[Conjord]

First and foremost, Hello to you all.

I have, as of yesterday, been having the problem described in the Topic title.

Yesterday I turned on my computer, brand new as of 3 weeks ago and It would not boot up. It gets to the stage where the windows loading bar appears and then the screen goes black and puts itself on standby. The computer remains on, doing nothing. Only after I hit reset, after it has shut itself off (well seemingly the screen goes black) does it give me the option to swap to save mode. It works on safe mode and by that I mean I can get to the password screen and log in, I also add the networking support and as you can see my internet works, I have tried system restore and Virus scanning. I used AVG and Reading error, Boot sector of disk comes up. But the program does in no way act to solve it. , today it even asked me which OS I wanted to use, there is only Vista on here. This could well be a virus, as my limited knowledge of computers causes me to assume. I also tried CCleaner and ad-aware. No luck with anything. This problem has caused me much distress as I have no funds to buy other programs or the help I need to fix my computer.

Thank you ever so much for your kind help.

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The "Read Error - Boot Sector" from AVG could be a 'bug' in AVG itself rather than a boot sector problem on your PC.
AVG had this exact bug reported in '95 & '96 after an update, and the same bug may have raised it's head again with another update.
The workaround from them (prior to the fix) reads:

"Boot Sector of Disk C: Reading error" issue was already replicated in our teslab and our developers are working on it.
Do the following to fix it for now:
1) run AVG Test Center (double click the AVG desktop icon)
2) choose "System Areas Test Settings" option from "Tests" menu
3) press "Remove Boot" button
4) confirm OK"

The above is simply so you can perhaps prove that the boot sector error is nothing more than an AVG programming bug, so you don't go "barking up the wrong tree" in an effort to find a solution to your Windows startup problem.

In any event, if the boot sector really was damaged, infected or whatever, Windows wouldn't even start in safe mode, further proof that the boot sector error is a spurious one falsely generated by AVG.

A virus sufficiently potent to stop Windows running doesn't know the difference between normal mode and safe mode. In other words, if a virus stops Windows running, it stops it in both modes.

When only safe mode runs, it usually indicates a Windows update which doesn't 'like' your system, or a driver update which also doesn't like your system, or even an application you've added which installs drivers which aren't compatible with Vista. Drivers are usually the main suspects where only safe mode is usable, because in safe mode none of the third-party drivers are loaded into memory, and amongst those will be the bad one that's causing the problem when Windows (in normal mode) tries to load it.

My daughter's new Vista laptop last week would not start normally but would run in safe mode. Not being in the mood for what could have been a long "process of elimination", I went for the easy option and used 'System Restore', choosing a date just before an automatic Windows update had been installed 3 days earlier. The PC rebooted itself and voila! -- normal service was resumed. You may have the same good fortune......................

Safe Mode:
Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Restore.
The date you choose to 'roll back' to is important. Obviously choose one that you know pre-dates the appearance of your problem.

Edited by pip22, 14 November 2007 - 01:42 PM.

[pip22]

The "Read Error - Boot Sector" from AVG could be a 'bug' in AVG itself rather than a boot sector problem on your PC.
AVG had this exact bug reported in '95 & '96 after an update, and the same bug may have raised it's head again with another update.
The workaround from them (prior to the fix) reads:

"Boot Sector of Disk C: Reading error" issue was already replicated in our teslab and our developers are working on it.
Do the following to fix it for now:
1) run AVG Test Center (double click the AVG desktop icon)
2) choose "System Areas Test Settings" option from "Tests" menu
3) press "Remove Boot" button
4) confirm OK"

The above is simply so you can perhaps prove that the boot sector error is nothing more than an AVG programming bug, so you don't go "barking up the wrong tree" in an effort to find a solution to your Windows startup problem.

In any event, if the boot sector really was damaged, infected or whatever, Windows wouldn't even start in safe mode, further proof that the boot sector error is a spurious one falsely generated by AVG.

A virus sufficiently potent to stop Windows running doesn't know the difference between normal mode and safe mode. In other words, if a virus stops Windows running, it stops it in both modes.

When only safe mode runs, it usually indicates a Windows update which doesn't 'like' your system, or a driver update which also doesn't like your system, or even an application you've added which installs drivers which aren't compatible with Vista. Drivers are usually the main suspects where only safe mode is usable, because in safe mode none of the third-party drivers are loaded into memory, and amongst those will be the bad one that's causing the problem when Windows (in normal mode) tries to load it.

My daughter's new Vista laptop last week would not start normally but would run in safe mode. Not being in the mood for what could have been a long "process of elimination", I went for the easy option and used 'System Restore', choosing a date just before an automatic Windows update had been installed 3 days earlier. The PC rebooted itself and voila! -- normal service was resumed. You may have the same good fortune......................

Safe Mode:
Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Restore.
The date you choose to 'roll back' to is important. Obviously choose one that you know pre-dates the appearance of your problem.

Edited by pip22, 14 November 2007 - 01:42 PM.

[Conjord]

Thanks for that.

You were correct about the bug. After your reply I tried the system restore, set it back about a week, no luck. I then tried "last know good configuration" That did not work I also tried the system config and stopped the start-up files running, again with no luck, so my problem persists.

Cheers.

Edited by Conjord, 15 November 2007 - 12:02 PM.

[This Is 200]

I had this problem on my own computer yesterday. I scanned with AVG maybe twelve times in Safe Mode, Safe Mode with networking, etc. and it still refused to boot correctly.

Try this, this is what fixed my computer:
Start your computer into Safe Mode (you can pick networking too, it doesn't matter). Find where you installed AVG and... this sounds like sacrilege, but uninstall it. If it makes you feel safer, you can first boot into SM with networking and download the AVG 7.5 setup file, in case this doesn't work and you want to reinstall it.

After AVG is uninstalled, it'll offer to reboot. Say yes. If it asks, start Windows normally. You should be able to get to your desktop without it freezing, and if you want, download AVG again and reinstall it. I have no idea what causes it to malfunction like that, but reinstalling fixed my read error.

Best of luck

Edited by This Is 200, 08 April 2008 - 06:53 PM.