Stuck At Pulsating Windows Logo

ApocaRUFF

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Dec 8, 2012
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10,510
If anyone can give any.

The problem is this. I got a new GPU for my moms computer. She installed it, it worked fine. She played her game for a bit then went to restart the computer and now it wont work. It'll get stuck at the windows logo where it will pulsate but nothing else after (it just keeps doing that).

The only other thing we can besides starting windows normally is doing Windows Start Up Repair. We don't get the option to start in safe mode ( I think. We we supposed to hit F8 while on the windows logo to do that?). When we run Start Up Repair, it goes to Windows with some kind of progress bar that just keeps going and going (it's not really a progress bar, more just to show that it's loading something I guess).

When we try booting Windows from the disc, we get the same two options "Start Windows Normally" and "Start Windows Repair" or or something like that.

The only things we have not tried yet are:

*Letting Start Up Repair go for 15+ minutes (we went for 15 minutes but decided to try other things to fix the issue)
*Taking out the new card and putting in the old card
*Going in to Bios and press F5 to set everything to default
*Resetting Bios (idk how to do this processes but I've reada bit and I can find a guide)

We tried press F8, but that just takes us to the boot menu with a list of devices to boot from. If we try to boot from the device with windows on it, it just gives us the options to start Windows normally or run repair.

For some reason, we just cannot reinstall windows. We set bios to boot from disc, we even try manually booting from disc via the boot menu, but no go. So booting from disc and repairing or something similar is apparently not an option. What could it be?

I am thinking that it is an issue with the hard drive. I don't know. Any thoughts or opinions?

I feel really bad at this point. I wanted to help out and I caused this headache :/

Edit: I forgot to mention, I live several hours from her, so I cannot do anything manually myself. Any instructions or tips or whatnot I will have to give over skype.
 

ApocaRUFF

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Dec 8, 2012
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Do the startup repair and let it complete. No
Did you wipe drivers when you swapped video cards ? No
Did you install new drivers for the new video card ? No, after. But the computer was working fine for several hours until a program called Steam started freezing up and then she tried to restart it. The computer wouldn't work after that.
Did you run directx setup after installing drivers ? No, I don't think so.
 

electronian

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Oct 5, 2012
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Weird. F8 should give you the startup option: safe mode with command prompt, on Windows 7.
If you want to reinstall, I'd say, just put the Windows 7 disk in, and make sure you hit a key to boot from the disk-drive.
I'd also delete all partitions on my desktop....I'm not sure about a laptop...you might have a factory restore partition.
Good luck with this one.
 

Cyberat_88

Distinguished
He doesn't need luck, I am a professional, not a buttinsky.
The steps I wrote for you above must be done, especially the part about installing the correct drivers. No Excuses. You do NOT know better.
When Startup Repair completes, Safe Mode should be accessible, but Normal would still be missing video drivers. Now you are in a place were MBR is screwed and video drivers missing.