Win 7 Boot issue.

Hello,
Need a little help, please.
Dell desktop PC - Win 7. Been working fine until the last four days.
Go to boot up, but the screen just hangs after I enter my password. Did the "repair" part of the menu. It says that there is no problem, but still will not boot. Starts in safe mode. Selecting different menu option - "directory service repair mode" - instead of normal safe mode, allows it to boot - with icons etc normal size, and antivirus working.. Apparently that's not usual whilst in "safe mode" (I'm using avast).
All I can think of is that I downloaded a free HDD cloning program - which MSE (in use before problem - changed to avast afterwards) said was virus free - then the problem came!
Removed all traces of said program, and uninstalled a few other programs not used for a while. but the problem remains.....
Have run full scan, including SuperAntiSpyware, but nothing shows.
It did show "txtsetup.sif code 14 error", before I ran the repair (1st option in safe mode): that appears to have gone now. At one point error 0 x 490 showed.
Any help much appreciated
3GB Core-Duo
80GB HDD
Win 7
4GB DDR2 memory
Avast
Glary Pro
CCleaner
Am using in safe mode now - but the obvious limitations are a pain in the backside!
I can turn off and restart anytime, but can only boot using an option from the safe mode menu. If using normal safe mode choice, all icons are large - as would be normal.
Cheers, Les. (oh yes, I no longer have the original Win 7 CD, so can't use that in any way

Edited by lelboy (Mon 07-Jul-14 10:42:59)

can you think back to when your pc was working ok. You could revert back to that time using windows restore.

If not then Can I suggest that you go into control panel device manager and delete most of the core keyboard/memory/hard disk, video/etc.. type drivers. When you reboot these should auto detect and start again. That fixes 50% of the issues. The other 50%, well, use the event log

Hi Ian,
Thanks for your interest.
Problem started a few days back - I feel after I installed some freeware that my antivirus said was ok!
Did as you suggested - no change unfortunately. No system restore point, either - that was my first thought to do!
If I can't fathom this out, I suspect I'm going to have to get another HDD, and reinstall Win 7 from a new disk.
I don't want to interfere too much with my current HDD, as there's a lot on it that I'll want to save - and it appears that I can't do that whist in this particular safe mode?
Should have left well alone, and not bothered with this "free" cloning software!
Ah well....
Thanks again, Les.

If you don't have the Win 7 disc then how are you going to reinstall? If you can get a disc then before doing a full install on another HD try doing a repair install - that may fix whatever the issue is.

Not sure what you did, but if this was me I would:


* Start in safe mode
* copy off all needed "own" files onto a USM stick

* In control panel, check any programs that were installed around that time and delete them
* In your web browser check for any activex controls you do not recognise and delete them
* In control panel device manager, look for the network card & USB drivers and delete them, they will be re-created in a reboot
* Look in control panel services and make sure the DNS client service is turned on automatically

* Reboot the PC and check if that fixes it.
If not then

* Find the web site your av gets its downloads from
* Get the I address of that web site
* go into the host file and manually put that in
* at the same time do the same for a few other non working web sites
*Reboot the PC
* Update to the latest AV software
* Also download the appropriate AV stinger type standalone AV tool. (you could do that on your other PC
* Check the PC
* Comment out the host file settings that you manually added
* Reboot and check again
If still not working use the manual standalone stinger AV tool
* If
still not working then its a PC issue.
* Compare the services started on this PC with another, start/stop to match a working PC
if still not working
* Copy the windows system32 files from a working PC into the faulty PC. (make a backup copy first into a different location
Check the start-up files (cant remember off hand how this is done), but ensure nothing started you do not want..
* Reboot and check again
* at this point if still a problem, then you are in trouble.

Hope that helps