[SOLVED] [7SP1 x64] Power outage during startup. Error code 0x490 from Startup Repair.

[Nat]

A bit of background story: I was using my laptop when a power outage occurred. As soon as the power came back, I turned on my laptop to make sure it was fine. Everything went well; the laptop turned on, it showed the usual black screen with options to start with Safe Mode or normal configuration so I chose the latter. It went to the "Starting Windows" screen until another power outage occurred, although only briefly this time. I waited out longer this time before turning on my laptop again. It went to the screen with the options of going to startup recovery or booting up normally, I chose the first. It went well. I declined the option of using system restore. After the entire process was finished, I got this:

Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 584
Problem Signature 05: AutoFailover
Problem Signature 06: 1
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

After that I checked the diagnosis and log report. All (check for updates, system disk test, disk failure diagnosis, disk metadata test, target OS test, volume content check, boot manager diagnosis, system boot log diagnosis, event log diagnosis, internal state check, boot status test, setup state check, registry hives test, windows boot log diagnosis, bugcheck analysis, access control test, file system test (chkdsk), software installation log diagnosis, fallback diagnosis) were completed successfully and returned 0x0 error code, but here's the last part:

Root cause found:
---------------------------
Unspecified changes to system configuration might have caused the problem.

Repair action: System Restore
Result: Cancelled

Repair action: System files integrity check and repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490

Now I've booted the laptop just fine. It might be a tad slower or it's just me, being wary about this. Everything as far as I know is working nicely. Should I be concerned about this? What would the damage be if a computer turns off during startup? And what should I do thereafter to diagnose if it caused any issues?

 

[Digerati]

Have you rebooted "gracefully" one final time? It may be a little slow now if the prefetch settings were corrupted. This is no big deal. It just means Windows will have to learn your normal computing habits again which normally takes a few computing sessions.

Normally there is no permanent "hardware" damage with sudden power outages. But it is not uncommon for the data on the disks to become corrupted - this can include critical operating system files. I would run chkdsk /r from an elevated (as administrator) command prompt to [hopefully] clean up any disk corruption. It will probably prompt you to run at next boot. Follow the prompts to do this. Note chkdsk could take many hours and appear to be hung up. Just let it finish. On large disks, I often just let it run over night.

Note I said "normally" there no permanent damage and that is true for power "outages". But sadly, it is not uncommon for there to be extreme surges and/or spikes when the power is stored. If not a "clean" return, it can be unstable. And it sounds like yours was not very stable as it crashed again. This is one reason I always recommend all computers, or at least PCs, to be on a "good" UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation).

My concern here is the fact you said this is a laptop. It should not have been affected by any power outage. Instead, it should have seamlessly gone to battery power and not crash. Is there a battery installed? If so, it would appear it is bad or there is a problem in the charging circuit.

 

[Nat]

I've gracefully rebooted and ran chkdsk /r from an elevator command prompt as instructed. The result shows 0 KB in bad sectors. Are there other parts from the chkdsk log that I must pay heed to in order to diagnose any issues that were caused by the outage? Or is there anything else I can do to check?

The battery wasn't installed at the time. I read that it wasn't a good practice to leave it on if you're going to use your laptop for a long period of time, even with plugging the AC adapter in when the battery runs out (and then removing it once it's reached its charging limit, doing the process in a loop until you're done using the laptop). I'm not sure about this since I've read conflicting responses so please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Digerati]

If chkdsk didn't report any errors, or found no errors it didn't fix, it sounds like you are okay. But of course, that does not mean you should not have current backups regardless.

There is much dispute if leaving the battery inserted or the charger plugged in all the time is harmful or not. My experience is it is not harmful. I bought my Toshiba in February 2010 (long before W10 and DDR4) and I keep the battery inserted and plugged in 24/7 for weeks at a time and I still get nearly 2 hours runtime. It only got 2.5 hours when new and since some loss with age is normal, I consider this good - especially for an 8 year old battery (the sticker on the battery says Dec 2009).

About once every 4 to 6 weeks, I let it fully discharge but that is really just to make sure the battery is calibrated with the notebook's battery status monitor.

I believe that advice to regularly remove the battery, or more commonly to disconnect the charger comes from two sources. (1) Shysters... err... corporate lawyers trying to minimize liabilities in case the battery catches fire. And (2), a carry-over from the old school days when NiCad batteries were the standard. Since NiCad batteries suffered badly from memory effect, it was necessary to regularly run them through full (deep) discharge then full charge cycles. But today's Li-Ion batteries don't suffer from memory effect like Ni-Cads do.

If you are still unsure, you should follow the advice given in your notebook's owners manual. Not something you read that did not apply to your specific brand and model notebook.

 

[Nat]

I see. I do backup, thankfully.

The last battery I had was around 5 years old, bought some time in 2008-2009, and could only hold around 30 minutes of power. Granted I wasn't aware about calibrations so perhaps that could be the reason why it didn't last very long, and why I'm now more wary about battery-related technicalities.

Regardless, thank you very much for the kind responses and this helpful information!

 

[Digerati]

If it was 5 years old, it could have been on it's last leg anyway so not sure calibration would have helped, except for more accurate warnings it was about to run out of charge. At any rate, I am glad things are working out now.

Happy New Year.

 

[plodr]

I always let my batteries in my netbooks and most times they are plugged into a wall outlet. I have never noticed the batteries lasting less because of my practice. Perhaps years ago this was true but batteries can't be "overcharged" now.

In fact, in 2017 I tested my eeepc (running linux) which was purchased in Jan. 2008. I used it on battery only to see how long it worked and it held for more than an hour. (The battery has always remained in and it is plugged into the wall). That isn't bad for a 9 year old device. The original time might have been a bit over 3 hours. I don't remember and I don't think I wrote it down in my notes.

On a Windows netbook, I prefer to use a battery app. I find it more reliable than the one built into Windows 7. I tested 3 or 4 different ones and finally settled on the free (there is a paid version) BatteryBar.
This would start the download

https://batterybarpro.com/basic.php

Screenshot