Win7 only loads last known good

[K A Hall]

Win7 system I have here will only boot properly and with a blue screen appearing when I tap F8 and choose last known good configuration. I mean it will boot into safe mode but that's no good.

After choosing last known it boots and works fine. If I do a shut down or restart it still will not boot again properly unless I choose last known. (otherwise I get blue screen.)

I have checked the drive and memory various different ways and they both appear to be fine. Went through msconfig disabling all = same results. Rolled back vid drivers = same results.

I have also restored to earlier dates and while some of the restore points work some don't and none solve the problem. I'm thinking a complete windows re-install but wanted to check.

[jdeb]

I would try a repair installation first or you can do the clean install. Backup your files first.

That is what I hate about Windows, especially 7. I have never had to re-install Vista (the hated OS) for what it is worth. I think Windows 7 is horrible.

I have a Slackware Linux box and never have had to re-install the OS ever in over 5 years or more. Additionally, I have never had to re-install a Linux distro (mostly openSuse and Mint) on any build unless the hard drive died.

Sorry about the rant

[Nuclear Krusader]

What's the BSOD's error code?

[K A Hall]

Thanks for the reply and ranting is ok by me.

I did not take your advice but decided to try and figure out a way to read the minidmp instead. While researching how to do that I came across a post where someone else was trying to read a dmp file and a suggestion was made to run the driver verifier instead.

So I did and it reported the mrtRate.SYS was a problem. Researching that I discovered that file is part of quicken. I looked in the Programs and saw that Quicken 2002 was installed on this Win7 machine which is kind of old..probably not used. Since I had permission to format/reload anyway I uninstalled it and it boots up every time now with no blue screen. Wow!

[K A Hall]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader What's the BSOD's error code?

Didn't see your reply before I typed my solution.
Here is the error.

STOP: 0x0000008E (OxC0000005, 0x83EB0266, 0x8869BC18, 0X00000000)

From my research the first part usually indicates a memory problem..turns out not this time.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Corrupt driver file. I'd run a chkdsk on that drive/partition.

[K A Hall]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader Corrupt driver file. I'd run a chkdsk on that drive/partition.

Did that earlier before I figured out what the problem really was. chkdsk checked out A.O.K.

This problem is solved.

[jdeb]

Yeah there is a program called WhoCrashed which can help read the dump files and I have had fairly good success with it. You made it sound like you exhausted all your sanity in trying to figure it out so I gave you the recommendation to try a repair install. Glad it worked out. You could still download the software and double check.

Resplendence Software - WhoCrashed, automatic crash dump analyzer

[K A Hall]

Originally Posted by jdeb Yeah there is a program called WhoCrashed which can help read the dump files and I have had fairly good success with it. You made it sound like you exhausted all your sanity in trying to figure it out so I gave you the recommendation to try a repair install. Glad it worked out. You could still download the software and double check. Resplendence Software - WhoCrashed, automatic crash dump analyzer

I actually did download and install that and while the messages it gave me turned out to be useless it did steer me in the right direction in a round about way.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by K A Hall I actually did download and install that and while the messages it gave me turned out to be useless it did steer me in the right direction in a round about way.

Right. It is hit or miss on nailing it exactly. One of these days I am gonna email them and see if the paid version is more accurate. They really have some interesting (useful) software.

[Nuclear Krusader]

One thing you can do with the paid version is analyse dumps from other machines, id est machines that can't boot. This'd be very useful for a tech; lacking that there's always M$'s own debugging tools.