Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
I am at this point desperate, having exhausted all things I can think of, short of voodoo.
Here is the basics of my system, all other parts are standard:
Alienware M17xR4 (delivery date May 2012)
Intel 3720QM processor w/Intel HD 4000 iGPU
AMD 7970m (can't determine bios since can't get in safe or normal mode) - It was a part installed after delivery of laptop around Jun 2012 and so the system bios would have been around A05 of July 2012 and A05 - August 2012
Samsung 850 Evo SSD msata 1TB (removed other 2 Mechanical HDD's to simplify troubleshooting
8 GB Ram
Windows 7 64bit service pack 1 - installed fresh not a factory install, manually installed drivers myself (Winupdate last run in Feb 2016, then ran it on May 17, 2016 with a restore point being created before the windows update started, windows failure May 19, 2016 approx 10pm local time for me)
System Bios: A12
Overclocking Notes:
No overclocking attempted, ever. All parts are running at system spec settings
Driver notes:
AMD are Leshcat drivers 15.7 WHQL Unifl.
IntelRST 11.x - version required with
Dell drivers for Alienware OSD, Respawn, and other related software, all drivers where possible were most current on site or by maker of product, i.e. Intel Management Interface)
Trouble started:
While I was playing a game a week ago, the computer froze, no mouse movements, alt-f4 would not close the program, no keyboard response. It was typical as this game has issues with the switchable graphics and only sees the Intel HD4000, even though in the AMD CCC I set it Max Perform (main reason for running Leshcast drivers since Dell and AMD had old versions and/or drivers that were having issues or had the CCC lock some programs into one performance category or another and user couldn't change).
Inital Action Taken:
So when I rebooted nothing showed up. So I did my normal routine, windows recovery environment off Windows 7 Sp1 64bit retail disc. Nothing happened. sfc /scannow wouldn't run, chkdsk with the various / settings found nothing. I thought this was strange never had this issue before. So I figure well lets go into safe mode and find out what is going on. It just went to a blank screen with a mouse cursor I could move but no shortcut keys brought anything but sticky keys up.
After spending hours trying different things, I started to get the 0x07b error. So I did something I don't like, system restore. The only restore point I had was just before a Windows Update was done. Now everything started to go wrong. I would find one solution, but it would not work.
Possible Mistakes:
I deleted the prefetch directory and removed the Panther directory, in hopes of resetting the prefetch setup.
Trying to learn how to put back together the Windows Boot Manager/BCD. I can't confirm if the BCD has been configured in the registry or not since I am only able to load the 5 hive keys in the c:\windows\system32\config and the date on the registry backups were almost 2 hours after the problems started, so they have been of little use.
No additional restore points, just the one that I already tried and of course that leaves me with nothing.
And I googled the internet and was given many possible solutions, some correct some way out there.
Some of the Solutions attempted:
rename amd drivers and oem file
safe mode
safe mode w/networking
windows system repair x3
sfc /scannow - won't allow
rebuilt the bcd, uefi partition correctly labeled
adjust entries in reg to remove amd/ati (but made backups before deletion of the keys)
removed all drives but the SSD and no usb devices
ran Norton Tool (ISO) for scanning for viruses/malware - results clean as a whistle (and that was with SSD + 2 HDD).
Other Notes:
I have seen about 5 different errors show up in the Windows RE, but they change frequently, I get the Boot Status Indicates that the OS booted Successfully.
I even put in an older clone of this computer, it was from around August 2015. It got into Windows normal mode. I looked around in the SSD for some sort of errors, bad files, etc. Then I made the mistake of seeing if I could boot again into Normal mode on this clone. Opps! Now it won't boot. I can off and on get into safe mode on the clone (not the ssd).
Finally it went to the black screen with mouse cursor. I gave up and removed it as it obviously wasn't of much use now.
The Alienware model physical installation location of the Msata part is not at all easy to get too, as it all but requires a system tear down almost down to just the frame holding the motherboard.
When I had access to safe mode/normal (fyi, I do not have either ways to access Windows) I had SamsungMagician 4.7 software check the status of the SSD and no issues.
A new issues that started to appear was in the bios of the laptop. It no longer called the discrete graphics AMD 7970m and Intel HD 4000, now calls them ATI gfx and Ivy Bridge, respectively.
I eventually got Windows RE command Bootrec /scanos to say there was a windows install. Now it says there isn't, so it sounds like the BCD/UEFI Boot manager/etc is again wrong.
Where am I now on this problem:
I just don't know what else to do. I want to try and avoid a reinstall as it can take a long time with all the software and games I install.
I can use the help at this point. I have way too many websites/forums, etc. bookmarked it could take years to clear all of them. So I feel I have reached that point that this problem is beyond my knowledge or expertise or lack their of.
Unable to get into Win 7 64bit via safe or normal
Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by danger007, May 29, 2016.
