Ever since buying my HP Notebook, I have been plagued by a periodic boot error that occurs during the start or restart process. It does not happen every time, but it happens frequently enough to be an irritation; maybe 1 out of 10-15 start-ups or restarts. The process goes something like this:
1) Power on or restart the laptop from within Windows.
2) POST process finishes.
3) BEFORE the Windows Logo and Music a "progress bar" appears at the bottom of the screen. Although progress bar shows left to right activity, the HDD drive activity light, in a very short time shows no activity at all. Once the HDD light quits it does not matter how long I wait as the Windows Logo never appears, login music never plays and Windows does not start.
My work-around has been to do a hard-reset of the system (hold down power button) as Ctrl+Alt+Del does not work. I then start the system using the power button. When the error message appears "Windows did not start properly", I choose "start normally" instead of the repair option and the system boots normally EVERY TIME. Go figure. Please note that I have on two different occasions tried the "repair option" but the end result was a message stating that no fix was possible.
A secondary problem maybe be associated with the one above as it occurs periodically as well, but only during a cold boot and never at the same time. After entering my password for the only user account on the system, I am informed during the boot process that a "new user profile" is being created. After the new profile loads in windows, a "balloon" message informs me that my user profile "did not load properly" and that any changes to this temporary profile will be lost once the system is restarted. The work-around I have been using is to restart the system and press F8 during the initial boot process and then choose "Load Last Known Good Configuration". The system will then boot normally every time; not one failure. Go figure again.
THINGS I HAVE DONE TO RESOLVE/ADDRESS THE ISSUES LISTED ABOVE. (no particular order)
1) I am a preventative maintenance advocate so I regularly, typically once a week, run software like CCleaner, Malwarebytes, ScanDefrag, Avast Home AV including periodic Boot level scans and even Spybot S&D
2) Reseated the memory several times (HP Support Site recommendation)
3) Replaced OEM Fujitsu HDD with larger/faster WD HDD
4) Ran SpinRite
5) Manufacture HDD Utility
6) BIOS Update
7) Windows Updates (excluding Windows Defender)
8) HP Bloatware disabled.
SYSTEM INFO
OS: Vista Home Premium 32-Bit SP2
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo T8100 2.10 GHz
MEMORY: 3.00 GB
