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Windows failed to start... except when...

wildmanwoody31
By wildmanwoody31
in Troubleshooting
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Go to solution Solved by wildmanwoody31,

Ok. Crisis averted. I fixed the problem by setting my bios settings back to their defaults. Something must've gotten switched or messed up, but it's booting consistently now. 

 

Thanks for your help.

Posted

Sooo... I've had my new computer a week now and a big thunderstorm comes through oklahoma city and messes up my computer. I've got the following symptoms:

***************************

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem: 

1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer. 

2. Choose your language settings

3. Click Repair your computer

 

Status: 0xc000000e

 

Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

****************************

But... in my troubleshooting efforts I realized that whenever I reconfigure what is hooked up to the sata ports on the mb it boots as normal. Unfortunately, when I go to restart it goes right back to a failed windows start.

 

My one week old computer build:

 
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
 
Does anyone know what is wrong/broken?
 
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check your boot order in your bios. make sure your HDD is pluged in right, make sure the HDD is still spinning when powered (listen for it.)

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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The boot order is normal. HDD first, CD, USB. I've checked that it's plugged in correctly and completely changed which sata chord the SSD is connected to. Problem stays the same: first boot on each cord = good. Subsequent boots on each cord = bad.

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Posted

 

Sooo... I've had my new computer a week now and a big thunderstorm comes through oklahoma city and messes up my computer. I've got the following symptoms:

***************************

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem: 

1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer. 

2. Choose your language settings

3. Click Repair your computer

 

Status: 0xc000000e

 

Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

****************************

But... in my troubleshooting efforts I realized that whenever I reconfigure what is hooked up to the sata ports on the mb it boots as normal. Unfortunately, when I go to restart it goes right back to a failed windows start.

 

My one week old computer build:

 
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
 
Does anyone know what is wrong/broken?

 

Well that thunder storm was sure exciting, glad my computer is still up, but back to the issue. -- I've found that really the easiest thing to do when windows gives you an error message (really of any kind) is to reinstall it. Reinstalling saves you a lot of time, and therefore a lot of money, given that time is money. Now if you don't have anything really important on your drives, then go ahead and install windows again. 

 

Also to add, this might actually constitute a reinstall because what it seems is that windows could have become corrupted in some way, shape, or form due to an unexpected restart. Though this is rare, I've seen it happen in the past, and unless you're willing to muck with registry and directory settings on how your computer is supposed to start (which can be millions of little different entries) reinstalling is the only thing that I can think of to do. 

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