Boot-Loop With Vista Home Premium

[bash6656]

I inherited a Gateway 825GM Media Center Edition. It had Windows XP Pro installed from Gateway before that had become hopelessly corrupted. After reformatting and installing a new copy of the XP Pro, any further installations of software restarted numerous problems of such varying degrees it was incredible. Sent it to a repair shop and it came back working with just the basic OS loaded and working and a detailed letter stating that this computer had no hardware problems and that the problems were software associated.

Started reloading various software (most of which worked fine as long as it was installed via a disk) but IE-6 began to cause the computer to lock-up or freeze (No keyboard function, no mouse function ect...). Very few programs were loaded so the 250Gb SATA HD (Factory install) was close to empty. The only problem I could find was an issue with my CD player/writer. I replaced it with a brand new Sony and it works fine. Got everything I needed that was important back on the computer and soon determined that my Video Card was sub-par for the purposes I needed. So I replaced an ATI Radeon x300 with an ATI Radeon HD 2400 (DX10 High Definition capable card, installed drivers from ATI disk before DX10 was finalized). It worked fine for a while.

One Fine Day in early spring I opened IE 6 and it locked up and when I re-booted it sent me into a BOOT-LOOP. Normal start, then black screen with boot method choice, loading screen then Blue screen of death and back again over and over.

Often as many as three dozen restarts might produce one successful boot. I changed my hard drive to a brand new one (same company SATA 350Gb). Did a clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium and it worked fine as I reloaded all of my important programs. The VERY FIRST time I opened the new version IE 7 it locked up / froze again. Back to the same old problem, restart with the power button then BOOT-LOOP again and again. One successful reboot in dozens.

System:
Gateway 825GM Media Center ( I bought one Gateway before that did not work right for 2 years,,, swore I'd never BUY another one and DID NOT BUY this one.)

1024 DDR2 RAM
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium Version 6.0.6000 Build 6000 SP1 added.
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.4GHz 3399Mhz. 1 core
Video Card: ATI RADEON HD 2400 256Mb RAM
Hard Drive: SATA 350Gb (brand new)
Bay #1 Drive D: Sony DVD RW DRU-840A ATA Divice (Brand new)
Bay #2 Drive E: HL-DT-ST-DVD-ROM GDR8163B ATA (origional equip This is the one BIOS ties to boot from DVD with if I select that option.)
Bay #3 : Digital Media Manager ( USB, SD/MMC/SM/MS/MS-Pro, CF/Microdrive) <this is not used by me>
Power Supply: (I cannot verify) but I believe it is a 450W
DirectX 10

Motherboard: I don't know but it is expandible up to 4GB RAM, has only 1 PCI-e slot

I have tried WITHOUT SUCCESS:
Cleaning the case, (there is no dirt/dust anywhere in it now)

System Restore (chose Safe Mode to do system restore, always goes back to freeezing then boot-loop).

I have tried (on the OLD hard drive) reformatting and re-install of the OS (clean install).

Most of the Hardware I have changed is new and did work properly but disconnected their cables one by one anyways without success.

I'm down to pulling my hair and teeth out, thinking:

Maybe my Mother Board has been corrupted after about 3 years of life.

Maybe my Power Supply is too weak.

Maybe if I disconnected the Digital Media Manager (which I never use) and the Drive E:\ DVD player that BIOS sometimes uses to boot from the disk, It might help the power supply by taking some of the load off of it.

Now I must tell you when I try to start the computer up I DO get power button illumination, I do get Video on my monitor, I do get all the bells and beeps and I do hear the Hard Drive spinning up. All the Fans are working. (This leads me to believe the power supply is adequate).

It is on a Wi-Fi at home. Belkin Wireless N but it and another computer are hard wired to it and both laptops are wirelss.

I can work Explorer (whenever I do get a successful boot) but cannot use Internet Explorer 7 without causing the freeze and Boot-Loop.

Please Help if you can.

[bleonard989]

Do you have the vista installation DVD?

[bleonard989]

Do you have the vista installation DVD?

Actually, this has happened to me, first of all... did you buy the upgrade for vista off of the digital locker on Microsoft.com, or did you buy the hard copy of the OS?

[forumdude123]

his f8 when booting, then choose "disable restart on system crash" or something like that, then record what the Blue Screen Of Death says, then maybe we can help you better.

[bash6656]

Do you have the vista installation DVD?

Yes, I still have it.

