Booting problems with Windows 7 netbook

[Surfer Joe]

I installed an ssd in my asus netbook and it seemed to all go well, but
now I have two new issues that I did not have before.

I installed the ssd and did a clean install of windows 7 home premium
which formatted the drive before starting.
The installation went without any problems.

Two different things have started to happen every time I start the netbook.

On startup, it always goes to a dos-type window asking me to select a
starting system rather than starting windows 7 automatically.
The only option is the windows 7 system since the ssd is not partitioned
and no cd drive is connected to the netbook.

Then, when windows starts, the computer glitches and opens a slightly
corrupted window for searching that won't turn off. After repeatedly
trying to close it it closes but an odd rectangular box where the search
box would be keeps blinking.
If I go to task manager, I see an application called search-ms running,
and when I end the task the problem goes away until the next time that I
turn the computer off and back on.

I installed all of the drivers from the asus driver page for the 1015pem
netbook, updated windows, and even did a reinstall of windows over the
current install, but nothing helped.

It still asks which system I want to boot into every time I start the
computer, and it always exhibits the glitch with the search window as
soon as windows desktop finishes starting.

Can anyone please advise on what may be going on?

I can't see anything unusual in the bios or in windows that might be
causing these actions to happen.

Thanks for any help.

 

[McCorkindale]

I installed an ssd in my asus netbook and it seemed to all go well, but
now I have two new issues that I did not have before.

I installed the ssd and did a clean install of windows 7 home premium
which formatted the drive before starting.
The installation went without any problems.

Two different things have started to happen every time I start the netbook.

On startup, it always goes to a dos-type window asking me to select a
starting system rather than starting windows 7 automatically.
The only option is the windows 7 system since the ssd is not partitioned
and no cd drive is connected to the netbook.

Then, when windows starts, the computer glitches and opens a slightly
corrupted window for searching that won't turn off. After repeatedly
trying to close it it closes but an odd rectangular box where the search
box would be keeps blinking.
If I go to task manager, I see an application called search-ms running,
and when I end the task the problem goes away until the next time that I
turn the computer off and back on.

I installed all of the drivers from the asus driver page for the 1015pem
netbook, updated windows, and even did a reinstall of windows over the
current install, but nothing helped.

It still asks which system I want to boot into every time I start the
computer, and it always exhibits the glitch with the search window as
soon as windows desktop finishes starting.

Can anyone please advise on what may be going on?

I can't see anything unusual in the bios or in windows that might be
causing these actions to happen.

Thanks for any help.

Have you check the configuration setup of your Boot
in BIOS ? If not - go to BIOS, usually press DELETE at start
or other KEY applicable to your Asus netbook - and configure
your booting as you wish. That should work. Be careful though
with BIOS because it's your OS configuration...-
Google first for help, if not sure what you'll be doing.

 

[Paul]

I installed an ssd in my asus netbook and it seemed to all go well, but
now I have two new issues that I did not have before.

I installed the ssd and did a clean install of windows 7 home premium
which formatted the drive before starting.
The installation went without any problems.

Two different things have started to happen every time I start the netbook.

On startup, it always goes to a dos-type window asking me to select a
starting system rather than starting windows 7 automatically.
The only option is the windows 7 system since the ssd is not partitioned
and no cd drive is connected to the netbook.

Then, when windows starts, the computer glitches and opens a slightly
corrupted window for searching that won't turn off. After repeatedly
trying to close it it closes but an odd rectangular box where the search
box would be keeps blinking.
If I go to task manager, I see an application called search-ms running,
and when I end the task the problem goes away until the next time that I
turn the computer off and back on.

I installed all of the drivers from the asus driver page for the 1015pem
netbook, updated windows, and even did a reinstall of windows over the
current install, but nothing helped.

It still asks which system I want to boot into every time I start the
computer, and it always exhibits the glitch with the search window as
soon as windows desktop finishes starting.

Can anyone please advise on what may be going on?

I can't see anything unusual in the bios or in windows that might be
causing these actions to happen.

Thanks for any help.

Does your "DOS" window look like this ?

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...dows-7-dual-boot-xp-problem-boot_manager2.jpg

What boot managers do, during installation, is scan partitions looking for
things they know about. For example, say I have WinXP installed on one
partition, then install Windows 7. Windows 7 has a different boot manager
type (BCD based) than WinXP (boot.ini based), yet Windows 7 also knows that
users dual boot and if it finds another OS, it attempts to include that OS
in the boot menu.

A tool like EasyBCD (neosmart.net) would allow editing the menu options, and
removing an erroneously detected entry.

The Windows recovery CD (or even the installer DVD), can be booted and
provide a command prompt in an emergency. There should be a utility
in there, which repeats the same kind of partition scan, and rebuilds
the bcd menu.

