Can only boot into safe mode with Win7...

[abbyqueue]

Hey y'all. I'm having a problem running Windows 7 Ultimate on my laptop. I upgraded from WinXP to Win7 last night. I ran the hardware compatibility checker and everything went fine. The upgrade went smoothly, and I was able to boot into Win7 with no issues.

I then applied the first three of Microsoft Update's critical updates, and when it rebooted after applying those, I only get to a black screen after the initial POST screen and all that. No Win7 splash screen whatsoever.

I can boot into Win7 in safe mode by rebooting and choosing Safe Mode, but that's it.

I've tried going into msconfig and selecting Diagnostic and Selective Startups, but to no avail.

Anyone have an idea of how I should proceed? Thanks!

[AnnMarie]

Try clean booting your system using the method (see here, Step 1: Perform a clean boot). Make sure you dont download anything or surf to dodgy sites while you are running in this state because your antivirus will be disabled. Can you boot into Windows now?

[abbyqueue]

Yeah, those are the steps I followed last night. I was able to boot into safe mode and then did all of Step 1. When I restarted, though, it still wouldn't boot unless I went into safe mode again, so I wasn't sure if I should continue with the steps or not. I figured that why would I move on to Step 2 if Step 1 (disabling all services except for Microsoft) didn't work?

[AnnMarie]

Yes, there is no point in going any further.

Try running the Upgrade Advisor again and post the report please.

[abbyqueue]

I just tried to boot into Win7 again and I did get the splash screen that says "Starting Windows," then the whole screen kind of flashed and went black. I've noticed that I do get the "sound" of Windows booting in the background though -- I guess it's to the username and password screen? But the screen is black... so I'm thinking this is a video card compatibility issue, maybe. This may have been what happens every time and I just wasn't paying close enough attention.

Went into msconfig and changed back to Normal Startup. Tried rebooting into Windows to see if it might work -- no go. Rebooted into Safe Mode with Networking. Downloaded the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, but it won't let me install: "The Windows Installer Service is not accessible in Safe Mode. Please try again when your computer is not in Safe Mode or you can use System Restore to return your machine to a previous good state."

I decided to go into System Restore to see if restoring the computer to pre-update status would help. I had two restore points -- I chose the earlier one -- and restored the computer. Booted right into Windows the first time after a successful restore.

I decided to disable my display adapter (Standard VGA Graphics Adapter) to see if that worked. Did that, rebooted (and Windows installed an update upon reboot). Worked fine.

Went to Windows Update and installed updates (there were something like 88 of them). Rebooted the computer and the screen went black after the splash screen again, so it must be an update issue.

Booted in Safe Mode with Networking and went to re-enable my display adapter. I noticed that the name was different now -- instead of Standard VGA Graphics adapter, now it's ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M SERIES. And it's enabled. I'm thinking maybe there was some sort of driver update for this adapter included in the Windows Update? But there's no option to roll back the driver. So I disabled it again and restarted -- the computer booted right into Windows with no issue.

Checked Device Manager and it was still disabled. Went into Windows Update to see if there were any more updates -- of course there were, so I installed those (had to reboot about a zillion times in the process, of course).

Everything seems to be working fine now. Something to do with the first few updates and my display adapter, I guess. Is there any downside to leaving that display adapter disabled?

[AnnMarie]

I suspected that might be the case however there should have been a comment that pointed us in that direction in the report generated by the Upgrade Advisor and I'm surprised that there was no mention of issues with such as aero effects the first time you ran it.

Everything seems to be working fine now. Something to do with the first few updates and my display adapter, I guess. Is there any downside to leaving that display adapter disabled?

Without a doubt there will be otherwise no-one would bother buying video cards but I am not familiar with that card and hardware is not my speciality so your question would be best answered by someone who is. Failing that, try posting a new topic in our hardware forum.