Can't Start Windows

Question

My computer was extremely slow and unresponsive to the point where I had to force shut down my computer. When I turned it back on, the Dell logo came up saying preparing automatic repair. A blue screen came up a minute later saying: 

Automatic Repair

Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC

Press "Advanced Options" to try other options to repair your PC or "Shut down" to turn off your PC.

Log file: C:\windows\system32\logfiles\srt\srttrail.txt

I opened the text file using the command prompt option in advanced settings and every test said:

Result: Completed successfully: Error code = 0x0 

Except for the last one which said:

Root cause found:

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Boot critical file C:\windows\system32\drivers\avgrvrt.sys is corrupt

Repair action: File repair 

Result: Failed. Error code = 0x57

Time taken = 4547 ms

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(I manually copied and typed from my other computer to this one so the text here might not be 100% the same as what it really says.)

Some help fixing this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

SL322,

I've found a thread that could be helpful in your case (I'm not sure if you've seen this yet in your search): https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

E for Excel's suggestion and arthart's responses go hand-in-hand in resolving this issue. I haven't had this issue personally so it'll be a little more difficult in finding a solution I know that works.

Keep me posted.

Answer 2

Before resetting I tried using safe mode to see if it would make a difference. I still had the same error, however in srttrail.txt, there was a different file causing the problem. This one said: 

Boot critical file: C:\efi\microsoft\boot\resources\custom\bootres.dll is courrupt.

In case it means anything, I did look at some troubleshooting articles that told me to run a bunch of commands along the lines of bootrec /fixboot. The names seem to be quite similar and I'm worried I ran one of those commands incorrectly causing this to happen.

Is there any way I could fix this?

Answer 3

SL322,

You should endeavor on either of these options, yes. To keep your files when resetting, mention explicitly that you should keep your files. You can also keep your files using the Windows installation media by not formatting the drive you want to install Windows on.

Good luck, let me know how it goes.

Answer 4

What would I have to do to get to the black screen with the Recycle bin showing on the desktop? I don't have any flash drives to reinstall windows with, however I still have the windows 10 instillation disk and there is an option to reset my PC on the menu. Should I try those first?

Answer 5

Hey SL322,

There was an issue with updating to 1803 (which most likely happened) where AVG/Avast would cause issues such as this, as indicated through here: Boot critical file C:\windows\system32\drivers\avgrvrt.sys is corrupt

Read more here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

If you do not manage to get to a black screen with the Recycle Bin showing on the desktop, you may have to reinstall Windows (the only upside to this is that you will be able to keep every file, not apps, from your original installation).

You can reinstall Windows by using the Media Creation Tool, here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

You will need a flash drive of 8 GB or larger in capacity, and another computer to perform this task on.

Wishing you luck on this one, please let me know if there's anything else I could do.