For example, here a tool called "bootrec /RebuildBcd" is described. The
additional steps shown, are intended to safely back up the original BCD,
in case of trouble.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

This is a step backwards, if you're used to grabbing a copy of notepad
and wading into boot.ini to fix things. BCD apparently isn't a text file.

You should look at the partition structure of your storage device, and
see if there is a reason an additional item has been added to the boot
menu.

*******

The other thing you're seeing, has something to do with searching or
indexing for search. The only reference I can find to "search-ms"
in the file system of Windows 7, is it is used for a file type extension.
I have a "Everything.search-ms" file for example. It's an XML format
file internally, viewable in Notepad.

I thought the Indexer was supposed to throttle back if the system is
busy, and as a result, not get in the way. Perhaps that isn't indexing
you're seeing, but an actual search (un-indexed, and consulting the
file system instead) ?

Paul

 

[Surfer Joe]

Apparently, it has something to do with service pack 1.
I did a complete reformat and reinstall of windows and everything was
going fine for about 12 hours and working correctly, but then I updated
to service pack 1 and now all of a sudden I am getting the "select os"
message at startup and I now get a string of 10 to 15 instances of
search-ms appearing as son as windows finishes loading, which I can only
close with task manager.
I can't uninstall service pack 1 because it's not listed in add remove
programs.

 

[Paul]

Apparently, it has something to do with service pack 1.
I did a complete reformat and reinstall of windows and everything was
going fine for about 12 hours and working correctly, but then I updated
to service pack 1 and now all of a sudden I am getting the "select os"
message at startup and I now get a string of 10 to 15 instances of
search-ms appearing as son as windows finishes loading, which I can only
close with task manager.
I can't uninstall service pack 1 because it's not listed in add remove
programs.

If you use EasyBCD, that might be sufficient to reduce the number of
OSes in the boot manager to just one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EasyBCD

What bothers me about your second issue, is I haven't found an executable
called "search-ms" (I'm looking at the image of Windows 7 I keep on this
computer for reference - my laptop has the actual Windows 7 install). Search-ms
is a file extension, so I can find a couple files ending in ".search-ms".
But no executable.

When things launch at startup, there are quite a few places they can be
coming from. I would preview the situation with a copy of "Autoruns" from
here. Maybe this will hint at where they're coming from. Don't be in
a rush to "hammer" anything with this, until you understand what
you're seeing. Maybe there is an explanation, and a way to prevent it
from happening again. Maybe it could be as simple as some searches getting
scheduled some how from some drag and drop you were doing, that "went
into the wrong hole".

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902

Paul

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Joe.

I can't uninstall service pack 1 because it's not listed in add remove
programs.

No, because it is not a program. And in Win7, the name is "Programs and
Features"; in WinXP it was "Add or Remove Programs".

In Win7, click Control Panel | Programs and Features. Then look in the
upper part of the left panel; click View installed updates. It may take
several seconds, but you should see a listing of all the updates that have
been installed (and not yet removed). They don't make it easy to find, but
you should see SP1 here - but not under that name. :>(

Your updates may be sorted by some categories, rather than all in a single
listing. Mine starts with Adobe Reader, then MS .NET, Office, Silverlight
and Visual C++, before finally getting to Microsoft Windows (43), with the
43 showing how many updates there are in this category. Trouble is, updates
are shown mostly by KB#. The one you want is "Service Pack for Microsoft
Windows (KB976932)". Mine was installed on 2/22/2011; yours may differ, of
course.

To verify that this really is SP1 you can look in Windows Update | View
update history, where it should be listed as "Windows 7 Service Pack 1 for
x64-based Systems KB976932", then right-click on it to View Details. I
think the KB number is the same for 32-bit systems (you haven't told us
which "bitness" you have), but I'm not sure. It's too bad we can't just
right-click and get these details in Programs and Features before blindly
uninstalling the wrong update. :>(

A quick search for "search-ms" suggests that these are Saved Searches:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892885(VS.85).aspx

I didn't look very deeply; you can do this better than I can since you have
a better idea of just what you are looking for. But I don't think it is a
file extension or an executable application. No file with that string in
its name is in my Windows folder tree.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3508.1109) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Surfer Joe" wrote in message
Apparently, it has something to do with service pack 1.
I did a complete reformat and reinstall of windows and everything was
going fine for about 12 hours and working correctly, but then I updated
to service pack 1 and now all of a sudden I am getting the "select os"
message at startup and I now get a string of 10 to 15 instances of
search-ms appearing as son as windows finishes loading, which I can only
close with task manager.
I can't uninstall service pack 1 because it's not listed in add remove
programs.

