pressing a keywhen there are options during boot causes a freeze | Tech Support

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pressing a keywhen there are options during boot causes a freeze

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March 17, 2011
12:03 AM

chinaguy

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October 29, 2009

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Ok, now this problem is a little bit weird. On my dad's computer when it is booting up and an option comes up to: start windows normally, switch to another startup mode, or when the hiberfil.sys gets corrupted and needs to be deleted; pressing any key even enter just causes the computer to freeze. But if there is a countdown and then it automatically chooses the selected option then it can startup fine. I have found that this doesn't apply to the bios settings or when we press F12 to get to the boot menu before the operating system's boot process it doesn't cause any problem. But only after the operating system offers options and we try to press a key. I don't remember if it is pressing any key or just pressing enter that causes the freeze but I do know that enter does. I was wondering does anyone knows what could be causing this? He is using windows vista.

I have thought it might be a virus that is doing it to keep him from getting to safe mode but it has been like this for a really long time, more than a year. Yet there are no other signs that we can see that would indicate there is a virus on the computer. So I don't know what else could be causing the problem. Incidentally there is no proble after the computer boots into certain bootable CDs but it does have a problem with others. I think the ones it doesn't have a problem with are winPE but not sure.

If it is a virus how can I get rid of it? And if it isn't then what could be causing it and how could I fix it? It isn't usually a big deal. But twice the hibernation file has gotten corrupted and I have had to go in with a bootable CD and delete hiberfil.sys before he could boot it up. Like I said not a big deal but it takes time and is kind of annoying, especially considering the fact that the os includes a way to delete the file when this happens but we can't use it because it will just freeze.

But anyway thank anyone for any help you can give me. It will be appreciated by both of us.

March 17, 2011
2:37 AM

amnesia

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May 7, 2009

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This and the other problem are most probably interrelated somehow. May be time for a clean install?

March 17, 2011
9:15 AM

Gibbster

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June 1, 2010

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Is your computer a laptop or desktop? A clean reinstall works most of the time but does you dad have personal information he wants to keep?

March 17, 2011
5:25 PM

chinaguy

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It is a laptop and yes he does want to keep the personal information on it. Yes we could backup and then restore then put the info back on. But who's to say that wouldn't make the problem come back. And besides we don't really want to restore for something that is just a minor inconvenience most of the time and a pain in the neck at others. I find people are always eager to suggest a clean reinstall but usually people also want to save all their info they have. And believe me I am in no way against reinstalling the operating system. I have done it before myself several times when I had problems with my computer that required it. But often that is not the best solution. End rant.

Anyway I remembered one more thing about the problem I thought I should share. It seems to be related to the HD. Because when the HD is in and I boot from a bootable CD if I try to use the keyboard and select some options or something then I find it freezes the computer. But if I use the same bootable CD with the HD out there is no problem with freezing or anything. That is one thing that made me think it could be a virus. Because a virus could only be on the HD. But anyway thought that was quite important to share and so throwing it into the mix to see what comes out.

March 17, 2011
11:04 PM

Jyo

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How did you check for viruses? I'd recommend scanning in safe mode with malwarebytes and super-antispyware. Then if it comes out clean, I'd assume it has something to do with the operating system being corrupted in some way.

Is it also possible that a previous infection caused this mess?

Have you tried startup repair from the Vista cd?

March 18, 2011
3:55 AM

chinaguy

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Several things. First we can't get to safe mode because of the problem with the keyboard. I can get to the screen with those selections but cannot select anything except startup normally. So unfortunately although I would love to try that it won't work. I don't think that it was caused by a previous infection although that is possible. As far as I know there haven't been any previous infections on that computer though I could be misremembering. And as for the last suggestion. He has an OEM version of vista without a disk for it. Just a restore disk for the whole computer and everything that it came with so can't try a startup repair. But I don't think it is a startup problem but it could be. The computer starts up fine except for the fact that I can't choose any options during the startup process.

March 18, 2011
6:07 AM