DM1-4001 AU randomly halts on "Starting Windows" screen

[LordVader]

Hi,

I just bought a HP Pavillion DM1-4001AU, everything seems perfect,

but randomly halts on "Starting Windows" screen while boot, harddrive LED stop blinking.

Force to restart, next time boots up, it asks me if I want to recover system.

I ever tried to dump ntbtlog but nothing unusual in drivers loading.

I already updated the BIOS to F.15, all components upgraded to newest via HP support assistant,

still get this problem. The HP diagnostic program also check no problem.

Is there any way to find out the clue of halting on boot problem?

Please help me, Thank you.

[Daniel_Potyrala]

Hi,
Please test RAM and HDD.
In below guide you will find all informations how you may do this:
How to test RAM and HDD (Hard Drive).

[LordVader]

Hi Daniel, I did all the tests, nothing goes wrong. And I also notice that there is no QuickWeb on my DM1-4001AU, neither the configuration option in BIOS nor the IOS group in Windows Program groups, so I can't run QuickWeb, is that normally to 4001AU? Thanks for your relpy

[Daniel_Potyrala]

We will scan now is everything ok with your system files.

Check the link below for more details:

How to Repair Windows 7 System Files with System File Checker

HP QuickWeb should work on your model.

Check the links below:

Configuring Applications in Instant On Software (IOS) and QuickWeb Environment

Overview of Instant On Software Environment

[LordVader]

---

Daniel_Potyrala wrote:

We will scan now is everything ok with your system files.

Check the link below for more details:

How to Repair Windows 7 System Files with System File Checker

Thank you Daniel, I will try it later.

HP QuickWeb should work on your model.

Check the links below:

Configuring Applications in Instant On Software (IOS) and QuickWeb Environment

Overview of Instant On Software Environment

I can't find any IOS / QuickWeb group in my Windows Program group,

there isn't any option in my BIOS, I also try reinstall QuickWeb,

even recovered system but nothing changed.

---

[Daniel_Potyrala]

It looks that HP QuickWeb is not available on this model.

Apparently bad information is given in the specifications.

Two more questions.

Did you you created or removed any partition on the disk?

Have you made any changes to the partitions?

[LordVader]

Both answers is no. It's almost brand new, just bought last week, still try to get familiar with its functiuons.

All 4 partitions haven't been modified (System/ no-named(Win7) / Recovery / HP-tool)

I read the specification on HP website, it said DM1-4001AU equiped with QuickWeb 3.1

DM1-4001AU on HP website

[LordVader]

Hi Daniel,

I think I find out what cause the halting on boot problem of DM1-4001.

After whole weekend tests, I almost can make sure the AMD SATA Controller driver in

Catalyst 12.x series causes it.

Because too trusted AMD Catalyst, I never thought it could make any trouble.

All the AMD SATA Controller driver in all Catalyst this year until now(1/3/4)

is the same version 1.2.001.0327, however I start using Windows 7 since this year,

so only keep backup of Catalyst 12.x of Windows 7.

The worse, AMD AHCI driver can never be removed by Catalyst Install Manager,

only can be changed/uninstalled from Windows device manager.

So test all 3 versions Catalyst even removed them, still got the same problem.

If any one suffer boot problem like this, please stick with the original AHCI driver from windows,

or use the old AMD SATA driver with shipping, or the newer one from HP website.



In these tests procedure I also found an other surprise, HP QuickWeb.

An occasionally failure boot of windows 7 leading to startup QuickWeb.

Finally I saw QuickWeb worked on my DM1-4001AU, but maybe also the last time.

So I think maybe QuickWeb can be enabled via changing partition boot flag to my DM1-4001AU,

but not setting in BIOS. 

[LordVader · Accepted solution]

It's looked like the new AHCI driver came with Catalyst 12.6 WHQL (1.2.1.331) has solved this Starting Windows halting problem.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/12-6_vista_win7_32-64_sb.exe

Anyone suffers this problem can try it

But Catalyst 12.6 WHQL doesnt include HD 6320 graphic support (in inf file), however 12.6 beta did.

Always some trouble with AMD drivers......