Diagnosing intermittent bootup Windows 7 hang after POST/BIOS screen

Question

Hey guys, was given a laptop to fix since I'm apparently a tech guy or something.

First thing to note that makes this annoyingly more challenging than it should - the installation is in another language. It's not an English version of Windows 7 with the MUI pack installed, it's a completely foreign version of Windows (Windows 7 Ultimate K 32-bit).

That said, I've been trying to figure out what's been causing this problem - I don't know if it's hardware or software based.

The computer hangs after it POSTs and gets past the BIOS. The problem with this issue is that this happens on an intermittent basis, and it's been driving me absolutely bananas. Apparently someone diagnosed the computer and concluded it's faulty RAM, but I've tried running the computer with both of the RAM sticks individually and I still get this problem.

Here's how a typical startup goes if it fails. 1) I start up the machine. 2) Machine successfully POSTs and goes past the BIOS screen. 3) Screen goes blank and hangs there.

If I get sort of lucky, sometimes it does this: 1) I start up the machine. 2) Machine successfully POSTs and goes past the BIOS screen. 3) Windows is starting up logo comes up (albeit in a foreign language) 4) Hangs after that.

If I get REALLY lucky, it actually successfully boots to desktop.

So it's basically a crapshoot on whether or not I can reach the desktop. Here's the other kicker. I grabbed a spare Windows 7 DVD I had and used it to get into the Startup Recovery utilities. The same things happened. It would either hang before the logo, after the logo or during the black screen "Windows is loading files".

I finally managed to get to the Startup Recovery section, and am now running a chkdsk with the /R option. I am suspecting either a bad motherboard or a disk with bad sectors on it (where the boot files just happen to be). I'm going to get a couple of sticks of laptop memory just to see if BOTH of the RAM (which are two separate brands by the way) failed simultaneously, but I have my doubts.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

Edit: It's an HP G60-125NR, if that helps.

Answer 1

I would be wary of running check disk with the /R option until you are sure of the memory.

To discount the possibility that you may have 2 duff sticks of RAM you have a freebie option available to you. Download and burn the ISO for the Ultimate Boot CD and run a memory test on each stick overnight. I can't remember the name of the test I usually use but it's second one down on the list (MEMTest86+ maybe).

Ultmate Boot CD is here