# [SOLVED] MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup



## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

Hi,
My MSI CR720 every so often doesnt load past the bios on startup. It runs the bios screen, then the screen goes black and two little white lines appear at the top left, normally they go away and the OS loads but for some reason they somtimes just stay there and nothing happens. 
This has happened 4 times within a week, it started about 1 week ago although i cant remember what i changed to the laptop that would cause this issue other than recently i have been installing and playing many old games (age of empires, freelancer and others) which i have to run in compatability mode. My last install was Battle for Middle Earth 2. 
I keep a system image backup as well as a third party backu on an external hard drive.
I have also added a partition to my hard drive by shrinking a section of it. I was running out of space on my C:OS partition so i created another and moved documents to it. (i read up about it and its possible this is what is causing my laptop to fail on startup?). 
Help would be much appreciated in tracking down the issue as soon as possible as i need my laptop for my uni course! 
Specs:
Windows 7 64bit 
Intel i5 M480 2.67GHz
4 GB DDR3 ram 
~300GB Hard drive - partitioned into 3 parts - C:OS is 172GB, Data is 66.3GB and my new partition H: 48.8GB.
Ive attached a DXDiag file.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Hi have you tried a start up repair


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

yer i have, twice, but it fails each time :/


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Ok what is the message for the failure


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

ok well im not sure about that, where would i find the error report/item that you need? there isnt a BSOD of any kind.
thanks for your replies


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Hi I know this say's bsod but it has other things in it for gathering reports so please follow the instructions here http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...-instructions-windows-7-and-vista-452654.html


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

ok thanks, ive run all the suggested programs in that link and have attached a zip file with the results. although im having trouble uploading a url or http for the resources and performance monitor. 
today i created a system restore disk in case it fails again. Tbh though i havent restarted my laptop for fear of it not starting again :/


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Ok I will move this to Bsod's App crashes and Hangs and see if a analyst can find out some more info


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

One other question you don't have any usb devices or hubs connected to the laptop do you


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*



joeten said:


> One other question you don't have any usb devices or hubs connected to the laptop do you


yer i have a mouse, and a 1TB external hard drive (for backups) other than that only the occasional camera for importing photos, ethernet, power lead, speaker 3.5 jack and my mobile phone cable.
 thanks
should i run a driver verifier?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Hi not at present try removing the usb devices then try it booting


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

ok will do


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## VirGnarus (Jun 28, 2010)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Sounds like it's trying to enumerate any existing storage devices in order to detect and run an OS, and it's stalling in that process. Usually this occurs when one of the drives is not responding, or takes forever to do so.

Probably want to run some drive tests using Seatools. Run all the tests except the Advanced ones.


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

ok ill run that now.... so it should provide info after the testing that i can upload for you guys?


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

ok, all tests were passed, no issues detected.


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## VirGnarus (Jun 28, 2010)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

And that was the case with all your drives, right? Also, did unplugging all your usb stuff (aside from mouse/keyboard) change the startup behavior any?


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

yer i only have one hard drive, i have a usb drive as well which i back up to but Seatools woudnt let me test this although i have not had any issues with it. 
unplugging everything apart from mouse has no impact on problem. 
i restarted last night and it worked fine, this morning windows updated and it restarted but failed. I used my restore disc and ran the repair of boot (which diddnt work) and the repair option which doesnt affect your files (also diddnt work) finally i had to do a complete system restore and revert back to a previous version on my hard drive  
because i back up everyday i dont loose any work or files (apart from game saves) its just very annoying and practically diffecult to have to system restore a couple of times a week.
thanks for the replies


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*



twenty4seven said:


> yer i only have one hard drive, i have a usb drive as well which i back up to but Seatools woudnt let me test this although i have not had any issues with it.
> unplugging everything apart from mouse has no impact on problem.
> i restarted last night and it worked fine, this morning windows updated and it restarted but failed. I used my restore disc and ran the repair of boot (which diddnt work) and the repair option which doesnt affect your files (also diddnt work) finally i had to do a complete system restore and revert back to a previous version on my hard drive
> because i back up everyday i dont loose any work or files (apart from game saves) its just very annoying and practically diffecult to have to system restore a couple of times a week.
> thanks for the replies


Edit - seatools is now scanning external hard drive 
will let you know results


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

All drives are reported as being fine. No issues detected. Ive also run windows check disk which returned no errors.


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## VirGnarus (Jun 28, 2010)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Are you having to do a system restore all the time because your system keeps attempting to install the Windows update?

I can't seem to figure out what's going on here yet. Nothing seems to correlate to the issue, as I checked the syslog and other things and found nothing suspicious. I can only suspect driver, firmware or BIOS being cause, so go on an updating frenzy and update all of em for your hardware, especially the BIOS.


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*



VirGnarus said:


> Are you having to do a system restore all the time because your system keeps attempting to install the Windows update?
> 
> I can't seem to figure out what's going on here yet. Nothing seems to correlate to the issue, as I checked the syslog and other things and found nothing suspicious. I can only suspect driver, firmware or BIOS being cause, so go on an updating frenzy and update all of em for your hardware, especially the BIOS.


Im not sure about the Windows update to be honest. The update would normally install itself when i shut down or restart, i have had windows installing update ever since ive had the laptop with no issues (i only install the important updates and i check to see whether the update is actually relevant to me before i install it). 
Yer i will search online for driver updates and bios updates. Any idea on the best way to do this or is it just a matter of going to the manufacturers website and downloading the latest driver? 

i have not tryed a complete windows install yet...ive only been doing windows restores (is that the same thing?).

thanks for your help so far


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## VirGnarus (Jun 28, 2010)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

If you use an OEM computer, go through the OEM, otherwise any separate manufacturer websites you'll want to go too and download the drivers/firmware/BIOS from there. Shy away from any 3rd-party driver software out there that's designed to search, find and install drivers for you; they do a poor job and many times will install outdated or incorrect drivers.

System restore just restores much of your system-related files, drivers and registry to a previous time. A full windows install will just start everything fresh.


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Ok thanks, i will start my search for drivers. I guess i use device manager to find whats installed on my computer and then go from there?


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## VirGnarus (Jun 28, 2010)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

More or less, yes. You can also use HWInfo as that provides details on your hardware.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

This can help if you get any problem finding them http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f19/how-to-find-drivers-419050.html


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## twenty4seven (Jan 31, 2011)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

sorry for the late reply. In the end i just backed up everything and then did a complete reinstall of my windows  everything seems to be running fine now although windows seems a bit slower than it used to be. 
thanks for your help guys


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: MSI Laptop fails to load OS on startup*

Glad to hear your back up and running,you might run chkdsk


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