign, I get "Caution [C5] Current Pending Sector Count : 113", which apparently is very high and quite bad.
Is this fixable without replacing the HDD? I read a thread on Anandtech that says something about zero-writing, of which I currently have no clue.
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I would definetly try reimaging it once more. If it does screw up again then I think its a faulty harddrive/dying harddrive. Harddrives in laptops arent that hard to swap in and would fix the problem for 50-100 bucks
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If you do a full format on the drive, it will theoretically move all its "current pending sectors" away and replace them with sectors out of the hidden unused extra space it has on its platters. It currently didn't replace the broken sectors because it thinks there's data on them and that you might still want to try to read that.
In my experience, this drive is worthless and you will have to throw it away. You can check if it's breaking by doing that zero-ing stuff and then regularly checking on the error numbers to see if they increase.
You can switch over the display of raw values from hex to decimal numbers so that you can read them easier. Here's where that option is hidden in CrystalDiskInfo's menu:
http://i.imgur.com/sILMcBi.png
EDIT:
I wonder if running chkdsk with its option to scan the surface of the drive will be just as good as doing a full format. Even if it won't make the drive deal with those "pending sectors", it should still mark every one of those as broken in the file system so that you can use the drive without issue.
You have to start chkdsk like this, I think:
chkdsk C: /R
You will need to restart. Checking C: will be scheduled and run outside of Windows at the next boot. You need to do this at night before you go to sleep! It will take forever.
After it checked everything, you can then go back to using your PC normally for now. You could make daily screenshots of the error numbers in CrystalDiskInfo and compare them. If they start to increase, the drive is useless.
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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
Noticed the hex -> decimal swap when messing around after taking the screenshot
Does reimaging the computer achieve the same effect as writing zeroes? If so, I will just go drop the computer off for reimaging once again, and in the meantime order an SSD (the 840 EVO looks quite nice) since I can use it in a new computer in the future anyway.
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I have no idea.
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