Windows 7 not booting (Several fixes attempted)

[sandrockcstm]

Alright, I believe this might qualify as a KSOD (black screen of death), but it's very acute in that it only happens after the post for the BIOS. Essentially, after post, my computer will display a black screen with a blinking white line. From everything I've read, this means that windows is not initializing properly because it's getting "stuck" somewhere. I cannot enter safe mode. I can get into windows, however, by booting from a windows recovery disk, and instead of pressing a key to initialize the boot, letting windows start like normal. Once it starts I have no issues with the OS.

I first tried chkdsk, which found nothing (I ran it 3 different times just to be sure). Then I checked the S.M.A.R.T. status of my HDD and it checked out as ok. I then scanned it for bad sectors using ubcd4win and found nothing. I tried a defragment and that didn't help. I tried going to a previous restore point and that did nothing. I've also checked for viruses, spyware, and malware (using Malware bytes, Super Anti-spyware, Windows Defender, and Avast!), and found not so much as a suspicious cookie.

When I tried the recovery disk, the "fix startup" option found nothing wrong. So I then went to the command line and did bootrec.exe to try and fix the MBR. "/FixMbr" and "FixBoot" and "RebuildBcd" made no difference.

Any suggestions?

Edit: Sorry, here's the specs

Motherboard: Asus M4A77T/USB3
CPU: Phenom II X2 555 BE
CPU Cooler: XIGMATEK cobra - d984 92mm
Video Card: Sapphire VaporX Radeon HD 5770
RAM: Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3
HDD: SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD103SI 1TB 5400 RPM
Power Supply: COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RS600-PCARE3-US 600W

 

[sandrockcstm]

Anyone?

 

[Soma42]

Do you overclock?

 

[sandrockcstm]

No, I do not overclock.

 

[GhislainG]

however, by booting from a windows recovery disk, and instead of pressing a key to initialize the boot, letting windows start like normal.

This only delays booting from the hard disk. Check your boot sequence and make sure that you're not trying to boot from the LAN (PXE) before booting from the hard disk. Listing your hardware components might help.

 

[sandrockcstm]

Sorry, specs added. I use the computer every day, and have never messed with the boot sequence, so it shouldn't have changed. However, I will double check to be sure.

 

[sandrockcstm]

Sure enough, the boot sequence got changed to try to startup from out photo card reader. I changed the boot sequence and it starts up right as rain. Go figure, never would have thought it would do that on its own! Thanks everyone .

 

[sandrockcstm]

Best answer selected by sandrockcstm.