I have a HP Probook laptop running on Windows 7 Pro, which recently accepted an automated update to its BIOS.
After the BIOS update successfully, and system rebooted, I got a disaster! Now Windows will not reboot into login screen, it will reboot again halfway during the booting process, giving me 2 options: to enter recovery mode, or to boot normally.
I entered into the recovery mode, tried using Startup Repair, the problem was not fixed. Went into the same screen again, tried System Restore to previous checkpoint, still unable to fix.
Tried running Windows Memory Diagnostic, the RAM is fine. Tried entering Command Prompt and check the disk, fixed the MBR, all not working.
Then, I booted with the "Disable automatic restart on system failure" option, I found this Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) showing the infamous Stop: 0x0000007B error.
Here are other methods I tried to fix the problem, but all not working:
- Download the latest BIOS from HP website, make the bootable USB drive and reflash the laptop BIOS with the USB drive
- Download the previous BIOS from HP website, make the bootable USB drive and reflash the laptop BIOS with the USB drive
- Boot with "Enable low resolution video (640x480)"
- Boot with "Last Known Good Configuration (advanced)"
- Boot with "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement"
- Go into the BIOS, set the SATA mode from AHCI to IDE
- Go into the BIOS, set back the SATA mode from IDE to AHCI
Then, I downloaded the ISO file of Windows 7 SP1 from this website, burn it into DVD, and boot the laptop with it.
Last try, run the Startup Repair from the Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD, reboot the laptop with its harddisk. It booted up using a longer time than normal, and Whoala! I got the login screen. Logged into the Windows, everything is still there, try rebooting it, and the Stop: 0x0000007B error has gone.
So, I finally managed to fixed this problem by running Startup Repair from the Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD, instead of the Startup Repair from the installed Windows 7 system in the harddisk.