Windows 7 Freeze at Boot screen(?)

Hello everyone, I am new, and I just created this account because my friend told me got help here and everyone was really nice, and since I cannot solve my own computer problems, I thought I'd give this a try.

I am also sorry if this is in the wrong section, but I chose it because it does happen to be able Windows OS and probably software, I am not sure.

Anyway, I love my new HP Pavilion DV4-1435DX, but after a few months the warranty expired, it has been behaving strangely the last few weeks. It freezes at the boot screen (?) sorry I am not a true computer person so I do not know if that is the right term. It freezes the moment when the computer starts on the black screen with white text saying "Starting Windows" and the second the windows Logo tries to animate, it freezes when it starts and all you see is a little red dot (which show that it froze when the logo was starting to animate)

I tried the start up repair but it did nothing; from what I remember, it claimed that nothing was wrong. I also did a thorough Google Search, but most people had problems on Windows XP or Vista, and the Microsoft website never really gave a solution. I took the Windows XP/Vista suggestions and did a system restore, but it did nothing and just shifted around my settings which I had to change all over again (which is what is expected)

I also tried to update drivers after the system restore, and it stopped freezing for about a week, but it started again today. Updating the drivers before and after the system restore did nothing.

I just wanted to know if anyone happens to have any other suggestions or solutions before I really go to the extreme of reinstalling the operating system which I have done more than 3-4 times already within the last year of having my laptop.

So if anyone has any suggestions or ideas, I would most appreciate it. I will also be here refreshing the page every 5 seconds just to see if anyone responded (just kidding ) If any other information is needed, please let me know. Thank you very much!

Other system information:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz
RAM: 4GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

 

How did you do system restore if your computer does not load? From a Windows disk?

Can you start in safe mode?

You're instinct about drivers seems right...the animation you see when windows is booting masks the installation of drivers, so the fact it is hanging at driver load would indicate a bad driver.

The fact that it worked for a while after a system restore, then failed again, almost sounds like a windows update is causing a driver conflict (the windows restore restored you to a time prior to the last update).

What drivers did you update?

Load event viewer and look for errors under the SYSTEM Event log.

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention that if it freezes at the boot screen, then you just hold the power button and start it over and it works again most of the times, but it would ask between starting Windows normally or doing a StartUp Repair which did nothing every time I clicked on it.

I read around and similar stories said it was a driver problem or Windows update that caused it. Since this started weeks ago, and happened occasionally from day to day, I have no idea what Windows update caused it. But I updated these drivers: Sound, graphics, and network adapter (IDT sound, Intel Mobile Series Express Chipset Family, and Realtek.) If there is a way I could check the rest, please let me know, I just memorized these. It happened before and after driver updates.

I will try to start in Safe Mode and come back with an update on the status. Thank you

Oh and also, coincidentally, just yesterday I was listening to a song, and the computer froze and made some sort of jackhammer sound for about 5-6 seconds and then gave a blue screen and restarted itself. Would you happen to know what caused this also?

 

probably related.

And almost certainly audio driver related.

You said you updated the driver--WHERE DID YOU GET THE DRIVERS

 

Windows update, it asked so I thought it was better to update from there considering I ignored it every other time, and I thought the reason why my laptop had problems was because of the fact that I ignored updating drivers.

(EDIT)

Well it has been a few days, but the laptop stopped freezing at the bootscreen after I downloaded the IDT sound driver from the Windows Update. I did not have this problem before when i did not have the driver, but I guess something went wrong and now it's something that's mandatory in order for my laptop to stop freezing.

 

(EDIT AGAIN)

I totally take back what I said. It froze again just before!

EDIT 12/12/10

I so happened to have fixed the error, I think. For anyone who may have the same problem, the issue was a driver issue. And the reason my logo and laptop froze was because the driver was wrong. It was downloaded from Windows Update and that was when it froze up. I did not think the driver was wrong because they were all Mobile Intel 4 Series Chipset, and I thought it would work. But the one from Windows Update I assume was faulty. I installed the latest one from the Intel website and for the last four start-ups, the computer worked fine. So in a nutshell, I think my problem is solved. Thank you for the replies!