Windows 8(.1) infinite loop, need help

[Paulmasterson]

Hi, I have a laptop that is in an infinite loop:

1. Preparing automatic repair

2. Black screen for about 10 minutes

3. Diagnosing PC

4. Repairing disk errors

I left the repairing disk errors for about 24 hours and no progress had been made.

Laptop specs:


I have tried to boot the laptop on a recovery disk and it just comes up with a windows logo before going to a black screen and will stay there until I turn off the laptop.

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this, I don't mind if I lose all my files and data I just want to be able to use my laptop.

Thanks.

 

[steaky360]

Can you access the bios at all to change the boot order? You could also try to use a bootable USB

 

[Paulmasterson]

Can you access the bios at all to change the boot order? You could also try to use a bootable USB

I have tried all different variations of the boot orders and none have worked, I just keep going through the the same endless loop.
Bootable USB goes through the the same process as with the disk

 

[steaky360]

I'm not really sure what else to suggest (someone else may see this thread and suggest soemthing else to try), however I'd call PCS to discuss options with them - you may need to RMA the laptop.

 

[Stephen M]

Have you tried booting a different OS? You could try running a lightweight live OS, if that works you will have narrowed the problem down a little, probably just the Windows OS. I would also disable the UEFI before trying to boot another system-

 

[Paulmasterson]

I'm not really sure what else to suggest (someone else may see this thread and suggest soemthing else to try), however I'd call PCS to discuss options with them - you may need to RMA the laptop.

Thanks for your help anyway and I'm reluctant to do an RMA because this laptop is 7 months old and I have already had 2 RMA's on it and I don't really want to be wasting £35 every couple of months

 

[thisisevilevil]

I have tried all different variations of the boot orders and none have worked, I just keep going through the the same endless loop.
Bootable USB goes through the the same process as with the disk

Seems like you might have a hard-drive with bad sectors/bad file entries. It seems strange if you can't boot into a windows using a recovery disk. However, there are other things we can try here, to isolate the issue even further. If you don't care about your data, you could try and boot into any live (offline) environment, and completely wipe the hard-drive. Try creating a bootable GParted USB. You can fetch it here: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/liveusb.php - Use Tuxboot to make a bootable USB, using the Gparted ISO file: http://sourceforge.net/downloads/tuxboot/

Boot to the live environment, when you get into the Gparted environment, simply delete all partitions and hit "apply". Just be aware that this will wipe everything on your drive. When this is done, this should have solved your issue for now, so you can go about reinstalling your OS again. Would probably recommend running a chkdsk at some point, to avoid this again. Also make sure to check for new firmware updates for your drive. I've never trusted these hybrid drives.

 

[Stephen M]

If you are able to boot a live Distro there is a good chance you would be able to transfer any data you had to an external drive, you could then wipe/reformat your drive.

 

[ubuysa]

I'm with the "boot another OS" guys. You need to establish whether you can boot anything at all before going any further.

You might as well download Memtest from http://memtest.org, burn the archived .iso file to a CD and boot that. It's completely stand-alone so it will be a good boot test and if you leave it running overnight it will test your RAM for you as well. That would be my choice.

 

[thisisevilevil]

Have you tried booting a different OS? You could try running a lightweight live OS, if that works you will have narrowed the problem down a little, probably just the Windows OS. I would also disable the UEFI before trying to boot another system-

Hehe, sorry for stealing your solution. I didn't see your post, before after I posted

I'm with the "boot another OS" guys. You need to establish whether you can boot anything at all before going any further.

You might as well download Memtest from http://memtest.org, burn the archived .iso file to a CD and boot that. It's completely stand-alone so it will be a good boot test and if you leave it running overnight it will test your RAM for you as well. That would be my choice.

Yeah, that's also a good idea It seems the latest Gparted ISO also has the memtest tool, which you can choose from the boot menu