Solved BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO on boot screen

[Anakunda]

Hi, I think I ran into some serious problems with my OS. Got a boot screen error already about week ago but was able to repair using the win8 recovery screen and previous restore point. Today when I came to PC which should normally run non-stop it was turned off. After turning on I've got the boot BSOD with the big bad smiley and error id from subject, then collecting necessary data to 100% and freeze. Restore point is not available today ;-( Among others this problem could have also HW defect reason because last days I noticed slightly increased CPU usage and hearable fan even in idle states (normally I get CPU usage about 2% and no active cooling, but yesterday the CPU usage was permanently between 6-8%). I am not sure if it relates to my boot issues or not.
Where I can get is either boot troubleshooting screen with all of it's choices and safe mode with networking but without working network. Diagnostic startup using msconfig leads to same BSOD. sfc /scannow doesn't want to run. So it seems most I can use is safe mode but don't know what to use for repair.
As alternate solution I have yesterday's system snapshot from Paragon backup (if it allows run in safe mode) but the backup might possibly contain already partially damaged system state.
As last resort I have win installation DVD to perform more deep system reset from boot recovery screen but don't want to lose my data yet. System repair on top of current state is my priority now.
Thanks in advance for advices.

 

[usasma]

For starters:

At work we start all repairs with a set of diagnostics. Often they find problems that weren't even expected. It's a waste of time to try to fix software on a system that has hardware problems.
Please try these free diagnostics for starters: Initial Hardware Diagnostics

If you're concerned about recovering your data - now is the time to do it (in case the hard drive is dead/dying).
Slave the hard drive to another computer and attempt to copy the data over to it (if the drive is dead/dying this may work very slowly or not at all). If you don't have another computer, you can try a Live (bootable) Linux distro and copy the data to an external drive.

Good luck!

 

[Anakunda]

Thanks for the initial hints. I ran basic memtest86+ set of tests and found no problems. For my HDD (Toshiba) I don't find manufacturer's utility for low level test. But I ran chkdsk c: /f /r from safe mode and it found no problems. I suppose if the HDD was starting to die chkdsk would disclose any hd structure problems or bad sectors (anyway the problem laptop is no more than half a year old, I don't expect dying HD yet).
Now what, I don't have a working network layer on it but have working network on another computer which however can't burn CDs because of not very nice optical drive. I have switched BIOS to AHCI compatibility and can boot now to my old multiboot USB drive with some boot environments: UBCD, Hirens boot CD, Paragon advanced recovery CD, some Acronis bootable CDs, Parted Magic, Gparted, SystemRescueCD, Active boot disk suite, Ubuntu Live CD. Can any of these help me diagnose further my HW (especially CPU and mobo)?
One more question. I previously chosen start with boot logging. Expectably it crashed but the logs should be created. Where I find them? Old good BOOTEX.LOG from Windows XP days is no more to be found.

 

[usasma]

I have seen dead/dying hard drives that have just been taken out of the box.
Also, passing chkdsk isn't a guarantee that there's nothing wrong physically with the drive.

Use Seagate SeaTools (i prefer the bootable, but you can also use the Windows version if that's easier).

The boot log is usually ntbtlog.txt and is in the C:\Windows directory.
I stopped using it several years ago, so I haven't actually seen it myself recently.

FWIW - I use YUMI to enable booting of ISO's from my flash drive. YUMI ? Multiboot USB Creator | USB Pen Drive Linux
UBCD and Hirens should have disk testing utilities as a part of their suite. They may also have CPU and GPU tests.

There is no full motherboard diagnostic - any tests for motherboards are (IMO) woefully inadequate and plagued with false positives and false negatives. A full motherboard test would cost more than a bunch of new motherboards - that's why the manufacturer's don't develop them.

 

[Anakunda]

I found a Toshiba Disk utility in Hirens BootCD DOS utilites section but can't boot to it. Probably because it's old DOS floppy image. Next I've successfully booted into Parted Magic and let run GSmartControl extensive test on internal drive, took me more than 2.5 hours to finish, found no problems. No signs of HW failure so far. If I look on created ntbtlog.txt, these are last lines in it before the BSOD: ..... BOOTLOG_NOT_LOADED @oem87.inf,%devicedescription%;TeamViewer VPN Adapter - Pastebin.com Not telling me too much. May the problem be listed earlier? I also would like some clues about BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO error, what it means and how to trace it down. The BSOD also says something like computer went into trouble and need to collect necessary information about the incident, then reboot. Percent counter increases up to 100% but no restart is done (halt). Nevertheless the necessary information should be somewhere stored as well. Can I locate it manually and can it make any help to trace down the problem?

 

[usasma]

Most likely the system is set to STOP on BSOD's - not to restart.
You can find the memory dumps in C:\Windows\Minidump
If there's nothing there, then look for MEMORY.dmp in C:\Windows (it'll be much larger).

If you find the minidumps, zip them up and upload them here.
If you find the MEMORY.dmp, zip it up and upload it to a free file hosting site (like SkyDrive/OneDrive or DropBox) and post a link to it here.

I still suggest that you download and run the bootable Seagate SeaTools test - either by burning it to a disk or booting it from a USB drive.

 

[usasma]

BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO is a STOP 0x74 error. It's cause is primarily bad registry information, although it can also be due to bad/defective memory (which includes, but is not limited to RAM). A bad hard drive can contribute to this as the pagefile is on the hard drive - and it's the storage place for virtual memory.

The "fix" for a bad registry is to replace it with a known good copy - either through System Restore or by Refresh/Reset of the OS.

 

[Anakunda]

I couldn't find a last good configuration choice, only restore from restore point which unfortunately wasnot available. Shame to Microsoft. I tried to fully restore my OS from Monday's system image, which however failed to boot too -> the system had to be damaged longer than couple of days.Today morning I restored OS by partial system reset and using installation DVD. Windows is starting but at a cost of losing all installed software and settings - Microsoft f**ked with me again, thanks for all advices though.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

I couldn't find a last good configuration choice,

Fast startup in Windows 8 came with a price. To speed up the boot process, Microsoft decided to disable several goodies like the "last Known Good Configuration". You should enable it yourself before something bad happens.

How to restore the Last Known Good Configuration feature in Windows 8.1 | Winaero

 

[Anakunda]

This might be useful, thanks