Windows 7 Startup Problems

[will011]

I've had some blue screens on start up before, but today was the worst.

Got back from school, booted up the pc, got some errors first I've had in a while.

Turned the computer on and after about 15 seconds I got a blue screen saying there was a hardware error or something, so I restarted the computer, launched windows system recovery, and then I got a blue screen saying windows has been shut down to prevent damage or something like that.

So, I turned the computer off, went into the bios and set all the settings to default, saved and re-booted, went back to the bios and ran a memtest which passed, so I safed and re-booted the computer and went into system recovery again. For some reason, it took about 10 minutes to get from the loading screen to the windows screen, then after 10 minutes system recovery still hadn't loaded, so I held down the power button on the computer to turn it off. Strangely, it turned itself back on after about 5 seconds.

I then just started windows normally, and everything worked, and all my temps are fine etc.



Do you have any idea what's causing these problems? The only problems I ever get are startup problems.

Specs:

Intel i5 2500k @ Stock with Turbo Boost on
MSI P67A G45
OZC ZS 650W
XFX ATI HD 6850
Thermaltake Frio
4x2GB Mushkin Blackline 1600MHz at 1333(as that's default)
Cooler Master Elite 430 Case
500GB Seagate Barracuda 6GB/S


Thanks a lot!

 

[Onus]

Without knowing your system specs, any troubleshooting we can do is limited to guesses. SSD firmware issue, mobo, PSU, there are too many possibilities here. Please let us know what's in your system.

 

[sminlal]

If you're overclocking your CPU or RAM then return all settings to normal to see if that has any effect. I'd probably also open the system up and reseat the RAM and all of the device and power cables.

 

[billj214]

If nothing has changed on the PC then most likely a "Blue Screen" is cause by a hardware failure.
Check by removing components one at a time, also if you have another power supply you can test that would be where I would start first.

Good Luck.

 

[will011]

the problem is it's not consistent.. for example, I just turned it off and on to install some windows updates, it loaded up windows and installed updates, then restarted itself and loaded windows again, and it's all fine.

In future, if I get another blue screen, should I do windows system recovery, or just load windows?

 

[sminlal]

When diagnosing intermittent problems you have to change something (such as stop overclocking) and then run the system that way for a week or month to see if the symptoms reappear. If they don't then you're on to something, otherwise you can undo the change and try something else.

You normally shouldn't need to do a complete system recovery. Windows automatically detects improperly dismounted disk volumes when it starts and does a "chkdsk" on them to repair any suspect file system metadata.

 

[will011]

I have nothing overclocked, but I have turbo boost enabled (I'm on default settings). What do you think I should try changing?

Also, I'm unable to lock windows, do you know why that is?

 

[billj214]

Check your windows update history, if something updated recently just un-install it and see if that works.

Go to control panel/programs and features/view installed updates (left column).