Short summary:
Windows 8.1 Blank screen on boot, after System Restore gets bugcheck 0x124: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR, argument 0x00: MCA error.
Possibly related earlier minidump (it won't generate one now) points to halmacpi.dll.
Possibly also interrupted windows update or is caused by it.
I can enter Safe Mode with Command Prompt, but not Safe Mode.
Fresh install of Windows 8.1 also gives the same bug check. sfc can not be run: "There is a pending system repair...".
More detailed story:
(Sorry for the wall of text below. Points can be referred to by number...)
- Computer started to behave erratically, rebooting out of the blue.
- At one point failed to boot, not recognising the HDD, jiggling the SATA cables didn't help.
That information is all I have, it's my father's computer and I wasn't handy except by phone.
- After the computer was sent to me, I jiggled the SATA cables. It immediately recognised the hard drive, but upon boot showed blank black screen.
3.5 This degraded into BSOD (WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR) when I did a system restore to a few-days-old restore point.
It failed to produce a minidump ("Collecting info..." stays at 0%) but there is an older minidump (three, in fact) from a few months back, two of which are bugcheck 0x124 (WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR). I have included all three at the bottom of the question.
Refresh, automatic repair etc didn't help.
5.5 Neither did changing the HDD, the SATA cable, port or controller, or exchanging memory sticks.
I proceeded to image the drive and install windows 8.1 x32 fresh on the drive (it was due a spring cleaning anyway). After the install process completed (after the first restart) it tried to boot into the rest of the installer but again bug checked.
Automatic repair, refresh etc again failed. Also, I couldn't even try Safe Mode (WinRE->advanced options etc, after choosing Start-Up Settings it said "Failure" with reboot as the only option).
I restored the drive from the image, and started to dig in. I can enter WinRE command prompt on the machine, and I transferred the minidumps.
8.5 There is also a MEMORY.DMP that by date looks associated with one of the 0x124 error minidumps. I'm not including it on account of the size (215 MB), but it's available if necessary.
I got it to create a bootlog. Also included at the bottom. (Tho I think the file has appended two bootlogs, one from safe mode boot and one from Start-up settings -> create bootlog. I trasfered the file in WinRE command prompt).
Restarting in safe mode (now able to) said "Failed to configure Windows Updates. Rolling back changes" followed by "Configuring Windows Updates" and "Restarting"
Restarting got me again to the black screen.
Trying to boot to Safe mode gives the same black screen, with the caveat that after a while it displays the blue "Restarting..." screen and then restarts. The caveat being that this time it happens before loading graphics drivers (identifiable by a screen refresh).
I can enter safe mode with command prompt on the OS itself!
sfc /scannow fails to run: "There is a system repair pending..."
My impression:
There is SOME hardware failure (The BSOD). However, the windows update or something else prevents the computer from reaching the point where it is invoked, causing the black screen. When this is resolved by the system restore it reaches the BSOD condition in halmacpi.dll.
I honestly don't know what to do next. I installed the windows debug tools on the computer I'm posting from, but the dumpchk output is full of "missing symbols" errors. BlueScreenView identifies halmacpi.dll, but googling that I reached nothing I could recognise as relevant.
Dump files and bootlog:
EDIT: Files have timed out on the sharing server I used back then, and I no longer have them (not that they're that interesting) due to the external hard drive I used giving up the ghost.