Asus G73Jw stuck on Win loading screen

[thespoondog]

Hello,

Hopefuly this is the right sub-forum, this could be a Windows or hardware issue.

The other day my laptop decided it didn't want to boot windows ever again. It gets stuck on the Windows 7 loading screen (Just says starting windows but the animated logo never appears). Starting in safe mode, it stops after loading amdxata.sys.

Other details

Nothing really abnormal seemed to happen the night before it stopped working - only thing I can think of was that 3DS Max did lock up for a while, after which I closed the program, re-opened it and it worked fine. Then when I'd finished I shut down windows normally. I've had the computer since the start of the year, no problems so far.

What I've tried

I tried starting with and without battery, re-seating the disks. I've also tried doing the automatic Windows startup repair (both the installed one and from a Windows 7 boot disc image I downloaded), but both just said that that windows could not repair startup. I also tried a system restore from there, which completed successfully but didn't help. I upgraded BIOS a couple of months back, and it's using optimised defaults.

The hardware

Asus G73jw notebook:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Notebooks- ASUS G73Jw

At my request, the retailer replaced the primary 500GB HDD with a 120GB Corsair SSD (which is where Windows is installed), 8GB RAM installed, and I think the Blu-Ray reader was replaced with a writer.

I didn't get an original installation disc with the laptop, just a key (but I should be able to borrow one if needed).

If worst comes to worst I should be able to send this back for repair, but I'd like to at least have a decent attempt at diagnosing it myself, so I'm not without it for weeks.

Any help appreciated,
-Cory

[joeten]

Hi from what I can find it is a filter storage driver for amd so would most likely be connected to the graphics side of things there is a hot fix released for it but not sure how much help it would be at present maybe try getting hold of a win 7 install disc and try repairing from it
MS kb An update that improves the compatibility of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Advanced Format Disks is available

[thespoondog]

Hm, I think it might be the one after that file that it's getting stuck on, since it says "loaded... amdxata.sys", then stalls on the next line? I'll try booting in safe mode on a working win7 pc and see what file is after that.

Hm, well I guess this other laptop might load different files, but it's the same version of Windows 7 - the next file is "fltmgr.sys".

Anyway, thanks joeten - I'll see if I can get ahold of a win 7 disc to repair, though my hopes aren't high since I already tried to repair from a downloaded win 7 boot disc (that was apparently just a "stripped down to repair essentials" version of the win 7 disc). Worst comes to worst I can probably put up with having to reinstall windows...

[joeten]

Hi it is booting in safe mode ? you might try sfc /scannow SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker - Windows 7 Forums from there

[thespoondog]

No it won't boot in safe mode, but I got my hands on an install disc so I'll see if I can try it from there - thanks.

Ok so I tried several attempts at the automatic startup repair, booting from the windows 7 disc, no luck with that.

I wasn't able to run the SFC commands. I can't actually identify the windows volume in the cmd prompt when booting from the windows disc or recovery partition (it should be F: I think), so that's probably why SFC won't run.

e.g. if I run bootrec.exe /ScanOs it doesn't identify any windows installations.

However, when first booting from the windows disk it does list the windows installation on F: correctly there, before offering me the startup recovery options.

I'm not sure what else to try now.

[joeten]

Ok try the info here SFC /SCANNOW : Run in Command Prompt at Boot - Windows 7 Forums

[thespoondog]

Yea, tried everything off that page, in several combinations (G is the dvd drive, X is the temp recovery drive i guess):

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=f:\ /offwindir=f:\windows
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=g:\ /offwindir=f:\windows
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=x:\ /offwindir=f:\windows

It just says "Windows Resource protection could not start the service" or something like that.

[dai]

d/load and run the h/drive makers diagnostic utility on the h/drive

Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

if it comes up clear run

chkdsk /f

[thespoondog]

The windows drive is a Corsair F120GB SSD... I'm not sure if there are any diagnostic tools out there for those? Someone was asking for one at the Corsair forums but got nothing.

[dai]

check these

HDDScan

SSDLife 1.0 - Know how your SSD is doing at any moment

SAMSUNG Hard Disk Drive

Software Utilities