Vista will not load, cannot repair it

I have a major problem with my 32bit Vista Business computer running on
an MSI K9SLI motherboard with an AMD Athlon 64X2 4800+ processor, which
I built myself. It has been working correctly for a year then Monday,
during a spell of hot weather, it started shutting down unexpectedly.
Advice on MS Vista Forums, (which I can no longer log on to for some
unexplained reason), suggested that overheating was the problem. I
cleaned the dust out, connected another couple of case fans and thought
that the problem was solved. No new software or hardware has been added
in the last few weeks.

It shut down again another couple of times, and when I managed to boot
up on a couple of occasions Windows Explorer stopped working, and then
restarted, but continued to stop and the mouse froze so the computer was
unusable.

Inserting the Vista DVD enabled me to run Startup Repair which seemed
to find no problems, and I also ran chkdsk on my C: and F: drives which
found, and fixed, a few problems on both drives.

A couple of times I have seen the dear old blue screen, one of which
showed :-

A PROBLEM HAS BEEN DETECTED AND WINDOWS HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN TO PREVENT
DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER.
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
IF THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU HAVE 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 HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE.
DKISABLE BIOS MEMORY OPTIONS SUCH AS CACHING OR SHADOWING. IF YOU NEED
TO USE SAFE MODE T REMOVE OR DISABLE COMPONENTS, RESTART YOUR COMPUTER,
PRESS F8 TO SELECT ADVANCES STARTUP OPTIONS, AND THENSELECT SAFE MODE.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION:
*** STOP: 0X0000000A (0X088BF12BE, 0X00000002, 0X00000000, 0X88/8BA8D7)
I am now at the stage where I cannot boot into Vista at all. The MSI
logo screen seems to display for over ten seconds whereas previously it
only showed for a couple of seconds, but I do not know if that is
relevant. Also pressing TAB is supposed to go into POST, but does not,
but I can get into the BIOS.

If I try to load Windows normally, or to load Windows from the Vista
DVD I get as far as the screen showing the rectangle where the green
bars cycle from left to right and it gets no further, even though I wait
over ten minutes. (Using the DVD the files, etc, are apparently
loaded.)

If I try Safe Mode it gets to Loaded:
\Windows\system32\drivers\crcdisk.sys, shows the PLease Wait message and
then nothing further happens for 15 minutes when the computer reboots as
Vista failed to load.

Last Known Good Configuration does not work either.

The only solution which occurs to me now is to buy a new hdd, set it as
the C:\ drive, change my current C:\ drive to G:\, reinstall Vista on my
new hdd then restore the complete Vista from the backup I did in March
and the file backups which have been done each day since. I hope that I
can then check for any data on my old C:\ drive before reformatting it.


Is that a feasible option, and will I have to re-activate Vista as
there has been a hardware change?

The other thing which occurs to me is that there may be some problem
with the motherboard. Does that seem likely?

The fact that I can no longer boot using my Vista DVD, even though it
worked a couple of days ago, is of some concern.

All help will be much appreciated.

Viv


--
k0065126

> I have a major problem with my 32bit Vista Business computer running on
> an MSI K9SLI motherboard with an AMD Athlon 64X2 4800+ processor, which
> I built myself. It has been working correctly for a year then Monday,
> during a spell of hot weather, it started shutting down unexpectedly.
> Advice on MS Vista Forums, (which I can no longer log on to for some
> unexplained reason), suggested that overheating was the problem. I
> cleaned the dust out, connected another couple of case fans and thought
> that the problem was solved. No new software or hardware has been added
> in the last few weeks.
>
> It shut down again another couple of times, and when I managed to boot
> up on a couple of occasions Windows Explorer stopped working, and then
> restarted, but continued to stop and the mouse froze so the computer was
> unusable.
>
> Inserting the Vista DVD enabled me to run Startup Repair which seemed
> to find no problems, and I also ran chkdsk on my C: and F: drives which
> found, and fixed, a few problems on both drives.
>
> I am now at the stage where I cannot boot into Vista at all. The MSI
> logo screen seems to display for over ten seconds whereas previously it
> only showed for a couple of seconds, but I do not know if that is
> relevant. Also pressing TAB is supposed to go into POST, but does not,
> but I can get into the BIOS.
>
> If I try to load Windows normally, or to load Windows from the Vista
> DVD I get as far as the screen showing the rectangle where the green
> bars cycle from left to right and it gets no further, even though I wait
> over ten minutes. (Using the DVD the files, etc, are apparently
> loaded.)
>
> If I try Safe Mode it gets to Loaded:
> \Windows\system32\drivers\crcdisk.sys, shows the PLease Wait message and
> then nothing further happens for 15 minutes when the computer reboots as
> Vista failed to load.
>
> Last Known Good Configuration does not work either.
>
> The only solution which occurs to me now is to buy a new hdd, set it as
> the C:\ drive, change my current C:\ drive to G:\, reinstall Vista on my
> new hdd then restore the complete Vista from the backup I did in March
> and the file backups which have been done each day since. I hope that I
> can then check for any data on my old C:\ drive before reformatting it.
>
>
> Is that a feasible option, and will I have to re-activate Vista as
> there has been a hardware change?
>
> The other thing which occurs to me is that there may be some problem
> with the motherboard. Does that seem likely?
>
> The fact that I can no longer boot using my Vista DVD, even though it
> worked a couple of days ago, is of some concern.
>
> All help will be much appreciated.
>
> Viv
>

Replacing the hard drive would determine if it is a hard drive problem, but
since you can't boot using the Vista DVD I think it's more likely that the
ram, motherboard, or CPU has failed. If you have access to another
computer running Vista I suggest installing your current hard drive in it
(as a slave or on a separate channel) so you can run check disk with sector
recovery enabled. The result will give you a good idea about the integrity
of the hard drive. You could also try swapping out the ram. If the hard
drive and ram are good I would replace the motherboard and CPU next. You
just have to keep isolating the bits until you nail it. Hope this helps.