Author Topic: Scan Interrupted, Can No Longer Boot to Visible Logon Screen (Read 30847 times)

lmitchell · « **Reply #25 on:** May 07, 2016, 02:52:55 am »

I've just run chkdsk on C (the boot sector). It's clean, with 0 kb in bad sectors and no problems with the file system. The results has the same last line as the othe scan "Failed to transfer...".

lmitchell · « **Reply #26 on:** May 07, 2016, 03:22:55 am »

From X:/Windows/System32
"Eventvwr is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"

From D:/Windows/System32 get "Error" window:
"The Event Viewer console file X:/windows/system32/eventvwr.msc cannot be found. Re-run Microsoft Windows setup."

Of course, when I run dir for the D drive, eventvwr.exe, eventvwr.msc and EventViewer_EventDetails.xsl are all there.

lmitchell · « **Reply #27 on:** May 07, 2016, 04:00:49 am »

From what I've been reading 8kb in bad sectors can be portent of disaster or something that can be monitored. Pretty much everyone says that the second they see hint of deterioration they get a new hard drive and move evrything. A few state that that the fact that chkdsk mentions it means it's been flagged for nonuse and one can continue using the disk in the short term but is taking a risk.

If there's any chance function can be stored to my OS I have to put myself in the latter category.I'd like to confirm that this condition did or didn't exist before if you could point me to prior logs. I've hard restarted so many times in the past few days attempting to login and ahving no other way to shut down or log off when confronted with the black screen with mouse cursor that I have to wonder if that might be cause of some corruption.

I have five external hard disks if varying sizes, plugged into a 10-usb hub. One is a 1TB that I partitioned so that one partition is the size of the internal laptop hard drive, intending to do full image back ups onto it. Right now it has a few 100GB or data I was temporarily storing there. I can't move anything because the hub is not being seen in WinRe but can probably do so in Linux.

Next, even if I copy or image it may be a few days before I can get a new drive. My immediate issue is that I have work hanging and orders to fulfil from days ago. I can copy my data and will try to start pending hearing from you guys, but I have to get this operable and take my chances oending being able to get a new bootable (versus passive portable) drive up and running

lmitchell · « **Reply #28 on:** May 07, 2016, 04:09:12 am »

The end of the last msg got messed up.

The inability to log in resulted from the TWR crash. At this point the preexisting problem (the browser crashing, which was an irritant) is workable. I'm less concerned with that and would welcome simply being able to get to the point of logging in again. Then I can take care of the obligations and, ideallly with new hard drive in hand within a few days, work on migrating to th enew drive. I fully accept any risks inherent in doing so.

Right now I'm going to putz around with one of my Linux disks and hope copying the files out doesn't take too much time.

Boggin · « **Reply #29 on:** May 07, 2016, 05:12:47 am »

Do you have that USB hub plugged in all of the time - even now when it is failing to boot ?

If so, unplug it and see if the machine will boot up normally.

lmitchell · « **Reply #30 on:** May 07, 2016, 05:44:43 am »

No I didn't. I turned it off and unplugged it, as well as my Logitech mouse receiver. I've only just now plugged it in to copy files with Linux to clear the partition I had originally meant to use for the OS drive backup.

I made another attempt post chkdsk to boot prior to inserting and booting off the Linux disk. Still the same - black screen and mouse cursor.

The one time Startup Repair ran without reporting "no errors" it siad there was a "bad driver". I have to wonder since when the Safe Mode drivers load it stops at classpnp.sys (that may be normal for all I know). Once it went one driver further. I looked up the driver and it was a Toolwiz driver. I had a Toolwiz app installed but not one associated with that particular driver, which should not have been loading in safe mode. It may have been a fluke occurence. I ran multiple malware and virus scans earlier this week (5 or 6 different programs, including malwarebytes), before doing TWR. Everything came back clean.

Boggin · « **Reply #31 on:** May 07, 2016, 06:35:46 am »

I saw that you mentioned that you had tried LKGC from the advanced boot options - can you also get Safe Mode with or without Networking to see the screen using the on board VGA graphics ?

If you can get Safe Mode with Command Prompt or just Safe Mode to access the cmd prompt, enter eventvwr

I was in error before because that cmd isn't recognized from the recovery environment cmd prompt.

Where you would normally see Critical, Error etc. and clicking on each, the resultant pane may be empty but will populate when you click on View All Instances of This Event in the lower right pane.

We need to see what it has been recording.

If you can get Safe Mode with Networking then you can download Blue Screen View which will analyse the Memory Dump files as Windows doesn't have a default program to read those.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

If the cause is because of a driver conflict/corruption then the methods to repair the MBR may not work.

If you can access the cmd prompt without going into the recovery environment, I'm not sure if the cmd msinfo32 would work but there you can expand Components/Problem Devices to see if it snags anything.

