Vortex III - it all seems FUBAR

[Flucky]

Hi folks,

Two days ago my laptop was running as smooth as a baby's bottom and was nothing but a delight for the years I've had it. Yesterday however everything seems to have gone wrong. The problems aren't consistent (the only thing that is consistent is not being able to get further than the login screen without problems) so I doubt there is an easy fix, every time I turn the laptop on it crashes/restarts in a different way. On one attempt I managed to access the documents so I copied all my stuff onto an external HDD which is a bonus. The majority of times I have done Safe Mode have been relatively ok but it is still extremely slow. I am completely lost and don't know what to do or how to explain what goes wrong everytime, but trying to login normally is never successful and always crashes then restarts, just crashes, or takes you back to the login screen as soon as you press login.

While in safe mode I did an antivirus scan, then another one with a different program but with no success. Same with a malware program.

I took a few pictures of the last few attempts but I doubt they will be helpful. My train of thought is to do a complete wipe/reinstall as I have saved the important documents - however a little help with this would be appreciated. To competely revert the laptop back to how it was when I received it should I stick in the OEM disc that came with it? Or is there another way of doing it?

Some of the many ways it went wrong:







Cheers

 

[vanthus]

Using the OS disk and doing a clean install is the only way to competely revert the laptop back to how it was when you received it,apart from the fact you will need to reinstall the drivers.
If you have backed up everything you want I would give that a shot,instructions are given in the welcome booklet.

 

[Flucky]

The backup consisted of copy'n'pasting documents, pictures and music - should I look into saving all of the up-to-date drivers or simply download them after the reinstall?

Losing all my programs is going to be a right hassle as I'm on god awful internet for the next month.

 

[vanthus]

I would update drivers after the reinstall.
There are a couple of things I would try first though before doing a reinstall of the operating system.
One is a start up repair, which you can do from your OS disk.this is a bit of a pain though and can take forever and in my experience has little success.
The other is,which I would try first (if you haven't already tried a system restore point) ,
It's possible a startup item is causing the issue,to check this,start In safe mode
type msconfig in the Start Search box and then press enter.
On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
On the startup tab disable all.
Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
Click apply/OK.then restart.
if pc boots normally you need to isolate the problem startup item selectively,
for example enable the top half of start up items,if computer doesn't start normally you know one of the enabled startup items is the problem and so on.

 

[Flucky]

You've reminded me, when I checked I had no system restore points which was weird as I have definitely created quite a few in the past.

I've done the startup thing but not the services thing so I'll give that ago thanks.

 

[ubuysa]

I just want to add my voice to that of vanthus and suggest that a clean reinstall is the best and most reliable way to recover.

It's strange that this problem just suddenly happened, are you sure you haven't installed any Windows updates, software updates, new drivers, new hardware, etc.?? If it did just start happening all on it's own there are, I think, two likely causes; a hard disk error or a faulty RAM card.

Testing the hard disk is easy, boot from the Windows installation disk (so that we get a clean OS to work with) and select the Repair option. In there open a command prompt and enter the command "chkdsk /f" (without the quotes). If you get a message asking whether you should force all open handles closed answer Yes. Chkdsk will test your disk and (if necessary) fix any errors it finds. At the very end you will see a message that tells you whether no errors were found, whether errors were found and fixed, or whether errors were found that could not be fixed. If you see that last message you may have a damaged hard disk (that's unlikely I think).

Also in the Repair option is a Memory Diagnostic. It's not the best memory test around but it will serve to tell whether you have a serious RAM issue. So run the memory test too.

Assuming chkdsk and the memory test find no errors (or in the case of chkdsk fixes any errors found) you should go on an do a clean reinstall. Be sure to select a Custom Install and delete both your C:\ partition and the System Managed partition (so that all the space shows as unallocated). Then create a new partition that is the size of the whole disk (Windows setup will create a second, small, partition and that's quite normal). Now install Windows into the large partition that you just created.

Doing the reinstall this way will ensure that everything from the "old" system is removed and you will get a completely clean new system.

When you come to installing the drivers I would download the latest versions from the Clevo website. You may need to do that on another PC of course. It's generally a good idea to install the chipset driver first and to install the VGA driver before the NVIDIA one. The order of other drivers is less critical (usually).

 

[Flucky]

Thanks a lot for the reply those are the steps I'll follow next. When I disabled all non-MS services and startups it still failed (with the error message below, which I had received a few times before). I can't get hold of the disc for a few days which is a painful wait!

 

[CEUOTC]

Thanks a lot for the reply those are the steps I'll follow next. When I disabled all non-MS services and startups it still failed (with the error message below, which I had received a few times before). I can't get hold of the disc for a few days which is a painful wait!

View attachment 3691

1. Download and install this : Windows 7 USB/DVD tool.
2. Download your edition of windows 7 : Google it (Link if you can't be bothered to Google it)
3. Have a 16gb USB stick handy for W7 Pro or W7 Ultimate, 8gb is enough for W7 Home Premium.
4. Use Microsoft USB/DVD tool to make an installation USB for your computer.
5. Fit to a USB 2.0/3.0 slot.
6. Boot from USB drive (Press F7 during startup)
7. Install W7 using custom install.
8. Use your key.
9. Activate.
10. Install drivers via the DVD from PCS.
11. Update W7.
12. Re-install games.
13. Enjoy.

Regards.

C.

 

[Flucky]

Assuming chkdsk and the memory test find no errors (or in the case of chkdsk fixes any errors found) you should go on an do a clean reinstall. Be sure to select a Custom Install and delete both your C:\ partition and the System Managed partition (so that all the space shows as unallocated). Then create a new partition that is the size of the whole disk (Windows setup will create a second, small, partition and that's quite normal). Now install Windows into the large partition that you just created.

Doing the reinstall this way will ensure that everything from the "old" system is removed and you will get a completely clean new system.

Just to update I managed to get hold of my installation disc today so got started on it all. I don't have the PCS-provided driver disc and was dreading having to download each driver again so looked into backing them up - used a program called Double Driver (then stuck the program + backup folder onto a disc) to back them all up.

I did the error checks and they came back clean which is good! Then went onto do the partition steps you mentioned. The product key wasn't in my disc box and nearly had a disaster by going on with the installation without it, but literally just before clicking accept to a clean install I remembered I needed it. That was an easy obstacle after a quick google, I had to download a program that finds all product keys on your computer (Belarc Advisor) and that was all very straight forward. It even provided me with a few serial keys for other programs.

Currently installing MSE and will begin the long task of redownloading most of my programs (at least I've got rid of a lot of clutter that builds up over the years). Currently somewhere with painfully slow internet so it won't be a fun task.

It all seems to be running smoothly now so whatever the problem is at least it wasn't hardware.

Thanks for the help all