SOLVED Windows 8 Boot Hell

[h4rm0ny]

I suppose I shouldn't rant too much - I've had Windows 8 since its official release and this is the first time it's given me any real failure, but now that it has, it's done so full on.

I upgraded the processor in my PC which necessitated a BIOS upgrade (it's a FX-8350 in a Sabretooth 990FX R1 board, but that's an aside). I did something that was probably pretty foolish - Windows 8 crashed just before I did this (I think it had to do with mounting a mirrored dynamic disk from a Linux VM whilst it the mirrors were still synchronising, but that's another aside). So as I was pretty much ready with the processor and the BIOS I didn't re-start Windows and do a controlled shut down. I just went ahead and upgraded the BIOS.

Now what happened is that the PC would boot (seemed a successful BIOS upgrade), but it would get to the log-in screen usually, and then freeze. Total lock-up down to the mouse cursor. I have just enough time to do begin to type my password, click restart or shut down, before the lock up happens, but I have to be very fast. It consistently locks up a second or two after the login screen appears. Every other boot it actually doesn't make it that far and locks up on the OS loading screen (black, little circling dots).

My educated guess is that there is something it loads, some driver probably, just as or after it's booting, that causes the crash.

Windows 8 never seems to realize that it has crashed on next boot. This is the problem. I can't get it into "Safe Mode" or Recovery Mode as I think it is called in Windows 8. I believe that I need to so that I can carry out a repair of the installation. And I think if I could just get it to the stage where it let me do a "Repair Windows" it would probably fix it. But I can't!

I've tried holding down shift, and F8 and shift + F8 whilst booting. There's not a lot of time for that as its an SSD. But I've tried a lot and it wont give me an option of Safe Booting, it just loads, then crashes. Every time.

Does anyone know how I can get out of this? The install media I have for this is Windows 7 as I originally had that and then purchased an upgrade to 8 when the offer was on. So I have zero Windows 8 media I can stick in a drive. I do have a laptop with Windows 8 so if there's a way of creating a boot disk (or even better) boot USB that I can use to start Windows Repair, then that would be perfect. But I don't know how to do that and what I'm finding online confuses me. :/ Is this even possible? Other suggestions also welcome.

Oh yeah, I went ahead and upgraded the processor anyway. I had tried everything I could think of to solve the boot problem so I thought maybe actually changing the hardware would cause Windows to trigger a "I need to repair" response. But nothing.

Help?

Now what happens is that the PC comes on and everything looks fine with the new chip in the BIOS, but

 

[h4rm0ny]

Okay. I either fixed it without knowing how I fixed it, or it somehow repaired itself. No hardware or BIOS changes were made. The only thing I can think of on that side is that the power was turned off for a while (the real power, at the PSU) and Windows either lost track of what it was trying to do on booting or decided not to bother any more. Doesn't sound especially likely, but who knows. The slightly more probable fixes are two things I tried: I created a recovery drive from my laptop (also Windows 8) and booted from that. I also tried creating a boot DVD with this tool: http://www.tenorshare.com/products/windows-boot-genius.html

Neither of these appeared to have any effect at the time, but after using the second one and it also not appearing to do anything, Windows booted normally with everything still in place. How? Why? Nobody knows! I suspect what may have happened is that swapping the boot device persuaded Windows to do a full and normal boot rather than the restore from hibernated kernel that is the default in Windows 8 (and the reason for super-fast boots in it).

Anyway, the moral of this fable is if you're going to muck around with your BIOS or your hardware, don't be an idiot like me. Do a full on Windows shutdown beforehand.

 

[GaldedRaw]

Sounds like data may have became corrupted due to improper steps and windows just fixed itself.

 

[h4rm0ny]

Sounds like data may have became corrupted due to improper steps and windows just fixed itself.

