Win7 Reboot loop "starting windows"

[Mathias_2]

My mother's computer has been having problems. It's loud, very slow and loops a reboot after the "starting windows" shows. I've cleaned the hardware (was necessary) to see if it helped but it didn't. I CAN access the bios and have tried recovering via the backup CD/DVD. After booting from the CD, it shows windows loading files and then goes to the recovery. However, it keeps loading and keeps me waiting (for as long as 4 hours +) without going further. This may be because of an unreadable CD though, it's quite old and full of scratches.

The computer itself is about 4 years old, but always ran pretty smooth up until this week. Hadn't installed Win10, so the OS is still Win7, it didn't happen during updates (that I know of), just out of the blue.

PS: I can enter BIOS but Safe Mode will not boot either.
The loud sound comes from the power supply, but it was cleaned very thoroughly, don't know why it's still so loud.

Update: Found a good CD, made it through language selection and waiting at "starting setup" now...

 

[tman1]

Sounds like a bad hard drive. Disconnect the hard drive, then try booting from the CD again, I'm willing to bet it will be a lot faster. If so, bad hard drive.

 

[NerdyComputerGuy]

Hi,

Looks to me like you could have a failing hard drive, I have seen / experienced this issue before. The hanging and such on loading is due to read / write errors on the drives S.M.A.R.T record.

The best thing you can realistically do right now?

Get a hard drive enclosure case (the ones where you can put the hdd in the enclosure and then connected the HDD to another computer with a USB cable).

Copy all of your 'valuable' files (if you have any on there) and then proceed to buying a new HDD.

Is this a Laptop or Desktop that we are talking about?

Many thanks,

 

[Mathias_2]

Nerdy, we're talking about a desktop. As for files, nothing on it is to be kept, so a clean install is fine. I'll check what it says without hard drive first thing tomorrow morning! If you have any clue on why the power supply is making this much noise (even when freshly cleaned), that would also be welcome

 

[tman1]

The only moving part in your power supply is the fan, so that's the only thing that would generate noise.

 

[NerdyComputerGuy]

Nerdy, we're talking about a desktop. As for files, nothing on it is to be kept, so a clean install is fine. I'll check what it says without hard drive first thing tomorrow morning! If you have any clue on why the power supply is making this much noise (even when freshly cleaned), that would also be welcome

Morning,

There could be many reasons why the power supply is making a suspecting noise.

Although the most common reason for this is either....

1. Power Supply is not securely secure in the case and so is rattling (since PSU's do vibrate)

2. The power supply's fan's breaing is hitting a cable for example causing a noise.

What exactly is the noise you're hearing, is it like a grinding sound? Or is it like a buzzing sound.

Regards,

 

[Mathias_2]

Nerdy, we're talking about a desktop. As for files, nothing on it is to be kept, so a clean install is fine. I'll check what it says without hard drive first thing tomorrow morning! If you have any clue on why the power supply is making this much noise (even when freshly cleaned), that would also be welcome

Morning,

There could be many reasons why the power supply is making a suspecting noise.

Although the most common reason for this is either....

1. Power Supply is not securely secure in the case and so is rattling (since PSU's do vibrate)

2. The power supply's fan's breaing is hitting a cable for example causing a noise.

What exactly is the noise you're hearing, is it like a grinding sound? Or is it like a buzzing sound.

Regards,

It's a bit of both, really. The power supply is locked into place, no rattling, and the inside doesn't have any other cables near the fan. When powering up the sound stays pretty much even, but when it has to do some work (reading the cd for example) it goes even louder. I'll see if I can strip a power supply from another computer I've got upstairs and try a different one.

Edit: nvm, other supply won't fit.

 

[Mathias_2]

Sounds like a bad hard drive. Disconnect the hard drive, then try booting from the CD again, I'm willing to bet it will be a lot faster. If so, bad hard drive.

I've tried it without the drive connected, and it was tons faster indeed...

 

[Mathias_2]

Update: Power supply is now silent Took it out and put it together once more and no more loud sound.
Trying to go for a recovery with msdart (booted from flash drive) but the pc is still very slow, so chances are it will be the hard drive and that she'll need a new one altogether.
I'll leave it running for now, though, unless you would recommend something else.

Edit: Jynxed myself it seems, started going loud again. Supposedly the part on which the fan turns is broken.

 

[NerdyComputerGuy]

Update: Power supply is now silent Took it out and put it together once more and no more loud sound.
Trying to go for a recovery with msdart (booted from flash drive) but the pc is still very slow, so chances are it will be the hard drive and that she'll need a new one altogether.
I'll leave it running for now, though, unless you would recommend something else.

Edit: Jynxed myself it seems, started going loud again. Supposedly the part on which the fan turns is broken.

Hi again,

Yeah, you're better off getting a new hard drive although you could get an SSD instead, these are a lot more speedy than traditional hard drives.

Regards,