Level 1

4 points

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) boot loop

Windows 7 froze up on me while "checking for updates." After holding down the button to hard reboot the machine, I was greeted with this...

Holding F8 to reach the advanced boot options works, but any option I select there (Safe mode, etc.) returns me to this screen and then to an automatic reboot, back to this screen, reboot, etc.

DIY attempts at repair temporarily led to a "Bootmgr is missing..." error which was resolved in another discussion thread. The specifics of my machine and the details of that adventure can be found here: Bootmgr is missing...can I join the club?

iMac, null

Posted on Jan 6, 2017 8:22 PM

25 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 9, 2017 6:20 AM in response to spinsession

Can you look at https://neosmart.net/wiki/windows-update-loop/ ? There is a bit of sales pitch, which you can ignore. Look at the sections which reference pending.xml in section 4.2.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 9, 2017 9:17 PM in response to spinsession

As a check, go back up to C: and run

dir/s/p cleanup.xml

dir/s/p pending.xml

spinsession Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 9, 2017 10:14 PM in response to Loner T

Nope. Neither file found. Just for good measure, I searched the mounted Bootcamp drive inside OS X too. Nada.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 10, 2017 4:08 AM in response to spinsession

Can you look in the Registry for any flags which indicate a pending update/restart and clear them?

spinsession Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 10, 2017 6:25 AM in response to Loner T

I'm sorry, but I do not know how to do that. If you give me very specific instruction, I will do my best to follow them.

spinsession Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 24, 2017 8:32 AM in response to Loner T

The office machine is as follows...

AMD Radeon HD 6970M

ati2mtag_Vancouver

pci\ven_1002&dev_6720

I'll update the post with my home machine info later.

spinsession Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 24, 2017 4:31 PM in response to spinsession

I just confirmed that my home machine is running the same video driver, and has the same ProdID/VenID information.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 24, 2017 5:45 PM in response to spinsession

Am I correct in assuming that you have not had any BSoD issues on one iMac but only on the other one?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 25, 2017 2:44 AM in response to spinsession

I suggest disabling Driver updates using https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/2500967/how-to-stop-windows-7-automatic ally-installing-drivers on mission critical machines.

spinsession Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 25, 2017 6:52 PM in response to Loner T

Great tip! Thanks again for all of the help.

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Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) boot loop