Windows Vista Dell Laptop Won't Boot - Help!!!!

Clem_Snide

Hoping one of the techies on here can help.

I have a Dell 1720 laptop that since last night has refused to boot.

Everytime I start it up it goes into self repair. I was out last night, so left it running, the wife advised that it crashed whilst running the repair, after about 2 hours.

I have managed to use F8 and have tried to start in safe mode but it won't have that either.

Have been into system recovery options and have run check disc from the command prompt and it is not returning any errors.

Have tried to run the restore to a point in time option from the same menu but it is failing. Don't want to use default system restore as the thing is full off, music, videos and most importantly photo's.

I was charging my MP3 last night and have a feeling that it is something to do with that. I stopped it in the correct way before unplugging it, but am getting an error when shutting the laptop down telling to unplug the mobile device attached. I am assuming it thinks it is still attached?.

Any help gratefully received.

BDL

Does it start up? Make beeps or anything?

Clem_Snide

Yes it starts. Runs and then at the point the vista welcome page appears it goes into self repair mode.

BDL

Well it's not your motherboard. Mine died like that.

TBH I don't know what's wrong with it, you should be able to recover music, photo's and emails from the HD though.

Clem_Snide

Brother in law is a techie and I'm pretty sure he will be able to recover from the HD. Just dont want to shame myself by taking it round there if it is a simple fix!

Stebo

you can do a windows repair install if you have the Vista disc. this wont wipe your HD , just reinstalls all the windows files

Clem_Snide

[quote][cite]Posted By: Stebo[/cite]hit F8 as it boots up. this will bring up a boot menu, first try 'use last known good settings' if that didn't work go back and try booting in safe mode. if they doesn't work then you'll have to use system restore if you can.[/quote]

Have tried last known good settings and safe mode. No joy. Cant use the default restore until have salvaged the contents of the hard drive.

Clem_Snide

[cite]Posted By: Stebo[/cite]you can do a windows repair install if you have the Vista disc. this wont wipe your HD , just reinstalls all the windows files

Unfortunately I dont have the disc. Came pre-installed.

northstandsteve

had this mate a couple of times it isn't a easy repair,you will need your brother in law to recover from hard drive as you will need to re-install
vista completely to get it going.Had to do it last week with one at home luckily there was jack all on it as we had bought a new one at work and
wiped the old one which i gave to my daughter.

Mister Windscreen

Also come accross this problem but couldnt fix it...bought a cheap ide cable from Maplins, got everything off the disc and formated...

LenGlover

My vista desktop did the same this morning.

I did the start up repair system restore thing and got in. Norton advised of a number of fixes needed which I have just done. Having had a new motherboard fitted about 10 days ago I was bricking it to say the least!

Hopefully all ok now as I have got this far!

Hex

Are you sure you don't have the disk - you need to boot from the CD as its possible that the files doing the restore are corrupt. Once booted from a CD, try the restore option. No system restores are going to remove your photos etc. I expect they are backed up anyway !!!!! The only way you will lose the files is if you re-format the hard drive and it will warn you first.

Clem_Snide

[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]had this mate a couple of times it isn't a easy repair,you will need your brother in law to recover from hard drive as you will need to re-install
vista completely to get it going.Had to do it last week with one at home luckily there was jack all on it as we had bought a new one at work and
wiped the old one which i gave to my daughter.

I think you might be right.

Clem_Snide

[cite]Posted By: Hex[/cite]Are you sure you don't have the disk - you need to boot from the CD as its possible that the files doing the restore are corrupt. Once booted from a CD, try the restore option. No system restores are going to remove your photos etc. I expect they are backed up anyway !!!!! The only way you will lose the files is if you re-format the hard drive and it will warn you first.

Had a dig around and found the disc. Went to F12 and tried to boot from Cd. It goes through the motions and then stops and tells me upgrade is disabled and that I must completely reinstall Vista. Cant do that as only around 50% of the photos are backed up. Going to have to get the brother in law to copy the stuff from the hard drive and then reinstall.

_MrDick

I was setting up a new PC yesterday and it died on me and wouldn't fire up at all. Phoned Acer and they told me to unplug the power and hold the power button on the tower down for 60 seconds. Plugged it back in and it worked fine. You could try that?

charlton4ever

Try a linux boot up (free download) You can then at least copy all your documents off before perhaps a fresh install ?

RedZed333

Have you tried plugging the device back in while booting up...?

cambs_addick

[cite]Posted By: Clem_Snide[/cite]

[cite]Posted By: Hex[/cite]Are you sure you don't have the disk - you need to boot from the CD as its possible that the files doing the restore are corrupt. Once booted from a CD, try the restore option. No system restores are going to remove your photos etc. I expect they are backed up anyway !!!!! The only way you will lose the files is if you re-format the hard drive and it will warn you first.

Had a dig around and found the disc. Went to F12 and tried to boot from Cd. It goes through the motions and then stops and tells me upgrade is disabled and that I must completely reinstall Vista. Cant do that as only around 50% of the photos are backed up. Going to have to get the brother in law to copy the stuff from the hard drive and then reinstall.

I did a vista reinstall a couple of months ago on my machine. It moves the current installation to a windows.old folder which includes the users folder which is where I assume your photos are. Once the installation is complete you can move the photos from the windows.old folder to the new one.

One more thing.... When you've pressed F12 at boot-up have you run the diagnosic tests? I had another machine that was doing strange things and turned out to be a memory problem, although it doesn't sound like that's your problem.