Something like that, perhaps. But it definitely needed a nudge in order to realize it had to do something. I never did see a recovery / repair screen however. I'm pretty sure something just got tangled with the BIOS upgrade and Windows didn't know it needed to do anything because it was skipping a step. Once I found a way of nudging it to realize something had changed, it righted itself just fine.

 

[c627627]

Windows 8 does not fully shut down or fully reboot, if it goes to sleep or does not do a full reboot, then you have problems like this.

I suppose the hard way is to disconnect power to make sure.

 

[h4rm0ny]

Windows 8 does not fully shut down or fully reboot, if it goes to sleep or does not do a full reboot, then you have problems like this.

I suppose the hard way is to disconnect power to make sure.

Yep. That's what I figured - it was trying to restore the kernel to the way it was from its semi-hibernate approach, rather than realize it actually needed to load different drivers, etc. But I don't actually know a way to get it to do a traditional shut-down if I want to do something like this.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Windows 8 does not fully shut down or fully reboot, if it goes to sleep or does not do a full reboot, then you have problems like this.

I suppose the hard way is to disconnect power to make sure.

Really?

I didn't think it was that finicky.

 

[c627627]

Yes. For Windows 8 quick FULL shut down, instead of cutting power, you can also create a full shut down shortcut, just right click on Desktop > New > Shortcut

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s /f /t 0


Otherwise Windows 8 will be doing hybrid shut down:
%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s /hybrid /t 0

 

[h4rm0ny]

Yes. For Windows 8 quick FULL shut down, instead of cutting power, you can also create a full shut down shortcut, just right click on Desktop > New > Shortcut

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s /f /t 0


Otherwise Windows 8 will be doing hybrid shut down:
%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s /hybrid /t 0

Useful as always! Thanks!

 

[GaldedRaw]

That is crazy! I didn't know windows 8 did not fully shut down, learn something new everyday!

 

[h4rm0ny]

That is crazy! I didn't know windows 8 did not fully shut down, learn something new everyday!

Well that's why my Windows 8 PC goes from power off to log in screen in under 2 seconds. (Well that and an SSD).

In Olden Days, Windows shut down closed everything and every time it started up again, it rose like Lazarus, naked from the tomb and disorientated, looking around for drivers to wear.

In the Middle Ages, Windows began to hibernate, like a bear. It would curl up with a tummy full of code and cached programs and when it emerged from its cave, it would be the same bear that went to sleep, right down to it's little running software. This was clever, but bears are large and heavy and take a while to rouse themselves with all that weight. When you have 4+GB of RAM to put on disk and unpack again, that's not fast.

In the WORLD OF TOMORROW, Windows 8 divides like one of those transformers in the movies by that crappy director and whilst it shucks off the running programs and most of the contents of RAM, but it keeps its innermost parts, its drivers and its funny little memories of the things it has to work out when it starts up, and tucks them all away safe and sound. So when it starts up in the WORLD OF TOMORROW, it is lean and mean and appears out of the ground like a rocket-propelled vampire. Sure, it's not wearing any programs and it doesn't have a disk cache, but everything it needs to just look right at you and start talking - these it already has.

So it's not quite correct to say Windows 8 never shuts down. I mean the power is off and it's not doing anything. But it has the vampire like power to spring out of its coffin ready for action without having to go through a full boot. Olden Windows turns on and says: "oh, look. there's a graphics card. I wonder how I talk to it. Let me get my dictionary (driver) and look up how to send it some video output. Windows 8 already knows because it looked the first time.

That's why after a Windows Update it normally takes much longer to boot up - because kernel code has changed and it can't just do its regular resurrection, but has to re-assemble itself from scratch.

 

[GaldedRaw]

Very understanding explanation, though I feel like you stole that

 

[h4rm0ny]

Very understanding explanation, though I feel like you stole that

Uh, no. I wrote that myself just now.

You're welcome to search for the text online. Guide's honour!

 

[GaldedRaw]

Well, it was a very nice write. Something I could show my wife and she would understand it.

 

[c627627]

lol good read