Vista sp2 not getting past boot screen. (green vertical lines)

It was working fine this past Friday. I haven't added any hardware. I did uninstall AVG Firewall/Anti-virus and Malewarebytes. Added PCMatic anti-virus/anti-trojan software.

Saturday morning when I tried booting up, the period of time when the green vertical bars scross back and forth while windows loads in the background, it hangs up. The green lines stop moving. I waited 3-5 minutes, nothing happened so i shut the computer off.

I checked cables and the one board, a video card. Everything looks okay. Fan on the CPU works fine. PSU fan is working.

I don't currently have an external case that will fit the hard drive. I can order one pay day.

I did notice that where I plug in the standard 3-prong power cord, seemed slightly loose. I tried a different power cord, and it seemed to work fine.

I did do a repair when it booted up as Windows requested. I have data on there I want to keep, and it is my best computer. I keep it off the Internet.

Computer specs: Acer Aspire X170, Vista Home Premium 32bit, Graphics: EVGA 1 gig GeForce 210, hard drive is 1 terabyte in 1 partition. USB mouse and keyboard.

I cannot afford to buy a new machine.

Any suggestions on fixing this ?

Thanks.

Do I have thisi n the wrong area ? I really would like to fix this. Thanks !

nAre you able to boot to Safe Mode with Networking?

If so, I suggest uninstalling the anti-virus you added since it might have a firewall which is enabled during the boot process.

I thought I had tried safe mode, but I'll check again today. The anti-virus does have a firewall, but it works fine with my Win10 desktop and is supposed to work for XP through 10.

Here are the tests I've run. I have a photo of where it stopped during SafeMode as well.

Ran SafeMode, hung up, let it sit there for 5 minutes. No change after that.

Ran SafeMode with networking, hung up, let it sit there for 20 minutes. No change after that.

Ran SafeMode with command line, hung up, let it sit there for 5 minutes. No change after that.

I tried Directory Services repair for 40 minutes, just sat there.

Tried Chkdsk /f /x from my Hiren's 15.2 MiniXP, no problems. it ran the 3 stage chkdsk.

Also ran the minidump checker, nothing ni there since November 18, 2016. And I had several BSOD since then.

I have copied my files off, mostly.

This computer has a restore partition, but I don't see a way to get to it unless i can boot up in SafeMode and get access to the admin tools or control panel.

Everytime I got a BSOD, it gave a different, or no, error other than it was shutting down. The first one I got was irql_not_less_than_equal

Any suggestions ?

edit; I did write this other BSOD down as I thought it kinda odd. But it happened when i was using one of the copy file programs from the Hirten's disk.

Page fault in nonpaged area. ntfs.sys address
BA416487
base at BA3D7000
datstamp 48025BE5

When you get to the options for starting in safe mode, do you see an option to boot using the last known good configuration?

Do you have a Vista installation disc?

If you press F2 during the post, can you get to the BIOS?

No install disk. I have a recovery partition.

I tried last klnown good configuraiton, locks up the same.

I can get to bios,. but its the del key on that machine.

Oh, and I checked the MBR with Hirens and it says its okay.

If you are certain that you want to use the recovery partition, a quick Google search suggests that the method for your model is to hold down the [Alt] key and repeatedly press [F10] after restarting. When asked for a password, enter six zeroes (000000), then follow the onscreen instructions. Be aware that SP1 will not install properly via Windows Update, so you will need to install Firefox (IE 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft's website) and download the SP1 standalone installer if it isn't included with your factory image. That is also the most reliable method for installing SP2, although I managed to get SP2 via Windows Update after a factory recovery in March 2015. If you have access to a functional system that would allow you to download and burn an ISO, then an alternative to factory recovery is http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/296167-vista-iso-download.html. That would get you a clean install including SP2 without a lot of old junk from the factory image. Either way, after reinstalling Vista with SP2 you will face formidable Windows Update challenges, but perhaps you have already heard about the workaround described in http://www.vistax64.com/windows-upd...seems-hang-while-checking-41.html#post1408440

I have a hunch about how your problem began. In the original post you mentioned that you had uninstalled AVG (a wise decision; I got rid of that junk two years ago, but it is often difficult to completely uninstall AVG). I wonder if you also had AVG PC Tuneup installed? (If you ever clicked the blue "fix performance" button and did not cancel the installation, then the answer is "yes.") I used to participate in the AVG Forums, and I recall several reports of PCs that wouldn't boot after uninstalling PC Tuneup. In many cases, Startup Repair solved the problem if allowed to run to completion. Anyway, if you reinstall Windows Vista, now you know better that to install any AVG software. (No wonder AVG has been bought out by another antivirus maker.) I don't have any experience with PCMatic, but I believe the company is better known for their tuneup software than their antivirus. You could probably make your life easier by using Microsoft Security Essentials and CCleaner Free.

I didn't install pc tuneup... I was using ccleaner and diskeeper for clean up and defrag.

I'll likely download and try later to go back to start. I am still finding I haven't copied everything off my 8.1 laptop hdd that it decided it needed to go into an auto correct loop. I get everything, I think, then can't find it. I do have a folder/directory structure I make sure and duplicate it.

I do know about Vista just never getting the updates that it claims are out there. My Vista is Vista Home Premium x32.

I'll double check and make sure I have all files off I need to keep, and then do the alt-F10. Take me a week I think as being retired hasn't given me as much free time as I had hoped.

Another memory from my AVG days comes to mind. If AVG antivirus itself was not successfully uninstalled, it could also be the cause of your problem. Here is an AVG support link: https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlName=Disabling-AVG-when-Windows-cannot-start. You wouldn't necessarily have to use the AVG Rescue CD: most any bootable (live) disk with the equivalent of File Manager should work. But if you don't find any drivers beginning with "avg," then the uninstall was successful and this suggestion was just a waste of time for which I apologize in advance.

I'm willing to spend time to fix it. Its my best computer hardware wise.

I bought an external usb hdd of the same size so I can copy all of my files off.

Is there a way to refresh, and keep my files/folders, under Vista ? I know 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 allow that.