Windows 7 Startup Repair Problem

I have a Sony Viao PCG-71312M

I have had this Viao for about 2 years but never had a problem. The operating system is Windows 7.
The laptop was working fine apart from louder noises coming from the fan recently, I thought it could be down to over heating as I work with it on my lap most of the time.

This afternoon I switched on the laptop and displayed the Windows Error recovery prompt. I didn't think that was unusual as sometimes I put the laptop on sleep mode with the battery running.
I tried to start windows as normal but after about 5 minutes Windows wouldn't start. I switched off the laptop and tried to start again. Windows Error recovery prompt appeared again, this time I selected, Launch Startup repair, the screen was blank for a few moments and then returned to Windows Error Recovery Prompt, it keeps doing a loop and wont start or complete the error recovery. I tried to run the laptop in Safe Mode and again windows will not open. I was not provided with a recovery disk nor a windows 7 disk when I purchased this laptop. I received an update just before this happened but I have a horrible feeling this may be a virus.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I love this little laptop

Edited by hamluis, 14 January 2011 - 05:08 PM.
Moved from Vista to Win 7.

Hmmm while you just may have a virus, I came here to find issues to similar questions and find so many people with my issue. I dont wanna retype my past posts but I had two computers with similar issues and going back to the first to repair it once second broke I am finding many people with these concerns. Mine did the same thing (see my other posts) and my newer one's fan went out. I cracked it open to no avail. I use a laptop table with fan now :)Long story short there has been a recall on many motherboards which causes this (at least those made my NVIDIA) and there is a recall on my first one from Compaq. To boot there was an automatic update made to increase fan speeds to cool the defaulty overheating motherboards and this has made a lot of fans go bad prematurely. This happened to me too! I think a virus just made things worse for me! So all I can offer is to check around with others to see if this a trend with your model or something and check around for recalls- information is not readily available as you would think so you might have to search hard and keep documentation. It may not be an easy fix, you may need a new motherboard. Good Luck.