 

[Paul]

A quick search for "search-ms" suggests that these are Saved Searches:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892885(VS.85).aspx

I found one entitled Everything.search-ms and examining that file,
it looked like an XML file. I had a total of two files with that
extension on the computer.

You'd think if it was running, the executable would have some other
name than that. It could be, that the dialog box has "search-ms"
in the title bar, but Task Manager has some other thing in its list.

"Saved Search File Format"
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892885(VS.85).aspx

Maybe the "Process Explorer" program, can say more about it ?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

Perhaps if the Index is deleted, any saved searches turn
into a "boat anchor" ?

Paul

 

[Surfer Joe]

Thanks for the advice.
I have been doing some further testing, still ongoing, and now the
behavior is a bit strange.
I kept stressing the machine yesterday, keeping it on and going through
as many activities as I could to see if the problems would resurface,
but nothing happened for about 14 hours.
I kept loading all the drivers and restarting each time and the computer
behaved correctly.
Finally, late at night, I upgraded the win 7 install to service pack 1,
along with silverlight, ms live suite and ms security center, and as
soon as that update was nearing completion and asking to reboot, the
issues suddenly resurfaced but worse.
This time, the select os message came back on bootup and then when
windows started, a cascade of "search-ms" windows (10 to 20 windows)
appeared and could only be shut with task manager, but they kept coming
back.

That led me to believe that the problems might be caused by service pack
1 or one of the other programs I installed at the same update.

But now this morning, it is behaving correctly again. This leads me to
think that there might be some sort of heat issue with the new ssd, or
perhaps I failed to reconnect all of the cables correctly after
replacing the hdd with the ssd.

I am finished with installation of all drivers and programs and its
working correctly this morning. I am going to keep it on and try to see
if it resumes its faulty behavior after a period of time being on.

 

[Surfer Joe]

From what I can see, it's a corruption of Windows Explorer. On screen,
it looks like a Windows Explorer window but with the search area
glitching and the rest of the window blank, and in task manager it just
says search-ms under the running applications tab.

 

[Surfer Joe]

I have been doing some further testing, still ongoing, and now the
behavior is a bit strange.
I kept stressing the machine yesterday, keeping it on and going through
as many activities as I could to see if the problems would resurface,
but nothing happened for about 14 hours.
I kept loading all the drivers and restarting each time and the computer
behaved correctly.
Finally, late at night, I upgraded the win 7 install to service pack 1,
along with silverlight, ms live suite and ms security center, and as
soon as that update was nearing completion and asking to reboot, the
issues suddenly resurfaced but worse.
This time, the select os message came back on bootup and then when
windows started, a cascade of "search-ms" windows (10 to 20 windows)
appeared and could only be shut with task manager, but they kept coming
back.

That led me to believe that the problems might be caused by service pack
1 or one of the other programs I installed at the same update.

But now this morning, it is behaving correctly again. This leads me to
think that there might be some sort of heat issue with the new ssd, or
perhaps I failed to reconnect all of the cables correctly after
replacing the hdd with the ssd.

I am finished with installation of all drivers and programs and its
working correctly this morning. I am going to keep it on and try to see
if it resumes its faulty behavior after a period of time being on.

 

[Ken1943]

What version of Win 7 did you update ?Starter/Home. How did you get SP1 ?
Windows Update or download the file. If you got it through Windows
Update, that could be the problem.

From what I can see, it's a corruption of Windows Explorer. On screen,
it looks like a Windows Explorer window but with the search area
glitching and the rest of the window blank, and in task manager it just
says search-ms under the running applications tab.

KenW

 

[Surfer Joe]

I did a clean install with a win 7 home premium disk and let it update
itself until it reached service pack 1.
I also tried a win 7 with service pack 1 disk but the same issues
emerged with both installs.

 

[Ken1943]

Did you try the eee user forums. http://forum.eeeuser.com/index.php
You can register for free.

They may have better info than you can get here. That's how I got my
900ha to run win 7. My guess is that sp1 doesn't see the ssd correctly.

I did a clean install with a win 7 home premium disk and let it update
itself until it reached service pack 1.
I also tried a win 7 with service pack 1 disk but the same issues
emerged with both installs.

KenW

 

[Ken1943]

This is the forum you want. http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewforum.php?id=79

Your problem may be caused by "bootbooster". I seem to remember that has
caused problems, although not with my 900ha.

HAVE FUN !!!


KenW

 

[Ken1943]

Ah ! See you have been there !

I did a clean install with a win 7 home premium disk and let it update
itself until it reached service pack 1.
I also tried a win 7 with service pack 1 disk but the same issues
emerged with both installs.

KenW