Win 7 locked after startup.

I have a homebuilt win7 pc.

It is an intel quad core 2.4 ghz proc (q6600) on a gigabyte ep45 ud3 mainboard, runing 8 gb memory.

The problem started a couple of days ago. A few mins after logging in the system would hang, no blue screen. Mouse pointer would move but I couldn't do anything.

In safe mode there were no problems and the event log was mysteriously clear. An overnight with memtest showed no memory errors, and I used western digital extended drive test on the hard drives, no errors.

Recently I did have a few overheating problems that went undetected for several days (my 3 yr old had turned off all my case fans!) but since finding that the system had been fine for a couple of weeks.

Since running these tests the system has stopped booting even into safemode. Any suggestions on what I do next?

I'm thinking it may be time for a new proc. mainboard and memory anyway but I really should get as much out of this as I can and I do need a pc!

The system did have an overclock on it, but turning that off hasn't helped at all.

I guess I should try to test other components, like the graphics card etc? Put them in my only working pc? (Intel core due, 4 gb ram on an asus mainboard, I just dont want to lose both. Though I could swap the processors and graphics cards as a test.

By using system restore I had got back into safe mode, cleared the logs and restarted there were a host of services failing and I could get no network (I was in safe mode with networking). The first (earliest) error in the log was an sptd error so I reinstalled that from their site.

The system now can not get back into safe mode. Any further advice or is it time to start taking parts out and putting them elsewhere (my other pc )to test? Sounds to me like the os install is gone for certain. But I've no idea what is left hardware wise.

Any advice?

Dom

 

The first thing I'd do is reset the board back to OEM specs - either by using the reset jumper pin (if your board has one) or by removing the CMOS (button cell) battery for about 15 minutes. Be sure the PC is unplugged when doing either of these.

If this doesn't work, try starting up using a bootable CD/DVD (Windows install disc, Linux, etc.). If the PC will boot this way, it points back to the hard drive (my experience is that HDD testing software doesn't catch everything). From here, buy or borrow a known good HDD and try reinstalling Windows. If this works, hook the old drive up as a secondary and get whatever data you can off it by transferring to the new drive (note that if you do this you'll need to reactivate Windows and reinstall/reactivate any other software like Office).

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, but this is getting even weirder!

I removed all usb devices, but most importantly the wireless network adapter and the system boots, not errors in the event log even... but I can't do anything with usb at all....

I'm gonna take the system apart tomorrow and reseat everything again and then see if a different usb network adapter can work. Points to the mainboard rather than HDD doesn't it?

 

Right then,

So I've run prime95 over night and it threw and error.
I've run ccleaner and also checked my voltages, at idle my cpu voltage is 1.408 underload (prime95) it drops to 1.360 not sure if this is too much of a drop but some moving about is normal no?

I can use a usb pen drive. But any usb network cards, seem to install but can not find any networks. No idea why not. I my mouse and keyboard are usb and work.

So have I got a corrupt os install or a serious hardware failure??

 

Go into the BIOS at startup and check the boot order. Your main hard drive should be at the top of the list.

If "boot from USB" (or "removable device") is higher in the boot order than your hard drive, the system may be hanging up trying to boot from a USB stick or other USB device.

 

SAved the system!

Seems my over worked overclocked system threw and error while a windows update was going on. So doing a system restore to before the update, then an SFC a couple of chkdisk scans and a whole of of testing (memtest, prime95 etc) it seems I have a stable system again (the overclock turned off naturally) still I've dodged a bullet here!

Should I do a fresh OS install (this is a real drag) or just wait and plan an upgrade soon?

Thanks for the advice guys!