Problem after problem

[bobfacemoo]

So I had this thread a while ago: http://gbatemp.net/threads/laptop-keeps-shutting-off.445461/

Now I'm getting pretty pissed. My laptop continuously cuts off, the wifi module cuts off and I have to restart my laptop, the sound stops working and I have to restart, etc... can someone shed some light because it's winding me up and I really don't know why everything keeps going wrong!

 

[Albireo6972]

I know in the last thread you wrote you said you would rather not factory restore, but I would honestly recommend it. Even better if you just went for a new Windows 7 install (if you are able). That would remove any OS issues from the previous install, as to where to store your data, well that is a hard issue to tackle. Do you have any DVD's or maybe a USB drive you could use to store it, I had to do that quite a few times before I could afford a secondary hard drive for all my data.

 

[bobfacemoo]

I know in the last thread you wrote you said you would rather not factory restore, but I would honestly recommend it. Even better if you just went for a new Windows 7 install (if you are able). That would remove any OS issues from the previous install, as to where to store your data, well that is a hard issue to tackle. Do you have any DVD's or maybe a USB drive you could use to store it, I had to do that quite a few times before I could afford a secondary hard drive for all my data.

Nope, that's why I don't want to factory restore. I have nowhere to save ~200GB of data. I was told factory resetting would not be a good idea but I'm so confused and just want this damn laptop to work properly.

 

[bobfacemoo]

Okay so:

I bought a USB wifi adapter which is already proving to be better. I also partitioned my harddrive so I would not lose data if a clean install wouldn't work. Seems a clean install is exactly what I needed to do. However, I need to activate windows. I have a legit product key but it's unreadable on the bottom of my laptop, is there a way I can retrieve it from the old install? I'm able to dual boot so I have access to both installs. I also need a way to move my data across, what'd be the simplest way?

 

[Taleweaver]

Oops...seems like I'm late to the thread. What I was going to suggest was trying without the battery installed (but obviously with power connected), and also try booting from an USB linux drive to check if that would auto-shut down after about half an hour.

Erm...as to retrieving the windows license: this should be all the info you need.

I'm not sure how you set things up to dual boot with a second windows 7 partition, but assuming you didn't use stuff like bitlocker, shouldn't you just be able to 'see' the other partition from your drive?
If not...try making a live-CD on a USB-drive (medicat is a very good one), and make sure you've got plenty of room on it. If you boot from that, you should see the contents of the drives (again: if they aren't encrypted).

 

[bobfacemoo]

Okay everything is fixed but now I have one final problem. xD

I merged my partitions back into one so I just have one partition, but when I turn on the laptop it asks me to choose between two installs of Win 7 as if I was dual booting, however I'm not dual booting anymore so I want to remove the one not existant anymore and make my laptop boot into Windows 7 as normal immediately. How do I do this?

 

[Albireo6972]

This forum should help remove the old OS choice.

 

[bobfacemoo]

This forum should help remove the old OS choice.

None of them worked. Using MSConfig, on the "boot" tab, nothing shows. Easy BCD gives some error about some file being unspecified or something.

 

[Youkai]

... instead of buying a usb wifi adapter why not buy a external HDD or whatever ... you get these for an apple and an egg already.
Than you would have enough space to save your files and you could finaly reinstall your system.

You know, if you ever start to have to fix small problems like this you will only get more and more problems.
There is a Point where everything else than reinstalling is just stupid waste of time and energy.

Another way would be to get another HDD for your computer (not external) and than just copy all the files you need from the old one over to the new.

 

[RandomUser]

If you are proficient with modding the BCD store using command prompt then use bcdedit.exe in cmd.
Just off the top of my head I think this command is perhaps you want to use

/deletevalue

Only problem is you need to make sure that you actually deleting the correct store. Just back up the folder called "BOOT". If that folder is in the system partition, then mount it and then back it up. If you have a Windows CD disk or USB drive, then you could rename the BCD store file to something else (The OS must be offline to do this or unload it from Windows), and run the recovery from the aforementioned medium (Not the OEM manufacture recovery/restore disk). The repair should automatically detect the OS and create a new BCD store.
All these are risky to try, so you decide on what to do. Since I have forgotten how to use the command version of bcdeditor, as I hardly ever had to use it, since RAM booting is a thing and using Grub4DOS as the bootloader.