Windows will not load, boot disc doesn't work

Question

Three nights ago I installed updates to windows Vista (32 bit) before shutting down. The next day I tried to turn on my computer and got the Windows Wasn't Properly Shut Down screen. I told it to start windows normally. It tried to start windows a few times unsucessfully, continuing to loop into the Improper Shut down screen. I tried all the options (Start in safe mode, safe mode w/networking, Last known working config, etc).

I then tried to use my boot disc, but my computer will not recognize it. I also tried going to the boot menu before it tries to start windows, told it to look in the CD drive, and it still won't recognize it. Just to be sure, I took my boot disc to work (where I am using the same version of Vista) and tried it on that computer - it worked! So it is not a problem with my disc, it is a problem with my computer not accepting the disc.

Other than the windows update, I haven't installed any software, downloaded anything, or added any new hardware in at least 2 weeks. Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I have a really weird problem.

I have an MSI GX660 Laptop and when I press F11 to go into the boot menu. I choose to boot from cd. It says : Press any key to boot from CD. So I press it and it just turns into a black screen?

Answer 2

No, it doesn't make it to the "press any key to boot from DVD". It just continues on as if I hadn't told it to use the boot disc at all. No error messages, or any feedback. It proceeds into the windows error recovery screen, tries to start windows, fails, and starts the process over again. 

I went to BIOS and tried to set the priority to DVD ROM, but it gives me only two options:

1. Ch2 M. : WDC WD5000AAKS-00TMA0
2. Bootable Add-in Cards

It was originally set to option 1. Just to be sure, I tried setting it to option 2 with no change.

I also tried copying the boot disc info onto a USB flash drive, and booting using that, and it froze up the computer at the point before windows tries to start. I walked away for 2 hours and it did nothing.

Answer 3

Hey Cttvnerd,

What happens when you try to boot from CD?

Do you get any error message when you try to boot from CD or it just boots from the Hard Disk?

Do you get to the onscreen message to “press any key to boot from the DVD”?

If your CD works fine on the other computer and if you dont get to the above screen that means that your boot Priority is not set to CD.

Go to the BIOS and make sure that that the boot priority is set to CD\DVD ROM.

If you can get to the Windows Recovery Console Environment, you can try to perform a Startup repair following the below link:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/95b4c03a-ac42-49a4-a90d-8f3736a995271033.mspx

Give this a try and let us know if you need any help with this.

Thanks.

Irfan H, Microsoft Answers Support Engineer. Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.