Can't startup after freeze and force shut down

White Eye · 04 Dec 2015

Windows 10 froze suddenly when I went through the search results tabs of a search done on torrent-finder.info. I was using Firefox (latest version). My fear is that I may have come across a dodgy website which caused the freeze. My Keepass Passwords Database was open at the time so I was even more apprehensive. This type of freeze had never happened before. The CPU light on my laptop turned on full-time and the interface became generally unresponsive. I could use the mouse but could not access task manager. So I saw no other option than to force shut down by holding down the power button.

When attempting to boot up again the CPU light was on full-time again at the beginning. Then, after a little longer than usual CPU goes dead (no light) and I am left with the black screen with the blue windows logo and the spinning circle. At this step the boot process gets stuck.

Any help/advice on how to proceed is greatly appreciated.

Steve C · 04 Dec 2015

The PC may be trying to do an automatic repair. You can leave it to complete, else hold down the power on button for a long period to force a full restart.

dalchina · 04 Dec 2015

Clearly one just has to guess as to what has happened.. anything from hardware failure to some sort of corruption..incompatibility...
If nothing after some time as Steve C says;
Some ideas:
1. Try a cold boot
2. Try running startup repair by booting from installation media
3. Try running chkdsk by booting from installation media, selecting Repair My PC and navigate to a command prompt. Carefully find your Windows drive (letter may not be C:).
4. Run sfc /scannow

If you need any more details on the above, tutorials in this forum may well help, or a general search.
Good luck!

White Eye · 09 Dec 2015

Thank you for the replies.

I ran Startup repair after creating USB installation media. It took a while to get through the various clicks to startup repair as the laptop was slow in responding. But I managed to get Startup repair running after which the PC went to the state in which it had been before (i.e. blue windows logo, spinning circle). Left it like this for 48 hours but as it was still stuck in this state I forced shut down again.

When I turned the laptop on again however, it booted up and everything seemed normal. So startup repair seems to have fixed something. Unfortunately, I could not find the log file in the location specified in the tutorial here. I started a full virus scan but the cpu seemed overloaded again and I got a black screen with the following text repeating itself.

Broadcom UNDI PXE-2.1 v11.0.11
Copyright (C) 2000-2000 Broadcom Corporation
Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation
All rights reserved.
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM.

I got this same screen and text the first time around too, which I forgot to mention in my original post.

Any ideas what this text means?

When I press Ctrl-Alt-Del I get to the initial boot screen where I can choose boot options but from there it goes to the screen with the text I mentioned. I will try to run startup repair again as the tutorial here says it may need to run up to 3 times in order to fully resolve any startup issues.

dalchina · 10 Dec 2015

Hi, we need to establish basics first.

Please run chkdsk C: /F
then when clear run
SFC /Scannow from an elevated command prompt.
Please also confirm you can boot to safe mode successfully.

There's little point in chasing messages like that until we are more confident you have a reasonably intact system.

Then post back your results.

Given what has happened, you may well be advised to run an AV scan from external media from your initial comment if you cannot do that from within Windows.

White Eye · 16 Dec 2015

I had problems with the USB installation media so I created a disc. I don't know if it makes a difference but I don't have any original installation media so I had to create it manually. I think I am missing a few options in advanced startup when booting from installation media such as Startup Settings and being able to boot to safe mode.

So, I am not able to boot to safe mode. I can only access the options under "repair your computer" when booting from installation media. And even this is barely possible as it takes a while to get through the various setup steps. The PC is very slow.

I ran startup repair again but after diagnosing my PC it tries to boot unsuccessfully. It gets stuck right at the beginning on the same screen with the blue windows logo and spinning circle.

I ran chkdsk C: /F from the command prompt option and after running I got the message "Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems. No further action is required."

When running SFC /Scannow I get the message "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation". I guess because it wasn't run from an elevated command prompt? I don't know how, or if, one can run something from an elevated command prompt using the installation disc.

dalchina · 17 Dec 2015

Hi, when you're running from a boot disk, you're not using the HDD at all - or your installed Windows. Therefore that you say your PC is very slow suggests you may have a hardware problem.

If so, it could, of course, be related to almost anything, and being a laptop, the options are very limited.

I would suggest trying a boot disk with some diagnostic software on it, as your Windows is unreliable.
As such, you may be best advised at this point to make a backup of anything on your hard disk. Since using a boot disk doesn't appear successful in your case, that means using another PC with your HDD connected to it so you can, for example, create an image of it.
(Aomei Backupper, Macrium Reflect Free).

That way you can put it back in your laptop and play feeling relatively safe.

Can you confirm you no longer see the Broadcom message?
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...599b31bf5?db=5
comments on that as you may have seen. It is not so uncommon.

Here's how to get to safe mode from an installation medium. It's not obvious.
Start your PC in safe mode in Windows 10 - Windows Help

See 'From installation media'

dalchina · 17 Dec 2015

How to run SFC /scannow from a boot disk:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/run-sy...mode-boot-time

White Eye · 17 Dec 2015

I can confirm that I no longer get the Broadcom message.

I am not able to get to Safe Mode using any of the options described here https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...dows-10-a.html

When I ran sfc using the method described here http://www.thewindowsclub.com/run-sy...mode-boot-time I got the message "Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service". There are instructions on how to possibly fix this issue here http://www.thewindowsclub.com/window...repair-service which I will try later. The method described doesn't work if the OS can't be accessed but in the comments section user NYC suggests a possible solution for this.

I will try to get the HDD out of the laptop and do a backup of it as you suggest. Will let you know if successful or not.

dalchina · 18 Dec 2015

Problem is if you can't get Windows to boot, you can't do an in-place repair (where you launch a Windows installation from Windows booted normally), you can't get to safe mode, use restore points (you've probably got a situation where a restore point wouldn't help).

It should be worth exploring that Broadcom error further (which you don't get now but pointed to MBR corruption). So when you've backed up your HDD, try an MBR repair. E.g.
Minitool Partition Wizard
How to Rebuild MBR | MiniTool Partition Wizard Tutorial
or Aomei Partition Wizard
etc

If you don't have backup images (Aomei Backupper, Macrium Reflect (both free and essential to avoid major issues, support HDD replacement) or any other sort of recovery media, and your HDD is physically ok, you could be looking at a clean install.