[bash6656]

Actually, this has happened to me, first of all... did you buy the upgrade for vista off of the digital locker on Microsoft.com, or did you buy the hard copy of the OS?

Bought the Hard Copy from Circuit City.

[bash6656]

If you are going to ask me do insert the disk, chose REPAIR. Don't waste your time I've aready done that without success.

[bash6656]

NEW QUOTE: "Not only will I never buy another Gateway computer, I'll add never own another one to my list whether someone gives it to me or not." They just aren't worth the time it takes to baby them.

[bleonard989]

yeah... it's hard to tell what's wrong with it without the error messages... what does the screen say?

It is weird that it will let you boot from disc, and not repair it... so it's more than likely not with the software, probably a hardware related issue

[bash6656]

My thoughts exactly, The Blue Screen of Death only flickers a fraction of a second then back to initiating the boot, It doesn't stay long enough for me to do more than glimpse at it. Now I can start it in safe mode with internet with all the bells and whistles turned off. If I knew where to look for an error file I'd copy and paste here for you, but when I do manage to get a successful boot Vista shows an alert about a system shut down error and asks me to find a solution on the web. I say "Find Solution" and after about an hour I get a warning that it could not find a solution. I checked the details of the system shutdown error message and there IS a list of codes there. Obviously Microsoft has never run into this problem before.

[forumdude123]

do the F8 thing i said earlier, bash6656.

when the pc restarts, hit f8 repeatedly. then select "disable restart on system failure", or something like that. Then you should be able to see what the BSOD error is.

[bash6656]

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any new installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000004E (0x0000009A, 0x00027003, 0x00000006, 0x00000002)

Collecting data for crash dump...
Initializing disk for crash dump...
Beginning dump of physical memory.
Dumping physical memory to disk 100
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system admin or technical support group for further assistance.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above is what I was able to retrieve, using the suggested F8 and changed setting, from the blue screen of death once the computer locked up again and began it's reboot.

I have no Idea what the PFN_LIST_CORRUPT is never seen that before since this is the only computer I've ever had that did this.

<<I feel in my bones we are getting closer>>

[bash6656]

Ok a little research, (its wonderful to own many computers) lead me to #1 maybe a driver problem in the Vista O/S writing bad pages, #2 a Driver trying to access pages it has no authority to access, #3 bad memory blocks in the memory sticks that cannot accept/record what the driver is writing. Most likely, since this occurs either while trying to access... ie when opening a program window in explorer and/or turning on the computer which is another form of accessing memory pages, it must be, but not limited to, a system driver error. How do I isolate the bad driver and remove it / replace it?

[forumdude123]

the last few drivers that you installed should be reinstalled by doing the f8 thing and selecting safe mode, then go into device manager (in start menu, type "device manager" without the quotes in the search box). In the device manager, select the last drivers that you think were installed, open the properties box, and select roll back drivers. If you need anymore help, send me a private message and i'll give u detailed steps.

[tszmidel]

the last few drivers that you installed should be reinstalled by doing the f8 thing and selecting safe mode, then go into device manager (in start menu, type "device manager" without the quotes in the search box). In the device manager, select the last drivers that you think were installed, open the properties box, and select roll back drivers. If you need anymore help, send me a private message and i'll give u detailed steps.

Dear forumdude123

I dont know if you helped fix the bash guys pc with the whole vista loop issue, but after much trawling i came across this thread.

I would realy appreciate the help. I think i have the same problem. It wont load past the vista scrolling bars loading thing then it will crash. I have used my windows vista disc to repair my pc but to no avail, it seems not do much at all and the problem keeps on persisting.

I did the f8 thing as u suggested and stoped it rebooting after it gives you a sub-one-second flash of the blue screen (blue screen of death, hate it). It then freezes on the blue screen which has the following information on it:

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannnot load the hive (File):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\COMPONENTS
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt,absent, or not writable.

Collecting data for crash dump ...
Initializing disk for crash dump ...

That is all the information on the blue screen.

I hope you can help because i am realy stuck and i have valuable data on the pc which i would prefer not to loose through reinstalling vista.

Cheers
T.Szmidel

[kaninelupus]

Mate, you need to start a new topic post, as a) this a very old posting and b) your issues are unrelated. If you start a now topic, will guide you through it

[tszmidel]

Mate, you need to start a new topic post, as a) this a very old posting and b) your issues are unrelated. If you start a now topic, will guide you through it

Thanks anyway, i did a total wipe of Vista, Cheers