Help! I can boot in safe mode but not in normal mode?

[MuZeVII]

Hi guys, in desperate need of some help from the great community here!

 

The other night Windows Update automatically restarted my computer but did not boot successfully. Now, whenever I reach the windows logo, the system hangs and then directs my to startup repair. I have run startup repair but this hasn't solved anything.

 

I am, however, able to boot in safe mode. I have tried the following things to try and solve the issue:

 

- Removed all startup entries from 'msconfig'.

- Tried startup repair

- Full malware scan using malwarebytes.

- Performed a system restore to a point before the issue started.

 

If anyone can help me solve this I'll love them forever. Thanks!

[MuZeVII]

Unplug every part that's not neccessary to boot up the computer and plug them in one by one to filter out the broken component.

 

Hi,

 

I should mention that it's a laptop, and I don't have anything plugged into it.

[MuZeVII]

Have you tried taking the battery out, holding the power button for 10 secs and battery back in?

 

There is no battery in the laptop; I run it off mains power at all times.

[MuZeVII]

There might be corrupted files or something.. did you interrupt a Windows update?

 

Nope, the reboot was an automatic one performed by the Windows Update process itself.

[dragoon20005]

Nope, the reboot was an automatic one performed by the Windows Update process itself.

do you have the windows DVD?

 

use this steps

 

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-repair-windows-7-system-installation-disc.htm

[MuZeVII]

do you have the windows DVD?

 

use this steps

 

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-repair-windows-7-system-installation-disc.htm

 

I don't have the Windows DVD unfortunately. I've also run 'sfc /scannow' and that hasn't picked up any issues with the Windows core files. Any more suggestions would be appreciated! 

[dragoon20005]

I don't have the Windows DVD unfortunately. I've also run 'sfc /scannow' and that hasn't picked up any issues with the Windows core files. Any more suggestions would be appreciated! 

try this 

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/how-can-i-repair-windows-7-professional-without-a/2d484164-fa74-45b6-9a8f-f7018a75327e

 

download the ISO and burn it into a disc or create a bootable thumbdrive

 

use it to try to repair the MBR

 

from the looks of it, you might have the Windows Update loop

 

try this also

 

http://nctritech.com/vista_update_loop.php

[MuZeVII]

Thanks, I'll try repairing from a Windows ISO on USB and will report back with any results. I don't think I'm exhibiting the same symptoms as the issue you have linked to though.

[GrandBandit]

Really it just sounds like you need a clean OS install. The problem with windows updates is that if anything goes wrong it can really screw up the computer. You've expired a lot of options. I've had success with uninstalling the display driver and reinstalling from the manufacturers website after reboot, but that's just a stab in the dark.

[MuZeVII]

Hi guys, I thought I'd post an update on this to help anyone else that may be having the same issue:

I booted into Windows from a USB stick and tried the following things:

- Ran startup repair 3 times. It didn't pick up on any issues and solved nothing.

- Used CMD to run BOOTREC commands such as fixMBR, fixBOOT and RebuildBCD. None of these solved the issue. (ScanOS would also sometimes not identify any Windows installations).

- Used SFC /scannow. Again, no help at all.

I than ran CHKDSK for my boot drive. A full scan took approximately 24 hours (at times I thought it had frozen but I'm glad I left it). This DID allow me to boot into Windows successfully and retrieve the files I needed. However, the system was very slow and occasionally unresponsive. It was clear that the problem was rooted much deeper and I eventually decided to completely reformat, which solved all problems.

I hope that this will be of some (if only little!) help to anyone experiencing similar difficulties. If anyone wants to put forward any ideas that may have negated my need to reformat, that would be fantastic! (Although I no longer have the issue to test hypothesise!).

Thanks for the help guys, love the community here!