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Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows Vista and 7 => Topic started by: Robertw on July 02, 2010, 07:22:17 PM

Title: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 02, 2010, 07:22:17 PM
Running Vista Home Premium, 32 bit, Service Pack 1, on an Acer L100 w/1 gig memory. I was on the internet when the computer shut down. Now it will only boot in safe mode. I have restored to the last working date, which it did successfully, but did not solve the problem. Also, the Disk/DVD drive doesn't see anything you load into it. I haven't loaded anything new nor any upgrades except my daily antivirus updates (AVG). Does anyone have any suggestions?
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 02, 2010, 07:37:29 PM
Is there any error occurred posted after booting? Try using windows disc to repair if it will recover on safemode. Or you can go to microsoft website for your certain issue.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 02, 2010, 08:02:03 PM
There is no error code. I only have a recovery disc made at puchase, no Window disk, but I can't use any disk anyway becasue the drive won't read anything.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 02, 2010, 11:06:24 PM
Is your DVD drive's tray still functioning(opens,closes)? When you insert an audio or video cd does your dvd drive blinks(green) while it reads the cd?Check your device manager. Go to Start, Control Panel, Click on System, Click Hardware, then Device Manager. Click on the + sign beside DVD/CD ROM drives. It will show you your current dvd drive. Check if there's any red or yellow mark on icons. Right-click on your dvd drive to show certain information/options: Update, Disable, Uninstall, Scan for Hardware Changes and Properties. Click on Properties to see the status of your drive(General Menu:This device is working properly. ).
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Frejoh466 on July 03, 2010, 06:59:44 AM
Have you tried Disable all startup programs? Start => Type "Msconfig" => Startup => Disable all => restart your computer. If it then start we know you have a problem there, then use google.com and type a name and see if it is safe to start.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 03, 2010, 10:49:58 AM
The drive tray opens and closes properlay. There are no warning indications on the drive in device manager/hardware. Under properties it says the drive is operating normally. I disabled all items in the start up menu and rebooted, but it didn't change anything. It's not attempting to read the recovery disk when it's in the drive at start up.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: patio on July 03, 2010, 12:26:42 PM
Do you have the DVD drive set as the 1st boot device bin the BIOS ? ?

If so and it still does not work either the DVD or the drive itself is to blame...
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 03, 2010, 02:19:47 PM
I don't remember how to look at bios, but I assume it goes to the disk drive first. I just disconnected the disk drive and tried to boot, no change.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 03, 2010, 02:22:40 PM
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000192.htm
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 03, 2010, 02:59:27 PM
OK, in bios it goes to the hard drive first and the disk drive 2nd. This appears to be the default settings.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 03, 2010, 03:03:46 PM
Change it.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 03, 2010, 03:46:34 PM
Changed bios to 1st boot  - [CDROM]
                           2nd boot - [Hard Drive]
Says it is trying to boot from the CDROM drive first, but with the recovery disk in there, nothing happens and it continues to the hard drive and shuts down as before.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 03, 2010, 03:52:20 PM
1) Did you save the bios change on exit?
2) Are you certain the recovery disc is bootable?
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 03, 2010, 04:00:04 PM
I did save the bios change on exit and went back to verify it saved ok. The recovery disc is one I made when I purchased the computer per the instructions that came with it. It is supposed to be bootable and is supposed to contain the "restore to the original state' software in place of a Windows disk.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 03, 2010, 04:04:29 PM
Okay. At this point the only thing I can suggest is that you try that disc in another computer just to see if it is actually bootable (just boot to it and then remove it and reboot - don't let it do anything) or try booting to a different disc in your system that you know is bootable.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: patio on July 03, 2010, 04:15:17 PM
Quote
The recovery disc is one I made when I purchased the computer