If you can navigate using the cmd prompt then you may also be able to get devmgmt.msc to see if anything has an alert in Device Manager.

lmitchell · « **Reply #32 on:** May 07, 2016, 06:52:07 am »

Its the same with networking, VGA and all the other safemode options, except the black screen occurs after the driver loading list. I went through every option on the page. Alway the sense that something is happening or there, just overlain with a black screen.

I'll back out of Linux now, unplug the hub and anything else, try all options again and report back soon.

lmitchell · « **Reply #33 on:** May 07, 2016, 06:59:20 am »

Also, I already have Blue Screen View installed. I think I have the entire Nirsoft suite installed, but never needed to use it for anything serious.

lmitchell · « **Reply #34 on:** May 07, 2016, 07:11:50 am »

Regular start and standard Safe Mode both went through to black screen with mouse cursor.

Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode with Command Prompt are both hanging on the Loading Windows Files page at classpnp.sys. I hope this is progress and not degradation.

I gave the former about 3 minutes before interrupting it to try the nest option. I'm going to interrupt the latter now and try VGA, etc just to eliminate the other scenarios.

lmitchell · « **Reply #35 on:** May 07, 2016, 07:19:32 am »

VGA showed the Starting Windows swirl icon, then "One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk."

So now I'm being run through chkdsk again, less than 10 hours after the last one ended. I doubt these hard shutdowns are good for the system but it's the only way to restart when confronted by the black screen. I hope this doesnt turn out to be another 8 - 10 hour scan.

lmitchell · « **Reply #36 on:** May 07, 2016, 07:32:44 am »

Regarding devices, I removed everything I was able in sequence, with corresponding restarts, prior to contacting you: the battery, the hard drive, the wireless card and the memory sticks. I also had removed the battery and power adapter, held down the power button for 30 seconds, reassemble and restart after 20 minutes, which has worked with the black screen with blinking line cursor problem sometimes.

As an absolute last resort I can open the whole thing up, disattach the monitor from the motherboard, restart, reassemble etc, but considering how problematic that will be I don't want to deal with it until eveything else has been eliminated. I've completely disassembled this many times to clean, replace fan, replace thermal paste and other stuff so it's not a big deal for me to open it up.

Boggin · « **Reply #37 on:** May 07, 2016, 07:36:44 am »

I've been researching the classpnp.sys hang and it definitely seems to be related to the HDD which is probably why a chkdsk has been initiated.

Some have found that booting up into the BIOS and swapping the SATA to IDE from AHCI and back after a reboot has worked for them , but as you know you already have 8 KB of bad sectors then that may be where the problem is.

BTW - I've seen a chkdsk /r reported as running for a lot longer than 10hrs - just to cheer you up

When you get the new HDD how do you intend to reinstall the OS ?

lmitchell · « **Reply #38 on:** May 07, 2016, 08:05:18 am »

I've ssen the reported success with the BIOS but the one in this HP Pavilion is relatively crude and doesn't offer a lot of fine-tuned options. The Dell desktop I had prior to this was more traditional and had all the options.

I have my Windows version imaged on a bootable USB. I'll just have to clean reinstall, copy my documents in and start from scratch. I'd reallyn really prefer to get back in this one, image my hard drive, possibly then try a last-ditch upgrade install to stabilze the crashing (which I know was due in part to browser plug-ins), then image the stable version and ditch this drive.

Right now the chkdsk is at 57percent complete and reported recovering orphaned files into directory files (3 of them) and Lrepairing the security file record segment". 10 index entries from the same file were deleted ("(eleting an index entry with Id xxxxx from index ?SII of file 9").

Well, it completed while I was typing that. Jumped back into regular startup, Starting Windows, back at the black screen with cursor, and even hearing that sound it makes when theinternal usb or wireless card or whatever activates.

Now I'm going to hard restart again to create more index error and try VGA safe mode one last time.

Boggin · « **Reply #39 on:** May 07, 2016, 08:10:30 am »

When I had just a black screen with the cursor, I was unable to boot up with anything except the recovery disks to factory reset it and then restored it with a system image - but mine wasn't because of hardware problems.

lmitchell · « **Reply #40 on:** May 07, 2016, 08:17:01 am »

Classpnp has been coming up over and over as I've attempted safe mode. Some sites state that it isn't the last driver that shows that is the problem, but the one that comes after it. For all I know and the others know it's supposed to be the last one. Does anyone even pay attention before there's a problem?

I have a couple of external nonpowered enclosures? Is there anything to be gained from putting the internal drive into one and trying to boot, or would that driver conflict still likely occur? Would an external boot be possible without external power to the drive?

Boggin · « **Reply #41 on:** May 07, 2016, 08:20:04 am »

Does the enclosure plug into a USB port ?

lmitchell · « **Reply #42 on:** May 07, 2016, 08:53:51 am »

I just rooted around in the BIOS to make absolutely sure I,m overlooking nothing, even though I've been in scores of times before. No way to reset any hard drive options as you've decribed.

