Win 7 startup problem

[Robin Faichney]

Having trouble with a Sony Viao touchscreen all-in-one unit running
Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Under normal startup and also safe mode with networking it BSODs every
time with DEVICE_IRQL etc, STOP D1, ndis.sys

Intermittently it hangs during safe mode w/o networking startup.

It has hung during the built-in Win7 memory diagnostic but passed
memtest86+ (so far have not repeated either).

Googling suggested a possible prob with the wireless adapter driver
but un- and reinstalling that made no difference. After using msconfig
to setup a minimal diagnostic startup, it BSODed as above, presumably
because the prob is due to a driver, not a service or startup prog.

Only recent system restore dates are available and the earliest
doesn't help.

I'm now approaching the hair-tearing stage and considering a full
system recovery, hoping I can do backups in safe mode first. Any other
ideas?

[Graham J]

Post by Robin Faichney
Having trouble with a Sony Viao touchscreen all-in-one unit running
Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
Under normal startup and also safe mode with networking it BSODs every
time with DEVICE_IRQL etc, STOP D1, ndis.sys
Intermittently it hangs during safe mode w/o networking startup.
It has hung during the built-in Win7 memory diagnostic but passed
memtest86+ (so far have not repeated either).
Googling suggested a possible prob with the wireless adapter driver
but un- and reinstalling that made no difference. After using msconfig
to setup a minimal diagnostic startup, it BSODed as above, presumably
because the prob is due to a driver, not a service or startup prog.
Only recent system restore dates are available and the earliest
doesn't help.
I'm now approaching the hair-tearing stage and considering a full
system recovery, hoping I can do backups in safe mode first. Any other
ideas?

ndis.sys probably relates to the network card.

Is it integrated on the motherboard or removeable?

If the former, try to disable it in the BIOS.

If the latter, remove it.

Does the system then work reliably?

If it doesn't can you boot a disk-based operating system (BartPE,
Knoppix, or similar) and confirm that the hardware works reliably?

Whatever, take the hard disk out and connect it into another Windows
machine (ideally Win 7) and back up all the user's data from it.

Is the machine under manufacturer's warranty?

[Robin Faichney]

Post by Graham J
ndis.sys probably relates to the network card.
Is it integrated on the motherboard or removeable?
If the former, try to disable it in the BIOS.
If the latter, remove it.
Does the system then work reliably?

It's integrated but there's nothing about it (and not much else
either) in BIOS setup. So in safe mode I disabled both wireless and
ethernet adaptors in Device Manager and that did the trick, allowing a
normal startup. I then tried enabling the wireless adaptor but got a
BSOD immediately. I have a feeling that maybe ndis.sys is involved in
all networking?

The pc is currently installing Win7 SP1, which had previously been
downloaded. On another machine I've downloaded the latest drivers for
both adaptors. If SP1 makes no diff I'll try installing the drivers,
but I'm not sure whether that will work with the adaptors disabled.

Post by Graham J
If it doesn't can you boot a disk-based operating system (BartPE,
Knoppix, or similar) and confirm that the hardware works reliably?

Haven't tried that yet though I'm a bit concerned there might also be
a separate issue, causing the occassional hang during safe mode boot
and the Win7 memory diagnostic. However, it ran memtest86 happily
overnight.

Post by Graham J
Whatever, take the hard disk out and connect it into another Windows
machine (ideally Win 7) and back up all the user's data from it.

I'll certainly backup the data before doing a system recovery.

Post by Graham J
Is the machine under manufacturer's warranty?

No

[Ian]

Post by Robin Faichney

Post by Graham J
ndis.sys probably relates to the network card.
Is it integrated on the motherboard or removeable?
If the former, try to disable it in the BIOS.
If the latter, remove it.
Does the system then work reliably?

It's integrated but there's nothing about it (and not much else
either) in BIOS setup. So in safe mode I disabled both wireless and
ethernet adaptors in Device Manager and that did the trick, allowing a
normal startup. I then tried enabling the wireless adaptor but got a
BSOD immediately. I have a feeling that maybe ndis.sys is involved in
all networking?
The pc is currently installing Win7 SP1, which had previously been
downloaded. On another machine I've downloaded the latest drivers for
both adaptors. If SP1 makes no diff I'll try installing the drivers,
but I'm not sure whether that will work with the adaptors disabled.

Post by Graham J
If it doesn't can you boot a disk-based operating system (BartPE,
Knoppix, or similar) and confirm that the hardware works reliably?

Haven't tried that yet though I'm a bit concerned there might also be
a separate issue, causing the occassional hang during safe mode boot
and the Win7 memory diagnostic. However, it ran memtest86 happily
overnight.

Post by Graham J
Whatever, take the hard disk out and connect it into another Windows
machine (ideally Win 7) and back up all the user's data from it.

I'll certainly backup the data before doing a system recovery.

Post by Graham J
Is the machine under manufacturer's warranty?

No

A quick solution may be to buy an external wireless adaptor, and
permanently disable the internal one.

[Robin Faichney]

Post by Ian
A quick solution may be to buy an external wireless adaptor, and
permanently disable the internal one.

Thanks (and to Graham) but the driver installation fixed it. Or fixed
the main issue anyway -- still don't quite understand the pattern of
symptoms but it's been behaving perfectly for a couple of hours so
back it goes!