Herein lies the problem...does the PC have a Recovery partition ? ?
Make and model would be helpful...
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 03, 2010, 04:24:26 PM
Acer L100
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 03, 2010, 09:38:08 PM
I don't remember how to look at bios, but I assume it goes to the disk drive first. I just disconnected the disk drive and tried to boot, no change.
How did you disconnected your disk drive? Did you open up your CPU casing to disconnect it and reconnect it?
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 03, 2010, 09:57:49 PM
How old is your PC Robertw? Is your Desktop PC a slim type CPU? I'm second guessing here but aside from your dvd drive problem, it may have occured during some thermal issues(overheat) that's why it shutsdown... ???http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews133029.html
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 04, 2010, 06:58:35 AM
How did you disconnected your disk drive? Did you open up your CPU casing to disconnect it and reconnect it?
I opened it up and diconnected the cable from the drive.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 04, 2010, 07:01:11 AM
How old is your PC Robertw? Is your Desktop PC a slim type CPU? I'm second guessing here but aside from your dvd drive problem, it may have occured during some thermal issues(overheat) that's why it shutsdown... ???http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews133029.html

I is a slimline, about 2 years old. I have experienced the overheating problem, it does ok if you leave the door open and clean it regularly.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Robertw on July 04, 2010, 08:16:03 AM
I started the process of elemination on the drivers and when I uninstalled the display drivers, the thing booted. When it automatically downloaded the drivers, it wouldn't boot again. Going to try a different graphics card.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 04, 2010, 08:19:36 AM
Whoa - what do you mean when it automatically downloaded the drivers? From Windows Update? NEVER get drivers from Windows Update. Go to the card manufacturer's website and download and install the current driver from there.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Carlos Medrano on July 04, 2010, 09:09:09 AM
Hello
I use to have the same problem
What Video Card and Grafics card do you have? ???
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 04, 2010, 09:52:36 AM
I started the process of elemination on the drivers and when I uninstalled the display drivers, the thing booted. When it automatically downloaded the drivers, it wouldn't boot again. Going to try a different graphics card.
It's always safe to uninstall drivers particularly to the area you know its encountering some problems as long as you have a back-up installer driver or a CD installer for your motherboard, sound, graphics or videocard. But in your case, it has nothing to do with uninstalling your display or video card and filling in with a different driver... ??? IF you bought your PC with its own CD driver, then that's the one to use not other sources unless you know your links or websites by just following the brand name and model of your hardware. You could always disable and able your device(DVD/CD device) on device manager but  if not needed, uninstall them right away.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 04, 2010, 09:56:52 AM
It's always safe to uninstall drivers particularly to the area you know its encountering some problems as long as you have a back-up installer driver or a CD installer for your motherboard, sound, graphics or videocard. But in your case, it has nothing to do with uninstalling your display or video card and filling in with a different driver... ??? IF you bought your PC with its own CD driver, then that's the one to use not other sources unless you know your links or websites by just following the brand name and model of your hardware. You could always disable and able your device(DVD/CD device) on device manager but  if not needed, uninstall them right away.
Optical drives don't use drivers.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 04, 2010, 10:04:47 AM
Optical drives don't use drivers.
It's always safe to uninstall drivers particularly to the area you know its encountering some problems as long as you have a back-up installer driver or a CD installer for your motherboard, sound, graphics or videocard. But in your case, it has nothing to do with uninstalling your display or video card and filling in with a different driver...  IF you bought your PC with its own CD driver, then that's the one to use not other sources unless you know your links or websites by just following the brand name and model of your hardware. You could always disable and able your device(DVD/CD device) on device manager but  if not needed, uninstall them right away.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 04, 2010, 10:06:00 AM
What are you talking about?
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 04, 2010, 10:12:13 AM
What are you talking about?
I started the process of elemination on the drivers and when I uninstalled the display drivers, the thing booted. When it automatically downloaded the drivers, it wouldn't boot again. Going to try a different graphics card.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 04, 2010, 10:17:10 AM
Which has WHAT to do with non-existent CD/DVD drivers?
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 04, 2010, 10:30:29 AM
Yes for what i know there isn't... Optical drives properly connected/reconnected are automatically detected by the OS as Master or Slave depending on their jumpers.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: Allan on July 04, 2010, 10:33:09 AM
Okay  you know what, you're just posting nonsense.
Title: Re: Vista shut down, will only boot in safe mode.
Post by: jason2074 on July 04, 2010, 05:31:08 PM
Okay  you know what, you're just posting nonsense.
Maybe you just have overposted so many topics you don't have the time to read all. Look who's talking ::)