I also took the opportunity to run a quick HP diagnostic on the drive. This panel is oonly for memory and hard drive. The comprehensive panel disappeared when I updated the BIOS months ago.

Itks only a quick test but the SMART test is reporting as PASSED and the Short DST as passed. HDD Sentinel and Ashampoo HD monitor both reported the disk as healthy when I was last able to check. I keep them running in startup. The latter recognized probelms (two abnormal resulst in the 50 or so parameters) but stated they were not yet significant.

Despite the crashing problem I had, triggered in part by Firefox loading certain pqages, and probably some software conflict with the 25 or so startup programs (which has been okay up to now), *everything* was fine until TWR crashed to blue screen in safe mode with networking (where I was running the scan, as recommended) and I signed back in and was confronted by the black screen and cursor. Cause and effect. That 8kb bad sector is a problem that needs to be dealth with and heeded, but is not the cause his issue.I,ve had dying drives before and the behavior is not so predictable.

I'll try whatevr is recommended next but cannot automatically agree that this has originated *because of* these bad (bypassed, no?) sectors, which may have come about because of multiple hard restarts over the last 2-1/2 days.

lmitchell · « **Reply #43 on:** May 07, 2016, 08:56:37 am »

All the external drives are USB. Three are WD 1TB. Two are 2.5" laptop drives in Orico nonpowered enclosures.

Boggin · « **Reply #44 on:** May 07, 2016, 09:10:01 am »

Let's see if your restore points will do anything then.

Get yourself back into the recovery environment to select Command Prompt and enter rstrui.exe

lmitchell · « **Reply #45 on:** May 07, 2016, 09:45:08 am »

Our last posts crossed, except mine didn't post. I,ll try to be brief (impossible for me, I know) repeating it -

A few posts I found mentioned the black screen / mouse cursor as being caused by file permissions and resolved by successfully resetting to defaults. That seemed plausible to me considering TWR spent hours changing them during stage 2, probably 80percent of the time it was running. I wanted to do so (for all maybe, not just the syste m) but the instructions online were confusing and/or not formatted well. Probably better to not have taken the chance.

I also remembered that I made a restore point from within TWR along with the registry backups. Where is it and is it acceptable to and usable by Windows System Restore? I've had Volume Shadow Copy and System Restore always active but its been hit or miss whether restore points are in the panel when I need them. Sometimes there have been none.

I would have tried it already if theire were useable points. There are three from 2014 and those were long gone sequential backups to an internal drive. I probably made one othe restore point from within a program when I was doing scans. No idea which program, where it is or even if can be restored external to the program that created it.

So am back in restrui and only the same three two-year old points are showing there.

Boggin · « **Reply #46 on:** May 07, 2016, 09:51:16 am »

I can't believe you still have restore points that old.

If they hang then you would have no option but to power shutdown, which was the cause of my black screen with cursor.

They could also be corrupt.

Hang on, I'm going to see if I can activate my WR from a cmd prompt with its .exe, but not sure it will work from the recovery environment.

Boggin · « **Reply #47 on:** May 07, 2016, 10:10:06 am »

No it doesn't although it has to be run from within Windows and the only .exe I can find is Repair_Windows.exe which isn't even recognised in a normal cmd prompt.

As you don't have any restore points that you can rely on, I can't think of any other way to get you back to before you ran WR or to get out of this black screen, other than what you doing by backing up your files in preparation to installing a new HDD.

It's possible that WR in carrying out its repairs hit a tender spot on the HDD, but for me, as you have nothing else to lose - I would try the MBR repairs, but back up your files first should that cause even more to hit the fan.

I'm going to have to shoot off now but will be back in about 3hrs.

lmitchell · « **Reply #48 on:** May 07, 2016, 10:18:08 am »

I don't think those points actually exist. I think they're from external backups done with Macrium or EaseUS that were somehow not deleted from whereever backups are listed.

Occassionally I,ve done Disk Cleanup and have selected the "Delet All But Most Recent Backup" to regain drive space. I did so as recently as last week. But I've also installed updates since then.Windows is supposed to make backups before updates, but I can't count how many times I've checked that restore is activated (System -- Advanced Options) yet it shows 0MB restore points. Should have been a clue to keep better backups, but I don't trust Windows restore options and EaseUS and Macrium frequently fail partway through or during verification, so I've done it less and less frequently.

lmitchell · « **Reply #49 on:** May 07, 2016, 10:23:21 am »

Okay. I opened explorer via notepad via command line. There are some accessible txt logs - ntbtlo from today, bcdlog from a couple of weeks ago, Tweaking.com repair set up log from Monday. They may be of limited used considering nothing can be run to force corrections from the state I,m stuck in.